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wrapping up before moving on
Goodness. You guys have given me so much material to read and to listen to and to watch. I’m really thankful for all of you readers. That’s not just something nice to type. For real. (Or “for realz” with a “z” if that makes it more convincing. It doesn’t. I know it doesn’t.) I didn’t ask all of those questions about divorce and remarriage because I wanted to hurt anyone’s feelings. And I didn’t ask because I want to get remarried. I asked because I want to understand. I love that there were different views and different thoughts and different stories and yet – AND YET – there…
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two heavies: divorce and remarriage
This will be an unpopular post. These are unpopular ideas. Unpopular thoughts. (Although I care so little about being popular these days. I cared deeply about being popular (or liked, or something) in middle school and high school – although you wouldn’t have known it if you were judging me by the way I dressed. My lemon yellow shorts in the summer. My hot pink plastic eyeglasses. The long johns I wore under my prairie skirts all winter. My horrific hair choices.) You know what? These issues are actually not just unpopular in our culture. These thoughts are deeply unpopular in my own heart and mind. I’ve been reading…
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Five Finds Friday (nothing here except Rod Stewart and rings that might fall off)
Happy Friday everyone. (It’s been a good week – and a long week. But a productive week. And a mostly stay-at-home week which pleases my Stay At Home child immensely.) FUNNY Sometime during an evening of games and soft trash talk and bad jokes, some kid said some thing that made some other kid say “Some guys have all the luck” to which I responded, in a sing-song voice, “Some guys have all the pain. Some guys do nothing but complain.” (Which both ages me, of course, by making a reference to a Rod Stewart song and makes me wonder what on earth else is hidden…
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crisis of identity.
This charming old farm house in which I reside has a small downstairs bathroom with a single rectangle of a mirror above the sink. I don’t know who installed it or how tall they were. I’m guessing taller than me. When I stand, with shoes on, and look into this mirror (the only mirror in the bathroom) and attempt to gaze upon my own face, I get a sort of decent view of my eyes. Just my eyes. If I stand on my tip toes, then I can see my entire face. I have purchased one of those $6 closet door mirrors from IKEA. I thought it might get…
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Ripley’s Gatlinburg Attractions: A Review in Three Parts, Part 1 (The Mirror Maze)
Gatlinburg in the winter is a different sort of town than Gatlinburg in the summer. When we took our recent adventure to the mountain town, we found it sleepy and quiet and that’s exactly the way we liked it. Traffic was minimal (except for the weekend) and the streets were not overcrowded and the restaurants had no wait time. Again – that’s exactly what we love – especially when we are always a party of six (at least) and generally tables for six are not as readily available at peak times. The Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies was hands down our favorite activity of the week, but we had…
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May’s Grove Giveaway
Raising Girls: embracing help through Awaken
sunday matters.
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life: back at it
I’ve tried to go to bed on time for one full week now – is that about right? Or has it been two weeks? It’s going alright I guess. I’m reading more at night and that’s a bonus. I am rereading Hannah Coulter, you know, after seeing Mr. Berry and all. (And I’m going to try to read Bonhoeffer, thanks in large part to a nudging from Maggie.) But I’m writing less for this blog because I’m running out of daylight hours. (I’m also making horrendous mistakes – like accidentally sending out an unfinished blog post draft from a year and a half ago. Good grief, guys –…
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Five Finds Friday (a word you may have to look up to define & a tiny ax)
“… it just seemed as if she were marking time while life rocketed past.” ― Soheir Khashoggi, Nadia’s Song FUNNY There are a lot of homeschool days that don’t shine like stars in the universe. There’s plenty of mundane and must get done and should have done better and how can you not already know this. I don’t feel like writing about those days today though. I’ll keep having to live them, of course, but I just don’t, at this second, care to write about them. Instead, this week at the dining room table, we had a genuinely funny homeschool moment. (And it was sorely needed…
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after hours
Certain hours are just more dangerous than others. Do you know what I mean? I probably shouldn’t read or respond to texts after midnight. My thoughts generally aren’t so clear. But the dangerous part is – that is usually when I think my thoughts are kind of genius thoughts. That’s when I think I’m hilarious, or endlessly clever or capable of solving All The Problems. Is anyone else out there an Imaginary Midnight Superstar? (I’ll have shirts made for us.) And, if so, how do you cope with that early sunrise? _________________________________
Keep Reading . . .
Looking Ahead.
going dark . . .
Five Finds Friday (a song & a rug & senior photos)
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On the Road: Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies
This month we touched a jellyfish, walked underneath a hammer head shark swimming right along above us and stood in awe at the weirdly awesome body of the sea horse dragon. And oh yes, we saw an octopus. I heart aquariums. (I also heart honesty and I’ll do my best to keep you guys informed – so, you should know that this post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the links, I’ll receive compensation.) We spent a week in the Tennessee mountains earlier this month and had the incredible opportunity to visit Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in downtown Gatlinburg and…
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I Believe — Lord, Help My Unbelief
I still look at my arm. I still need to. Nevertheless. I keep forgetting even though it is TATTOOED on my body in a prominent manner. ________________________
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Five Finds Friday (brothers & fedoras & chocolate pie)
Fanfare. Celebrations. High fives and confetti. You made it to Friday, you guys. FUNNY Last week we were fortunate enough to spend a little time in the mountains of Tennessee (and I’ll share some of those stories next week). While we were gone, our kind dog-loving buddies Tom and Erica kept our furry guy Ryder. They genuinely love Ryder and that is seriously such a wonderful gift to our family when Ryder is well cared for when we are away. Ryder went on hikes with them – they sent photos – and he walked the Swamp Rabbit Trail with them and even went out for pizza…
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the language my children speak
I don’t really have a gauge for how to write about my husband leaving our family. Is there a code for what to include and what to leave out? I hate divorce. It’s easy to hate that. Has God used this evil for good in the lives of my children and myself? Absolutely and already. Is divorce good? Absolutely not. The sadness for me personally is a bit removed, a little in the past. I mean, the consequences feel never ending and there is no sentence I could ever write to encompass all of what I would like to say about those feelings and that pain. But the feelings…
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of the nonsensical and rambling variety . . .
Today a possum waddled (strolled?) right up to our literal back door. I watched him. He was disgusting. But his absolute grossness did not stop me from making a science lesson out of the poor rodent look-alike. I’ll spare you the photo since you might be reading this early in the morning – but if you’re desperate to see it you can visit his unique horribleness on Facebook I suppose. (I didn’t spare the photo there, I’m sorry to say.) Also. The photo revealed how weirdly odd my back “porch” area is. Why are there two empty old glass bottles you may ask? Oh – that’s because the kids…
