Keiglets
The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.
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Kids in the Kitchen: You Can Do It!
My kids spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, helping prepare our family’s meals or whipping up something they imagined or read about or watched. Partially because I need their help, partially because I want them to know how to cook for themselves, partially because I’d like to cook less often myself, partially because they actually enjoy it and partially because I think it’s really important for them to learn about food – how to create it, where it comes from, ways not to waste it, etc. etc. etc. I don’t remember a time when kids weren’t underfoot and around in the kitchen since their…
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surprise & delight: Okee Dokee Brothers
Last Friday I surprised the kids with an adventure. (surprise & delight, it’s so much fun.) I am sure I have mentioned one of our favorite bands – The Okee Dokee Brothers – before. They aren’t really brothers. They are really a fantastic duo from Minnesota who write and perform clever music with a target audience of kids but with witty lyrics and catchy tunes and a folksy bluegrass feel that I actually WANT to listen to on repeat car trip after car trip. (Look up these songs first – “The Good Old Times”, “Hard Road To Travel”, “Out of Tune” and “Thousand Star Hotel” for starters.) I told…
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Five Finds Friday (26)
FUNNY I was looking for a short bit of entertainment late one evening on Ye Olde Netflix. I didn’t want to watch Fixer Upper and be reminded that I want to redecorate or to wish I lived in Waco, Texas where apparently every street corner is overflowing with homes that you can buy for $42,000 and turn them into homes that house glorious farm house sinks, shiplap on every wall and mason jars on the mantles. I’ve watched all the Call the Midwife episodes. I have no stomach for cop dramas or court room shows. I had to stop watching Friday Night Lights when they let Matt Sorenson make too…
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ramble on.
I have a couple of posts lined up in the “drafts” section but I just don’t quite feel like pushing the old “publish” button on them yet. (And by a “couple” I mean 123 drafts actually. Not all of them worth sharing publicly. Some just needing a little rewording here and there.) But nothing seems to fit what I feel like writing about so that must mean it’s time for a rambling post instead of a tidy post. (I think it’s probably because tidy posts require more brain power and I am low on that this evening. I need to recruit some day time hours to write and then…
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holding on with both hands
I am in danger of running out of words to describe how genuinely FUN it is to be the mom of these kids. I’m reminded of a visit to the farm in recent months. A morning walk to the pond to “fish” with my two boys. The entire walk down we chatted about worms and books and mountains and deer tracks and the beauty of mornings and the various shades of green nature can produce. While they fished, I read a book. I overheard their quiet enthusiasm. Their exchange about lure choices and Otto’s reverence for the manner in which the water ripples after a stiff breeze. And I was aware…
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Five Finds Friday (24) (playing dangerously & a shortcake recipe)
The Fridays – they just keep coming so fast, don’t you know? FUNNY As he rushes past me through the dining room Otto shouts in proclamation — “TRUTH! Never run with scissors.” I stop what I am doing and ask, “Otto. Are you running with scissors?” A quick pause of his rapid foot movement. “Yes.” FASHIONABLE I know I have shared something from title nine before but their clothing is just so fun and functional and I wouldn’t mind owning almost any of it. Most of their skirts have shorts sewn into the base of them and I love that as I prefer wearing skirts all summer instead of wearing…
Keep Reading . . .
weekend ramble (fly tying edition)
returning …
Beyond Wildwood: The Ranch (Tuesday)
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when I think there’s nothing to write about, there usually is . . .
I’m still trying to devise some apparatus that increases the hours in my day. Or blinders so I will ignore all the distractions that keep me from staying on task. It keeps being midnight and I keep still having a lot that hasn’t gotten checked off my list. I’ve been half heartedly listening to an audio book entitled Hands Free Mama and I think I audibly gasped when the author talked about literally throwing your to-do list in the trash. That feels like Crazy Talk to my brain. (But I’m still listening and thinking. Listening and trying to remain open to all I am hearing. We’ll see.) I’m also reading through…
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Five Finds Friday (fifteen) (loose tooth and BBQ sauce. unrelated.)
Hooray. It’s Friday. FUNNY I have six children. They each have a mouth. And in those six mouths you would find the normal human amount of teeth. And – during the course of five of their lives – they have all lost the normal amount of baby teeth. I’m not great at math and I’m unwilling to figure out the exact number but you can assume with me that the baby teeth lost numbers are high in this family. Yesterday Otto – the baby of the family and the Keigley with the most baby teeth still in his mouth – lost his FIRST tooth. It was perfect poetic justice that the…
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writing without a plan. (rambling, in other words)
I had a web hosting snafu this week and the blog was down and out for a while. But I’m all back now and I think I have a plan. (It was actually very comforting to receive the texts and messages alerting me that my blog was unavailable. Made me feel loved by you guys, knowing that you read the words and click over to this space. Thank you, friends.) I’m a little here and there with a handful of loose ends these days so I don’t have a stopping or a starting point tonight as I write this. Last Sunday we had baptisms at church. Man. I start to…
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Hiking With Kids: John Rock Trail
Last week there was a funk permeating our home. The reasons were multiple and included but were not limited to strep throat for one, an infection for another, a handful of extra editing deadlines for me and a schedule with a bit too much Go and not enough Stay. Midweek we had a little Family Meeting (complete with The Rolling Pin That Allows The Holder To Speak) and we refocused our efforts, made a list of what we could Say No to, added in a Family Night of movies and pillows and pasta fagiole and we all left the table feeling a bit more hopeful with the promise of a restful…
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a Monday kitchen fix.
What? It was Monday? I mean, do you ever feel as if you blink and then – I don’t know – a week goes by? This morning when we left our home the kitchen legitimately looked as if a kitchen-sized hurricane had passed through. We visited the grocery store for the first time in two weeks the night before and had simply carried in the bags and dropped them on the counter. But not before we ran around gathering snacks and goodies to watch the final episode of The Great British Baking Show. And then, blink, blink, it was time for bed and I forgot about the kitchen until I…
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The Dollar Store Gift Idea That I Am Borrowing (and think you should borrow it too)
Hannah sent me a text. (How many decisions in my life do I make based on texts that I receive? I don’t want to know.) She had this link and said, “You should do this.” The website she sent me to was written by a mom of many who explained how her family created a tradition years earlier when her children were much younger. She and her husband wanted to teach their children to think about what their siblings and family members would like for gifts, to foster their relationships, to know the preferences of their family members and to provide an opportunity for all of the kids to purchase…
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i’ve got you covered.
Travel weary and ready for lunch, my straggly gang and I waited in the line at Chick-fil-A. Four hours of driving behind us. Three hours of driving in front of us. An irritated older gentleman pushed right around us to reach the cashier asking who was next. His exagerated sighs told me he was probably a lot more concerned about his chicken sandwich with Polynesian sauce than I was so I ignored his line cutting. Turns out our cashier was a little less than speedy and that was alright, because we order a little less than speedy too. Another customer was to our left following Irritated Older Gentleman before all…
