HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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Five Finds Friday.
Somehow, when the calendar says September, I keep thinking it should FEEL like fall already. It does not. We live in the wrong state for it to feel like fall in September. funny Bergen started it. He wrote, printed and posted this sign. (After acquiring a signature from every family member.) Now there are at least two other similar signs posted around our home. flavorful Long live the classic BLT – bonus points for tomatoes fresh from the garden. fashionable I attended a wedding last weekend. It was fun – for many reasons – but one, because it had been a real long time since I had a reason to…
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mid-week ramble. is that a thing?
Well. It is now. It’s already September and I don’t know anything about anything except that TIME ALWAYS DISAPPEARS. Even when you think it’s going slowly. Our homeschool co op begins this week. Prepping for teaching other kids, therefore, also begins this week. Honestly, that prepping started a while ago. But the routine, week part of prepping is upon us. My home is now officially a Teen House. More teens live here than non-teens. Otto and I are outnumbered. We must join forces to survive. Homeschool is underway entirely. Which means my kitchen table is a war zone all day every day. London is learning that college classes aren’t all…
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Lists: The Only Way I Ever (Sometimes) Get Stuff Done
You know, I forgot. I always forget. How challenging multitasking is when the school year officially begins. I mean, it’s hard always. Multi-tasking. Parenting. Life. But this homeschooling gig is a FULL TIME JOB and I already have a FULL TIME JOB. This week I’ll have FOUR teenagers (and I’ll surely post and whine more about that soon so you’ve been warned I guess). And next week I start teaching other people’s children again on Thursdays and is it okay if I say it again? I ALREADY HAVE A FULL TIME JOB. It’s a lot of spinning plates and if you know me you know that I break the plates…
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five finds friday. (celebrating two years in our home & pleated skirts)
Greetings from Recovering From Sunburn Still. Population: 3. Ah. Those freckles and fair hair are not serving us well currently. funny Finding this on my phone. What is happening??? fashionable It’s so funny how styles come and go. And how, if I had saved most of my clothes from the 80s, my daughters would be in heaven about now. But I did not. Here’s what else is funny. The older I get the less I care about fashion and the more I care about liking what I wear and having fun with my clothing choices. Lately I’ve been obsessed with pleated skirts. Which I assumed were unfashionable because they used…
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Losing Time: The Cost of Spontaneity This Week
Do you ever have one of those weeks where you just feel as if you’ve lost time? As in, you look around you and you have, you know – basically nothing – to show for your days? I mean, it’s not true. Entirely. There’s been the care and the feeding of the folks I live with. There has been work accomplished. A decent amount, I suppose, if I’m really examining it closely. And yet. It just feels like an off week. It started off with a BANG. Maybe a little too much actually. We’re all just paying the price of spontaneity I guess. Sunday it just seemed like a good…
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Five Finds Friday (last first day, a giant sweatshirt and tomatoes)
Oh it’s Friday? I didn’t know. funny I was opening my car door and I noticed the side pocket. What’s in that pocket made me laugh – and kind of offers a snapshot of my actual life. A knife. Because – safety and preparation. You just never know what the future holds. Bubbles. Because – fun. Lotion. (That almost never gets used). Because – in theory I’d like to have soft skin and smell nice. In reality, I just can’t seem to make those things a priority, even when I put the lotion directly in the car. Cleaning Wipes. I’d say because of the current situation we’re all wading through.…
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this little moment.
I cannot fix the world. Sometimes I don’t even want to try. But I think I can help (kind of) fix six little parts of the world. Six small stones that have the potential to have ripple effects on the surface of the water of the world. They share my last name (or did, pre-marriage for one of them). And my window of time is shockingly small. But recently, I had this gift of a glimpse of a better way. I was cooking in the kitchen and quietly listening – and storing it all up, feeling like Mary more by the minute. (Not in some holy way, mind you –…
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Parenting Teens: Say Yes
I’m not an expert, but I do have some experience. One of my teens is a grown up. Three are currently residing under my roof. And one more joins the trifecta this month. (I need a hug. Or a wad of cash for car insurance. Both. I need both.) Here’s one little tiny slice of advice. Say yes. To everything you possibly can say yes to. There are SO many nos in the lives of your teens. Sometimes their lives feel like one gigantic NO. And there are loads and plenty of things you must say NO to for your kids. Hitch hiking. Tik Tok. Diving headfirst into unknown waters.…
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the weekend ramble (it’s back)
There’s been nothing ordinary or routine about this summer so it’s probably to be expected that my writing has been hit or miss too. And like all of us, I’m actually missing the structures my life normally has – its natural parameters. In fact, that might be why we parents are going a little crazy as we think and plan for some semblance of school this fall. Of course it’s also the wild unknown and the constant shifting of decisions and game plans by the people we have put in charge of those sort of decisions. Anyway, I think I’m looking forward to a sort of routine for our family…
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Dear Child,
I’d like to think that I’ve said everything I am writing now out loud to you at some point during your brief and beautiful life thus far. And maybe I have. But what if I didn’t say it loud enough or often enough or in the manner in which you could hear it? What if I whispered it to you as you fell asleep or said it in a language your ears couldn’t understand or your heart wouldn’t hear? And that’s why I am writing this down. Recording it. In another format. A different way. Because it’s all bits and pieces I want you to hear a thousand times in…
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Five Finds Friday (tiny bags of bacon & I need a grits recipe for the Instant Pot)
Can you make a living as a Master Procrastinator? I don’t mean one of those ordinary procrastinators who puts off a big assignment or a task every now and then. I mean like – a MAJOR procrastinator. I’ll look for a way – next week. funny We had breakfast for dinner recently. Made Instant Pot grits. (Which will have its own category a few paragraphs down.) One of the toppings was bacon. As we were cleaning up after dinner there was actually a small (and I do mean tiny) portion of bacon left. Instead of eating it, I thought I’d save it for one of our lunches. (Summer lunches have…
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the directions. and where our stories take us.
It hasn’t been tidy. My story. My path to Where I Am Right Now. And, you know, I hope I haven’t “arrived” – whatever that means. I like to think it’s all just a progression, or a steady arriving or a long road to get to the destination that isn’t here on earth. Frankly, whether a long marriage or a devastating divorce, sudden singleness or a lifetime of singleness, I don’t know anyone’s story that is actually tidy. Stories are a mess. They just are. Because people are a mess. We just are. I have friends who have been divorced for less years than me who are happily and joyfully…
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that musical everyone loves.
I have this knee jerk reaction to anything that is overly popular. I don’t like it. Sometimes before I even give it a chance, I’ll just automatically have a distaste for the popular thing. It’s how I felt about Hamilton – ages ago when my kids came home singing the songs because their friend had told them about this musical. I didn’t care. Too popular. Too everyone loves it. Pass. And then along came good old Disney Plus with its free streaming service. And THEN along came good old free Hamilton on my screen. (My new TV screen – did I tell you the kids saved their own monies collectively…
