HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
-
Five Finds Friday (it used to be a quarter and strong backs)
Whew. It has been a full – but also a really good – week. I want to watch a movie Friday night. What’s something great that I’ll love? I want to watch it at home. I want it to be slightly meaningful but not an all out drama – less Still Alice and more Walter Mitty. I’d love to laugh and I don’t mind crying but I don’t want a romance that only glorifies lust and unfaithfulness, although a love story would not be a terrible choice. Hmm. I think I probably won’t be finding that perfect film. My expectations might be a little too high. But – anything…
-
and another post of the remains of the day
Today I ran a lot of errands. Back and forth in the car. Counseling. Library. Bank. Taxes. Vet. Art Class. It probably wasn’t that much, but it felt like a lot. And yet somehow I never made it by a store to purchase much needed toilet paper. Are we the only family that runs out of toilet paper unexpectedly? Friends came to our rescue, thank goodness. For real. Thank goodness. I also taught school and managed a website. And feed humans. I was reminded of how I could not possibly maintain this new business without the aid of many talented friends. (And you guys. Truly. You get things done.…
-
when you talk to me on the street, IF you talk to me on the street
It’s happened just enough times to feel like a “thing”. Just enough times to be both still surprising but also …. something else. It’s a novelty really. I’m away from home. At an event of any sort. Someone walks up to me, a stranger. And says they know me from reading the blog. (I’m always in my hometown, guys – not like in some other state. I’m not that well read.) Whenever this happens, it feels like I’m being secretly recorded for an episode of Punked or Candid Camera – two shows that by their mere mention age me instantly. (Just like the initials DVR. I used those initials in…
-
a game of sorts and a day of sorts
I’m two steps behind myself. (I’m like Bergen Hawkeye in this picture – a sort of blur.) I’m fiercely fighting getting sick. I’ve pretty much told myself, “No. You do not have the time to allow that to happen.” And so I am applying and diffusing oils as if I am true believer and I am gargling salt water and drinking tea overflowing with honey and downing multiple glasses of grape juice and drinking tons of water and trying to go to bed on time and swallowing whatever elderberry/echinacea/grapefruit seed oil/vitamin D/you name it fruit or capital letter vitamin is in the cabinet. I think it’s mostly…
Keep Reading . . .
just recounting a day . . .
epiphany: the order of things
Should I Stop Homeschooling?
-
Think of the extra time I would have if I did not have to . . .
grocery shop, shower, sleep, eat. I guess basically I am saying I wish I was a robot. ______________________________
-
Five Finds Friday (why I screamed & cute tassels)
This week has felt unusually speedy because Mosely and I have been gone for two days of it – belated birthday adventuring. I’ll share more about that but this morning I am up early (for me) and typing and catching up on emails and feeling the weight of business ownership and the drag of fighting off a cold or whatnot all week because – I tell you what – ain’t nobody got time to stop for that. Also, the state of the laundry in this house is atrocious. We’re down to using beach towels and I won’t even comment on the unacceptably low number of clean undergarments. But –…
-
never and always . . . words on parenting
In one of their songs, the Wood Brothers sing a lyric that says, “Sometimes I feel like I’m never and always alone.” In some ways, I think that’s the anthem of motherhood, particularly for the mother of young children. You’re never actually alone. Fingertips are reaching under the door of the bathroom, for the love. And yet the early years of motherhood can be some of the loneliest years of a mom’s life. You remain unconvinced that anyone else really understands how hard it is to begin (and to lose) a battle with a toddler or to negotiate snack time or to change eighty bazillion diapers or to read…
-
after the theatre, over the weekend
Sometimes on Sunday evenings when I sit down to write a blog post I have high aspirations of coming out strong and delivering some meaningful words. But by the time I finish tucking the kids in and telling each child what we will be eating for every single meal the next day (the members of my household are very food-centric currently) and getting our house ready for the week ahead and then finally sit down, I’m all out of clever and meaningful. Tonight I popped myself a bowl of popcorn, prepared myself a cup of vanilla tea and pretended like my evening plans of school prep and meal prep…
-
Five Finds Friday (some photos & what Otto thinks about fruit cups)
This week has been full. But you already know that. And here we are again —- Friday! FUNNY First, from a former “funny” entry, I’ve had such a good time hearing your thoughts and comments about my brother Danny’s fishing video. My framily member Maggie said her two year old son is addicted to watching Danny catch that big one. He has a new video up here and he’ll probably have a few more this week. He got a little distracted this week from fishing videos because he became a GRANDPA! What? How can the majority of my siblings and I be grandparents already?? Now, on…
-
the state of my fingernails and this one TV show and capital letter B Busy
You guys, this week has been Busy. (I signified the amount of busy by using the capital B at the beginning of the word busy. That’s how you know the week has been full.) I should be doing a half dozen other things right now. Like all that laundry. Who has been wearing so many clothes this week, for the love? This week a large portion of my children are participating in a week long theatre camp. It’s great. They’re loving it. I’m finding it educational and fun and beneficial for them. And every day we have to rise early to get a portion of school work finished at…
-
Five Finds Friday (a homemade hamburger bun and a novel thrice read)
It’s been one of those weeks that has been both filled and empty. Both speedy and long. And now it’s over. (This week, I mean.) FUNNY You can have two funnies this week. Buy one get one free. The Lego Batman movie. It was indeed rather hilarious – even to a non-cartoon fan such as myself. And the second funny — In our small group this week there was a neat activity where everyone had a piece of paper with their name on it. The paper was passed around and everyone had a chance to write encouraging words or a sweet sentiment for that person on their…
-
Ripley’s Gatlinburg Attractions: A Review in Three Parts, Part 2 (The 5D Moving Theatre)
I’m including the same intro and review before and after each of these three reviews. You can read our family’s Mirror Maze Review here. _________________ Gatlinburg in the winter is a different sort of town than Gatlinburg in the summer. When we took our recent adventure to the mountain town, we found it sleepy and quiet and that’s exactly the way we liked it. Traffic was minimal (except for the weekend) and the streets were not overcrowded and the restaurants had no wait time. Again – that’s exactly what we love – especially when we are always a party of six (at least) and generally tables for six are…
-
what bok choy can do . . .
Bok Choy. Until a few weeks ago I don’t think I had ever heard of it. London and I took a cooking class together and it was one of the foods we learned to prepare. It’s leafy (kind of) and green and we learned to prepare it simply by basically wilting it with olive oil and salt over heat. We served it up alongside our Chinese meal of potstickers and meatballs at our class. Following our class I’ve been seeing bok choy everywhere. I picked up some last week when we reinvented our Chinese meal at home with everyone and Piper and Otto were in charge of the “wilting”.…
