-
Eight Years of Otto Fox
The only Keigley baby who can claim the title “unexpected”. The true baby of the family. He still can’t pronounce the letter “r” and none of us are certain if he has ever actually slept in any variation of his own bed. Otto Fox Wilder McDonald. Named after Otto Frank and Laura Ingalls Wilder and his grandmother’s family and a wild animal. Today he turns eight. Eight years since I gave birth to my only child born in the state of South Carolina. Eight years since I held a fresh-to-this-painful-and-beautiful-world newborn who shares my last name and my whole heart and who cost me extra weight and…
-
five finds friday. (the kitten is cute and the brother makes me laugh and nothing impressive to eat)
What’s the point of even talking about the warp speed of my life right now? No – really. Someone tell me what’s the point?? (This is an unsustainable pace. Of which I will speak more about later. Or, better yet, of which I will begin to take action against. Soon.) Until that time, it’s Friday ya’ll. funny This is a long story. But I think it’s worth the read. (Obviously, I think this. I took the time to type it all out.) I made a terrible mistake. I told one of my brothers the wrong date for our family reunion. I told him the end date…
-
On Why I Can’t Wait To Drive 3,000 Miles Next Week
Part of the reason why I cannot wait for our departure on this Beyond Wildwood adventure is because the last month or so has found me and mine shockingly busy. Unusually so. Schedule stacked sort of busy. The kind of busy I have spent the majority of my parenting years actively avoiding and orchestrating our family’s life in an opposite direction. I know some of this shift is natural with the rising ages of my children. Also, with the sheer number of children in my house. (Not that the number seems big to me.) Not even every child currently has an activity or a sport or a hobby they…
-
our number & our table
Perspective is a kooky thing. Even though I have six children and people told me that we looked like a preschool when all of the kids were little and we’d go anywhere – grocery store, zoo, gas station – I never thought of us as being a huge family. And then I’d see some mom in a restaurant wth a herd of children around her and I’d catch myself counting their heads and when I reached four or five or six, I’d think – man, that woman looks like she has a lot of kids. Oh wait. That’s how I look to other people too. Because it was my…
-
What a Weekend: Making My Survivor Dreams Come True
My weekend stole Monday too. It was such a full and crowded and busy and fun and exhausting weekend that it just creeped its way right into the first day of the week and I couldn’t tell Monday from Saturday somehow. (Also, is creeped a word? I’m not going to bother finding out.) Friday night and Saturday I spent being a bit of a nerd. A TV show nerd. Or fan. Or whatever word is the word I should use here. (Someone tell me the words I should be using so I sound cooler than I actually am.) Former Survivor castaways were in town for a fundraiser…
-
Five Finds Friday (the wrong jar, adorable art and a swimsuit mistake)
The weather this week has been so HAPPY and that helps everything. It’s Friday and we only have one more week of school and that is also very HAPPY. funny 1. This week London paid her sister to do her share of the lawn mowing because London prefers being indoors, clean, unsweaty. She gave her actual cash, plus a Lego. 2. Also. We had a picnic after church on Sunday and I grabbed a few snack items from our house and tossed them in a bag. See these jars? They were both in the fridge. Here is what is in them. One holds chocolate…
-
sort of poetry
I need to rest and I need to be awake. I need to write but my words are coming slow. It’s Too Much and it’s Never Enough. This is a Terrifyingly Hard and Beautiful Life and it only makes sense about one third of the time. In the mornings, after the long nights of Not Enough Sleep, what eventually propels me from the lying prone position in my bed to the feet sliding over the side, hit the floor, is not hope so much as gravity. Not prospect of good but responsibility and The Only Next Thing To Do. And if my heart feels a…
-
just a day – in a few words and in a few pictures
Mid week and the grass is already high even though we mowed less than five days ago but the trash is at the curb despite the fact that our trash can has officially “lost” both of its wheels. It’s a race to departure day for our Beyond Wildwood adventure and the question looming of “Will I get all the tasks completed before we leave?” feels certain to be a resounding NO but I tidied up the front porch today (finally) and we are once again taking the majority of our meals together in its paint peeling glory and sunshine. My baby started his first practice of team sports and…
-
Grove Collaborative Giveaway: All the Good Stuff
It’s spring! And, for some people – certain kinds of people, you know – spring means deep cleaning and airing out the bedding. I’m not really one of those people. But, living in a home with a half dozen humans, a dog and a new kitten (apparently) and a host of friends here and there, sometimes I have to sort of clean things up around here. And if I am going to clean, I want to halfway enjoy the process and for me – that means using products that smell good and look pretty. (Trust me, pleasing aromas and cute bottles go a long way toward motivating me.) The…
-
sunday reflections . . .
Once a year our church holds an outdoor service in May. It’s loud and sometimes it’s hot (although today it was chilly by turns) and the field is slam packed full of people on blankets and in camping chairs and you have to arrive early if you’d like a chance to park in the actual parking lot. And every year I am so glad I attend this particular service. People get baptized periodically all throughout the year at church but at this service there is usually a larger number of baptisms. For a person who really likes words, I don’t know why but I always get a bit tongue-tied…
-
Five Finds (potty humor & ill fitting t-shirts & irresistible creatures)
It’s Friday! And it’s oddly cold in SC – but I am not complaining because it gives me an excuse to pull out the flannel shirt for another day. This weekend promises to be as pleasant and as full as this week has been and that’s worth a high five or two. funny Piper came home from theatre camp last month or so singing a new version of the “My Little Pony” theme song. It’s ridiculous and loaded with potty humor and of course, the occupants of my home found it endlessly amusing. (They taught it to their friends. It’s possible that their friends’ mother thought…
-
When Work Is Play and Play Is Work
This has been a week full of fun work events. First, there was our morning with Leon Logothetis from The Kindness Diaries. When I had my phone interview with Leon, at the end of our interview, right before hanging up and doing my embarrassing-to-my-daughter cheer, I told the English chap that I only had one last question. “Great,” he says. “Let’s hear it.” And then I asked, “Well, we have some friends here in our town who embody kindness, the sort of kindness that you travel across the world and promote. And these friends own a restaurant. They sell crepes. Leon, can my kids and I…
-
How To Afford Adventure (When You Don’t Have a Fat Income)
There was a time, a very tiny sliver of a window of time, after college and before the onslaught of adoptions and births, that I was living in a two income, two full time employed people, home. Two incomes is a pretty sweet deal. Especially when the two incomes were both fair and generous and the debt ratio was nearly nil and the tiny home we were renting was quite the deal and our expenses were oh-so-low. During that time we could easily afford to travel – and we sometimes did. That was the year we made it to my only trip leaving the country (just barely) – Cancun,…
