HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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new and improved.
The counter at the new house has a few flaws. I don’t know exactly what happened there but it left a pretty disgusting mark. And when I live in a house, I like to add my own problems, but cover up other people’s problems – you know? In the past weeks as I waited at the auto shop for one of our two vehicles to be repaired I noticed the top of their counter looked like floor tile – the stick and peel squares. The little light bulb in my head flashed on and I figured that would be a perfect solution for our yucky countertop. When my dad was…
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me too.
Last night some girlfriends came over to watch The Help with Riley and I. They brought red velvet cupcakes, Cheez-its and popcorn. I would have let them in without the treats, but that was a pretty great bonus. We chatted, we watched the film and then we chatted some more. We debated the importance of the deep part in a man’s head of hair. (Two for, two against.) We compared the film to the novel. (Hands down, books are better. True here too.) We talked about kids and salaries and dogs and rice and grocery shopping and using the free internet at the library. About the fear from late night…
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My New Favorite Title.
Last week it was eighteen first graders in Bergen’s Class. This week it was seventeen four-year-old’s in Willow’s co-op class. The day was long but it was really oh-so-sweet. What a privilege it was to watch my child interact with her tiny peers. To see her serve as the helper and offer all of her classmates a squirt of hand sanitizer as they headed to lunch. To eat lunch with her at the same table and to feel her wee little hand pat my hand as I walked by her seat. I was the helper, of course, so my task was to help. To help paint seventeen small hands with…
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a weekend list. of sorts.
1. This weekend we worked many long hours, with a handful of friends by our sides, painting and caring for our new house. 2. The color “full sun” is not an overstatement in the name. 3. Four coats of “full sun” seems excessive, but necessary. 4. The “full sun” color on the kitchen walls has finally set. 5. I keep forgetting to take “before” pictures, but I did take an “in between” picture. 6. I feel a deep sense of dislike for painting the walls in the girls’ bedroom. It’s like wainscoting all the way up the wall. We painted lavender over white. The work has been tedious. I…
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True That Finnian.
We are packing, albeit incredibly slowly. (Today I packed one box. One box. That’s the kind of progress I’m making over here ya’ll.) As we pack we find ourselves running across memories that have been sitting on a shelf for several years. The teddy bear crafted from my grandmother’s favorite blue bath robe. The tie-dyed onesie London wore home from the hospital. My dad’s childhood wind-up bear. My mom’s faded red leather bible. I’ve been sharing stories with the kids as we find each little treasure. And they, in turn, have been sharing stories with one another. As we recounted days of their toddlerhood, Mosely repeated a story about my…
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lessons learned
Yesterday I volunteered at the kids’ homeschool co-op. I was a helper in Bergen’s first grade class. 18 first graders. One very rainy day. No outside play time. This is what I learned. Surprisingly, I really like a large group of first graders. They were funny, unpretentious, happy and kind. Clorox wipes remove magic marker stains from school tables. Super grateful for this when Boy in the Orange Shirt decided to color his two-inch Russian nesting doll with eight markers crammed into his fist at once. A six-year-old can almost run faster than me. We played race games in the gym at recess. I wasn’t letting her win. I was…
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natural inspiration
Can one piece of art work be the sole inspiration for an entire room? I think the answer is yes. The kids and I have a joint creation we have been working on for several weeks now. London painted a black bird in the center of a canvas and I wrapped red burlap around the canvas and we knew we wanted something natural to frame out the bird but we just didn’t know what. So we left the unfinished project leaning against the bookshelf in our bedroom for weeks. Until today. A day in which the kids gathered four giant cupfuls of adorable miniature pine cones from the Balsam Fir…
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what have I done wrong?
Sometimes she makes this face – she calls it her cute face. Willow makes us chuckle. She makes us grin. Her turn of a phrase can send us rolling in the floor with laughter. And then there are moments like this . . . . Pre-dinner, Willow comes prancing into the kitchen with a smirk on her face. “Hey guys,” she says. “I just peed in the sink.”
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all in all – we are a labor of love.
Grateful: the feeling I have towards the manymany friends who dropped by our new home this past weekend to spend their free time cleaning our house and painting our walls. Thrilled: the feeling I have about the final appearance of the “running trout stream” color shade I chose for the school room. Bummed: the feeling I have about the fact that I did not take any after pictures of the painted school room yet. Excited: the feeling I have about the potential of the quirky unusual spaces in the house – such as the interior of this kitchen pantry and the recessed glass-covered shelf in the living room. Overwhelmed: the…
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And He Speaks His Name . . .
My littlest man has been slow to speak. It’s just not his thing. So when I was changing his diaper the other day and he suddenly said a word that sounded exactly like his own first name, I ran for the phone right away. I had to shoot a quick little video to send to Kevin so he could share in the magical moment. OttoSpeak from Lacey Keigley on Vimeo. Now that he can say his own name, Otto is all about himself. In fact, his name is now apparently the answer to any question a stranger may ask him. “Hi, little fellow,” says the man at the check out…
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a glimpse
This weekend we spent a couple hours at the new house – painting here and there and measuring this and that. (Will our fridge ever fit through the tiny back door?) Partly to keep her busy and partly to record a few “before” photos, I sent London around the house with my phone and instructions to snap a few shots. This is mostly what I got. I was kind of alarmed when I studied the photos at how much work the house does actually need. But kind friends have encouraged us and Kevin and I keep talking about the potential. I didn’t end up with many usable photos, actually, but…
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this little table o’ mine.
Back in the days when these girls were just teeny toddlers together, my mother saw a little oak table and thought our family just had to have it. And we did, of course. The girls have shared many a snack on that table. They have learned to use scissors there and played card games and have learned to sew and draw and create. It’s a table that Otto and Piper love to play on and under and around now too. And it’s been looking a little rough around the edges after all these years and all these sticky little hands. After our Georgia trip at the end of summer, the…
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you look great today.
This woman has no idea how her words affected me. She’s basically a stranger to me. Monday mornings are the busiest mornings of our week. It’s our home school co-op day and that means a substantial shift in the morning routine for us. Six kids need to be out the door and in the car by 8:15. (And in a non-home school world, 8:15 is no biggie. I hear you. But in our world – it is.) Prior to the departure of all six children there are lunches to be packed, shoes to locate, homework to be accounted for, breakfast to be served, children to be clothed and some surprise…
