Happy

I returned to work today. It’s still spring break, which for me means I still have to report to work -- albeit a calmer, quieter one void of students and faculty and meetings. … Today, I had hoped for a productive day in my office. Didn't happen.

My problem is I set my standards for “productive” so high that I’m always let down when I don’t cross everything off my list.

The better part of my day was the nightcap.

With Kates at her school for her parent-teacher conferences, I got the privilege of picking up Phoebe from the daycare. … We drove home in the rain. And the theme continued as she threw a tantrum about her dinner choices.

Then the rainbow appeared.

It was welcome distraction for Phoebe and I. The rain subsided. We ventured onto the deck and into our new backyard to look at the rainbow.

Then Phoebe grabbed my camera and started taking her own pictures … Here's a sampling of what she captured. There's actually some cool, abstract stuff here.

Then, like the flip of a switch, she was done with the camera and became occupied with her sandbox.

In the meantime, I took to the basketball goal. ... I’ll tell ya right now: That basketball goal is going to help me relieve a lot of stress. I’ve been dying to have my very own basketball goal since a family move left my last one behind on a quirky sloped driveway in Kansas. Some people play golf to blow off steam. When I worked in smalltown Illinois several years ago, I headed to the batting cages. Now I have a basketball court in my back yard, and it doesn’t cost me anything.

Once Kates arrived home, she cooked up some pasta and our little family gathered around our dining table -- after days of frozen pizzas, takeout and fast food -- for the first official home-cooked meal in our new house.

Aftterward, I put some more time into painting and fixing up the kitchen as I watched my beloved Bearcats play in the women's basketball’s Eight Eight.

I have not been so happy or so content in a long, long time.

This whole house thing was worth the wait.