If you don't know about charity: water already, let me introduce you. The organization builds wells in developing countries - over 22,000 so far - thereby providing millions of people with access to life-saving water. Because their operational costs are completely paid for by private donors, every single dollar they raise goes directly towards funding water projects, and they pride themselves on total transparency and accountability, even providing donors with GPS coordinates so they can see where in the world each of their dollars went. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution, they work with local experts to build wells that are tailored to the specific needs of the community they serve, and that are sustainable over the long-term.

All this sounds great, right?

I can spout talking points at you about exactly why this charity is so important all day long. Instead, though, I'd like to show you something.

The Mom Bod now comes in a lightweight, perfect-fitting (and super soft) t-shirt, hooray!

Time for a few Life Updates, because I've been feeling kind of distant from the site these past few weeks, and if I feel this way it's probably something you've noticed, too. Or maybe I'm just projecting. Regardless: I feel all weird and writer's block-y, which is not something I'm used to feeling, and I'm trying to put a finger on why. (And don't worry, we'll get to the "present" part of this post soon enough; if you're impatient just hop on down to the bottom ;).

Here's the problem: the things that are occupying my mind at the moment are either things that I can't really talk about in detail because of contracts and such, or things that have to do with the boring side of running a business - which isn't boring to me, but also doesn't make a ton of sense to write about - or things that just don't really make for compelling content (anyone interested in hearing about this morning's trip to Target in search of battery-operated solar lights...? ...Anyone?). I'm spending massive amounts of time working on business development, and the time that I'm not spending on that I'm spending with my kids and husband, and with my friends. More often than not, I'm forgetting to take photographs or mental notes while I'm doing this...and to me that feels like something I'd like to roll with, at least for a minute. You know?

My gift to me: these flowers, and a minute to plant them.

It turns out that all I want for Mother's Day is to be able to stroll the aisles at a home improvement store, casually scoping out solar lighting options and salvia varieties and replacement drill bits without anyone yelling at me to hurry up.

I'm serious.

As I go to hit the "publish" button on this post, I find myself remembering that there is a much less family-friendly interpretation of the word "tenting."

I am going to hit publish anyway, because I think that's funny.

We are now officially People Who Camp. I have declared this to be so via the ordering of several hundred dollars worth of camping supplies on Amazon. (The goal being to be able to vacation easily and inexpensively over the longer-term, and to make our kids happy because, as it turns out, they're obsessed with camping.)