Some things I want to tell you RIGHT NOW.

1. Thank you to all of you who have sent emails and comments about my last blog post. Sometimes all I need is a little encouragement and my confidence is boosted to the moon! I have all sorts of excited feelings for the blog again, and it's because of your kind words. Thank you, thank you! It's funny-- I stumbled upon this post by sweet Natalie last night, and it said, in the most perfect way, exactly what I've been trying to say. Here's my favorite part:

"Blogging is great because, if done right, you can create a world for yourself where all of the small but wonderful moments can be magnified and kept and shared, and where people who've never met can inspire and encourage each other. 

So, after a bit of housekeeping, I am ready to go. I am itchy to record the funny little things in life that make me oh so happy, and all of the things I'm doing. 

Mostly, I am ready to create my life. This is a small but important step for me - I am about to make my life a little bit better."

AMEN, Natalie. Amen. Now, here's a hug for all of you wonderful bloggy people.

2. Bits of Christmas are still sticking around over here. I've been trying for the past three days to get the tree down, but every time I get into it, Ralph wakes up from his nap. It's like he knows. He just doesn't want me to take that sparkly thing down. 

3. However: Ryan did say goodbye to his Christmas beard. He was starting to look a little homeless and he was using my comb to smooth it out, and I kept telling him to trim it, and he kept telling me he wanted to see exactly how long he could grow it, and I kept showing him pictures of that guy in the J.Crew catalog with the baseball cap and the nicely groomed beard, and 'doesn't that look nice, dear?' And finally he said to me, "Amelia, I don't want to be the guy with the groomed beard. I want to be the guy with the grizzly beard." But, I won, and he trimmed it. And oh, did it look nice! And then, four days later, he up and shaved the whole dern thing right off, along with like 10 lbs I think? He looks like senior-in-high-school Ryan again. It's nice. 

4. We painted the dining room over the weekend. It's white and bright and makes the rest of the house look old and moldy. We both kind of hate painting, but the dining room turned out so nice that we're going to go ahead and start the living room this weekend. So for those of you who are asking for a little house tour, it's coming! Probably not very soon, with the exception of a few happy corners, and maybe some moldy before pictures, but it's coming. And hopefully soon I can show you Ralphie's little room, which is turning out pretty cute, I think.

That's it. Happy Wednesday.