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weekend ramblings (wrinkle in time & soccer photos & business talk)
It’s raining again and I can’t say I’m a fan. This weekend I spent Friday night finishing the sixth Harry Potter – by far my favorite and also the saddest and also just a satisfying read. Friday night also found me folding gobs of laundry – this time all my own, guess I had been letting it slide – and catching up on the last two This Is Us episodes. It was a good weekend to finish some nagging to-do lists, to get a handle on ye olde family budget (yikes – that was no fun) and to make a solid game plan for finishing the last ten weeks…
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Five Finds Friday (NKOTB and words on a ring and butter mints)
This week Mosely acquired a Wii. Yep, we’re a handful of years behind on any technological advance. Which is exactly the pace I prefer. So I have allowed more screen time than normal and have seen more Mario Cart and Just Dance than I’m comfortable with. But I’m grateful they are satisfied and enjoy the delayed entrance into video games and are not currently concerned with keeping up or having the best and the greatest. It’ll hit us, I’m sure. But just not this week. funny Talking about going back in time or not keeping up or something like that. One night at dinner this week…
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all the good words (that y’all said)
Man, when I asked earlier this week for you guys to share your lists of what does not get accomplished at your houses, at what waits for the “free time” that never comes, at what is on steady stand still around your place so that maybe I could feel better about the junk lists around my own house, y’all came through. I mean – for real – you DELIVERED. I had more Facebook comments than usual. I got texts with random answers. Emails even. It was THE BEST. And not just because you guys made me feel better. Because it wasn’t actually better that you made…
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A Beautiful Reminder: Holy Week Calendars
I’m always saying I have such talented friends. And it just keeps being true. Two such gifted friends have collaborated and have created a beautiful Holy Week Advent calendar. I wish I could say that I am intentional about talking to my kids about Easter in a planned or intentional way. I’m not. (In fact, I’m usually a little surprised every year as it seems to sneak up on me.) This calendar is a simple and lovely way to engage your own heart and to guide your family in preparation for Easter Sunday. I’ve shared my friend Beth’s work before. She’s a talented artist with beautiful hand…
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What Never Gets Done: My Partial List
You guys. Y’all. Whatever the right word is. I need a Time Management tool. Or like one of those time turner things that Hermione uses in Hogwarts so she can attend more classes than she ought to. That is EXACTLY what I need. How on earth do people work forty plus hours away from their home and then ever actually have a clean home when they just are not in it that much? Today as I did laundry I thought, I could keep up with this if I had nothing else to do. But I have everything else to do. Like all of us. Does anyone else find the…
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five finds friday (but not really five, because it’s been a long week)
It IS Friday – right? I don’t even know. I for real don’t even know. It’s been such a busy week and I haven’t had any time to write any words anywhere. And I forgot how that usually affects me – the not writing words part. Choosing to write routinely is really a pretty vital part of my keeping the sanity in check. So I’m feeling a lot off this week and it’s equal parts busy week and equal parts not writing. Also, my neck is stiff and I’m really very tired. I’d pay good money for a neck and shoulder massage. Anyway, it’s Friday and I honestly don’t…
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weekend thoughts & ramblings like I do
Looking through my recent photos all I really see for the past twenty shots or so are work-related. A delicious dinner party at the new BBQ place. An artist teaching a watercolor class for veterans. Screenshots of kids I don’t know riding bikes on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Specialty drinks at Rocket Surgery. A milkshake giveaway at our local ice cream shop. A portrait of a local business owner and friend. The sign welcoming people to TR. The FFA group at the local high school meeting our state representative. Dogwood tress in bloom downtown. The kids taking a terrarium class. It’s not a bad gig I’ve got…
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five finds friday
If you live inside my house, there is no better week than Break Week. It’s. The. Best. Early on in the break week I sent a text to my friend and said, “Why can’t I just stay home and do no work and hang out with my kids all day? Why isn’t that a thing?” Everyone is so much more fun and relaxed when school is not involved. My friend said, “You can – it’s called unschooling.” (I know, I know. Unschooling is legit to a lot of people and I know it works a little differently. But I want to do Unworking and Unresponsible and Uncooking and Un…
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these are the things he will do: Isaiah 42:6
I’ll miss this old front porch. (If I ever actually move from this house.) Today I’m sitting on this porch and reading these verses in the Bible. Isaiah 42. All of it. But especially verse 16. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. I’m in love with these words. (Don’t worry Dad, they’re too long for a tattoo.) They’re words so full of the unknown – like my…
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i like you . . .
I like you. A lot. I have been saying those words so routinely to my children for as long as they have been alive. And of course I am hoping that they are listening, hearing me. Knowing what I mean and how I mean it. But I seldom think about the idea that maybe other people are listening too. What a gift – more beautiful than words can describe – to hear a positive story about yourself where you do something right. In a life lived in the trenches, at the end of days filled with subtle insults from the twelve year old to the ten year old, with…
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february, could you please send some sun already?
Y’all. What I NEED is some sunshine. I can diffuse all the orange plus cedarwood plus lavender that I can buy (and you should too – it smells bright and cheery, unlike everything about February) but if some good old fashioned sun doesn’t start bursting forth from the clouds soon, I cannot guarantee the future of anything. It has been TOO long. Sure, there were glimmers on Sunday – it was a lovely day, in fact. But it was just ONE day. ONE day of sunshine. That is NOT enough. I am using more capital letters than I usually do. It’s relevant. I’m guessing I’m not the only human…
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the charcoal face mask and my children
Life with children (or with any other humans actually) is unpredictable. No wonder they call it a roller coaster. One minute someone is laughing, one minute someone is crying. In one afternoon the living room is pristine tidy and smells like oranges and cloves and the next afternoon the living room is littered with magazines and blankets and smells like coughing. At this point in the parenting game, I’m pretty certain all I’ll ever learn how to do is ride the waves, with no genuine hope of controlling the tides. Yesterday I stopped by a friend’s house to pick something up. She has four kids and a long term…
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five finds friday (on a SATURDAY, featuring cute letters and free stuff)
Unscheduled. Awry. Shifted. Not as planned. Those are all the correct words to describe this week. Mostly stemming from car issues, nearly nothing that I thought was going to happen or scheduled to happen actually occurred as planned or anticipated. All. Week. Long. Some days my car would start. Some days it would not. Some days I spent trying to get it repaired. Some days it looked repaired. Some days it did not. Also, several of the kids began to feel off this week – a cough there or a fever here, light headed for one, extra exhausted for another. Again – changed up all the plans. I’ve got…
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