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Five Finds Friday (26)
FUNNY I was looking for a short bit of entertainment late one evening on Ye Olde Netflix. I didn’t want to watch Fixer Upper and be reminded that I want to redecorate or to wish I lived in Waco, Texas where apparently every street corner is overflowing with homes that you can buy for $42,000 and turn them into homes that house glorious farm house sinks, shiplap on every wall and mason jars on the mantles. I’ve watched all the Call the Midwife episodes. I have no stomach for cop dramas or court room shows. I had to stop watching Friday Night Lights when they let Matt Sorenson make too…
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unconditional love.
Unconditional love. We promise it. As if we could control it or offer it as a gift – all tidy and sweet in a box, wrapped up in brown paper and a jute bow. Unconditional love. I heard it in lovely vows at a recent wedding. An impossible ideal. And as I mature and stand witness to the world aging beneath my feet I keep looking and I keep trying but I keep finding myself empty-handed and a regular failure at this task that shouts at me and whispers to me through every movie and novel and relationship. Unconditional. I don’t even have a path to that height. And maybe, maybe,…
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South Carolina State Museum: Field Trip Review
Nearby South Carolina capital Columbia boasts several museums and family-friendly sites like the Riverbanks Zoo to draw the Greenville crowds south. The South Carolina State Museum is situated right in Columbia and the trip from Greenville over to Columbia is easy to navigate and the museum is a breeze to locate. Our family recently made the drive, along with a handful of other Upstate families, to spend a day exploring the museum and its many exhibits. As a homeschooling family in the middle of a year long study of Roman history, our primary draw to the museum on this trip was their featured exhibit – Julius Caesar: Roman Military Might and Machines.…
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ramble on.
I have a couple of posts lined up in the “drafts” section but I just don’t quite feel like pushing the old “publish” button on them yet. (And by a “couple” I mean 123 drafts actually. Not all of them worth sharing publicly. Some just needing a little rewording here and there.) But nothing seems to fit what I feel like writing about so that must mean it’s time for a rambling post instead of a tidy post. (I think it’s probably because tidy posts require more brain power and I am low on that this evening. I need to recruit some day time hours to write and then…
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please tell the therapist it was the ice cream’s fault
Oh you guys it’s just SO hard to be a grown up sometimes – is it not? The floor is always dirty … like grit crunching under your feet dirty. And sure I have five kids at home and one dog, but there used to be eight of us here and triple the number of dogs and it feels like the crud level has just surpassed any sort of acceptable limit and how on earth can a person control it all every single day? It’s always after midnight when I feel most compelled to eat copious amounts of crunchy food or homemade ice cream (or both) and it’s always bright…
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Five Finds Friday (25) (handmade rings & dancing music)
Why, hello there Friday. Fancy meeting you here again. FUNNY That yard sale fiasco was last weekend. I mean, it was alright. On the positive side, we did clear out a lot of unnecessary items from our home and this house could certainly use a bit of purging as I tend to live with five pint-sized hoarders. But the funny thing is, Piper and her friend Matthew hosted a lemonade stand and bake stand that day. Hands down and nowhere close, they made far more money peddling over sweetened lemonade and homemade cookies than I did selling my household possessions. FASHIONABLE When we hit the trail with a group a…
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invite them over.
I almost didn’t write this post. Because it seems …. I don’t know. Something I don’t want it to seem. Maybe it will sound as if I have my act together. Because I know that in many many many ways, I certainly do not. All of us have our lists. You know – our skill sets and our weaknesses. Our pros and cons. We might make delicious strawberry jam but we somehow cook the chewiest beef stew ever. (That problem’s mine, you guys.) We might plan well but execute poorly. (Another one of mine.) Maybe our finger nails are lovely and well manicured but our toenails better stay hidden in socks and…
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when Mother’s Day is messy
In the world of blogging and platforms and building your tribe (and whatever other words we have created post Windows 95), word on the street says you should write about whatever is “trending”. Time your posts to be about approaching holidays and topics that are on point and subjects being covered in the news and in mainstream media. Write about what people are talking about. Eh. Sometimes that lands in my lap. I mean, at Christmas I probably had some Christmas posts. I’m sure occasionally I talk about something that someone “important” somewhere is talking about too. I guess. Generally I just write about what I write about – you…
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would you do it all over again?
Would you do it all over again? It’s the kind of question your brain asks itself at 2:26 in the morning after you’ve watched an unrealistic romantic comedy and the screen has gone black and the volume has gone mute and the only sound you hear is the shaking and whirring of the uneven ceiling fan. Would you do it all over again? It’s the sort of impossible question that barely deserves a response but there’s this glimmer and sliver of your heart that feels compelled to think it through. No one is really asking. You know you’re only talking to yourself. But your self is still kinda curious and…
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holding on with both hands
I am in danger of running out of words to describe how genuinely FUN it is to be the mom of these kids. I’m reminded of a visit to the farm in recent months. A morning walk to the pond to “fish” with my two boys. The entire walk down we chatted about worms and books and mountains and deer tracks and the beauty of mornings and the various shades of green nature can produce. While they fished, I read a book. I overheard their quiet enthusiasm. Their exchange about lure choices and Otto’s reverence for the manner in which the water ripples after a stiff breeze. And I was aware…
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Five Finds Friday (24) (playing dangerously & a shortcake recipe)
The Fridays – they just keep coming so fast, don’t you know? FUNNY As he rushes past me through the dining room Otto shouts in proclamation — “TRUTH! Never run with scissors.” I stop what I am doing and ask, “Otto. Are you running with scissors?” A quick pause of his rapid foot movement. “Yes.” FASHIONABLE I know I have shared something from title nine before but their clothing is just so fun and functional and I wouldn’t mind owning almost any of it. Most of their skirts have shorts sewn into the base of them and I love that as I prefer wearing skirts all summer instead of wearing…
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what lies ahead: adventure and the connection between the new ads and our family
Do you remember that time our family spent a year reading all of the Little House on the Prairie books? And how, at the end of that year, we loaded up the kids and drove north and then west and then some more west and then south and then east and made a big sloppy loop back to our home? It was a good good year loaded and piled with sweet and lasting memories and it’s lodged squarely and safely inside my heart. The next year we read through the Narnia series. (Which proved to be timely and profound and emotionally perfect for our hearts that year.) This year we…
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echoes of other things
Last weekend I’m driving down the road with my dad riding shotgun. (I can remember switching roles like that for the first time. Fifteen and eager to impress and anxious to receive legal governmental permission for what my dad had been allowing me to do with farm trucks since I was twelve years old. Driving a car on the road.) Five kids are in the back. Every seat is occupied. Grandpa is telling a story to the kids and introducing them to his version of classic Country & Western music in the form of Chris LeDoux. He’s got the song “A Five Dollar Fine for Whining” blaring and he’s making that…
