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I'm updating this as a promise to my sister, but I find myself at a loss of words.  Strangely, this week has been overly-eventful.  However, due to the public nature of this blog, I struggle with what's not blog-worthy...or blog-ready.  Stemming from my sister's brimming excitement about the future, my brother's new and optimistic take on life, and my own happily-weary contentment with Patrick's upcoming birthday and Leo's apparent dislike of any stage beyond infancy, I have 1,000 words, and not-a-one flows coherently to form a single paragraph for this blog.

As I write this, I am sitting on the couch in polka-dotted pajama pants and a brown hoodie.  My hair is in a ponytail and I am wearing my glasses.  I have a mug of coffee with Cinnabun creamer.  I have the "family blanket" that my oldest friend, Erin, made when Patrick was born draped over my icicle feet.  Patrick is sitting next to me and Leo is asleep on my chest.  The laptop is propped between two pillows, just to get it at the right angle that makes it possible to type with one free hand and the other gimp one, whose attached arm is caught under Leo's leg.  And I love it.  My friend, Courtney, described this scenario last week as how she pictured me at home.  And she was dead-on.  I suppose I am not one of those people who is surrounded in mystery.  It's pretty clear how I like to live.  And what I love.  And, in addition, I have composed these lists:

Things I love (aside from the obvious):
1.) Coffee...with creamer.  Especially special holiday or limited varieties.  And, on Thanksgiving, Half-and-half.
2.) Netflix and Hulu
3.) Boots and short dresses (not necessarily paired together, but maybe).
4.) Long, hot showers.  The kind that fog up the entire bathroom and nearly scald your skin. 
5.) Internet shopping.
6.) Health food stores.
7.) Tiny restaurants, especially tiny brunch restaurants, especially if they offer a variety of omelets.
8.) 3pm--The magical time when the naps of both boys almost always overlaps.  The TV is not on, the house is picked up, and sometimes it's when I can squeeze in one of those showers that I love.
9.)  February...and March...and May and October.   Well, really whenever the weather starts to turn + February.
10.) Text messages.  As a non-phone person, these were created for people like me.

Things I Do Not Like:
1.) Mispronunciation of common words
2.) Action movies
3.) French fries, generally
4.) Over-explanations.  I suspect I am guilty of this.
5.) Allergies.
6.) Toys with broken or missing parts, but which also happen to be favorites.  These create an ethical dilemma.
7.) That I was taught to spell dilemma like "dilemna" and then told later that was incorrect. 
8.) Fat-free foods.  Nobody seriously thinks they "taste the same," right? 
9.) Spongebob.  And Dora. 
10.) Personal talk at the checkout counter.  If you must do it, make sure it ends by the time your stuff is bagged.  There is nothing worse than having to listen to the tail end of the story about your cat and the oven mitt while my arms are cramped stiff holding an economy size box of diapers, laundry detergent, deodorant, and milk.  Please.

Things About Which I am Currently Lukewarm:
1.) Adam's new TV.  At the moment, I am torn between loving the space it seems to create and hating the fact that I cannot watch a single program in entirety without having to split-screen it while Adam tries to get "the picture just right."  It almost makes me not want to watch anything at all.  This TV teters on the fine line between the two lists above.

Happy Monday.