Well, guess who broke her arm?

Yup, you got it. Me.

We’ve been spending a ton of time outside this winter (as it’s the only way we can safely see other people), and this has included sledding and ice skating as the regular activities. This weekend, right when I got on the ice with Ezra, I slipped and fell, landing on my back and my left hand. The doctors say the force in my hand traveled up my arm and cracked the top of my radius, right by my elbow.

Honestly, this was a pretty lucky break (ba-dum-dum psssss) as I have this splint instead of a full cast (which I can remove for showering etc), and they think I could be healed up in as little as four weeks (fingers crossed! on my right hand anyway!). It does require daily physical therapy exercises (which are hard and painful), but I’d much rather have this as a result than surgery.

And btw, look how swollen my hand still is in that photo! Gross! Good thing I was smart enough to take off my wedding rings the day I broke it.

Today has been a long time coming.

This morning I hung this flag out front before delivering champagne to many of my neighbors. I watched the ceremony with my kid, who got to see how many different kinds of people there are in our country and how they can all be represented.

I cried when Kamala and the Obamas bumped fists. We gasped when we saw Gaga’s amazing dress. And I was BLOWN AWAY by Amanda Gorman’s poem. If you missed it, please see it here.

We still have a lot of work to do, but man does this feel good. Happy inauguration everyone!

Last week, I got to photograph this adorable little guy! Oh wow, was he sweet. Plus, he was a few weeks older than most of my newborn sessions, which. meant I even got a smile or two! Be still my heart!

Newborn sessions are still among my very favorites, and I feel so lucky that my clients still trust me inside their homes right now. There’s a lot of precautions happening beforehand, but it’s totally worth it!

This weekend, I was heading downtown to the studio for a shoot, and I had to pull over multiple times to capture the winter beauty in the city around me.

It looked nothing like this near our house, but as I got further north, it just got more and more lovely. Winter is harsh, but also just stunning.

I was happy as a clam today with my headphones on, editing a video all day with coffee by my side. No phone calls scheduled, no online meetings, no reason to even put on lipstick.

But then my kid had a “winter scavenger hunt” assignment, and he asked me if I would join him on a walk down the block to find some of the items. I mean… who can say no. Sigh.

So I put on some lipstick, grabbed all my winter gear, and we headed out to see what we could.

We found bunny tracks (and a rabbit!), pine cones, leafless trees, icicles, a bird in a tree (a pileated woodpecker! I had the totally wrong lens for photographing birds, but I did snap it flying away!) among other nature finds.

And it was totally delightful.

As hard as this time at home has been, I know it will be coming to an end soon, and I’m trying to enjoy these moments with my kid as much as I can. Because in a blink of an eye, I’ll be uncool and totally annoying, and I’ll long for these days so, so much.

I wanted to document what our 300th day at home looks like. Sadly, I couldn’t capture the entirety of it all, frankly, because this day sucked and it was really hard to get the kid to focus, the dogs to stop barking, the texts to stop (thanks Trump) and just making it through my “survival duties” took a lot.

But yeah. Today is the THREE HUNDREDTH day my child has been learning at home. All day. Every day.

He’s a remarkable kid who loves school. He has the most amazing teacher who blows me away every day. We are for sure in the “best case scenario” of this pandemic, but I am still exhausted, frustrated and over it all. My kid needs to be back in school, not because he needs his teachers to be babysitters but because he needs to see that none of the other kids write as neatly as the teacher either. That none of the other kids’ drawings are as good as the teacher’s either. He needs to laugh with other KIDS. He needs less time with adults. Here’s hoping for some sort of change soon.

In the meantime, please send wine.

Today we were back at it.

But instead of working at home, our family loaded up into the car and came to my photo studio for a change of pace. Well, that and we had a house cleaner working in our home.

Yes, I feel super guilty/weird/privileged writing that. But there is one thing on this earth that I hate, and that is the constant dog hair and cleaning that my house requires. And now that we are ALL in the house ALL THE TIME, cooking ALL of the meals, it just feels out of control. So we try to maintain civility most of the time, and once a month we have a cleaner come to tackle things like the bathtub, the stove top etc etc. And it is a godsend, and I am so fortunate to be in a place to make this happen — but to be honest I would give up TV and coffee before I would give up my cleaner. Yes, it is that important to me.

Anyway! To keep everyone safe during Covid, we leave the house and all come to the studio, and it’s fun for everyone just to be somewhere else. And yes, Hazel IS there with us, you just cannot see her because she must be touching me at all times and is right next to me as I am taking this photo.

I snapped these with my iPhone this morning as I was tip-toeing around the house, waiting for the coffee to brew.

I always love that pink light that we get in the early winter mornings. But it’s even better when it’s all wavy because of the old windows in my old house. We get fliers for new windows all summer long, but no way am I getting rid of this gorgeous glass.