Good luck blooms

Over the years I have become happily superstitious about my plants. We had a peace lilly from my mom's memorial service that always seemed to bloom just before some happy event. In my garden, the most beautiful purple delphinium bloom at the anniversary of my Grandma's passing. 

A little piece of Christmas cactus fell off my coworker's larger plant at Thanksgiving, so I stuck it in a spare pot with a random piece of succulent that someone else brought in.  

I returned to the office this week to see my new little Christmas cactus starting to bloom and can't help thinking that this little plant - blooming after being carelessly tossed in a pot, barely rooted, and ignored for two weeks of vacation - is a sign of something very happy to come. 

Let's review

This year I really planned time for myself to focus on shifting years - reflecting on what was 2013, and starting 2014 with intention. More about the intention part later....

I wanted to collect the past year of memories from the rest of the family, but finding an idea they will play along with can be challenging. On New Year's Day, I put a box of crayons - the big box of 64, with new tips and no broken ones or peeled paper - on the table with a piece of poster board that had 2013 written in the middle in plain bubble letter outlines.

They took the bait, and today I have this beautiful collage of memories hanging in our entry closet.

Why, yes. Yes it is.

I was riding home with my sister, and set my water in the cup holder. "Is... Is that a rubber toilet?" I asked. 

"Yeah," she said, "I gave the boy $3 to buy something at the book fair and he got that eraser and an itty bitty plunger." 

And he came home with $2.