Life is good.

I feel good today. There are lots of reasons, but here are a few:

- Our parking spot is empty today. Normally I prefer to look out the window and see the car here, because that usually means Josh is home from work; however, he was in the States all of last week for a training trip, and it felt strangely lonely to see the car parked outside all day. But the parking spot is empty today, and it's very satisfying. :-) Isn't it funny how things change one's perspective?

- Colic doesn't last forever. Madeline is making definite progress in lots of areas; three months really does seem to be a magic number. She still has worse nights than others, but for the most part, she goes to sleep at night without crying; she's staying awake for longer stretches during the day; she's taking pretty good naps; she's having good, happy awake time, in places other than our arms (facing forward in the baby carrier is her favorite). She's even sleeping in her own bed for a few hours every night! We're still working on naptime... if I want her to have a good nap (read: longer than half an hour), I hold her. But if she'll sleep in her bed at night, that's a compromise I'm willing to make for a while.

- I've been baking more lately, and it feels good! I am especially happy with our experiments with my grandma's Cake Cookie recipe—good cookie + peach applesauce + dried cherries = AWESOME.

- I know I've said this before, but I really love our house. We're in a safe, quiet, pretty neighborhood, and we have lots of room. We have good neighbors. It's open and airy and comfortable and homelike. I need to write down the story of how we found it—it was an outright blessing, and I am so very grateful to Heavenly Father for it. I know that it helps me, especially when Josh is gone, to be in a place that I love.

Yeah, there are lots of reasons to feel good today.