HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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Five Finds Friday (beach version – of course)
This week went by with a splash and a wave. (Get it?) FUNNY Why is it that asking a bunch of kids to pose for a photo feels like punishment to them? FASHIONABLE Beach towns love their outlet malls. We hopped on over to one for a few wild minutes and saw this cute dress hanging there. I think the print is sweet with a sort of old-fashioned feel to it. I think it looks like a version I’ve owned and loved in the past too – but with a few small changes – mainly in the length of the sleeves. Also…
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when I didn’t make a big deal about a rite of passage
When I was about eleven years old, I decided that I was desperate to get my ears pierced. My mom said, “Let’s ask your dad.” My dad said, “When you are sixteen.” Now, more than ever, as I journey along in my parenting adventure, I see that as he was a father of three sons and one daughter, I am completely confident that at the moment of my question my father determined the age of sixteen in a more arbitrary manner than I have planned next week’s menu. I think Dad just picked an age. Any age. As long as it was not whatever age I currently was. Sixteen? Sure,…
Keep Reading . . .
the weekend ramble (1. a mouse 2. a race 3. a whine)
try this at home
share the good
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Five Finds Friday (cute pottery and cute earrings and cute sons but not cute grocery bills)
A couple of sleepless nights, a week full of appointments and a little leaf catching on a windy fall day – that’s the quick highlights reel of this week I think. FUNNY The boys had a camp out last weekend. It was cold where they camped. (Really cold.) Their socks got wet. They shivered in their sleeping bags and stayed constantly dirty for three days. They loved it. Otto, who had won the bottle rocket contest at the pervious year’s camp out, set out with a rickety bottle rocket co-built by his brother to defend his championship title. He came back proud of his second or…
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black hole. a quiet black hole.
Lately I’ve been writing in the date wrong on papers. Penciling in 2017 instead of 2016 as if I’ve fallen into some unique-only-to-me black hole and I am currently the singular resident of The Future. Let me tell you then, guys. It looks about the same as the present. I’ve got no clever words to write tonight and I probably should get a little smoother and more adept at writing my blog posts ahead of time instead of my usual day-in-the-life kind of style where I write my thoughts down each evening. It’s been a FULL day but I haven’t photographed my life very well in the past several weeks.…
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Doodle Your Day: A Timberdoodle Review
I have always been a fan of journals and notebooks that encourage you to record some memory or some thought daily. I like them for me, personally. And – I like them for the kids as students. Sometimes I create journal topics myself for the kids to use in their school work and some years I know it will be much more productive to purchase an already planned journal for the kids to use. This Timberdoodle journal – Doodle Your Day – was given to my family in exchange for a review and it is one of the items in the box that the kids almost fought over. In…
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the divorce diaries – entry 6
I am living in this tension between two cultures – two ideas of right and wrong and normal and broken. This wild and difficult juxtaposition between the views of divorce. On the one hand, you have: The Huffington Post Facebook Television Movies Your second cousin And all of these sources tackle the topic of divorce in about the exact same way: This is just the way it is. It’s normal. Cut out the toxic people in your life. You deserve to be happy. You need to take care of you first. Be your own boss. Follow your heart. The kids will be fine. Monogamy is outdated. Kids are resilient.…
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this should not be unusual.
A few weeks ago I did the strangest thing. My phone’s battery died. We were out of town. I had accidentally left the phone’s charger beside the sofa at home. I watched the red light on my phone come on. Watched the warning words pop on the screen that predicted the battery’s soon-to-be demise. None of that sounds strange yet, right? No. Of course not. Here is what is strange. I let the phone stay dead. Like, I did not care. See you later cell phone. Toss it off the cliff or something. Who actually cares? And so, it was the best day. The most freeing night. I read a novel…
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Five Finds Friday (a town takeover & a blanket no-one needs (or do they?) & a tv show that I just love too much)
I think I missed last Friday’s post here. What was I doing instead? I can’t even remember. But here we are again – all Fridaying it up, you know. FUNNY This has been a pretty funny week. And I am ALL for that. I’m giving it the thumbs up and everything. The kids have created a town in the woods. They’ve organized it precisely, divided it equitably, have a currency and a governing agency that has been voted into existence. They aren’t messing around, guys. They adore having friends over and building new residences and hospitals and stores. (By the way, coal currency is king in…
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the week is off and running – and so are my words
Last weekend we headed into the mountains with some friends to hike and camp and enjoy autumn. Our plans shifted rather dramatically, but they turned out to be lovely just the same. I’m in love with these gorgeous sunny days although my mind cannot comprehend that October is half way complete and we are barreling right into the holiday season that vanishes always with the blink of an eye. But enough about that, I can’t even bear the thoughts of that already. Sunday nights always feel a little like staring down the barrel of a gun. I guess you can tell by now that this…
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today was a good day.
Some days are brighter than other days. And on those days you collect all that good sunshine for the days that you know won’t be as bright. For the days you know you’ll need to tap back into to silence the voices telling you about all that you’re missing and about what your kids are missing. Days when the sun is hidden behind the clouds and the clouds are all gray. But today. Today was not a gray day. It was full of color and blue skies and crisp air and warm scones and cold cider. Filled up with memorized poems and pretty words and nature walks…
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The Post Where I Review LuLaRoe and Succumb to Posting Photos of Myself
Alright you guys. In some ways this post is kind of like other posts I have written before. I’ve had a fun opportunity to receive some clothing in exchange for writing a review about said clothing. (In all honesty – here’s how it worked: I purchased a few of these clothes myself. I was given a few of these clothes to try. So. Both. You know. I like to be straightforward so hopefully you can trust my opinion. Which is, just, you know, an opinion, after all. But here it is nonetheless.) So – the “writing my opinions about stuff” post is routine enough for me – right? But…
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Five Finds Friday (the coolest ride & how much are boots worth?)
Hello Friday. How have you been? FUNNY Bergen is obsessed with jeeps. I can’t explain it. He just loves them. States their existence every time we drive by one. “Jeep,” the announcement from the backseat on every car ride. This week our friends have a loaner Jeep from their brother and they were so generous as to offer my boys a ride. (Seriously – I really do have wonderful friends.) Bergen was ecstatic. Over the top. When he returned from his excursion he entered the door grandly. And as if waiting to deliver his line, he dramatically announced, “I feel sorry for every person…
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wonder.
“Mom,” she calls my name. Bedtime closing in. “Would you like to sit outside with me and Otto and look at the stars? We can wrap up in blankets.” (Because the temperature was nearly 60 degrees after all.) I would like to do that. I can think of nothing better to do right now, as a matter of fact. And I tell her so. We turn out the porch lights. Quietly walk to the steps. Take our places in silence and then we look up. We look at the stars. At Orion’s Belt and twinkling planes. I love any piece and part of nature that reminds me that I am small…
