HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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it’s inescapable really.
Sigh. Yes. I am beginning a post with a sigh. A written sigh. A written sigh that implies a verbal sigh. The deep-chest-breath-in-hold-the-air-as-long-as-you-possibly-can-until-you-breathe-the-sigh-out-between-pursed-lips kind of sigh. And you know what? I’m not entirely sure why. It’s just the kind of day I had. Or chose to have. Or narrowly escaped from having. Here’s the thing. Yesterday, I lost. I lost the battle most of the day. I let everything around me dictate my attitude. I let the heat in our home make me irritable. (And I mean irritable.) I let the list of trying-to-understand-and-adequately-prepare-for-the-onslaught-of-paperwork-that-is-homeschooling-a-daughter-through-her-senior-year weigh me down and push me into the dirt. I let the children tugging on…
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words fitly spoken . . .
I know I’ve written about my kids being that still, small voice of God to me sometimes. So many times I’ve been convicted by their words and their actions and have been forced to reconsider my words and my actions. And while later, after the fact, I’m prone to lean toward being pleased with my children for their clarity of thought and their purity of purpose, during the moment of the revealing of truth I am blindsided by something else less flattering although equally familiar. Pride. Humility. A quick flash of frustration that a nine-year-old has a higher degree of sensitivity than myself. You know, feelings like that. And so,…
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don’t stop singing
The kids and I were all doing some grocery shopping recently. Everyone was walking beside the cart, chatting amicably and helping me gather our necessary purchases. Hawkeye, however, seemed to have a higher level of energy than the rest of us. Somehow he kept appearing on either side of the cart and he seemed to be continually emitting a higher volume of steady sound than anyone or anything around us. They weren’t unhappy noises, but the volume level was increasing and my tolerance level was decreasing. “Hawkeye,” I touched his shoulder. “Can you please, um, stop making all those sounds?” He froze, turned his whole body toward me. “What? You…
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nine. 9. number nine.
When you wake up as a nine-year-old and your name is London Elizabeth Scout this is what you do ….. You wake up to your special requests coming true. Fruity Pebbles and the Sunday comics in bed. (Yep. Fruity Pebbles. Gasp!) You are allowed to open your presents before your cake. (You should know that agreeing to this decision was strongly influenced by Daddy. Mommy prefers the long wait and the building up of anticipation.) Now you have your hiking backpack for our future adventures. You get to choose our day’s activity. A day at our local water park. (How convenient that the library gave away tickets for the water…
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Summer Field Trippin’
Summer definitely looks different than the school year. We sleep a lot later. Our meals are routinely consumed at less-than-normal intervals. We find ourselves in or near water with a higher degree of frequency. But all school isn’t completely shut down for us. (We’re actually continuing math for the summer and we never stop all that good reading.) Plus. We get to go on some fun field trips too. Last Friday we joined a handful of fellow homeschoolers for a drive into the North Carolina mountains to visit the Cradle of Forestry. I love any excuse to drive into the Pisgah National Forest, to enjoy the always-slightly-cooler temperatures, to be…
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a long-winded build up to some Fourth photos. that’s all.
Yesterday was what London calls a “home day”. It’s just like what it sounds like – a day where we spend every waking hour at home. These are her absolute favorite type of days. We stayed home primarily because we had no access to a car. Which was fine. To be fair, the kids stayed home all day. Kevin and I actually enjoyed a now-rare date night. The kids and I had plans to attend a library event in the afternoon but both cars were occupied so we skipped out on the library event. Which was fine also, except now our library books are overdue. Again. (I’ve made a basic…
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modem, thrift store and surprise discoveries
Ta-da! We have internet service again. Not that this appears any differently to you, but to me – it sure does. I was so grateful to discover that little app on my phone to make posting blog entries much easier, but I still prefer the larger screen, the keyboard and its clickety-clack sounds and access to links and what-not. Our modem was struck by lightning before we left for Virginia and today we finally had time to get that problem fixed. Plus, a new modem would have cost almost a hundred dollars, according to First AT&T Man on the Phone. However, Second AT&T Man on the Phone said we could…
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summer song
These days could just not be moving any faster it seems. Ah, summer. I want to hold on to you with both hands. And beautiful, sweet, glorious days of my children’s youth – I want to gather you in my arms and frame you on my walls and write about you in books and beg you on bended knee to stay stay stay.
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Hiking. Times a Lot of Littles.
Having our weekly nature walks has really helped to foster an already natural desire the kids and I have to be outside and to explore. (Although I’m super appreciative of being able to prepare a post from my cell phone as we still have no internet connection, I really miss being able to link back to older posts for reference and having access to the photos saved on our computer.) Anyway – this is a post about nature studies and hikes. This summer manymany other moms and I have been gathering once each month for a joint giant hike with our manymany offspring. It’s been marvelous. Or at least I…
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A little experimenting
Last night we had a lightning show. It was pretty spectacular. We all sat on the front porch and watched the lights crackling across the sky in various degrees of comfort. One particularly close lightning strike apparently did our Internet in. So this morning I’m trying a bit of an experiment. I found a little app (how weird is it that technology has even changed our language?) that is supposed to make posting from my phone much more manageable. And that is today’s experiment. Does it work? How easy is it? Are there weird glitches and annoying details? We shall see. Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon adventure to Jones…
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It’s All in How You Sell It
The temperatures are rising. And I’m not only talking about the high temperatures outside. Our thermostat is recording higher numbers every day too as we try to sweat through summer without turning on our air conditioning. So far, so good. Truthfully, it’s more like – so far, so okay. The children don’t really enjoy being overheated and sticky any more than I do, but if having six kids has taught me anything (and trust me – it has) it has taught me the value of the up sale. The vital importance of the big hype. It’s all in how you say it. For about a week now I’ve been talking…
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swim lessons.
Isn’t it weird how one moment can change your life forever? And how your life is actually kind of made up of loads of life changing one-moments? I mean, you don’t really know it at the time, or you do, but you can’t really wrap your brain around it. And as parents we are watching those moments happen practically every day. When I think about this for too long, I begin to feel as if I’m swimming in water way too deep for me. And it’s funny that I use a swimming metaphor because it’s last week’s swim lessons that got me started thinking like this in the first place.…
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Diaper Free Days Are Ours!
Guess what we no item we no longer purchase and stick in our grocery cart? Diapers! Guess what daily routine is no longer mine? Changing diapers! Yes. The last little Keigley baby man is completely potty trained! We’re talking no diapers. No night time pull ups. No anything except the cutest little boxer briefs covering the cutest little boy bum. It’s amazing, really. This change in our lives. This transition. This spending no budget money on catching and containing kids’ excrement. It’s glorious. And that’s true for every family that moves right from daily diaper changes to bathroom freedom. And for us, for this family, it’s been a daily habit…
