Your kids missed you today. And Ranen wanted you to know that he took his first shower today.

I left picture taking in the dust, quite literally, for a few days. Dust on the table I'm staining and painting, dust on the camera from just sitting on my dusty dresser. Dust on the fan blades in the living room that mock me every time I try to get something done. I shake my fist at thee, fan blades!

Uh, anyway, I think my thirty days have come and gone, but I was doing this exercise to make myself take pictures, even when it was inconvenient. I hope that I have come close to a habit, or at least a thought in the back of my mind, "Yes, bring your big ol' camera to the restaurant."

Speaking of inconvenient, a few days ago it was rather cold over night, in the teens even. Adah was very excited one morning to see the green space behind our house covered in frost. For us, it is as close to snow as we'll get. She begged to go out and tromp in it and take photos. I relented, despite the fact that I had yet to have a cup of coffee and was still dressed in pajamas. Hmmm--she took a picture of me out there, so I'll had to do some editing when I the photos off of her camera. I should have cropped the picture of Adah, but I wanted to show you both the grass and her crazy outfit.

Also, this photo wasn't in focus, but I love it nonetheless. I love the baby and the man kissing the baby. And the baby's smiles.

.Is not wearing a bike helmet and elbow and knee pads to the local Cuban restaurant. But when you have an almost 3 year old that insists they really do want to wear it into the restaurant and you now have three children. The result is that, quite frankly, it doesn't even faze you. At least he had pants on, and they were dry. Thanks goes out to the obliging people at the Black Bean and their very delicious food.

A band of buddies headed east on Highway 90 today to pick strawberries in the, thankfully, bright January sunshine. It was wonderful and I only wished it could have lasted longer, or I could have remembered my own wallet, or I could have a dozen more uses for these delicious fruits. Or that they would just last longer. Either way, I'll enjoy them as they are. In this moment.

Wait, were we talking about strawberries?

There's a book my family kept and passed on to me when I had children called, "The Golden Book of 365 Stories: A Story for Every Day of the Year." I was reading to Ranen before bed and he asked me to read this one:

Wise Little Mice

When little mice sit reading books,
It seems their mother never looks
To see if it is time for bed--
She sits and reads her book, instead.
But when they play noisy charades,
Or have exciting big parades,
It seems no time until, in pairs,
She sends them marching up the stairs
With orders to go straight to bed--
Tonight, they're reading books instead.

I had to laugh out loud. So true now as well as 50 years ago.  Adah and Ranen are always asking, "One more story," and before I know it, it's after 8 PM.

I caught another one of Kaniel's big smiles. He's been going through a phase where he gets upset if I leave the room. He wants to be right next to me (or rather, under foot). I've left chores undone just to take advantage of this phase, hoping I won't be forming any bad habits.

I had one of those days where I felt that I made more messes than I cleaned up. I won't go into the boring details, but Adah and Ranen got into the dirt groove in one of their typical outside play endeavors: making "food" out of yard debris. I didn't take photos of any of the dishes they prepared, but I did catch them intent of the job.

Day 18 was a pretty rough day. I took a few photos, but they didn't turn out well enough to post.

Today, Adah stayed home from school as she was dealing with a head cold. She and Ranen spent about an hour this morning pretending to be mermaids and mermen. I  was required to don a blue piece of fabric and become the mer-mom. They took the fun outside, so I had to take photos of them in bathing suits in January. Though today was very mild.

Adah loves to take photos, she has an old digital camera that is tough as nails, and today she was capturing Kaniel in the bouncy seat. He got stuck looking in the opposite direction and was trying to see what she was up to.