When you look at Wyatt, it’s impossible not to smile. He is soft and round with his curly blonde hair and gorgeous eyes. He has my father’s eyebrows, and sometimes shoots me a look that sends chills down my spine and makes me really miss my Daddy.

My brother went back to jail today for a 90 day stint. And it makes my heart break for Wyatt and Cole. They love their daddy, and drug addiction has taken him away from them time and time again. The boys don’t deserve the pain they’ll have from being away from John while he is in jail.

I told John yesterday that the most important thing for him to remember is that there is always hope. And that there are still people who believe in him and love him. It’s not easy to believe in him. It’s not easy to love him. But we do.

And while he’s gone, we’ll focus our love on his legacy, the rowdy and wonderful Dalton boys.

Mommy and Beckett at Kailua Beach, 2004. Beckett is a few weeks old here, and I am incredibly happy. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Stuffed Mushrooms & Spinach Salad

This is Beckett being very serious during a Spiderman episode. When I see this face, I know that he is fully immersed in his character, and I better get my game face on and play superheros or I’ll wind up being the bad guy that gets wrapped in a web or tied to the recliner before I can escape.

Resistance is futile.

Until I started eating raw food I always disliked the grocery store closest to our house. I called it The Ghetto Grocery because they didn’t carry a lot of the gourmet and snobby foods I would buy. You can’t find Nutella at The Ghetto Grocery. And they don’t have live lobsters in a tank!

But who knew you could get organic unsweetened coconut flakes, every kind of raw nut imaginable, flax seeds in bulk, and the most lovely fresh herbs I’ve ever seen in a grocery store. The Ghetto Grocery has got it going ON!

We were there yesterday, and the fresh dill looked amazing. So, I got up this morning and made little zuchninni bites with a raw dill and sunflower paste, filled with sweet peppers and tied with little carrot strings.

These are in the fridge waiting to be gobbled up for dinner. It was wonderful to spend a lazy morning in the kitchen being creative. I created a few new salad dressings, did a lot of chopping and bagging up of ingredients for sauces and smoothies for the week, and got some stuff into the freezer to help make the week less about chopping and mincing and dicing and more about the YUMMM.

Tonight I made raw zuchinni pasta (zuchinni peeled into thin strips) with a creamy basil sauce. Served with a side of giant button mushroom filled with tomato. Garnished with edible carrot sticks, sliced with love.

This was so delicious and satisfying. UNTIL BASIL COOKED A CORN DOG and MADE THE ENTIRE HOUSE SMELL LIKE PORK HEAVEN ON EARTH!

It’s not easy being married to the skinniest man on Earth.

This photo is a mess, but if you had been with us when Beckett found out that there was a video that had Scooby Doo and Batman & Robin, you would understand why I had to get photographic evidence.

It was as if a miracle had happened right there in the Anderson Blockbuster. I have never seen a happier child.

This weekend we went to the Anderson Soiree. When I was a kid it was called the Summer Soiree, but being in South in the summer, I am really glad they moved this festival to the spring.

Beckett loved the carnival rides, and was very brave! He cried hard when we told him it was time to go home. I remember that feeling of parental injustice when I was around his age. Us old farts just don’t know what having a good time is all about.