HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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because I can.
I don’t have anything to say. That’s why I thought I’d sit down to type a blog post. Whole 30 has not made me unreasonably hungry. The food is plentiful and tasty. What it has made me is tired of chopping and cutting and cleaning up afterwards. It has made me tired of planning. And tired of thinking ahead about food. It all feels annoying. Apparently, according to the websites and stuff, I am at the “Kill Everything” phase of this 30 day process. What? That’s crazy talk. I feel fine. I don’t want to kill anything. Except that obnoxiously loud flying insect that somehow dared to enter my…
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The Weekend Ramble (no real plans made me very happy)
It was the first weekend in ages where we our schedule wasn’t stacked high with demands and places to be and things that must be accomplished. What had been on the schedule was cancelled and it was such a free space of time that my kids actually had the opportunity to be bored. I was thrilled. I helped a dear friend plan her family’s upcoming adventure to Boston and Philadelphia and if you have any suggestions for great places to eat or must see ice cream shops in either of those two cities – share them in the comments and I’ll be sure she sees them. I don’t really…
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five finds friday (meadowlark and a ryder photo and let’s talk whole 30)
It’s been a while – hasn’t it? I forget when I last did a Five Finds post. I’m going to try. It’s been a great week, but full as ever. I hired an intern for Travelers Rest Here. What a great thing that is going to be! Can you hire an intern for regular life too? Are there interns out there who want to do my laundry or plan my meals? Interns that specialize in home pedicures or lesson plans? Interns that run by the bank and pick up books at the library and mow the grass? Interns who manage my texts in a timely fashion for me? …
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today at the burrow.
Today my two adorable grandkids and their pretty momma stopped over for a little visit. I taught a history lesson that included the story of both the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower and suddenly our lunch conversation had all of us wanting to plan a trip to New York City. (Maybe Paris next year – right?) I drove Piper to get her cute little pixie haircut that she asks for about once a year. There were math lessons and one box unpacked from the recesses of the barn. (It was clothing – a missing box of girls clothing for which Mosley rejoiced.) I planned for…
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Autumn Grove Giveaway. (And I threw in some photos of the boys room too!)
*** This post is sponsored by Grove Collaborative. The opinions and thoughts are absolutely my own. *** I can’t just spend my entire days hanging up pictures on the wall or making my bed or unpacking more boxes from the barn. Mama’s got stuff to do, y’all. (That’s funnier if you hear me say it in person because it’s a ridiculous reference to some old video from ages ago that made the kids and I laugh.) But for real. I have stuff to do. So. Much. Stuff. Like everyone else in the world, of course. We’ve all got stuff to do. And some of those things I…
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moving. miracles. and our house has a name.
We’re beginning to enter our new normal. I think. We’re buckling down to school this week and our Meadowlark Collective begins this week and there is not a single unpacked box inside of our home. Woah now. Hold on. Keep the admiration to a minimum. It’s semantics here, folks. That’s all I’m using. True. There is not currently one single unpacked box inside of our house. And for that – all the rejoicing. It feels more regular. Not chaotic. But there are gobs and piles of furniture and unpacked boxes inside our barn here. (Barn? Shed? Garage? I’ve debated all the names. I think our friends called it a…
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homeowner life.
This evening I decided to put on the pajama pants earlier than normal. Maybe at like 7 pm. It was fantastic. Then I realized that it was trash day and I walked the very easy path to take the trash down the driveway. (Although I loved our old driveway – a long gravel road, I do not miss walking/pulling/dragging the stink trash can down the drive.) Once the trash can was settled in its place, I wandered over to the mailbox and checked the mail. Amazon had left me a small package. I tucked the package under my arm and stood in my driveway. I noticed some weeds in…
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I’m still here. But in a new house.
Last week felt as if it lasted about a month. We started moving in to our new home on Monday and finished moving in on Sunday. I’ve been going to bed so utterly exhausted that I hardly know my own name. I’ve got loads of stories to tell and photos to share but frankly, I’m still entering this next week pretty worn down and facing the return to school and a birthday for an eleven year old and a whole lotta boxes left to unpack. Not to mention the work load and emails that I have almost entirely ignored for a week. But let’s not talk about those right…
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Money Matters: Kids & Allowances
It’s one of the ways my dad was most proactive in his parenting. Financial education. Money. Dolla’ bills. My dad hired us kids to do work on the family dairy farm. He paid us well and he expected quality work done right. Even as little kids there were paying jobs to be had. Picking up rocks out of the fields – one nickel per rock. We were hired to bale hay, stack hay, cut hay, rake hay. (Hay was a big deal.) We herded cows – and one particularly odd task I recall my younger brother and I earning a small income for was watching the herd of cows…
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10.
We started back to school last week. Maybe the week before. Did I take any darling photos of children standing beside chalkboard signs announcing their grade? No. We didn’t move into our new home yet. But we will. Soon. Until then we are living amongst the boxes and I can’t find the baking soda for biscuits because I guess I packed it already and yet there is still artwork on the walls so don’t ask me how I prioritize what to pack and what to leave out. Y’all. Air mattresses were not created for long term sleeping arrangements. As London says, “Mom, I think it’s just right that you…
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Five Finds Friday: unicorn mascots and repairs and glazed carrots
Summer was far too short. I know it’s not officially over, but at our house – it feels over. We had a soft start to school this week and I know the timing feels off, what with trying to move soon too, but we also love being finished with school in May and we all highly value the six weeks on, one week off system we’ve got going on currently so we know that in order to accomplish those things, we’ve got to kick it into gear now. funny It was so funny last week to take London and some of her friends on a…
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it’s alright . . .
Because we are downsizing, GET RID OF IT has been a mantra I have been embracing. Or, you know, at least trying to embrace. And I’ve given away, sold and tossed so very very many bits of this and that. As I am going through old boxes and high school journals (they’re not going away, so don’t think I’m ditching that goldmine for future novels that I’ll be writing in my “retirement”) I am finding stacks and scads of memories and treasures and trinkets and junk too. It’s reminded me of a lot of truths. Some that taste a little bitter going down, some that remind me…
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last week – a vanishing act
I think I’ve been maintaining this blog for a decade. Ish. That means I had five kids under five and still sat down at a computer routinely. When did I ever have time to write posts when I had so many babies? What was happening? Oh, right, yes – for all their exhaustion, babies do actually sleep. And take naps And lie down where you put them – for a short while anyway. And they go to bed unreasonably early. Shoot – sometimes even at 7 pm. It’s dreamy. In retrospect, of course. Now there’s no one sleeping at my house. Not ever. Do you know when teenagers want…
