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Time is not my enemy.
But sometimes it feels like it is. I’ve been (ever so slowly) reading a book called The Lazy Genius. It’s full of really great stuff. Practical help. Emotional help. All the in between help. The author talks about the seasons of our lives – raising little babies, empty nest, new careers, frequent moves, crisis, whatever it might be for you. And she also talks about the seasons we actually live in here on earth – you know them, fall, winter, etc. She suggests that, instead of constantly battling against the one we’re in when we find ourselves in our least favorite of seasons, we should lean into the season, recognize…
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Five Finds Friday (touring college and of course – boots & tea)
This week was fasssst. And pretty lovely and pretty regular and there was a golden conversation with the most wonderful of humans and there were long hard stares directed at me from teens and there were jobs that got checked off to the to do list and a major frustration financially and a car battery that died but a dad who bought a portable recharger and it was the kind of week we all lived – up and down like the ocean waves. And here we are – FRIDAY! funny I like teenagers. And I like raising them and being around them. And I like laughing about them. And you…
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Needle Felting: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and these words and these opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. ______________________________ I’m in love with this kit. I won’t try to set you up for a pitch or a build up. I’ll just start out right with the truth. This has been one of the best Timberdoodle items we have received. Everyone wanted to try it, but Piper was the lucky winner this go round. This is a complete, everything-included, Needle Felting Kit. Literally the perfect read aloud activity.…
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one of those . . . weeks
You ever have a day that just u n r a v e l s ? Or, you know, an entire week? Heads are nodding, I’m assuming. Mine is. I don’t even exactly know how. Or why. This year I stepped back from teaching the writing and literature high school course I have taught for three years. I thought that would translate into extra time. I guess it has. Although I don’t know exactly where that time went. In fact, I’m actually asking how on earth I ever fit it in for the last three years. I’m minus one student at my own homeschooling kitchen table so that seems like…
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Plus-Plus: One of our Favorites from Timberdoodle
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and these words and these opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. ________________________________________ I guess I gave this one away with the title. But, to me, Plus-Plus is a lot like Legos – what on earth is there not to love? And in our house – we LOVE Plus-Plus. They’re just so versatile and fun. They are the nearly perfect occupation for playing quietly while listening to our nightly novel. Much quieter than Legos. Any age can be entertained by their…
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Film Making Class: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and these words and these opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. ________________________________________ Until now, I’ve never tried to count how many years I have been working with Timberdoodle, writing reviews for products, trying out new books or curriculum or projects. A quick blog search reminds me our relationship started in 2016! (And goodness, what a fortunate friendship we have formed over the years.) You can see a whole host of my reviews here and here and there and right here…
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mid-week rambling.
We’re trying to do a little school around here. (Math. History. A couple good novels.) It was sad to start Wildwood with only four students. And – most days it actually kind of feels like just three. Mosely is working and taking dual enrollment classes and only needs a few more credits to graduate so she’s not really in all the table work daily rotation. It’s funny – I’m not teaching at Meadowlark this year and so my daily workload has decreased in that area. And yet. I am struggling with feeling unmotivated. It’s as if when my schedule isn’t bursting at the seams, I somehow have a MORE difficult…
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Five Finds Friday (boots, of course, and pretty drinks and a book update)
We started school this week! And yes, it felt pretty odd to only have FOUR students at Wildwood’s first day. funny Lately Piper and I have been laughing together a lot. Which is a nice thing because being the youngest teenager at our house, sometimes there’s less laughing and more …. NOT laughing. If you catch what I’m saying. We’ve been playing Sudoku before bed each night. We’re kind of average at it but I still love doing it with her. Our family attended a local event recently and Piper and her friend decided to roll the dice and get their faces painted. That was a little funny too. fashionable…
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today. (teens are wonderful wonderful too – PSA)
I know I’ve written a LOT about my feelings this year – about graduation and kids growing up and oh whatever floated across my mind. (This may not be called “My Space” but it sure as heck IS my space.) I stand by all these feelings. They are true and they are mine and I have felt them all. (And I still do and I still will. Parenting and motherhood AND LIFE are just all bubbling over with feelings. It’s what makes us HUMAN. Sitting in my living room yesterday with friends and co-workers (how lucky that they are both?) we watched our teenagers drive off in one car together…
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five finds friday (more feelings, an architect’s table I want to find and milk tea)
Is there anything better than birthday week? By a coincidence of timing, I ended up taking the boys on a couple belated birthday adventures of their own over the last few weeks and those have been like gifts to me – kayaks and treehouses and drives on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Any day I see a wide expanse of a mountain view is a good day to me. funny This week my sweet friends surprised me with a night out for desserts and drinks to celebrate BIRTHDAY. (I found a drink I like so I can add it to my VERY limited list of Beverages I Enjoy. Sangria. Who knew? Here is the rest of the…
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Otto Meets a Hawk
Maybe the idea started because I’m always trying to keep Birthday Magic going strong even after the actual celebration. Or maybe it began as a way to spread the cost of gifts out with half a dozen children. Who knows? I can’t recall exactly when, but at some point in our family history I started giving gifts that were future experiences: Taking a pottery classAttending a concertWatching live theatreA skiing tripThrowing axesDinner dates & movie dates The goal is, of course, to fit the event or date to the person receiving the gift. Sometimes this finds me at a Twenty-One Pilots concert when I only know one song. It’s led…
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The Right Word.
Decreasing numbers. First we were 8. Then, in the same year, we were 6. Last week a series of mixed events had us at about 4 for more than a week. I felt like our numbers were dwindling too dramatically and I didn’t care for that feeling. My sweet college friend Gretchen and her lovely family were passing through town for an evening. We enjoyed dinner and sharing stories and gawking at the increased height of our kids and their deep voices and all the time that has somehow passed. (I shared stories of her college escapades that embarrassed her but delighted her children. What are long time friends good…
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Cognitive Drawing: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and these words and these opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. __________________________________________ I have a lot of artistic kids. And figuring out ways to manage their interests and increase their abilities and provide practice for their skills has been a formidable challenge over the years. We’ve done in person classes – which I prefer – and we’ve experimented with online courses and we’ve checked out library books and tapped into whatever else seemed to work at the time,…
