HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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why I smile for pictures now. (and why you should too.)
When I look back over pictures of our family life, I find that my face does not show up in photographs nearly as often as the kids. And while that’s okay at some level, it’s not okay on another level. Obviously there will be more pictures of kids growing up than of mom growing old. But I should appear in some of our family life – shouldn’t I? See. I have an incredibly difficult time finding actual photographic evidence of my own mother’s existence. Like – there’s Christmas photos of messy-haired Lacey and goofy-grinning brothers around the Christmas tree. Photos of Douglas riding a horse sporting his giant mini…
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Yam Slam: A Game Review
It seems that lots of my favorite games are created by a company called Blue Orange. I don’t know who those guys are but I guess I like what they do. I should tell them I guess. But – first – I’ll just tell you. Yam Slam. This little game has been on the shelf for a while. On a girls day last month, we gathered a few supplies and left the house. (And by a few supplies, lately for the girls, that means loads of yarn and Warriors novels.) We stopped at a tea shop. Side note: Why aren’t there more of these? Tea shops for people like me who do…
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Above the Waterfall: A Book Review
Back in the old days of Virginia living, I attended a conference where I listened to my favorite Appalachian writers. Lee Smith. Sharyn McCrumb. Then I found myself in a room listening to a new-to-me writer. Ron Rash. And I liked him right away. He was a South Carolina man then but his words were pure home to me. Heavy on the Wendell Berry side with the land as a character in its own right. I think that was at least twelve, maybe more, years ago. I’ve read all of his novels – One Foot in Eden, Saints in the River, The World Made Straight, The Cove, Serena. (And I typed…
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december comes in with a twinkle
You guys. I am tired. But I want to stay up late and sit in my living room with all the twinkly lights and The Quiet because it is just the coziest at Christmas. Today we cut our Christmas tree down from a field and put it back up in our house adorned with memories and ornaments from all the days we’ve spent living together as a family – and even the days I spent living together with the family I was born into. Little Lacey-handmade ornaments brushing shoulders with little Keiglet-made ornaments is pretty heavy on the nostalgia side of holidays. The ten-year-old sage I live with sighed as…
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dear singing son ….
Dear Wilde Fox of an Otto, I held your hand while falling asleep in bed beside you. My left hand in your right hand. It was neither comfortable nor convenient. Criss crossed and upside down (because you prefer the right thumb to suck at night). But I never let go because I didn’t want to. My son. I carried you piggy back on the return walk from the marina. It was neither necessary nor easy. You are now nearly fifty pounds of heavy and your dirty shoes were brushing against my clean jeans. But you asked for a ride and you offered kisses as payments and I had no desire…
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giving thanks.
Allow me to give thanks for the weekend of Thanksgiving: A cabin on a lake with my brother and my sister-in-law and my nephews and my father and my sister-in-law’s family as well. Seemingly endless bags of homemade peanut butter fudge and peppermint patties. Loads and lots and tons of fishing time for my two fishing-crazed sons. A game of giant Boggle. Learning how to play Texas Hold-Em. (But not learning how to win Texas Hold-Em.) Fabulous meals at every turn. Sleeping in and lazy days of chit chat and games and whatever we felt like doing. Mountain air and crisp walks. A nightly fire on the deck. The annual…
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Five Finds Friday (four.)
FUNNY Looking forward to the delicious treats that are being prepped for Thanksgiving, Otto had a unique (and admittedly a tiny bit bizarre) response. When he saw a tray full of homemade peppermint patties, he exclaimed, “That makes me so happy I’m going to toot!” FASHIONABLE I mean, I don’t want to just keep endlessly talking about all the fashion over at Noonday so I’ll spread the love around. About ten or twelve years ago I purchased a lot of my clothing (and clothing for children) from Old Navy. And then their style, for kids in particular, got kind of weird and I stopped purchasing primarily from them for a…
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i’ve got you covered.
Travel weary and ready for lunch, my straggly gang and I waited in the line at Chick-fil-A. Four hours of driving behind us. Three hours of driving in front of us. An irritated older gentleman pushed right around us to reach the cashier asking who was next. His exagerated sighs told me he was probably a lot more concerned about his chicken sandwich with Polynesian sauce than I was so I ignored his line cutting. Turns out our cashier was a little less than speedy and that was alright, because we order a little less than speedy too. Another customer was to our left following Irritated Older Gentleman before all…
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listen.
We were walking down a street. London asked me, “Mom – did you see that sign back there?” I hadn’t, so she explained to me what the sign had said. “Mom. It was kind of cool. It said – No God. No peace. Know God. Know peace. I like that. Get it – no and know? I think that’s true – do you?” And you know what? Thoughts are funny things. My immediate thought was to think about how I’ve seen that little phrase written down dozens of times. I’ve read it before. So much that it feels cliche and church bulletin-ish. Maybe I even thought about making fun of…
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just for now . . .
I’ll be writing more words soon. But – tonight I am sleepy. It’s like November gets put into overdrive to get prepped for December and I just want to celebrate Thanksgiving and let Christmas start after that. (Sure. I know there are those amongst us who love Christmas – early and loud and all red and green before November even reaches the half way point. I am not one of those people.) We’ve been on a little field trip of sorts with sweet family and it’s time to crank up the regular routine of school again and I’ve got some of this and some of that to share from our…
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Five Finds Friday. (three)
FUNNY Is this funny? When you hear a child calling you from upstairs with this phrase, “Mom – is broken glass upstairs a bad thing?” Yeah. I think I’m filing that under the wrong category here. FASHONABLE I mean, it would be silly of me to not take this opportunity to point out to you these fashionable Noonday (made in Rwanda) bags. Naturally, they aren’t an Achilles, but they are made for different purposes than my pal is. Actually – I’m thinking his name will no longer be Achilles. Which is perfectly fine with me as long as we can still take long walks together and he can carry all of…
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let your kids do hard things.
I am finding that it is so good to carefully place your kids in situations where something difficult is asked of them. (Certainly life does does that for all of us in giant ways – death of grandparents and loved ones, death of family pets, divorce, moving, friendships failing, broken relationships, change of plans, disappointments and more.) But I’m talking about smaller ways. Almost in preparation – it’s like we have an opportunity to provide a dress rehearsal of sorts. When the kids and I visited the corn maze last month we were kind of lost. Not hopelessly lost and not really dangerously lost as you could always call it…
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a purchase about another purchase: Noonday Trunk Show
Here’s something I like: Let me introduce you to him. He’s called The Rustic Tote. Isn’t he lovely? He’s just a wide bag, classic and hand crafted and durable and purposeful, yet beautiful in his leathery uniqueness. Do you know where he needs to be? He needs to be slung across my shoulder and filled with my stuff. (Okay, friends. Need. I get it. There is no need here. This rustic leather tote and me – we don’t need to be friends. But we want to be. I’m telling you. We really want to be.) The means by which I hope to acquire the lifetime companionship of said leather rustic…
