HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
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an apology/not an apology
I wish I had more time to write here. I wish I had more time to undertake creative endeavors. Why has it been harder to write blog posts for the past six months or so? Overseeing the education of five people requires a LOT of effort. The teenage years provide a plethora of fodder for blog posts but so very little of it is shareable since they are older kids with bigger feelings and stories of their own. Let’s just say, the parenting of teens is a FULL TIME task that hits at the most unexpected hours and in all sorts of dramatic must-respond-immediately sort of ways. My part time…
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Noonday: Tonight!
When your daughter asks you to host a Noonday party with her, you just say yes. I mean, any reason to look at beautiful jewelry that helps give women in third world countries honorable work to do is an easy yes. If you’re in the area and would like to come over to my house and join us tonight – from 6:30 to 8:30, we’d love to have you. The main feature is the Noonday jewelry, of course, but there will also be chips and homemade salsa and queso. Word in the kitchen is – there might even be some homemade peppermint patties but you didn’t hear that from me.…
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Taking Them on an Adventure: The Literature Odyssey
If any current job of mine fades away, I’ve got a pocketful of other ventures I’d love to take on. Full time writer.Lost Valley Ranch Staff.Professional Trip Planner.Font Developer.Product Tester. I don’t even know if most of those are actual jobs. But if there was a job where I could plan trips for people, I’d be all in. I’d theme the trips for target audiences – A Literary South Adventure. Art Museums Only. Cities That Have Inspired Songs. I’d pair food options and I’d provide opportunity to journal your feelings and record your memories. I’d even be happy to pick the sound track and the audio books, the podcasts and…
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making music (and art) accessible
I’m tone deaf. It’s true. And it’s almost tragic. Just tonight, after leaving church, I asked the kids, “If you had to pick to be really great at singing or at acting, which would you prefer?” I think I’d pick singing. Because, even if no one else ever enjoyed it, you could entertain yourself. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to sing beautifully and on key and all that? Well, maybe you can already do that. But I sure can’t. And I don’t play any musical instruments either. Again – it’s a shame. But here I am, all talentless in these realms. Here’s a rabbit trail. (I’m excellent at…
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five finds friday (lemon trees, Noonday parties, toasters, homemade mittens)
Every single week IT’S THE SAME STORY. How is it already Friday? WHERE ARE MY DAYS GOING? Why are my to do lists so long? When will I ever be caught up? Why doesn’t anyone EVER hang up their jackets at this house? But seriously, am I the only one who knows how to load the dishwasher? funny Almost a year ago I saw a little plant in Lowe’s and decided that I wanted to become a person who did not kill her house plants. For my entire life, that’s more than 40 years folks, I have let plants die on my watch. I have overwatered and underwatered, I have…
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Five Finds Friday (meatballs, Scrabble, really odd names for kids)
Am I still here? Do Fridays still exist without this list? Well, yeah. They do. All of life feels just rapid speed and kind of slow motion simultaneously. But we’re all still here. Trudging through the two worst months of homeschool every year – January and February. funny This week I received this text from my oldest daughter. fashionable I know this sweatshirt has a fish on it. And I know it’s difficult to see this in the photo. However. This fish sweatshirt at a local shop in my town is not just any sweatshirt. It’s designed for women to wear with leggings. It is LONG. Long enough to cover…
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two decades. the last was the growing up. the next will be the growing out.
Because I’m an extensive note taker, journal writer, daily recorder of stuff, I am frequently aware of how many months something has been happening or what day such and such an event occurred or what we were all doing thirteen years ago on January 23. (Of course, pair this with the fact that I frequently forget where my phone is and what I told the kids they could do when school is finished and that’s a more whole picture of who I am.) At any rate and back to the point at hand. This blog has been circulating for more than one entire decade. And with this new year being…
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five finds friday (ukuleles & queso)
The task of motherhood is a full time one. Anyone who has been a parent and anyone who has been a child knows this. And yet, not any of us, stay at home parent nor 80 hour work week parent, actually has a full time schedule to commit to that one role – the role of parent. This has been a week of full on parenting tasks. Swinging back into school routine is painful for all of us. Add in lengthy allergy appointments and big teen discussions/decisions that always occur late into the evening and work deadlines and it’s a sweet little recipe for exhaustion and frustration. I thought I’d…
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Looking Ahead.
Somewhere around the beginning of each new year I haul my children to some place pretty and force them to talk about last year and next year. And if they aren’t chatty, I force them to listen to my monologue. Whatever. This year it was rainy and drab and we didn’t explore a mountain view as we usually do. We headed to a pretty little coffee shop with a wide open space and a light and airy feel. This year I did more than plan a talking session. I printed what is called a Dream Guide from Jennie Allen’s website. It’s a helpful tool to enable you to look back…
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five finds friday (superstore, fly fishing, sloppy joes)
I’m going to take your word for it that it’s actually Friday. Alright? I can’t seem to get the kinks worked out of this blog lately. Some updates need to happen, I thought I handled them – I don’t know. I just know that when I share these posts on Facebook the photos are not appearing as they should. Right now though, I’m just shrugging my shoulders and wishing it would all get square on its own accord. funny When I like something I tell everyone I know about it. Is that an enneagram type? Often I am guilty of telling you about it at least four times. It’s a…
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current plans. current mood.
The holiday schedule makes me feel as if I’m back in college. I’m staying up too late. I’m regretting it during daylight hours. I’m pretending I barely need to be responsible. I’m eating whenever I feel hungry instead of at routine intervals. And I’m eating when I’m not hungry at all – just for fun or for community or for flavor or for the sound of a crunching chip while I read a book. At night, I’m shoving stacks of clean, folded laundry to one side of the bed and sleeping right beside it – classy. This is what 46 looks like this season, apparently. It’s this in between week…
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hi.
Hi. Remember me? This is the season where I’m up late and I’m up early. Where my body will likely pay the price for my actions and my lack of sleep. Where the kids and I are hustling and bustling between This and That and The Other. Where I think about my mom and this little black notebook that she carried in her purse to record what gifts she bought for which kid and it seemed sort of silly to me back then but now I know why she needed a book. Because it’s Too Much Information. Overload. Do I have the items to stuff each stocking equally? Have I…
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holiday tears: doing the best we can
It’s always unexpected. And yet. It’s right on time. It was an average Sunday morning. Not one of our better ones. Call it holiday grumpies or the price of too many late nights or the stress of getting it “all” accomplished, but the atmosphere at our home was anything but cherry and light. Bells weren’t ringing and chestnuts weren’t roasting. Attitudes stunk. I was pretty confident that I was doing my part to raise what might be the world’s most selfish children. I also felt the need to let those children know their trajectory toward that end goal. My sprained ankle made it difficult for me to take a walk…
