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A Heart’s Home: Lost Valley Ranch
Of course it’s not fair. And as a new friend at the ranch last week told me, “My mom always said – Fair is a place where pigs get ribbons.” Her mom is right. I recognize that it is privilege and good fortune (and the divine plan of God) that has landed me and five kids at a four diamond luxury working ranch for the past five summers. The word that perhaps best describes our awareness of this is grateful. Just endlessly grateful. Deep and immense gratitude. Our regularly scheduled week in May was cancelled. When the ranch was allowed to open in June, we assumed that we just missed…
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leaving colorado.
Leaving an Eden is always terrible. Leaving an Eden via a cramped car with five over tired and sad kids AND spending about one bazillion hours in Kansas and staying at subpar hotels across the middle states of the U.S. is the actual worst. I’d say I’m not complaining. But I am definitely complaining. I’m sitting in some hotel room in Tennessee because I just could not drive one more mile. I ordered pizza and had it delivered to our room and the kids are watching whatever cable television has to offer these days. Tomorrow or the next day (or the next) I’ll type pretty words. I’ll be at my…
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is this summer?
It’s hard to know exactly what season we’re in right now. It kind of feels like summer – because we wrapped up school and we’re staying up late and we’re sleeping in. But also, the last two months we were kind of doing that anyway, just while simultaneously sort of finishing school. And the weather hasn’t felt really summer-ish, although, let me add how grateful I am for that. I am not friends with heat and humidity and seeing it delay in its arrival makes me relieved. Also – for the past four years, on this exact week we are usually trotting and loping all through the Pike National Forest…
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Songs for Singin’: A Long Winded Okee Dokee Brothers Review & Tribute
Turns out, when I search my own past blog posts for the Okee Dokee Brothers, that these fellas we don’t actually know are woven quite heavily in and out of the fabric of our lives over the past several years. Pretty certain it was my friend Jo who first told us about two guys who sang fun songs and had made a video and it was available on Netflix (maybe that’s right?) and we should watch it. That first introduction was when Justin and Joe spent a couple months on the Mississippi River filming a documentary and making an album entitled Can You Canoe? We were hooked immediately. The kids…
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five finds friday (otto’s birthday, boots I can’t wear & chili)
Today my youngest son turns ELEVEN. I’m almost entirely out of the “kids eat free” stage of parenting. In fact, I’d say I’m pretty heavily into the “kids eat expensively” stage of parenting. (Maybe that’s EVERY stage of parenting.) Anyway, he’s an easy fella to celebrate and I’m looking forward to celebrating his Harry Potter birthday. (That’s what the kids are calling it, since that fictional fellow’s 11th birthday is when all of his adventures began.) Let’s hope Otto doesn’t attend a secret wizarding school and run into a lot of problems that keep his life almost constantly at risk. funny The other day I walked into the living room.…
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back to the grind . . .
Although I never stopped working during the two months of stay at home orders, work sure looked different. Life sure looked different. And it’s not as if it’s back to normal at all yet, that’s certainly true. But this week, where I live, restaurants are opening and businesses are turning their closed signs to open and I am getting texts from clients and setting up meetings. I have to admit, it feels weird. The smallest amount of human interaction makes me tired. No way could I jump into the former pace of stacking (gasp!) three meetings back to back. Who have I become? I’ve had hints all along that I…
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Bear Grylls Survival Camp: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. _________________________________ Since they watched the first show with this guy, they’ve been hooked. My boys love Bear Grylls. They’ve watched lots of iterations of his show and they’ve read a handful of books by this guy. (They even share the animal name in common with him. Although I don’t think Bear is his given name, my boys’ actual middle names are Fox and Hawkeye. Well, I guess technically Hawkeye…
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Five Finds Friday (a new look, a story that stands the test of time, a t-shirt London designed)
It looks a little different around here – right? It might take a little getting used to but hopefully we’ll all be able to navigate it just fine. Actually, the real hope is that it will be better. Only time will tell. But I’m kind of proud of myself. Because I am NOT a technologically savvy person even though I run a business that is primarily online. The backend of websites is always a scary place to me. But, through both desperation and just plain old desire to get this accomplished, I gave it my best go. And so, without further chitter chatter – let’s get on to this Friday…
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When Buying Local Is So Cute
Hi. My name is Lacey and I love earrings. This isn’t new information. I just love cute earrings. And lately, I love cute leather earrings – the bigger, the better. I also love supporting local businesses owned by friends, mothers, fathers. Businesses where the art happens at the kitchen table or in an office turned sewing room. You name it. Just places were real life is happening. My friend Jen creates darling leather earrings – all sorts of styles and shapes. And they’re lovely. They’re light – so you can wear giant ones and not feel them at all. And, if you aren’t into the excessively large earrings, she also…
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story: listen for it
We’re all telling the same story – aren’t we? Isn’t it the only one that matters? The story of ourselves, sure. The particulars might belong to us. The shading and the scent, the hue and the timing. But it’s never been just our story. It is all of history’s story – all of humanity. The ones before. The ones right now. The ones after. It’s the same story that happened to me more than ten years ago in the mountains of North Carolina in a week long writing class. I was relatively new at my mothering gig – four kids, three under the age of four. My first time leaving…
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five finds friday (fried dough, there is no fashion to be found, the woods are still magical)
But for real – is it actually Friday again? What did I even do this week? I can’t answer that. Although, obviously, I’m the only one who actually CAN answer that. Except I can’t. Not because I’m all about the secrets. It’s just because I don’t even know what I did this week. I don’t even know how Friday came so quickly. Yes. That is how it is going. funny Otto is funny. (Even when he really isn’t.) The way he celebrates finishing his math this year. The way he takes his role as uncle so seriously. The sandwiches he makes. Also, in the running for funny this week are…
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five finds friday (there’s beautiful bags and blast from the past soda and kind students)
Hello Friday, my old friend. I don’t want to talk about any words that start with Q or C. There were some gloriously pleasant spring days this week. I’m grateful we’re not jumping directly into scorching days. I think South Carolina often does that so I am thankful that there’s been a tiny delay in that this April. funny This week there was a meteor shower and the kids and I stayed outside lying on the trampoline in the dark for a long time, watching the night sky and joking around. London kept taking terrible photos with the flash and without the flash. The results were pretty amusing. fashionable I’ve…
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some tiny epiphanies via my quarantine education
Even if we didn’t try in the least, we’ve all learned something during this last month of stay at home, quarantine, shutdown and forced stillness. We’ve seen what was true about ourselves and what we love and what we miss. Even if we kept our eyes shut to this sort of self awareness, it was bound to leak in through some crevice or slit. I certainly learned a few things and here’s what some of them are in no regular order: My life is full without ANY outside influences. Literally, even when my calendar is an actual blank slate, it is not an actual blank slate. Parenting is a full…
