Three Things to Love about a Cozy December

Playing Scrabble with my mom


Reading through Christmas-present cookbooks


Lots of snow outside; lots of new coffee inside

Three Things to Love about a Late November Vacation

New Hampshire Mountains at Sunset


Eggnog Cupcake in downtown Montreal


Vermont Reindeer sighting

Three Things to be Thankful for in October (besides the fact that it is over now, and my life can resume at a normal pace)

Early Christmas shopping! We found this pear pillow for our nephew, Miles, at an outdoor market today while sipping my new favorite hot drink--chaider. Yum.


These mums on our tiny front porch have brightened my comings and goings all month long.


I've seen so much of Boston's fall foliage this month from my car windows while driving from school to school with picture books and spreadsheets in tow!

Three things to love about September (guest post)

Guest post from Sumanth this month, as Emily is too busy. A whole post could be written about this, how busy she is, but as an issue it happens to not be among the top three anything of September. So it will be left to the imaginations of anyone reading this. Among the things Emily is too busy for is even just telling me what her top three consists of, so I've simply had to guess at them below.

1. Autumn Leaves Yankee Candle. Finally fall is here.

After months of anticipation, the above was finally lit, allegedly signifying the beginning of the fall season. The air conditioning units are gone from our windows, which means we can hear the outside world as we wake up in the morning. There are lots of bird sounds and the sound of the newborn next door, learning to cry. Sometimes we have to wear our sweatshirts outside. It is the best time of year to be here.

2. The smell of homemade bread, such a smell.

Last weekend, against all odds, Emily made some bread -- a hard enough task for a well-rested home baker with nothing better to do, certainly harder for the one of us whose back falls asleep every night in protest of all the hours in the office chair. The bread was mostly eaten at lunch this week with some cheese and other stuff, and the rest is in the freezer.

3. The Fox River, St. Charles, IL.

We visited my family in Geneva, IL, over Labor Day weekend, and one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip was taking a daytime cruise on the Fox River with our one-year-old nephew, Miles. (Everyone else was there, too.) We shared a paddlewheel boat with ten or fifteen others, all with our own personal views of the river and surrounding foliage.

Honorable mentions: Nadal wins the US Open; Sumanth finishes writing a long story; new GPS arrives in mail, gets us where we need to go; something about toenails; something about a new coffee cup.

August: Three trips. No pictures.

If ever a month has darted past like a tiny hummingbird with beating wings, it has been this August. My work has ramped up so much and so quickly with the approaching school year that I hardly noticed my workday gradually expanding to include more and more hours of these late summer days. Long gone are the relaxed July mornings waiting in the long coffee line to order my Americano--this morning I was stirring instant coffee granules into hot water as I walked out the door! Hummingbird pace and instant coffee aside, I am finding much to think about and to love in my everyday work. Today I got to bring new books to a school without a library, and then to go and have a discussion with a group of adults about Winnie the Pooh, and then I got to read Olivia out loud. I don't mind long hours so much with Olivia by my side.

If I had taken the time to take three pictures of this month, the first one would have been at my little cousin's beautiful wedding. I would have taken a picture right as we were all waiting for the ceremony to start--the air was so hot and so still and the sun so bright, that everything had a little shimmery halo around it, like how it sometimes does in a movie when something very important is about to happen.

The second picture would have been in Pennsylvania. I would have had someone take a picture of me napping on the porch of the bed and breakfast where we met Sumanth's family for a mid-summer reunion. The street the house was on was so quiet and the couch so deep and wide--the best nap of the summer, no question.

The third picture would have been of the fountain in the center of the Italian Federal Hill neighborhood in Providence, where Sumanth and I celebrated our fourth anniversary. The fountain was just the perfect height with just the right amount of water spraying out of it, and we made wishes with nickels.

Three Things to Love about the Way to Work

The bold, brave bus that zooms through Boston traffic to drop me right in the heart of downtown. Sometimes I'm the very first person on in the morning, which makes me feel like the whole bus made a special trip just for me.


This green park that I walk through every morning. On the day of this picture, they were filming a movie here--hence the paper lanterns and fully set tables.


And lastly, an imperfect cell phone picture of my perfect morning americano. The last step before the workday starts.

What June has brought...

Summer flowers in the house. (The big, blueberry-looking things are poppies.)



News of a new job (!) at an early-literacy non-profit that is nestled onto the 9th floor of the middle building in this picture. Tomorrow is my first day.



Baskets of strawberries that we picked by ourselves and then brought home and doused in chocolate.

My mom takes her coffee black, I take mine with cream.

Saturday morning, at my kitchen table.


Yesterday morning, at our favorite coffee shop in Boston.

"All things seem possible in May." - Edwin Way Teale

Saturday morning iced coffee and a cinnamon roll from Flour bakery. Sumanth doesn't usually like eating on the ground, but he made an exception this time, evidenced by his shoe in the corner.


The fireplace in my beautiful room at an inn in Vermont where I helped with a Children's Literature New England conference. It was snowing that weekend, so the fireplace got some use.



Watching gorillas blows my mind--this one in particular because we kept locking eyes and her expressions and gestures were so recognizable.

Menu, May 2010

Written on D'Nealian pad while waiting to be retrieved from T.F. Green airport near Providence. Emily presumably stuck in traffic meanwhile, clutching the GPS with her free hand. Edits mostly from her.



And some more from Emily's dad's visit — walking the arboretum, circling the bonsai exhibit, and then supper.

Three things this April has brought...

A walk with my dad through these brilliant tulips on Boston Common.


A formal occasion that entailed the curling of my whole head of hair.


Dinners cooked outdoors on our little new grill in our little new yard.

Three Things to Love about Our New Apartment

My mother has always had a hutch for all of her favorite dishes and now I have one, too. I love lighting the lemon candle (thanks, Jodi!) on the top shelf first thing in the morning while I make coffee and putter around the kitchen.


After years of not having a window above the kitchen sink--we have two! (Although, if I were making a list about three things to be confused about about our apartment, I would have to add the fact that that is our neighbors' laundry hanging in our "own" yard.)


This extra room upstairs is the spot I love the most. It's the perfect place for peppermint tea and reading in the late afternoon. And, it doubles as a cozy guest room, so if anyone wants to come to Boston...

Lots of things to love about Valentine's Day (including a 12 inch wide everything bagel)

2010 has started softly,

with small trips, like this one to the Gloucester shoreline, where the water had washed away all of the snow,



with fancy desserts for Sumanth's birthday,



and time to read whatever I choose, including this lovely edition of Anne.



Oh, yeah, and some shiny new shoes...