Flying home to Philly on two hours sleep. The Denver airport looks like a foreign land.

He is here! After 11 hours of labor and one solid hour of pushing, Raina delivered Emmett Rose Pressman at 8:13 pm.

I’ve been in Austin for more than a week now. This trip is making me confront some serious points of inflexibility that exist inside of me. I itch to be back home where I know the landscape and where I understand my role in life (as loosely defined as it currently is).

Couple that with the grief I’m feeling that I’m probably going to miss this baby’s arrival and I’m a storm of conflicting emotions.

Wine, candles in jars and plenty of sangria at Kate’s house, for the Austin preservers’ party.

A steaming pot of soup on my sister’s stove on a warm, Texas Halloween day. No sign of a baby yet.

This was one of those nights where I was headed to bed and realized I hadn’t taken a single photo during the day. I quickly pulled out my phone and snapped an image. This was the result.

On a walk around Raina’s E. Austin neighborhood, I spotted this pair of aqua beauties. The oddest part is that they didn’t belong to each other. The car belonged to a drab, brown house on the left. I guess their Beetle is color enough for that person.

A row of mason jars, pressed into serve to hold flowers and candles at Springdale Farm for the Good Food Award Road Show. Kate picked me up and we reconnected after months apart over an array of delicious food and the realization that we’re facing many of the same challenges right now. It felt so good to be heard and understood.

For part of our time here in Austin, my mom and I are staying with some friends of Raina and Drew’s. Here’s their pantry. I’m totally charmed by it.

Raina with baby Faye, a dog that belongs to some friends of hers. She loves to rest her head on the baby belly.