1. Yesterday was Tony’s birthday. The girls had such fun bossing each other around, I mean, decorating the kitchen for him. They had streamers going across the ceiling, twirly golden and silver thingys hanging around. A big happy birthday balloon over the sink. Crepe paper streamers down the fridge and all over the back door. We had shiny streamers in the doorway and cupcakes on the counter. There were balloons taped to the island and a birthday banner along the cabinets. Caroline watched the side door for him to pull in and said her code word for us to hide was “ALERT ALERT”. We hid behind the island while she walked him in. He thought it was THE BEST THING EVER. Lulu, our scaredy cat 7 pound dog, did not. They all wrote letters to him and covered him with kisses. I’m telling you. He loved it.

2. Josie is getting better in the car! Today she made a 1 hour round trip (Allison isn’t feeling well and went to the pediatrician because her mom is terrified of strep throat. She tested negative) while we went to the doctor. And Starbucks, but whatever. When you are 11 and get your throat swabbed with a 13 inch q-tip your mom will buy you a caramel cream. Anyway, Josephine didn’t cry in the car and didn’t even have to have her eyeballs glued to Baby Einstein on the battery sucking vintage iPad 1. When she starts that screaming mess, I look at her so very meanly in the mirror, say NO, and she zips it. Well. Who’da thunk it? All it took was dropping the hammer.

3. Caroline and Emily want to switch rooms. I say yes because then we can fit Josie’s crib in with Caroline since her new room will be bigger (Emily’s current room is HUGE and has two closets). Tony says heck no (actually he used a different word there) because Emily would have a room with roof access and is nearly 14. He’s thinking she will do nothing but climb out there and take selfies and eventually slide right off to roll people’s houses in the middle of the night. If she wasn’t thinking of those things before, she sure is now.

4. The weather guy says it’s going to come a cold one here this weekend. Says it’s going to “snow” and we are under a winter weather advisory. People are scrambling around like their butts are on fire to get bread and milk. The girls are thinking of their sleds that are in the basement and come out every two years. Y’all. If you live in an area where there is often snow? You need to understand that when we say “snow” in Georgia we mean 2 to 3 inches. It will SHUT DOWN THIS TOWN, PEOPLE. I’m ready.

5. I’ve decided to add one…no make that two…more projects to my list of Well Intentioned Projects. So now I have Sisters On Sunday (which really is going to end up being All Four in the Frame or something because sometimes I add in days that AREN’T Sundays.) Then, I have a 365 project that I’m thinking of continuing. Because it’s day 5 and I’ve pressed the shutter each day so why not? Also, I’ve started a one second video a day challenge. Where I will take 1-2 seconds of video and put them all together each month. At the end of the year I’ll combine all of those months to create one big video. Finally, I’m doing a Back Door Series where I’ll photograph the girls/dog/weather/whatever at the back door. I’ve been doing this a while without thinking of it and just decided to be more intentional with it. Below are some of the most recent images for this series.

So that’s it! How’s the weather in your town and what projects are you doing this year?