♥ Brunch with my two favorite guys at my very favorite LA eatery, Flore. ♥

Oh hey hey, guess what? As I write this (Thursday night) it’s MAH BIRFDAY! Wahoo!

And when this goes live (on Friday) I’ll be celebrating said birfday, with all my nearest and dearest at a big blow-out bash en mi casa. I haven’t had a real birthday party in years, and I’m so excited!

34 trips around the sun – it’s hard to believe. And man, I am so thankful to be just exactly where I am right now. I’d say each solar rotation just keeps getting better and better, with more clarity, more understanding, more opportunity to grow, greater achievement, expanding and deepening love, and honestly? MORE FUN (though Jeremy and Waits sure do have a lot to do with that)

I have so much to be grateful for. Like . . .

Adventuring with these two at the Farmer’s Market. And holy moly, these two! They are twinsies like whoa, kindred souls, two peas in a pod. Spirit squared!


Incredible herbs at the Far Mar.


Waits has been begging to come to campus with me, to meet other real! scientists! and to see the labs. So I brought him to BEERS, the Friday-evening biology grad student gathering. He played cornhole like a champ, schooled a graduate student on diatoms, and pretty much charmed the pants off of everyone. As usual.


We harvested oranges from our tree! LOTS. (And we got 2 quarts of juice from them.)


Board games before bed. We love the animal friendly Fur & Feathers.


And skateboarding lessons before work. These two, my gosh these two! ♥


Beautiful flowers and an incredible mocktail, back to that brunch at Flore.


And riding the Spinning Pirate Ship, later that night on the Santa Monica pier. Such an awesome day!

~~~

And now it’s time to exercise our gratitude muscles! With the one, the only, Le Love List!

Jeremy got me a skateboard for my birthday and ohmigod I AM SO EXCITED! And because he is him and because he knows me, he found an awesome woman-owned company to buy my board from, and it is fantastic and black and blue with hot pink wheels and the old-school shape that I love and I AM SO EXCITED! // Fresh flowers in winter. // I recently invoked social media to teach my students fluorescent microscopy. I was trying to explain one specific feature of the scope, and they just weren’t getting it . . . until I started talking about it in terms of Instagram filters! That’s when all their heads began nodding with understanding. Haha, whatever works, right? ‪#‎scienceteacher // Waits asked me, “Mommy, are you and Jeremy going to get married?” And I answered, “Hmmm … no, probably not. I don’t think so.” And he happily replied – “Oh good! So when I grow up, I can marry you, okay?” // Riding the roller coaster of grad school . . . trying to hang on and just enjoy the ride. // I never use my dishwasher. It’s basically a glorified tall butcher block cutting board, which is all I use it for. It’s stood empty for months, and then this week I realized that hello!? I can use it for storage! So I filled it with my cups and glass tupperware, cleared out a bunch of my cupboard space, and reorganized my whole kitchen. Ahhhh, so much tidier now! // And finally: Me. With the passing of my birthday, I can truly, and with [almost] absolute confidence, categorically state that I am pretty fucking awesome. Flawed for certain, hurt down deep, and with so much more to grow. But also . . . I am awesome. And it’s taken me a long time to be able to say that and really mean it. So, Happy Birthday to me. ♥

Alright my dears, now it’s your turn! Please tell me what you’re loving lately, and leave your list in the comments below, so that everyone can read and share in all the love around us!

And please, have a fantastic weekend!

♥ ♥ ♥

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