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keep looking up.
He probably said it two dozen times. Actually, I’m sure it was said more often than that. Keep looking up. The words one of my friends said to me, to the kids, to our friend circle, when times were dark and The Ending was beginning. Keep looking up. Sometimes I don’t even think I had a clue what he meant. And sometimes I understood it perfectly. Last week the kids and I and some dear friends went hiking in North Carolina. (Oh it was a gorgeous spot. One that has long been on my list of places to visit and will now be on my list of places to…
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Five Finds Friday (fries and hevel and gray hair)
This week has been pleasant – good weather, school progressing along nicely, the promise of the weekend on the horizon. All good things. And now it’s Friday. funny Honestly, just living in this house with five kids who are becoming genuinely funny humans in their own rights has been so incredibly enjoyable. We laugh. A lot. They’re just so comical. I forget to write a lot of it down any longer. (And I should work on that, I know.) This week Piper Finn has been packing a lunch all week for her attendance at theatre camp. One evening as she was filling her little bags with…
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a list of …… stuff
This post is going to be more like a Public Service Announcement. Or something. Probably not Public Service Announcement at all. Probably more random and less beneficial than a Public Service Announcement. 1. On the Travelers Rest Here Instagram there is currently a contest taking place. It’s a fun one and I meant to tell you guys about it earlier but I forgot. Because I forget things. A lot of things. I forget a lot of things. Anyway. Find this picture on our Instagram feed and follow the instructions and do all of that – right away – because I’m drawing the winner tonight and I think it would…
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Burt’s Bees Meets The Grove And Some of It Can Be Yours
Way back when I had more babies than teenagers I found out about Burt’s Bees. I loved their products before I was on the Facebook and the Instagram and before I was writing blog posts and when I was living on a sweet farm in the Virginia mountains. I was using Burt’s Bees products back when I had to use my own voice out loud to people to tell them how much I loved what Burt’s Bees sold. Their chapsticks and their baby lotion. Their bath gel and their body lotion. I also always liked their packaging. I’m not even sure why. (I even remember registering for…
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the unpleasant unexpected.
Like all the grieving I have ever waded through, it’s the stages that take me by surprise. Some of my hard has looked like this: Giant to-another-state moves where our family left one sort of life to live another sort. Raising one child to an adult. Close friends moving away from our circle. The loss of my mother. The death of my marriage. It’s all been a path more jagged than straight. A good morning followed by a bad afternoon on the heels of a beautiful evening smashed up against a weepy week. Unpredictable and often unexpected. A storm on a calm sea. A rain shower on a sunny…
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Five Finds Friday (there’s jam and a johnny cash shirt)
I told you we “officially” started school this week. And we did. But we also hiked Black Balsam in North Carolina (or what I like to call Middle Earth or the mountains in the Sound of Music or what my friend Sarah who hiked with us called Darcy’s land from Pride and Prejudice. The point is – it was other-world pretty.) and we also spent a day swimming at the ever-satisfying Lake Jocassee. So, yes – we did school. But we also saw some magical spots and I was reminded that, although I dream sometimes of living somewhere else, where I actually reside is full of beauty and charm. Anyway…
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Day One School Thoughts
School started back for us today. Hello Wildwood Halls of Ivy. I have a high school daughter again. And two middle schoolers. My “baby” is in third grade. He feels super unexcited to be required to do school again. Today it was difficult to stay on track for all of us, but I think over all we did alright. High school curriculum is not cheap, let me tell you. Our Latin curriculum has yet to arrive but I like the first couple of days to be a slow start anyway so we don’t hit all the subjects all the days. Latin is new for us…
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More than a day camp – but also a day camp (and also a break for you local mamas)
Maybe it was three summers ago. That’s sounding about right. My friend told me about a day camp that her daughter started a handful of years earlier with several of her friends. Back then the three girls were not that much older than the campers themselves but they were creative and they were clever and they were ambitious. Bekah, Maggie and Bonnie were looking for a way to help out their friends’ families, for something to do during the summer and for a way to earn a little extra money. They offered a three day camp meeting at one of their homes. Three days where parents could…
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Five Finds Friday (jam & friendship & adventure – oh, and a fan)
The last Friday in July? That’s just wrong. funny After the kids attended Camp Wexford – have I told you about that? Okay, I will – they came home wanting to make their own versions of slime or oobleck or goop, whatever you want to call it. (It’s the ooey stuff kids love where you basically mix cornstarch and food coloring and water and it’s slimy and slippery and endlessly appealing to kids.) We had run out of cornstarch and Otto felt it his mission to repeatedly check on the status of whether I had refilled our supplies of cornstarch or not. “Mom, have…
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Coming Soon to a Stage Near You
A goose. A maid’s daughter. A Persian man. A Hebrew woman. And soon an ant and a family living in communist Russia. These are the roles that my children have had in their years of stage experience with the Logos Theatre in Taylors. Our family first heard about The Academy of Arts and their theatre quite a few years ago when we saw an advertisement for auditions for their production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Finn auditioned back then and we went through months of rehearsals and held our breath and wondered what the final result would actually look like. It looked like magic.…
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Upon Turning 44
The sheets are gritty (even though it had only been a few days since their last wash). It’s the scum and the crud from little kid feet and I can make all the rules about socks in bed and showers before sleep and sleeping in your own bed where no one minds the sandy sheets but it all falls on deaf ears because my bed still possesses a gravitational pull and as much as it causes me discomfort now, it will cause me equal (or more) discomfort when the pull weakens and the kids cuddle less. I feel something rough against my toe. I retrieve it with said toe…
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Five Finds Friday (haircuts & surprises)
This week felt slow and fast. Camp took up all the driving times. The experiences were great for the kids. But I’m sort of glad they’re done. funny I couldn’t find the laundry detergent. It was a recent purchase so I knew it wasn’t empty. Yet. I looked around the laundry room. Questioned the house residents. And then. I found it. It was in the freezer. Obviously. All I had to do was think like a twelve year old boy. (I had asked him to put something in the chest freezer. The chest freezer is beside the washing machine. The laundry detergent usually sits…
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kayak adventure
On Monday my friend Hannah and I checked off an item that has been sitting patiently on my wish list for years. (It was my birthday gift from Hannah — more on birthday later.) Go kayaking at Lake Jocassee. At first we had to wait out a storm on the lake. (We passed the time nicely with good conversation, salt and vinegar chips and dried mango. Nope – I’d never tried dried mango before either.) The storm cost us some floating time, but it was a solid and satisfying experience despite the delay. And Lake Jocassee is just fantastic. Unbelievably clear lake water.…
