The crappy-wonderful balance of my insignificant, first-world existence has been thrown off. My Facebook status feed confirms it. Usually Facebook provides a nice perspective on the balance of good and bad, in fact, I have come to rely on the predictability of this balance... a new mom bringing home her baby, a layoff, a birthday celebration filled with friends and family, the loss of a loved one, a beautiful fall family hike, a broken into car. But yesterday was a crappy day for a lot of people, and crappy update after crappy update rolled in on my status feed. Having lived in DC for ten years, the government shutdown affects a lot of my friends and colleagues. So does the sequester. Today will be just as crappy, and tomorrow too. It may be crappy for a long time. 

To balance it out a bit, I am trying to focus on a few little things that have made me happy this week. It's not much, but it does create a picture of warmth and happiness that will have to balance out the crap as best it can.

 

  <img src="https://yellow-ladybird.micro.blog/uploads/2026/efcb0c5ca5.jpg" alt="">

A child's painting project. I love all the paintbrushes lined up. 

  <img src="https://yellow-ladybird.micro.blog/uploads/2026/7e87e636a1.jpg" alt="">



  <img src="https://yellow-ladybird.micro.blog/uploads/2026/db4ca95efe.jpg" alt="">

Every year we make an autumn mobile, this year Katherine joined me. I love the colors and the fact that they usually stay up well into May. 

 

  <img src="https://yellow-ladybird.micro.blog/uploads/2026/a9f94a4540.jpg" alt="">

Our first fire in the wood stove. It wasn't quite cold enough, but we were ready.

  <img src="https://yellow-ladybird.micro.blog/uploads/2026/346a7efcd3.jpg" alt="">

My first apple pie (usually my baking endeavors involve chocolate, but I'm branching out). I've been asking people for their recipe for weeks, but everyone says, "Oh, I just add a little bit of this and a little bit of that..." , so that is what this is, a little bit of this and that, and it is (was) delicious. But I guess you can't really go wrong with a buttery crust, apples, cinnamon, and allspice.

 

  <img src="https://yellow-ladybird.micro.blog/uploads/2026/c9ac1febe0.jpg" alt="">

Sisters getting along, collecting leaves.  

 

If you have happy, beautiful moments or stories, please link to them in the comments. I know a lot of people could use the balance right now!