A real respite, a good meal, an early bedtime

After that epic nosebleed finally called it quits, I headed to school to put together the New Student Welcome Board. I love taking photos of the new kids- they just can't know what happiness and opportunity lie in store for them at this place (hopefully; I think so). And I like to see them as they venture off on this new educational journey. I got the board made, worked in the library for a while, took J to the orthodontist to get his spacers in (he gets a palate expander on Wednesday), and dropped the kids at home with a babysitter. Usually I run errands or exercise during these few hours that I have childcare, but today I packed up my computer, walked to a coffee shop with no WiFi (at least not that I can ever access), ordered a good pot of tea and just wrote. I can't tell you the last time I was able to do that, and it felt so restorative and good. I decided to keep things easy tonight and warm up my last two collard handpies for our entree. Our side was a shaved fennel salad drizzled generously with terrific olive oil and kosher salt and topped with sliced cherry tomatoes, fennel fronds, goat cheese and chopped marcona almonds. Lovely, lovely.

And now, T happily watching the Redskins game (not lookin' so good so far, RGIII), I'm off to bed with a good book and random sections of the past four days' newspapers.