HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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. . . sometimes
Sometimes you start school in July and it’s a really good day. Everyone gets their math done (because first week math lessons are all glorious confidence-building reviews) and your classic procrastinator takes pride in the fact that his list is actually entirely completed before lunch and you wonder if this is a new leaf or just a lucky first day break. Sometimes your dog’s hair gets cut too short and he looks like a big-headed fuzzy noodle somehow. You have trouble making direct eye contact with him because you feel his shame radiating. The groomer assures you that in less than a month all of that shaggy perfection will…
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A Love Poem About Birthdays, But Mostly About London Scout
This month I attended a really spectacular workshop on teaching poetry. Incredibly valuable and really inspiring actually. As attendees and students, we were walked through how we could teach our students poetry and we practiced all the games/ideas/talking points to help lead the kids to positive and meaningful experiences with poetry. (I hope to take this new knowledge and do something good with it this year.) In one exercise we ended up writing our own poem based on a famous poem by one of two poets. I chose Carl Sandburg, because he’s my guy you know. I was influenced by the birthday of London – thirteen. Such a significant…
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Five Finds Friday (a couple of Emma’s photos & an incredible dinner)
FUNNY Today at a birthday gathering for London – who hits THIRTEEN – she was blowing out her candles when a younger friend announced with enthusiasm, “London – now you can watch PG-13 movies!” FASHIONABLE Isn’t this dress Piper is wearing just too cute? We found it at Land’s End on clearance. Also – these last two shots are from some that Emma took while we were at the farm. Oh goodness, you guys. I’ll share the rest soon. They are just SO sweet. FLAVORFUL For my upcoming birthday I bought myself a little present. Because that’s what I do. Amazon Prime was going all…
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. . . being left
The Heavy is actually not so much the literal parenting alone, although that has a weight indeed. But it is more the colossal burden of being the Left Behind. Different than the Scarlet A worn on the chest. In our culture that red letter carries so little weight. So little shame. It feels more difficult to wear the letters that spell Unlovable. Not Worth Saving. It’s not so much Being Alone as it is being Left Alone. ______________________________
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Helping Your Friends Through Sad Stuff: A Primer (post one)
If you are breathing and you have even one singular human friend, then you have watched that friend suffer through something. A disappointing conversation. Job loss. The death of a parent. Drug abuse. Rejection from a family member. Physical injury. Heartache. Infertility. Divorce. Cancer. It is an oppressively long list of sorrows that mar the human condition. And we have all been on all sides of the list. The victims. The perpetrators. The onlookers. Until we’ve lived through all sides of sorrow, we don’t always know how to handle the pain and the suffering of the people we love. Even when we have lived through all sides of sorrow,…
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six steps behind . . .
Crisis makes you weird. A different version of you. Like – kind of a foggy you. A you about six steps behind the regular you. A you who forgets things you never forgot before. And then, sometimes, when the crisis has ended, you sort of end up a mix of the you you once were and the you that crisis helped shape you to be. I’m not sure I am making sense. I over schedule lots of days now. I feel as if frequently life is happening to me and I am saying “yes” to this or “yes” to that and then suddenly the “yeses” collide and I furrow…
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Five Finds Friday (photo booths gone wrong, Filipino food & fabulous people)
FUNNY The boys and I had a little afternoon excitement recently on a belated birthday date together at a local fun park. You know – one of those places where you ride go carts and step into the batting cages and play gigantic video games. I don’t mind admitting that I’m a sucker for photo booths. There was a giant one there and the boys were kind enough to oblige me since I had just treated them to lunch and batting cages and go carts and super intense air hockey games and some kind of gigantic fruit ninja video ridiculousness. The photo booth was sort of weird and…
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junior high invasion
I’m plotting and charting the course for school this year – because it’s already that time again. I loved our first year’s attempt at year round school. (And we never did really land on a better name for this type of schooling – although “balanced” sounds so nice and optimistic and ideal.) I made my planner’s cover page and snapped a photo of it and shared it on all the social medias like we do and a friend pointed out a little fact that made me drop my pen and tear out clumps of my hair. Do you see what she saw? It’s right there — in the numbers.…
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I hate divorce
In our family we don’t toss the word “hate” around. Partially because it’s such a strong word and it just sounds unpleasant coming from a child’s lips. Partially because when you use a word too much it loses its potency and you forget how harsh of a word “hate” can really be. The kids and I try to create a culture in our home where “hate” is unspoken. (Hopefully) you won’t hear the kids (or me) saying, “I hate tomatoes”, “I hate when we are running late”, “I hate the color mauve”, “I hate the sounds of fingernails being clipped”. So understand the strength of my words when I…
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July Fourth Shenanigans
If you know me, you know that my favorite holiday is July Fourth. It’s the family and it’s the food. It’s the farm and the fun. It’s being together and it’s tradition and it’s years stacked on years of celebrating a summer day and lives and family and friends. July Fourth on the Farm is the best. It was Ryder’s first July Fourth. That dog legitimately loves the farm. (And spends his days racing to the pond and collecting briars in his thick coat and harboring dirt and mud all over his legs and just in general being a happy go lucky mess. The food is plentiful at the…
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Five Finds Friday (cheesy dip & Otto’s song)
FUNNY Otto told me that he wrote a song for me. I was pretty thrilled of course. Until I heard the lyrics. Here’s his song: You and me together. You and me together. You and me together forever. Or. Until I get married. FASHIONABLE You remember Jo, right? From such places as My Friendship and A Fellow Homeschooler. Her etsy shop has a new logo — designed by Emma (how fun when worlds collide) — and phoebeflock has a couple of really cool new items in stock. They’re all beautiful – the ombre zipper pouch and the throw blanket with wool embroidery. But I currently am loving the library tote…
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adjusting
Here’s one thing that’s weird about being the only parent at home. Deciding an emergency contact person. It’s kind of suddenly an arbitrary decision, when before it was a brainless decision. The form has a blank for “emergency contact” – insert spouse’s name and information. No thought required. But now. Now, it’s like — hmm, maybe today I’ll pick Friend A, maybe tomorrow Friend B. Which friend is more likely to answer her phone if a stranger calls? Which friend could leave what she’s doing to help me out in an emergency? And of course I know that if any of these friends received That Phone Call, they would…
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Five Finds Friday: (30) (meatloaf you want to eat & sweet london)
As I am typing this I am extra sleepy – so, you know – I’m blaming all errors on that. FUNNY Yeah. I’m late to all things trendy and on time. But this bit called Carpool Karaoke is hilarious to me and this one time that the host picks up Chris Martin is very amusing. (You know you’re funny if you can make a great show by just riding in cars and singing with people.) FASHIONABLE I bought a pair of shorts for the first time in actual years. For real. First time in years. I still can’t decide if I really like them but I’m giving it a…
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