Chaos
Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure. - Rumi
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A Snapshot in Words – Can You Picture It?
This is a typical moment in our home. A picture without an image. Kevin and I standing in the bathroom. Yes. The bathroom. Not brushing our teeth or using the facilities – just being in the bathroom, the tiny bathroom, discussing some life matter of importance only to grown ups. Taxes. Insurance. Who needs the car the most tomorrow. We hear hallway commotion and peek out the door. We see: One giant boy riding back and forth in the hall on his little brother’s Batman big wheel. (The Batman big wheel that taught Otto the difference between right and left with its mechanical voice shouting directions. The Batman big…
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Water. My old friend.
Do you know what I take for granted? Running water. Toilets that can flush. Do you know how I know that I take these every day conveniences for granted? Because when my alarm clock beeped this morning and I said good morning to my husband he responded with – “The pipes are frozen. We don’t have any water.” (Yes. We had left water running all night long to attempt to prevent this very situation.) It was 7 o’clock and the temperature was resting at 9 degrees. (Outside, of course. Inside, it was a pleasant 60 degrees.) Kevin left for an early morning breakfast meeting. I pondered my options. From the…
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Thursday. From My House to Yours.
This morning I woke up and I thought, “I just don’t want to teach school today.” It’s certainly not the first time that I’ve thought that. Or thought similarly on other topics. “I just don’t want to do laundry/cook meals/get out of bed/wash my hair.” And most mornings when I feel that way, I just do what I have to do anyway. Like the rest of the world. I don’t want to make dinner, but I do it anyway. I don’t want to get out of bed but I do anyway. (Sometimes I let the laundry and the hair washing slide.) But today, over a breakfast of Whatever Any Kid…
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this week at Wildwood …..
Friday afternoon brought new kittens. And these kittens brought about a new haircut for Mosely. How would newborn kittens require a haircut for a kid? Well. If you’re nine and it’s dark outside and you want to check out the welfare and health of the brand spankin’ new kittens and you think it would be harsh to shine a bright light on a passel of newborn tinies then maybe you would decide to use a candle. And if you’re Mosely you might think a birthday candle would be sufficient light for such an adventure. You’d be wrong, of course. Wrong on so many levels. And in your error and in…
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better days.
Monday was not a stellar homeschool day. I had a schedule. (I’ve always had a schedule, but this year I have a planner – a spiral bound, blank squares across a page – kind of planner.) And I stuck to the schedule. At all cost. We didn’t finish school until four p.m. I made certain every tiny pencil-drawn square on my planner was checked off. We accomplished every goal – lofty or minute – which I had previously planned. All math. All writing. All science. All narrations. And no one in our house had a really great day. When I was vacuuming up the school room from the mess my…
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no. yes.
Silence. Crickets chirping. Blank screen. It’s been a while, my friends. It’s been a while. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with me and words of late. I’m tired. A touch of writer’s block, I suppose. Big things to think about – no time to process. We finally have two cars again. That’s nice. Kevin is moving his office upstairs at our house. The kids were asking what we would do with Riley’s room. I guess we know. Put an office in it for now. And it’s already October, for goodness sake. Also, there’s been this: Busy. Out and out preoccupied . Edited a novel in exchange for actual…
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hello. my name is Lacey and this has been my day.
This is a true story. We interrupt the planned post of wedding hoopla and gobs of cute pictures to share the following true-life events …… (You cannot make this stuff up.) Monday Night 11:30 p.m. – Arrive home, road weary and sleepy. Children crawl into bed dirty and wearing the clothes they’ve been sporting all day. 11:40 p.m. – London reminds Kevin that her throat feels a little funny. He flashes a light in her mouth and sees the tell-tale signs of white streaks on her tonsils. Tuesday Morning 8:00 a.m. – Drive Kevin into work because we are still a one-car family for now. (Mentally plan to shower when…
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gasp!
That’s the sound of me, surfacing. Coming up for air. I like full days and fun adventure. But I don’t care for hectic at breakneck paces. And for some reason, the past four or five days have felt more breakneck pace than anything else. Filled with the good – visits from faithful college buddies turned lifelong friends, unexpected fireworks in the yard to celebrate life and evenings and friendships, school days with good attitudes, digging of earth to plant something, community with friends. Sprinkled with the frustrating – relentless rain for four days, soggy earth, two pregnant cats, heavy traffic while running endless errands, seriously broken dryer, struggles with obedience…
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not responsible.
This week a friend of mine said she was going to stop reading my blog posts. Because they’ve been making her cry recently. I can’t say it’s been my goal to make any reader cry. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t somehow a tiny bit pleased that my words could strike a chord that would potentially make someone cry. I think I consider it a compliment. Not because I love tears. (Although you know I joined the ranks of The Criers not that long ago.) But because I love the power of words. The power of story. And it’s infinitely flattering to even hope my words occasionally…
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give me some rainy day ideas, cheer ups, elixirs of any variety.
It’s the rain. The forced indoors time. The dreary cold that settles in my brain and in my frozen feet. I send the kids out for rain walks anyway. And they come back dripping and muddy and traipsing the dampness through the entire downstairs and I know that’s all my fault. The clothes pile up by the dryer because for every one load we can wash – it takes two cycles through the defunct dryer to complete. I’m blaming the rain. (Just like Milli Vanilli.) (Rainy days make me reference old lame singing duos.) But it’s probably more than just that. It’s the car – in the shop again. Again,…
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This post doesn’t feature any photos. I expect you’ll be grateful.
I was so prepared for back to school last Sunday night. Before 8 p.m. I entered the living room all aglow with giddiness. I floated across the old scuffed wooden floors and sat beside Kevin. “I feel really good,” I told him. He tilted his head toward my direction with a quizzical look on his face. “About what?” “About everything. My entire week’s lessons are planned. I have printed out a few different schedules for our new school term. I think the kids are all on track. The house is tidy. I feel organized and prepared. And it’s early evening.” I sighed the sigh of contentment. And the sigh of…
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Three strikes, you’re out
Why does it seem like when you are cooking food for yourself or your family, everything seems to turn out just fine, but when you decide to cook that exact same item to give away as a gift – it’s a total failure? I mean, I was just a mess in the kitchen tonight. I didn’t take any pictures because I don’t want anyone to see how bad it all was. Let’s see ….. Granola bars that I have now made so often we consider it a regular at our house. The honey all sank to the bottom, somehow dropping down in a way it never has before. They taste…
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and knowing is half the battle
We’re having a trash problem over here lately. Trash services are available where we live. It’s just that standard trash procedure generally requires one to pull trash cans to the end of their driveway. And our driveway seems like a pretty far walk to drag a full (or empty) trash can or two weekly. So we figured if we were already loading up trash to the driveway’s end, we might as well take it somewhere for free. So we just haven’t contacted the service and made the leap yet. And we’ve been living at our house for almost a year now. In Virginia there were dumpsters on every road. For…