Call it retail therapy for artists

I always hear about artists who are "inspired by nature"...

Yeeaaaahhh. I dive for pearls of inspiration at the antique store.

I found a small encyclopedia set of ten books, which were mildly interesting on their own. And then I happened upon a jar of silver dollars... and that got me thinking.

More later on how I'm going to use them.

Just. So. Tired.

I'm going to make the understatement of a lifetime: this week was hard. Because I'm all out of pretty words, I point you in the direction of poet Maggie Smith. 

This poem beautifully captures the parenting dilemmas I've been wrestling with since at least 2011. (And again in 2013.  And in 2014. Pretty sure I'll keep thinking about this a lot.) Meanwhile, I'll spend this weekend regrouping. Perhaps next week I'll have more for you.

Artists vote, too!

Make time to vote next week! And if you live in a state that allows early voting (or mail-in ballots only, like mine), do it NOW. It took me a good hour to go through the voter's guide because we have an extra-long ballot of issues and candidates. But I needed to learn more.

I voted earlier this week, so all that's left for me to do is to urge you to do the same. (And bite my nails down to the quick, while we wait for election results on Tuesday night.)