HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
-
Autumn From Wildwood’s Porch
The voices. Distant. Child-like. Orange and burnt-umber. The sun. Radiant. Gentle. A warming and a cleansing. Not a scorch, but an invitation. Summoning me to stay. Barely perciptible breeze. Enough to tease the curtains into dancing but not enough to alter a hair on my head. The air smells ready – anticipating camp fires and wood smoke and pumpkin pie. Two squirrels circle our giant oak tree. They’ve left behind acorns to chase one another. I can’t decide if they are fighting or playing or loving. Or all three. This porch provides a portal to Time Standing Still. for this blink/blip/sigh/moment/millisecond of my life. I’ll take it. I’ll measure it…
-
Interview: Otto Fox Wilder
Otto – do you want to do an interview? I like to go fishing. I like climbing. And. Um. I like playing. And I like – dadadadada – I like Cereal Sundaes and ice cream and chocolate chips and I like birds and I like animals. That’s all. Awesome. Son – I like you! hehehe What do you like about our house? It haves a big field. There are grasshoppers that live in it and all kinds of bugs – like praying mantises. Why do you like bugs so much? Because I like catching them. What do you do with them? I let them go. Otto – what kind of…
-
motherhood: impossible questions
Bedtime was half an hour ago. I’m standing in the kitchen surveying the day’s damage in stacked plates and dirty glasses. Popcorn kernels on the floor and shoes that should be in their proper homes. Little footsteps across the floor and a small hand on my arm. “Mommy, I’m just scared.” I squat down. Red cheeks. Wet tears. I hug this seven-year-old darling with the blue eyes and the freckles and I ask, “Why? Why are you scared?” “I just don’t know when I’ll die. I don’t know when you’ll die. Will you be old? Will I die in pain?” My heart bends and my brow wrinkles and I cannot…
-
Journal Entries
Well. I may never have to think of an idea to write another blog post again. I realized today that I have a treasure trove of ideas in three little wide-ruled notebooks sitting right in our kitchen cabinets, directly under the shelf that stores our pottery bowls. We’ve been doing journals in school on and off for a few years now. They’ve always been endearing to me – but this year they seem to be downright entertaining. I don’t know if it’s the kids’ older ages or their improved wit and writing skills or what. But I am just getting such a kick out of these entries. Sometimes they make me laugh. Sometimes…
-
Weekend Whatnot
It was a good weekend. Sunny and rainy and cool and warm. Yep. It was all that in the span of one weekend. I’m feeling pretty random so I think that’s what you’ll be seeing here. I think a twelve-year-old wrote the most recent version of Transformers. (Actually, I think a transformer wrote it. Twelve-year-olds are more clever.) Have you ever seen Once Again Sam jewelry? It’s just so sweet and lovely. I purchased this little Fox necklace and it’s become one of my favorite jewelry pieces. I mean, if it has a fox – I’m probably going to buy it. I love pretty much everything she does. I’ve got…
-
Piper Finnian. The Interview is Back.
You guys. I haven’t done an interview with the kids in forever. And they used to be so much fun. So I’m wishing you and yours a happy Friday and a stellar weekend and I’m asking mine a couple of questions and writing down what she says . . . . Finish this sentence – My name is Piper Finnian and I like to: Eat bubble gum. Okay. Bubble gum is good. How often do you eat bubble gum? A lot. But not mostly. Hmmm. That sounds funny. Let’s move on. Ah – tell me about school. It’s fun. My favorite subject is math. Why math? Because I love adding…
-
Laughter – our favorite survival tool.
Next to grace, if I have to pick one characteristic that has saved our marriage and healed our hearts one piece of the puzzle to plumb the depths of parenting woes and big life decisions one thing that has brought us from the depths and placed us at the heights the one argument changer and situation switcher it has been laughter. Laughter. When we are mad when we have been frightened and disappointed when situations seem hopeless and the burden is heavy we look for laughter. We find something however little perhaps occasionally inappropriate and we laugh. It doesn’t fix the problem. The road isn’t suddenly straight and the direction…
-
this girl o’ mine.
Braids down her back. Soft smile and her favorite oversized green sweatshirt. She’s beautiful. And right now we both enjoy this simple pure camaraderie. I want to hold it in my hands forever. To push pause. I dread a future look of scorn or a heavy sigh directed at my back. My heart already hurts at the eventual pulling away the struggle and the fight for independence. The journey to adulthood and the leftover feeling that will one day be my daily bread. The blonde mini me who isn’t me at all. This being who came from me and has helped make me. I find myself grateful and thrilled and…
-
True Colors
Kids draw and color during their Sunday School classes. It’s perfectly normal behavior. A regular routine. At our church the completed coloring sheets are frequently featured on a thin bulletin board strip on the hall walls outside of their classrooms. Last week our friend sent us a text. It said something like this: I was walking down the hall at church. I noticed the kids’ drawings of Jonah on the walls. Most of the drawings looked like this – Jonah landing on the shore – recovering from his whale episode. But then I noticed another drawing that looked like this – After he saw our son’s name scrawled across the…
-
I’m finally remembering to complete the giveaway.
Well guys. I told you I couldn’t keep up. But seriously – I totally forgot about my own tiny music giveaway! So. Today I am taking care of a few details. Like – giving away a song. And the song goes to …………. Alicia! I really hope you like it. Alicia – please send me your e-mail address and I will send you the link to your victory song! I really hope this rainy weekend finds you happy and with the people you love most.
-
Making Terrariums
After we finished reading The Magician’s Nephew (which I just love, by the way – remember Digory our dog? That’s the book his name came from. Like so many other names, I tired first to name one of our children Digory but with no success) the curriculum suggested several ways to create your own magical world. We landed on terrariums – a project I’ve actually always wanted to try. Any jar or glass container with or without a lid will work. It’s seriously super simple. We chose a jar that belonged to my mom – I think it held sugar once upon another life. The idea is basic, although of…
-
four important words.
The other night at dinner Kevin said to the kids, “Hey guys. I want to teach you four incredibly important words.” I honestly cannot recall if we were chatting about passing the salt correctly or climbing trees or using inside voices. I just know he said he had four important words he wanted them to learn. And so we all listened. Maybe some of the kids thought it would be a joke. Kevin’s kind of a jokester. They know this about him. But he wasn’t really wearing his joke-y-dad face. He was more like wearing his serious-dad face. He stared at the watching eyes of his little people around the…
-
At the seashore
In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth. – Rachel Carson To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim–the rocks–the motion of the waves–the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there? -Walt Whitman For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It’s always our self we find in the sea. -e.e. Cummings The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea. -Isak Dinesen Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s…
