{Virtual Coffee}

NOT! I'm doing tea today. Isn't this a pretty bottle

and I will tell you it's quite tasty too. If we were meeting today I would be happy to make you a coffee but my body is saying tea. I love the way is whooshes down, leaving me feel clean and clear. I have been kind of sick these last few days and I'm dragging myself around. So if we were meeting for coffee I would expect you to carry a good part of the conversation.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would tell you how generally out of sorts I have felt these last few weeks. How so much of what I want to say is politically incorrect and how social media is exhausting me. I have hardly been reading blogs and when I do I am rarely commenting. And I'm feeling kind of bad about that because people are still stopping by here and leaving me their thoughts and words but I haven't been reciprocating. I would tell you how I find myself looking for my center once again and how I know it is a natural cycle of life to feel like this and that I have a certain sense of peace this time while I go through it.

I would confess to you how winter clothes can hide a multitude of chocolate sins. I have been tweaking some habits and pieces of my lifestyle here and there and it is becoming less about feeling better about my body and more about feeling better in it.

If we were meeting for coffee this today I would show you my garden and declare myself the Queen of Mulch.

Things are sprouting and stretching in my corner of the world -the magnolias are almost there. I used to prefer the classic magnolia, the kind you picture in your mind when you hear the word, "magnolia"

but lately I am loving this white one

with creamy tentacles inside

and the tulips are finally (finally!) coming out.

I would show you these two and ask you if you don't see a pair of bums like I do.

I would show you how one sprig of mint last week has turned into an absolute invasion and I'm loving it. I would be proud that something other than the dreaded weed-vine is invading my garden.

If we were meeting for coffee today I would bore you with stories about Riley. He is growing intellectually in such funny ways. He has become very aware of how many kids in his class are suddenly needing glasses and although he can spot a flea on a moose 10 miles away, he has been taking his Build-a-Bear glasses out for some test runs to see what it's like.

I would tell you that beyond laughing at my underwear on the clothesline, he is starting to regularly use sarcasm and words like "totally" and "awesome" and sometimes even putting them together like, "totally awesome". I would encourage you to stick around until he comes home from school to see for yourself. And if Riley was home from school while you were here, he would show you his squirrel trap.

Every eight-year old kid should build a squirrel trap, don't you think? And when he ran off to re-set the trap I would tell you about how mad I got at him this morning over how he intentionally dropped his bicycle helmet on the ground and how it occurred to me that oftentimes when I do get mad at him it is not just me flying off the handle, that it is a genuine circumstance when he isn't learning a lesson and I have yet to discover another way to say what I need to him and resort to yelling. And I need to forgive myself for that more than I do.

Now I've got all that off my chest, let's go check out Amy's new rose bush at Lucky Number 13.