I wear plaid. I'm a blogger.

Sometimes in order to preserve beauty, you have to kill it. Though things are going quite well as they are and everything seems hunky-dory, you have to take it away from its comfortable living conditions in order to save it from the harsh weather that is eminent. Just this past week I cut one of the nearly blossoming yellow tulips from my front yard because I knew that the weather was supposed to turn sour this weekend and I wanted to save this delicate little flower from the frost. I wanted to enjoy its life-giving warm color from the inside of our house even as the snow raged furious outside. I wanted to give this flower a chance to do what it was designed to do--add beauty to the cold slumber of awaiting spring. So I picked it. I plucked it. I had Katie put it in a vase and gave it all the water and sunlight it could ever want. It blossomed yesterday and today it stands on our kitchen window sill, proudly displaying its full beauty as it defies the snow through the pane of pr...

San Diego. The sunny city. Well, at least sunnier than Cincinnati when it comes to the first week of March. Katie and I took Isaiah on his first plane ride (Indianapolis-LA-San Diego) to visit Tim and Julia last week and it was a real treat. Not just because we dodged the 4 inches of snow that hit our home while we were away; not just because we were able to wear T-shirts and flip flops while everyone back home was wearing parkas and snow shoes; and not even because we did a bunch of great touristy things...the fact of the matter is that this was the best vacation for me so far because I got to spend time with my family. Since Isaiah has been born, I have only had 1 week off to enjoy spending time exclusively as a family. Christmas had a couple days in a row, but otherwise all of our family time comes on Saturdays and weeknights. So the best part of this vacation, hands down, was spending time as a family, enjoying each other's company. Now, with that said, it was also grea...