Long Weekend.

It's midnight as I sit down to write this, and I still hear Evangeline fitfully wriggling in our bedroom.  This is the latest she's ever ever gone to sleep.  As soon as she entered this world she initiated an eerily strict sleeping schedule which involved being asleep by ten, awake by eight, and only one groggy awakening in the middle of the night.  I sure am one lucky momma.  And one super spoiled momma at that, complaining that her little one went to bed a whole two hours later than usual.  Wah.

Hah! Yikes.

Alex is having some much loved cozy time with Sleepy Little Lady now, giving me the opportunity to sit down to this little blog and type out a few words...Let's see.

This past long weekend was busy for us (love those long weekends).  We spent Saturday making tamales (literally an all day affair), doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, catching up on all those things that we had put off for the past few weeks, and, most exciting of all, Alex began building a frame for my Nolli map of Rome.  Hurrah!  Even thinking about the costliness of getting something that huge professionally framed hurt our heads a little, but then I found this great tutorial on how to build your own frame.  It probably would have been a day project had he had the tools...but little Chicago apartments don't really accommodate miter saws.  But, as I have mentioned, Alex is invincible, and so decided to start building one anyways.

We took advantage of possibly one of the last warm, sunny Sundays, and took the train to the Botanic Gardens.  The fall flowers and foliage are at their peak: the deep reds, purples, oranges, and yellows astounded us with their vibrancy.  I'll never get tired of these Northern Autumns.  They fill me with awe every time.

On Monday we rearranged the apartment.  Yes, again.  I refused to hang anything on the walls until couches and bookshelves were in their proper and final places, and finally, after about a month of hemming and hawing, I finally grew sick enough of my own indecision and the stacks of art and mirrors lying about.  Hanging art and moving furniture always helps me to feel as though I've been extraordinarily productive and much more organized and deliberate than I normally feel.  Cheers to that!

Because it's boring to post without a picture, here's one of us at the Botanic Gardens.  A year ago, we were standing in that exact same spot, only Little One was a biiiiiit tinier!  What a difference a year makes...Thank you, God, for this wonderful family of mine!