HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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the dangers of dating as a single mom (or as a single dad, but you know – I write what I know)
There are so many directions this post could take. But I’m going to just head in one for today. Let’s talk about the drought problem. You know, when you have running water at your house, you don’t think about running water – right? When everything is as it should be and you take a shower in the morning, do you find yourself very grateful for that water? Eh. Maybe if you’re a really grateful kind of human – sure. But likely, you don’t think about it at all. You don’t praise God for tap water when you fill your coffee pot. You don’t lift up praise hands when the toilet…
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five finds friday (funny kids, garish sofas, filthy rocks, twinkling lights)
But seriously – Friday AGAIN? This week there were birthday parties, cross country conditioning, teenage tears, education a-happening, some genuine love expressed by some of my kids toward one another, meals of cereal, meals of hot dogs, meals of beef stew and meals of chicken and broccoli. There was a tad of single parent drama and a touch of divorced parent drama but we all survived and made it to the other side, if there is another side. You know. Life was lived. The sun was shining more than the sky was raining and I had next to no work meetings and I rearranged some furniture and tried to…
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Frankincense – a little educating (but not by me)
It’s been more than I year since I signed up with Young Living and started down a road of trying to proactively learn more about essential oils. Truthfully, in most ways I have done next to nothing to use Young Living as a way to earn money. But I have been building up my own collection, selling to a few friends, and learning more and more at the snail’s pace at which I learn anything new these days. And that’s a-okay with me. (I mean, hey – I’m not opposed to alternative revenue streams, right Dave Ramsey? But, I also know my own limitations on time and energy during this…
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sometimes the story is better than the reality
Is this only true for me? Those times/days/situations where something happens. In real life. In a regular day. And right away you know you’re going to turn it into a story. You know you’re going to share it later – for me, maybe on this blog – or, with a friend over tea or on a Voxer message or at your next dinner together. You know it’ll make a funny tale. You know you’ll revisit the story and it will take on a life of its own and you’ll be able to laugh about it and see it in a different light. It’s THAT kind of story. But the…
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five finds friday (a long winded run down of yesterday and white chicken chili and student success)
I want to humor myself here and lay out the schedule of what Thursday was like. thank you. Prior to 9 am – Wake up. Shower. Make certain kids are all up. Print out papers needed for teaching school. Oversee lunches packed. Create a crockpot dinner. Maybe eat breakfast and see if kids do the same. Make sure kids do chores like feed pets, take them out to the bathroom, get them resettled for their day while we’re gone. Wonder why we have so many pets. 9:30 to 12 – Teach a literature and writing class to junior high and high school students. Kipling. Wordsworth. Spring poetry. Compare and contrast…
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parenting, continued
Last week (or something like that) I was talking with a couple of friends who are moms of many daughters. I suggested we start a club – The Moms of Many Daughters Club. (MMD – sounds alright?) We need a support group y’all. Not that raising any number of children is easy. Not that raising boys is easy. But I’m just saying there’s a special kind of challenge to raising multiple teenage girls. At the same time. We texted back and forth here and there for the better part of an afternoon. We’ve been sending a few texts in between. When we need a virtual high five or an…
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what day is it? a day late weekend ramble. I guess.
You know how on vacation you forget what day it is? Or how, during Christmas break, you can’t recall which day is a week day and which day is a weekend? Sometimes I feel like that every day. My life certainly has routine and rhythm – a heavy and sobering dose of it really – but still, I forget what day I’m on many many times. I like my life. But I’m also tired. That’s okay. I drop the ball some days. On big projects. On follow through. On words I should have said and calls I should have returned. On opportunities with my children. Some days I hit the…
Keep Reading . . .
motivation. can you locate it?
and there’s a video
Hey Clay: A Timberdoodle Review
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five finds friday (silly and sweet)
Because I want to write stuff you want to read, I’ve got to ask – do you still like these Five Finds posts? (I really do want to know.) It’s been a good week – one that had SUNSHINE in it. You guys had such fun responses to my dating post and I love you for it. My dad is out of the country currently, visiting my brother who lives in New Zealand. One of my other brothers went with him. Who, as a matter of fact, has never left the country, so it’s a big deal. I’m excited for them. Likely, that means Dad has no time to…
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notes on dating
A Disclaimer: It’s a straight up comedy of errors that my life would even have me at a point where such a post could be written by me. I am 45 years old. The majority of my dating experiences occurred in the early 1990s and half of that was monitored by my conservative parents. Back then, my plan for dating was simple. (If you’d even classify it as a plan.) I was looking for a fun adventure, a buddy or I was looking for a boyfriend that would lead to a marriage that would lead to a family that would lead to forever. In high school I had three…
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Five Finds Friday (a lot of Otto and a little about a pipe bursting, also a bit about grilled cheese sandwiches)
Sort of makes my stomach hurt when the calendar says it is already well into MARCH. No. Just – no. funny Otto has not yet learned to appreciate the gift of being clean. The allure of being freshly showered pulls no sway with him. If I didn’t remind him to shower, frankly, he never would. More to the point, if it wasn’t required, it wouldn’t happen. So after a recent such forced cleanse, I commented, “Man, you look so clean.” To which Otto looked up from what he was doing and said, “er”. “What?” I asked. “Er,” he repeated. “I’m not clean. But I am clean-ER than I was.”…
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books that work their own magic.
This post is about a book. But it’s also about parenting and homeschooling and personality differences and what we can never fully understand and about getting out of the way of ourselves as often as we are able and letting beauty and truth and ideas educate whenever we remember to step back and shut up already. I’m a talker. An explainer. I give too many details. To my kids.To you readers.To the lady behind me in the grocery aisle. And I often am dangerously close to doing the same to good literature. Superimposing MY words on top of already beautifully crafted other words. (This is an especially difficult habit to…
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weekend ramble (from morning Clemson adventure to evening fancy adventure)
This weekend was full of beautiful moments. Otto was invited to join our friend Brent and his son on an adventure to Clemson University. They got up super early (the rest of us resting luxuriously in our beds) and headed to the stadium. I know less than nothing about college football. However, I have somehow raised a son who thinks that football is fantastic and I am super grateful when other people can help feed that passion. Because as much as I adore my youngest son, I find it hard to continually answer the same stream of questioning. “Mom, who is your favorite player?” “Who is your favorite player…
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what whole 30 taught me
It was before Christmas when I tried my first (and thus far my only) attempt at Whole 30. If you’re unfamiliar with Whole 30, you can learn more about it on the Whole 30 website. Basically it’s just a program that helps you to manage what good foods go in your body and what bad foods stay out. It’s a 30 day plan to kick sugar and processed foods out of your diet and to break food habits you might need help overcoming. Why did I try Whole 30? I don’t have a neat and tidy answer. I had been thinking about it off and on for several years. I’ve…
