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your kryptonite
The conversation came up at dinner tonight. And my new best friend Jen Hatmaker talks about it in her book For the Love. (Which I am listening to on audio and which I am finding more hilarious than an early episode of New Girl. And loads more appropriate.) Everybody has a thing. Maybe you call it your pet peeve. Maybe your kryptonite. What’s your thing? You know – the thing that is so irrational that when you aren’t experiencing it even you can laugh at it but when you are experiencing it – well, everybody better run for cover and not mock you until the storm has passed and maybe…
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All the Words We Don’t Say
In one of the many books I keep stacked beside my bed, the author talks about the value of talking through a problem. The value of naming a sadness. Which has me thinking. About that. About other places I’ve read similar ideas and thoughts. About processing and talking and sharing and explaining and All The Words We Say. The idea being that somehow talking about and giving verbal space for a sadness and a grief gives it both a reality and a vulnerability. A place to heal and a place to pass away from in the direction of moving on. Does that make sense? It really does to me. Why…
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Free Products From ePantry
In my search for ways to generate extra income and to get free stuff that I already love, I came across ePantry. (That’s right – I’m just telling you like it is. I like deals and I like earning a little money and I like bartering for the products we use at home. It’s how I roll.) Whenever you want – at any old time – you can click on the ad banner on the sidebar over there (picture me pointing at it for you right now ) and order up your own supplies from ePantry. When you order anything after clicking through my link, I get referral points and referral…
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Thumbs Up: A Game Review
After I wrote about the game YamSlam that the kids and I love to play, I sent the link to the people at Blue Orange games. They were so kind and they offered to send a game to our family to play and review. Well – who says “no, thank you” to games? Not me! Thumbs Up arrived at our house and finally, after all the holiday hullabaloo, we had a chance to play the game together. The kids had been already playing it on their own (albeit with some invented new add-on rules) but I hadn’t had the chance to play it with them. The directions are quick so…
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Five Finds Friday (eight)
I didn’t do one of these little gems two weeks ago because it was Christmas day – and last Friday found us on another holiday – New Year’s Day. But I think I’ll proceed as planned today. FUNNY My funny seldom comes from the internet. (But I want to laugh more so if you know some internet funny that would crack me up – I’m listening.) But my funny comes a lot from my kids and that’s pretty acceptable to me. Probably my favorite Christmas gift this year was made for me by London. You know how sometimes you just hear some songs wrong and then…
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practice. (unwelcome though it is)
Of course at the very instant that you choose a word, the worlds are going to collide and the earth is going to tremble and you’re going to get a chance to immediately test out your shiny new resolve. Did you really mean what you said? Were those just pretty words all lined up in a tidy row? Maybe I will start tomorrow. Today is just too hard. Let me have life just toss you a couple of curve balls and a few packaged disappointments and a frustrating situation and a hopeless feeling afternoon and some lunch bag left to spoil in the back of your car and a…
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the single word
For the past four years I’ve been following the lead of my friend Alece over at Grit & Glory as she started her One Word 365 community. The idea and the challenge is to pick one word – just one single word – to shape and define and strive toward for your year. That somehow always feels more manageable than a list of resolutions that I know I’ll never keep anyway. I hadn’t chosen my word last year when the bottom dropped out. It seemed as if all the words were being chosen for me in 2015. And I didn’t like any of them. I suppose in a lot…
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All the Stars in the Heavens: A Book Review
It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a lighter fiction work. I find that time and life have a way of changing and shaping the type of reader I am. (Is that true of just me or does anyone else feel that too?) I’ve avoided most mainstream modern fiction this past year because it’s so frequently full of glamorizing the types of sin that are wrecking my current reality and I just can’t bring myself to be entertained by that. On our most recent library trip I stumbled across a name of an author I use to regularly enjoy – Adriana Trigiani. At least a decade has probably passed…
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it’s not a new year’s resolution kind of fix.
I don’t really feel like writing. I didn’t really feel like celebrating this Christmas or this New Year’s. There’s an awful lot I don’t really feel like doing. It’s kind of stacking up around me just as I am inundated with new calendars and fresh resolutions and shared quotes about potential and a clean slate. My toilet is overflowing with – well, toilet water – and that’s no metaphor although it absolutely could be. My sink is overflowing with dirty dishes because the dishwasher is broken and that’s alright of course as people have washed dishes for – like, centuries – without the aid of a square water machine. But…
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….. and coming up
Last night I was lying in bed with Piper, listening to her read a story about Sally and a dog. Next thing you know, I was waking up and the morning had arrived and I had no idea what happened to Sally and her dog or where the night had gone. I guess that happens from time to time, right? It’s the last day of 2015 and I don’t feel like doing one of those reflective blog posts about the past or the year’s highlights or any of that. Maybe on another day. Maybe never. As for the future – well – I don’t know how much I feel about…
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recalling the midnight hour last week
When they are finally all asleep I sort the gifts and stuff the stockings. I wander to the fridge and snag a leftover deviled egg. I sit by the tree and look at its lights. I love its pretty sparkliness. And I’ll love getting it out of the living room as soon as the Christmas bells stop ringing. I place the wrapped books gently at the foot of each sleeping child. I kiss that special spot on the bridge of their noses that I’ve been kissing since birth. Touch their chins and their cheeks. Especially my big kiddos. Because I can’t caress them as much when they are awake these…
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Marley, A Dog Like No Other: A Book Review
The first dog I ever really loved was named Sadie Poe. She was a yellow labrador and she was the most well-trained canine to ever live under our roof. When she passed away after nearly a decade of a long, happy and adored life, I cried. She is buried under a cherry tree in Virginia. We go to the library regularly (Yes, Smandy and I have come to a truce. A truce helped along by the fact that I no longer have toddlers in tow. My library fine issue has not entirely been resolved, however, I suspect it will be a lifelong battle.) and at the library I wander the aisles…
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on the eve of it all.
Last weekend our favorite baby was making his debut stage appearance as the newborn baby Jesus in a children’s Christmas play. Of course we wanted to sit in the audience for that spectacular show. Also, some sweet friends were performing as well so we loaded up our chariot and drove forth across town. The play was everything right about a children’s Christmas performance and the fact that I was expecting something completely different made the evening so much the sweeter and more adorable. Otto sat in my lap and Piper was to my left and I had no young children in the show myself and I wasn’t directing a single…
