March 1st – Whiling away the first warm afternoon of the year at the playground, meeting new friends, and sharing a fabulous pinecone stew.
March 2nd – Catching up on This American Life while concocting a pink pudding birthday cake.
March 3rd – Introducing my brand new five-year-old to the cherished Ingalls family.
March 4th – Rocking out to “nerdy music”—They Might Be Giants—at Natalie’s request and catching her singing along to Meet the Elements, “Come on, come on, and meet the elephants!”
March 5th – Bundling up and baking cupcakes to keep warm as our heater completed union negotiations.
March 6th – Waking up to both girls in bed with us, discussing loudly and with giggles a-plenty which one of us was a king (Sophie), which one was a princess (Natalie), which one was a queen (Mommy), and which one was a mermaid (Sophie again). (After some debate, it was agreed Daddy could be co-king.)
March 7th – Sharing the hilariously traumatic family experience of making bracelets with Natalie’s new, über-cheap jewelry wand.
March 8th – Walking in on Sophie bouncing up and down and singing Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” on the potty.
March 9th – Submitting my first short story in over a year.
March 10th – Nibbling fresh strawberries, sipping tea, and giggling as the girls from Bible study launched into an in-depth discussion of boob jobs.
March 11th –Spotting a bed of exuberant daffodils blooming in a neighbor’s garden.
March 12th – Catching the look on Dan’s face when he heard me singing TMBG’s “Violin-lin-lin” to the girls.
March 13th – Sinking into the couch with my husband and the passengers of Oceanic 815 after a long day of cleaning.
March 14th – Hosting the kind of long, social lunch that I’ve so often enjoyed in Italian homes.
March 15th – Starting my daily to-do list with “Write HGTV back” and feeling a brief celebrity glow.
March 16th – Taking a big bite of New Orleans’ style banana pudding and tasting the stars align.
March 17th – Saluting the Irish American spirit with homemade shamrock shakes.
March 18th – Filling our day with the fairy-tale scent of baking cookies.
March 19th – Zipping up the last suitcase with plenty of time left for drinks and an early bedtime—miraculous, this!
March 20th – Winding through breathtakingly beautiful mountain passes on our way to the ski resort.
March 21st – Watching the girls’ heads spiral into the stratosphere from the joy of snow (and, one hour later, plunge into the depths of despair over wet socks and imminent naptime).
March 22nd – Playing Taboo with friends once we were all so tired that cry-laughing hilarity was guaranteed.
March 23rd – Hearing the girls crack up over old Tom & Jerry cartoons like I did as a child.
March 24th – Flying down the mountainside on fresh snow glittering in the early morning sunshine.
March 25th – Braving a foggy mountainside journey on my board for the second time in a week and reveling in the superhero rush when I made it.
March 26th – Getting several hours of guilt-free reading time out of my otherwise undesirable back seat station during our drive back to Perugia.
March 27th – Watching a perfect double rainbow arch across the valley below our house.
March 28th – Fashioning a sweet Mommy-Natalie date out of a routine trip to the grocery store.
March 29th – Catching the backyard trees in the act of blooming.
March 30th – Inviting Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles to breakfast. (We should do this every day.)
March 31st – Glimpsing bedtime stories in the late-evening clouds and their vivid incantations of blue.
