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hello out there.
There’s just the one topic right now – right? With all the places and all the things cancelled and postponed, I keep thinking I should end up with time on my hands. My calendar is completely full of white out and yet – I haven’t caught up on any of the things. Not really. It’s been a scramble instead. A scramble to shift classes to some version of online. A scramble to adjust work demands. A scramble to cancel and postpone and rearrange our upcoming literature field trip. To contact all of the locations and lodgings and I still have this feeling that I’m missing something or someone that I…
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Weekend Ramble: Les Mis, A Kitten & Daylight Savings Time
The Weekend Ramble
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five finds friday. (do you know what else starts with the letter f? flu.)
Four people in my house have had or do currently have the flu this week. Six of us live here. Those odds are not in my favor. funny If you wake up in the morning and see this reminder from the night before on your bedside table, was that a successful evening or a sad evening? fashionable Well – the shipwreck t-shirt arrived. I wore it. And here are my thoughts …. The quote still amuses me, whether every human on social media has seen it too many times or not. The material of the shirt is not quite the same super soft material of most t-shirts we buy these…
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Should I Stop Homeschooling?
For years I’ve said a handful of absolutes about my homeschooling experience. (I do like to speak in absolutes, although I am working hard to remove them from my vernacular. I know they are not helpful, generally speaking.) Two of those absolutes are this: I will make a decision for each homeschool year for each kid on a case by case year by year basis. No homeschooling parent (and no teacher, maybe no human) should make life changing decisions in February. And yet. Here I am, having just spent most of February pondering and thinking and researching and looking into a wide variety of Other Options beside homeschooling for one,…
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Five Finds Friday (Cadbury eggs & impulsive purchases)
I’m supposed to be asleep right now. I’m breaking my own self-imposed rule. But I’ve done a great job every night this week in getting to bed on time. So I’ll type these SUPER fast! funny Apparently it’s a thing with teenagers to pretend that they are all related to everyone in their friend group. London created this family tree with the help of her classmates. I don’t understand it, but it makes me laugh. fashionable How about this shirt that yes, I ordered spontaneously from an Instagram ad? Curious to see the quality of it. The caption was just too irresistible to me this week so I fell right…
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WWII Graphic Novels: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. _________________________ It was a quick and easy yes when Timberdoodle presented two graphic novels as a review option. As a kid – and as a grown up, frankly – graphic novels never pulled me in. I liked hearty, thick books. Descriptions. Dialogue. Details. But my kids. My goodness, they ADORE a good graphic novel. (And, let me tell you the truth, they adore a whole host of bad ones…
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an apology/not an apology
I wish I had more time to write here. I wish I had more time to undertake creative endeavors. Why has it been harder to write blog posts for the past six months or so? Overseeing the education of five people requires a LOT of effort. The teenage years provide a plethora of fodder for blog posts but so very little of it is shareable since they are older kids with bigger feelings and stories of their own. Let’s just say, the parenting of teens is a FULL TIME task that hits at the most unexpected hours and in all sorts of dramatic must-respond-immediately sort of ways. My part time…
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Noonday: Tonight!
When your daughter asks you to host a Noonday party with her, you just say yes. I mean, any reason to look at beautiful jewelry that helps give women in third world countries honorable work to do is an easy yes. If you’re in the area and would like to come over to my house and join us tonight – from 6:30 to 8:30, we’d love to have you. The main feature is the Noonday jewelry, of course, but there will also be chips and homemade salsa and queso. Word in the kitchen is – there might even be some homemade peppermint patties but you didn’t hear that from me.…
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Taking Them on an Adventure: The Literature Odyssey
If any current job of mine fades away, I’ve got a pocketful of other ventures I’d love to take on. Full time writer.Lost Valley Ranch Staff.Professional Trip Planner.Font Developer.Product Tester. I don’t even know if most of those are actual jobs. But if there was a job where I could plan trips for people, I’d be all in. I’d theme the trips for target audiences – A Literary South Adventure. Art Museums Only. Cities That Have Inspired Songs. I’d pair food options and I’d provide opportunity to journal your feelings and record your memories. I’d even be happy to pick the sound track and the audio books, the podcasts and…
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making music (and art) accessible
I’m tone deaf. It’s true. And it’s almost tragic. Just tonight, after leaving church, I asked the kids, “If you had to pick to be really great at singing or at acting, which would you prefer?” I think I’d pick singing. Because, even if no one else ever enjoyed it, you could entertain yourself. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sing beautifully and on key and all that? Well, maybe you can already do that. But I sure can’t. And I don’t play any musical instruments either. Again – it’s a shame. But here I am, all talentless in these realms. Here’s a rabbit trail. (I’m excellent at…
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five finds friday (lemon trees, Noonday parties, toasters, homemade mittens)
Every single week IT’S THE SAME STORY. How is it already Friday? WHERE ARE MY DAYS GOING? Why are my to do lists so long? When will I ever be caught up? Why doesn’t anyone EVER hang up their jackets at this house? But seriously, am I the only one who knows how to load the dishwasher? funny Almost a year ago I saw a little plant in Lowe’s and decided that I wanted to become a person who did not kill her house plants. For my entire life, that’s more than 40 years folks, I have let plants die on my watch. I have overwatered and underwatered, I have…
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Five Finds Friday (meatballs, Scrabble, really odd names for kids)
Am I still here? Do Fridays still exist without this list? Well, yeah. They do. All of life feels just rapid speed and kind of slow motion simultaneously. But we’re all still here. Trudging through the two worst months of homeschool every year – January and February. funny This week I received this text from my oldest daughter. fashionable I know this sweatshirt has a fish on it. And I know it’s difficult to see this in the photo. However. This fish sweatshirt at a local shop in my town is not just any sweatshirt. It’s designed for women to wear with leggings. It is LONG. Long enough to cover…
Keep Reading . . .
hello out there.
Lake Jocassee with the Boys
My Friend Mary & The Beauty of Showing Up
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two decades. the last was the growing up. the next will be the growing out.
Because I’m an extensive note taker, journal writer, daily recorder of stuff, I am frequently aware of how many months something has been happening or what day such and such an event occurred or what we were all doing thirteen years ago on January 23. (Of course, pair this with the fact that I frequently forget where my phone is and what I told the kids they could do when school is finished and that’s a more whole picture of who I am.) At any rate and back to the point at hand. This blog has been circulating for more than one entire decade. And with this new year being…
