HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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Five Finds Friday (chicken pot pie with the best crust & chivalry is still alive)
Blink. Blink. Actually – compared to last week – the one filled with sickness and such – this week was dreamy. Lots of really good school days (good by MY standards, not the kids’ standards, because we got so much accomplished) and lovely fall weather. I give this week a hearty thumbs up. But good week or bad week, it’s pretty much over already and it’s Friday time again. FUNNY Scrolling through my photos I came across this picture, which London had altered for me without my knowledge. It really made me laugh. Say what you want about middle schoolers – an awful…
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this weekend. in the store. when I embarrassed my own children. almost.
A seismic shift occurred in my parenting world recently. Sometimes you sit in a mode of parenting for so long that you are convinced it will last forever. I still sometimes struggle to believe that my diaper days are over. It was like an entire DECADE you guys, for the love. There are no longer meltdowns if my bag contains zero snacks. Sippy cups with their cartoon faces are not floating around the floorboards of my car. I’ve got moodiness and razors and wrestling battles and room turf wars now. It is, indeed, a different world. This weekend though I received a new little glimpse into exactly…
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the next new normal
Night has become All Tricky again. (It’s ever-shifting, this Grieving. The Transitioning. The One Day You Are Surprised By What You Thought Was Already Conquered.) In most ways, it’s helpful that it’s been a gradual process, with This and That appearing Here and There. I couldn’t have carried all the weight at one time. Piece by piece was suffocating enough. The quiet after midnight. The knowing I should be asleep but the unable to will it to happen. I’m always just wanting to find something to do until I am so tired that I just crash into bed. The Lying Still Alone In The Dark is not my favorite…
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good morning mistakes.
Have you ever awakened and stretched and planned to love the day only to look over at the clock and see that it is actually an hour and half past when you thought you had set your alarm? That’s today. So my first short list of to-do (write blog post, spend time quietly alone this morning on the porch, shower) is going to be cut short. My current goal now? Don’t let my late start negatively influence the rest of my day. Wish me luck. ______________________________
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Five Finds Friday (running on empty & a grey t-shirt)
In a way these weekly routine posts just make my days feel like they are in fast forward. But whatever. It’s Friday again. FUNNY You know – this one doesn’t rank up there as Funniest Week I’ve Ever Lived. (What would that week look like? I want to know.) But do you know who is funny? Jim Gaffigan. Jim Gaffigan is funny. And pretty much mostly he’s clean. Even better. So go listen to Jim Gaffigan if you want to laugh. That’s all. No link even. I think you know how to use the internet by now anyway. FASHIONABLE I’m cool with the fact…
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. . . when vomit drew me closer to Jesus
When I say Otto was sick this week, I mean the poor little guy was for reals sick. He counted each time he threw up. I didn’t realize he was keeping track. There he was, little silver bowl in hand, emptying his stomach contents. “Nine,” he stated. Nine times. It wiped him out. It wiped me out. And it took my sheets out too. But whatever. London was sick all night. Otto started in early early morning after I had stolen a few hours of rest. While cleaning up Otto I heard footsteps racing across the upstairs hallway. Bergen was joining the sick ranks. If you’re counting that is…
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we are all in this together – let’s be kind
You know what’s hard? I mean, extremely difficult, without cut and dried answers? Parenting. It’s like a choose your own adventure book with new endings and twists being added each time you set the book down for a short break. It’s just so complicated. Worthy of your efforts? Without question. But hard. So ridiculously hard. It’s the kind of hard that makes you want to cuss, cry, rant, hug your own momma and daddy, pull your hair out, ask for help from strangers on the street, pretend you’ve got it all figured out, believe your own junk will ruin your children, find a time machine, hide in the bathroom. That kind…
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just the lovely remains of a weekend well spent
It’s only been like a matter of DAYS since I’ve last typed a blog post – right? Good grief we’ve crammed a lot of activity into those days somehow. Part unintentionally, part on purpose. Friday the kids and I attended the North Carolina Mountain State Fair. I’ve wanted to attend this shindig for years after seeing it annually advertised and this year I just decided we would go for it. (It helped that on Friday the entrance fee was completely waived for students and their teachers. I have students. I’m a teacher. I can afford free.) There was the Midway (not at all free) and its weird rides, its…
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( sighhhhhhhh )
Some moments just seem to stack right up on my shoulders in a seemingly preplanned effort to defeat me and make me feel small. The five hours spent push mowing in the sun on a Saturday to stand on the front porch tonight and be overwhelmed at the shrubs that have completely overtaken my front porch. Taller than two of me and I know that what I cannot do is keep up. I want a house in the country. Two stories. Wrap around front porch. No main road visible. The tree lined driveway and the fence-lined property and the plants and the giant oaks and the weeping willows and…
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Kids in the Kitchen: You Can Do It!
My kids spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, helping prepare our family’s meals or whipping up something they imagined or read about or watched. Partially because I need their help, partially because I want them to know how to cook for themselves, partially because I’d like to cook less often myself, partially because they actually enjoy it and partially because I think it’s really important for them to learn about food – how to create it, where it comes from, ways not to waste it, etc. etc. etc. I don’t remember a time when kids weren’t underfoot and around in the kitchen since their…
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What The Lizard Did
He changed colors right in their hands. Brown, dirty looking. He jumped from my right Chuck Taylor to my left. Caught immediately in his escape, he stopped being brown. Just stopped being the one color and started being another color. The mysteries of nature I cannot begin to comprehend. _______________________________
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Five Finds Friday (an applesauce recipe, a Kenny Rogers reference, an inadequate list)
FUNNY Our kitchen cabinets currently look ….. kind of out of control. I had several of the kids practice their times tables by writing them in chalk on the chalkboard cabinet doors. There are three sets of the threes times tables and the numbers scratched wildly everywhere are making me feel a little unstable. I should probably erase them tonight. FASHIONABLE All that rearranging and resorting and window seat making sent me searching for fun pillows. How cute is this one? I love fun throw pillows. But they can get expensive. There are lots of really cute ones available on Amazon for under…
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a post in which I pretend we are chatting in person
My hair is curly wavy messy, but after my brilliant stylist and friend Brittani gives it a cut she likes to blow dry it straight and it’s so shiny and different that it’s a game I play to see how many days I can leave it that way before I am forced to wash it. Am I the only one that plays that game? We’ve lived in this house for about five years I think and today the laundry room light bulb blew out for the first time. It was tricky to get the globe off to get to the light. I think it required the help of four…
