HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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in pictures …
I think everyone in our home is finally feeling better. (Mostly. Thank goodness. It’s been rough.) Friday we headed out on our first group hike of the season. Moore’s Cove Falls in the Pisgah National Forest. London and Mosely stayed behind – they were better but not well enough to hike. It was an easy trail, a beautiful day, a lovely waterfall and great hiking companions. Except one. This guy kind of had a bad attitude. (That’s a kind of nice way to say it.) But trying out a new-to-us ice cream place on the way out helped his spirits a little. (That is, until he dropped his ice cream…
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Dear Wendell Berry. I hope you read this.
Dear Wendell Berry, If my eyes are blood-shot tomorrow morning and I’m unable to stay awake during breakfast with my six children, it is your fault. If I sell all I possess in order to purchase back the farm on which I grow up, I hold you responsible. I don’t like to make extreme statements, but I have just finished what might become my favorite book of all time, beating out long-standing favorites Fair and Tender Ladies and To Kill A Mockingbird. I also could be delusional. Perhaps I’ll be thinking more clearly in the morning. The later morning, I should clarify, as it is currently 1:51 a.m. and I…
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Go Ahead and Instagram Your “Perfect” Life
There’s a very popular article making its way around the Internet lately. It’s called Stop Instagramming Your Perfect Life. Of course, if you’re my dad – you don’t even know what Instagram is so that article (and probably this post) are completely irrelevant. And that’s okay. Maybe they should both be irrelevant anyway. I think the writer made some valid points. In fact, maybe we would even agree on a lot of this if we were chatting face to face. If you haven’t read it – feel free to do that now. Shauna Niequist, the author, declares us to be negatively influenced by the practice of most Facebook and Instagram…
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last weekend I was sick. and I thought about this.
When I’m really sick I think about my momma. When I’m really happy I think about her too. Isn’t that sort of funny? Who doesn’t think about their momma during the highs and the lows of every day existence? People whose mommas live down the street. Human nature is a curious state. Rich people don’t usually spend their days thinking about money. And poor people think about it all the time. Healthy people aren’t spending afternoons pondering illness but sick people think obsessively about getting better. When I was sick recently here’s what I was thinking about my mother. She suffered. Oh, goodness. How she suffered. I was lying in…
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After: 5 Minute Friday
I’ve been reading this blog by Lisa-Jo for a handful of years. And for at least the past year every Friday she has offered an invitation to write a five minute blog post from a specific prompt. I’ve never participated before. I don’t know why. Or why not. But I feel like joining this week. The prompt is “after” and the challenge is to write with no editing or correcting for five minutes only. And when five minutes is reached, stop typing. (Sounds so deceptively simple.) After. After September she will be gone. Her room will be empty. Her bed will be made. And she won’t be sleeping in it.…
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questions and answers.
Some of my favorite posts in the past have been the interviews with my children. It is possible that the interviews are primarily adorable to me and me alone. And I’m okay with that. I like hearing their answers to my questions and listening as they really ponder how they feel and what they think about anything I ask. And it’s been a reaalllly long time since I’ve lured a kid in by my writing side and asked them a handful of questions. Too long, in fact. Welcome to ….. the return of The Interview. The interview with the child who has been interviewed most frequently, because she adores an…
Keep Reading . . .
just recounting a day . . .
books that work their own magic.
soundtrack of my mind
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Keigley CAMPaign: Central, South Carolina
If you stay at one campsite long enough without day hikes planned and you aren’t propped up beside a stream or a lake and all you have is earth and sun and grass and one another and time, sweet time, something lovely happens. You get silly. You get relaxed. You play games and you make up somethings out of nothings. Those are absolutely some of my favorite moments. Such as this. Nightfall. Chairs pulled up around the blazing fire and quiet talk. Littlest sitting in big sister’s lap and the kids having conversations with the sparks from the fire. Chatting to the tiny red blazes drifting into space. Congratulating the…
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40. a list. call me copycat.
This summer I will be forced to say farewell to my thirties. It’s been a mixed bag really. That decade. But I don’t feel nostalgic or reminiscent tonight. (We all know I’ll feel that way in spades later. I’ll wait til then to write that junk. I need all the light hearted I can get for now.) Anywho. Forty is a’knocking at the door and I’m stealing an idea or two to make it seem a little more palatable for me. My friend hannaH just celebrated twenty-nine and she rang in her new number by challenging herself to complete twenty-nine tasks prior to her birthday. I helped her make the…
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a good idea. that wasn’t mine.
Do you know what this is? Yeah, it looks kind of gross. But it’s more than a bowl filled with sticky red goo. It’s kind of a miracle and a time saver and a taste of spring with a stroke of genius. Yep. It’s that big of a deal. Well. It would be if your last name was Keigley and you were as obsessed with strawberry jam as this family is. It’s an idea I wish I could claim as my own – however, like most of the ideas that come through my days – the genesis for it came via another source. I’m pretty sure it was my friend…
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Time Has Never Been On Anyone’s Side
Is there an opposite to writer’s block? I’ve got the ideas. I’m just so lacking in the time. And, some days, the focus. Scattered. Full. Divided. Distracted. These are the running themes of my days as of late. Phrases from songs, like anthems, play through my brain. “All I want is nothing to do.” Standing in the kitchen this afternoon, Riley looked at the clock. “What? It’s only four p.m.? Man, this day is just dragging by.” I stared at her. Ah, perspective. I haven’t felt like a day was dragging by in the last ten years. At least. I don’t even know what a dragging by day would feel…
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my boy . . . .
He laughs at Shel Silverstein. Laughs loudly and deeply. Tugs on my arm and says, “Listen to this one.” Reads the funniest poems out loud and waits for my response, blue eyes staring expectantly. Playing a geography game he announces, “Mom – we should visit Iowa. They’re for me – they’re the Hawkeyes.” And then this ….. “Mom – want to draw with me?” My favorite request. Not because my sketch pad looks awesome, but because I love this seven-year-old and it seems with each passing day that he lingers by my side less and less. “Yes, I want to sit on the front porch and draw with you.”
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My Pinterest Test Kitchen. (Don’t) Cook This: Mini German Pancakes
In case you are delusional or I have misrepresented myself or you have never actually dined on fare I’ve prepared or all three – I’m letting you know – I am not an expert chef. I’m just this person who is nearing forty and has been in a kitchen since I was maybe eleven, prepping both boring and exciting dishes for people that I love. That’s all. And I decided to share with you guys the many potentially tasty treats I attempt from my Cook This Pinterest board. I’ve shared successes with granola bars and cinnamon rolls and blueberry frozen yogurt. It seems only right to share with you a…
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publicly thanking my husband.
I love my job. I’m so grateful. So grateful I didn’t renew my teaching contract ten years ago. Said “no” to the pleas of several of my favorite students to just stay “one more year” to see them through until graduation. Those same students who are marrying and giving birth to babies and who will begin to understand why I chose “no”. I was covered in leaking breast milk and projectile spit up while my former co-workers were mapping out lesson plans and sharing inside jokes and inspiring future writers and thinkers. I would still make the same choice. We’ve known seasons of low income and sharing one car…
