HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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Manners
“Manners are made up of petty sacrifices.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson It really is the little things. While walking recently with the kids, I found myself just like them – tired, sweaty and sleepy. My arms were already full when Bergen asked me, “Mom, will you please carry my towel?” I took the towel but I didn’t really want to. “Thank you Mommy for carrying my towel,” Bergen said to me. And just like that, the load seemed lighter. I really didn’t mind carrying the extra towel. Because he said “thank you”. Kevin has made it a priority to train our children to be appreciative of the meals I prepare…
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Shuffle
I love the random juxtaposition of the songs that flow from my iPod when it is on the shuffle setting. I’ll be floating along to the sounds of “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley and then suffer whiplash when Amy Ray shouts on about Johnny Rotten. The Cure’s “Pictures of You” takes me back to the old days and then the Carpenters’ “Close to You” comes on to remind me of the even older days. I mean, really – where else but my iPod shuffle world can Dan Tyminski follow the Grateful Dead? I like to imagine all of these musicians lined up in some sort of concert hall, waiting…
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Just What We Needed
You know when you reserve a beach house from looking at photos online, you never really know exactly what you will get. After a day in the car, as soon as our gang pulled in the driveway at our new casa for the week, we all stumbled out of our bursting Suburban and looked for the water. It’s what we came all this way for anyway, right? Walking down the picturesque stroll (per the website’s description) we saw ahead of us the shore and the ocean. Hooray! Upon closer inspection we realized the waves were not exactly crashing onto the sand as we had imagined. Oh and there was land…
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Is She the One?
Growing up on a dairy farm with pesky cows whose bodies demanded a milking twice every day lest they implode (or so I believed), our family was not able to take very many vacations. (That, and the fact that milking cows is not a consistently lucrative lifestyle.) The family outings we did take, however, were memorable and exciting even though the location was a simple one – camping on the Bull Pasture River in Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley. We always stashed our watermelon in the creek, always took a photo by the swinging bridge, always brought inner tubes for floating, always ate pancakes cooked on a propane-powered camp stove.…
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See Ya’ Later
Camp is over. We’ve said goodbye to summer staffers. Now it’s time to say goodbye to you guys. But don’t worry. It’s not forever. Just for a week. We’re headed to the beach and we’re leaving behind the computer and we’re not checking facebook or updating blogs or checking e-mail. Instead, we’ll be checking out each other. We plan to swim and to splash and to explore. To sleep late. To eat crazy prepackaged foods like Pop-tarts and Spaghettio-‘s. We’ll let the kid watch extra movies and we’ll eat out at restaurants like Moon River and the Crab Shack. I hope we see dolphins and turtles and a big lighthouse.…
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14
Happy Anniversary to us!
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Multi-Task Madness
Women are Queen Multi-Taskers. And we have this whole network of women out there who are doing simple things better and faster. So we should collaborate a little more often – quit reinventing the wheel all the time – right? What I am saying is – what do you do that cuts down a few of your chores every day? How do you save time or money or energy or effort in some way that you think maybe everyone else is doing, but we really aren’t? I’ll go first. It’s a little one. And you may already do this. Or do this better. That’s good. But here it is anyway.…
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Some Things
This is just a photo. Of the cutest tiny baby I have seen today. We have been busy. A lovely visit from Papaw and Uncle John. A butterfly class at a children’s museum for London and Mosely – worth the money to hear Mosely talk about a chrysalis. Teaching Riley how to play Risk – and dominating her in the process. Getting a hair cut and highlights – a first time experience for me. Chauffeuring Riley back and forth to tutoring. Chauffeuring Kevin back and forth to Look Up on days the rain has been too hard or the hour too late to be riding his bike on a highway.…
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Normal
Yesterday was just a normal day at the Keigley household. If you consider this normal: 7 something a.m. – In the shower. Riley enters the bathroom. I don’t recall any sound of someone knocking. She’s on the phone with her tutor and wants to know if we can change that morning’s tutoring session to an hour later. I think an hour later is a great idea. 7 something a.m. – I am exiting the shower. Towel wrapped around my body. London sheepishly enters the room holding a used diaper. I smell poop. Naturally, I am suspicious. Apparently London tried to “help” the family cause and attempted to change Finn’s diaper…
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Lunch
I found myself staring at my plate during lunch today. The sight of my meal triggered some memory in me. It wasn’t an exciting meal, but it was a very familiar one. I had a scoop of this macaroni-tuna-egg-salad-type-thing and two slices of banana bread spread with cream cheese. Don’t worry, it doesn’t offend me if that sounds unappetizing to you. I know. It’s kind of a weird meal. I have no name for the type-thing I was eating. I just know it was this concoction that my mom brought out frequently during the summer growing up on our family’s dairy farm. I think maybe she made it up. She…
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These Two . . .
These two little girls can . . . – Make peanut butter toast – Pick out cute clothes for Piper and Otto Fox – Help Bergen put on his favorite footie camouflage pajamas – Change Piper Finn’s diaper (not requested by Mommy mind you, just took their own initiative one day) – Spread cream cheese on a bagel – Take a shower like a grown up – Answer the telephone politely – Read a book to Piper – Load the washing machine – Clean up their own bedrooms – Secretly prepare breakfast in bed for their parents – Fold towels – Unload the dishwasher Truly, these little girls are such…
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By The Numbers
3 – Number of meals I prepared, consumed and cleaned up 5 – Number of small people who were bathed by me 39 – Number of tiny sunflower seed kernels that Mosely spilled when she dropped the container she was holding while trying to illegally climb up onto the counter 16 – Number of ears of corn that were shucked this afternoon 6 – Number of blood curdling screams that Mosely released after falling/scraping her elbow/ being splashed by hot corn cooking water/ being chased by Magnus/ not being able to open the door from the outside when her hands were full of dog food bowls/ expressing her displeasure at…
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Exhibit A
So lately Maggie has been boldly issuing demands and challenges from her blog. She even claimed that her spouse was the most lovable of all spouses and encouraged her pals to make glowing lists about their own husbands’ incredible attributes on their own blogs. The two Sarahs made endearing lists about both of their beloveds. But those girls are newlyweds after all. Instead of a list, and because I like to buck the system for the mere sake of bucking the system, I offer you instead . . . a photograph. Let’s call it Exhibit A. This photograph features a little girl’s Barbie doll wearing a pair of home-created sandals.…
