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Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Book Review
Perhaps I was pre-disposed to like this book. The author – Joel Salatin – is a Virginia farmer. A good old country boy who attended college in South Carolina but returned home to his Shenandoah Valley roots and his family’s farm. He’s a Southerner with an education, a passion for real food and a vision to show people there is a way to manage land and animals appropriately and with good stewardship. And he loves Jesus. That’s my kind of guy. I waited about two month’s on our library’s interlibrary loan system to get a copy of Folks, This Ain’t Normal in my hands. It’s a popular book and it’s…
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Prairie Primer: Maple Syrup Field Trip
The lesson guide suggested – visit a farm where maple syrup is being tapped. Well. It’s almost ninety degrees outside. In South Carolina. Must try to think of another avenue. I remembered a little store on Main Street in Hendersonville. Vermontage. I’d stopped in before, lured in off the street by a sign that read “maple cotton candy”. Spun sugar. Oh, how I love you. I had no idea spun sugar could be improved upon. Maple syrup. Oh, how I love you. A completely perfect marriage of melt-in-your-mouth gooey-ness and maple syrup sweetness. And so I called the number and asked this question, “Could I bring my children to your…
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and when I haven’t written in days…..
I haven’t typed a blog post in a week I guess. I’ve had a couple rolling around in my brain. Sometimes my thoughts work themselves around in my mind in the blog format. (It’s not really something new. My head operates through Story and The ReTelling. It’s this narrative I’ve had talking to myself since I was a kid. I just assumed it was how everyone’s inner monologue worked.) At any rate. It’s been a week. And the only reason I can really find to come up with is this: I just haven’t felt like writing. As in, shrug my shoulders and curl my lip and say “eh”. It’s funny.…
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Facebook. Instagram. iPhone. What do I do with you?
Have you ever thought of throwing your iPhone right into the ocean? Maybe driving over it with the giant tires in your SUV? Do you think of deleting your Facebook account and cutting the cord to social media in one swift slice? It’s almost cliche now – this love/hate relationship with Instagram and Facebook and email and a tiny touch computer screen we carry in our pockets. When we do struggle with conviction about time spent online versus time spent looking at a real human, we share that via our Facebook status. It’s so ironic. “Ahh. I’m turning off my Facebook page,” we announce. On Facebook. I’m not mocking conviction.…
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happy birthday willow.
“All I want for my birthday is to play dolls with my friends.” I love when wishes are so easily granted. Six is a good age. We invited a few dolls over. And their girls. Lemonade was served in tiny tea cups that once belonged to Piper’s namesake and birthday twin, my mother. London made her famous scones. (They aren’t famous yet actually, but they should be. They’re legitimately delicious.) She even created seven miniature scones for the dolls. With a generous dollop of fresh whipped cream and strawberries and blueberries – the table was set simply but sweetly. A strolling musician named Daddy composed an original spontaneous tune for…
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miss communication.
“You know what?” Willow asked me. “What?” I said back. “I think it’d be sort of fun to lose your independence.” “Okay. Why?” “You’d probably get toys and ice cream and stuff.” “Oh?” “Like Madeline in the hospital?” “Oh. Your appendix.“
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baking. or I am going to miss my kid.
I was in the kitchen. Making oatmeal cream pies for Riley for a surprise going away party. Because that was her last Saturday in the United States for the next ten months. Because I love her. Because she’s my kid and I’m her mom and this is what I do. And maybe it was the oatmeal cream pies. Or the absolute solitude I was experiencing – a rare phenomena at this season of my life. I don’t know. I’m sure it’s everything. I was thinking about brown sugar and oatmeal and wondering if rolled oats were all that different from old-fashioned oats and why it really mattered anyway and suddenly…
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Forty: I Love You.
These forty days of celebrating forty have changed my life. Are changing my life. FORTY days. Forty days of good things. Forty days of waking up with a light heart (even on heavy days) and wondering what good was coming my way. And knowing, knowing, that some good was coming my way. Despite whatever the day might hold – urine on the floor, bad news at work, delays at home, bills to pay – at least at one point during my twenty-four hours on that very day, something good was going to happen. To me. For me. It’s been unbelievable. At once humbling and celebratory and exciting and hopeful and…
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Prairie Primer: Owl Pellets
Here’s what I like so far about The Prairie Primer.. The author’s extensive research and well thought out specific plans make my life easier. In three days of school I’ve been more productive and on track than a week or two of last year’s schedule I think. (Some of that may be because it’s the first week and because I love Laura Ingalls and because I have “bigger” kids this year.) Whatever. I like it. Today my guide said to dissect owl pellets. And so we dissected owl pellets. I ordered mine from Acorn Naturalists. They were surprisingly more disgusting than I remembered from the last go round. We all…
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Prairie Primer: Day Two
“Laura had only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief, but it was a good doll. It was named Susan. It wasn’t Susan’s fault that she was only a corncob.” (Little House in the Big Woods)
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and so the school year has officially begun ….
The internets was overflowing with them yesterday. Cute back to school pictures. Bus rides and classroom doors and lunch boxes and kitchen tables and posters announcing the grades. Monday was our day to start up again too. Four students attending Wildwood this year. Same number as last year. Riley exited stage right and Finnian entered stage left. I like back to school just fine although I can’t seem to explain how summer leapt by this year and my mind still can’t believe one of my own graduated all officially and stuff. This school year I’ve been more excited about beginning than usual though . We are using the Prairie Primer…
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a lovely misery
The juxtaposition of lovely and miserable in this home is hard to ignore. Example One: The outside door of our bedroom. It opens to the porch. In the spring, in the summer, in the fall – it’s glorious. Waking up to a breeze, an old-fashioned lace curtain swaying, green trees, an inviting porch hammock. It’s picturesque. That same door – come winter – doesn’t seal appropriately and causes no end of frigid air to fill our room. Waking up to a breeze of a different nature is so much less inviting. Example Two: Old-fashioned, beautifully detailed fireplaces in three rooms. Lovely wood. Completely unusable fire places that are too pretty to cover…
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Hawkeye.
This boy. Oh. He just has my heart. He starts third grade next week and that just is too old to be true. Too fast. He still wants me to cuddle in bed at night. He creates games with his little brother and isn’t embarrassed to hold Otto’s hand and tell me how cute Otto looks. Inspired by his big sister, he made his first attempt at a Lord of the Rings inspired dish. Lembas bread. It was really good. And this week he asked me if it would be okay if he painted something. I said yes. He asked me to not watch what he was painting. He said…
