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How To Find Me Now
Hello dear friends! There is a treasure trove of story here – photos and memories and bits and pieces of my heart. I’m still writing and sharing. But I’ve tried to make it easier for you (and certainly easier for me) on a new platform. It’s called Substack and you can find it right here. The writing is the same. The handy dandy part of Substack is that you sign up for the posts and they are delivered directly to your email. It’s all free! (You can pay for a subscription and that helps support my writing, but it’s most definitely not required.) See you on Substack!
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… typing therapy …
I haven’t picked up a pen or logged into a post in over a month. Which, incidentally, means I have not really processed or worked through a solid feeling in about that long either. Who could? Who can? I have never understood people who say, “I have no regrets.” I HAVE A MILLION REGRETS. I regret wasted time and wasted worry. I think about YEARS I spent selling myself short and thinking endurance and keeping the peace was more important than healthy relationships and setting important boundaries. I regret not finishing book ideas earlier and I regret being distracted when my babies were toddlers. Shoot, I probably regret what I…
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oh, the month ahead. and the month now.
If I could draw a picture of me right now, what I feel like somewhere inside, it would probably look a little like some Monet version of me because I feel more like an impression lately than a solid shape. And I’d probably have my hands at my head, maybe pulling my hair in two directions and shouting, “THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH TIME.” Because. There isn’t. At Book Club this week Heather said, “It’s about to be Mayhem” and I was like – what, why have I never heard that phrase before. BECAUSE MAY IS INSANE. Was it always insane? It it only insane to parents because schools try to…
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Paris: Our Trip & Tips
It didn’t begin with a lifelong goal of seeing the Eiffel Tower. It started with an email alert. “Low cost fairs from Asheville to Paris” It was an update from my Going account – the same account that helped me take my London to London for her graduation gift last year. It was back in October and the flight was too good to pass up and those truly amazing deals go lightning fast so I didn’t waste any time. I looked around my house and said, “Who wants to go to Paris with me? This is not a required family vacation. This is a spontaneous(ish) opportunity and if you want…
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Guatemala: Day Two
(Will you be patient with me if these posts take weeks?) It’s another senior season of BUSY. My first baby boy is about to graduate and I cannot allow myself to spend too much time pondering that just yet. And, if you’re counting, that leaves only TWO kids in high school. Our numbers game is weird lately. Back to Guatemala though …. You read about the first day here. I promise I won’t do an eight day play by play. Well, I don’t PROMISE. But – we’ll see. When we left Antigua to make the second part of our journey to where our main stay would be at San Juan…
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Guatemala: Day One
It seems I’ve hardly stopped moving since our plane ride from Guatemala ended and London picked us up late that night at the Greenville airport. (Pretty sure I sat behind Pedro Pascal on one of our flights. I mean, okay. I’m not pretty sure. I’m just pretend sure. It looked like him. Sort of. I can’t explain why he’d be flying economy with me, but not all choices are explainable.) I’ve wanted time to think about my experiences – time to let all that we saw and all that we did and all that I thought to filter through. And maybe it has. The truth is that time is simply…
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friday afternoon thoughts.
When I started composing this post in my head, I was in a MOOD and all of the ideas in my mind were very very funny to me. I think the mood has passed. Of course, that mood was likely induced by the physical funk I am still in post-Guatemala trip (I came home with a lovely sort of head cold type situation) as well as the fact that we all three have just hit the ground running as soon as our plane landed in Greenville. Bergen and Piper have had school and work and I have had the same. I plan to share lots of trip photos and thoughts…
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here we go …
Well February came up real fast on us now, didn’t it? Over the last few weeks I have: Lived life with five teenagers. Readjusted to having London home again as she begins local college classes. And by readjusted, I actually don’t really mean that. I love having her home and she’s been a fabulous help – dishes and meals and driving siblings. But that late night college life schedule is hard to curb once you’ve gotten a taste for it. And it does NOT partner well with a thirteen year old. Or a forty nine year old, to tell the truth. Created a gallery wall in my house that I…
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you can’t call it a mid-life crisis.
I doubt I’m living until I’m 100. (And I’m mostly okay with that.) So I can’t fairly call All The Current Feelings mid-life related. In fact, it is possibly precisely because I recognize that I am no longer mid-life that I am feeling whatever it is I am feeling. Were those sentences helpful? Doubtful. Flannery O’Connor said, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” Same, Flannery. Same. I’ve been waking up in mid-night with these thoughts. I’ve been missing sleep with these thoughts. I’ve been preoccupied with these thoughts. I have a senior again this year. Third row straight. And I’ve been…
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the winter feels
The thing about winter in South Carolina is that it’s not all that different from fall in South Carolina or spring in South Carolina, weather-wise. And that makes me sad. I need some snow. A crisp breeze. A forecast with low temperatures. A chill factor. I know I have chosen to live in the wrong part of the country to achieve these simple winter goals but I am not able to alter that course currently. You know what month is not my favorite? This one. Or February. Both. I have two months that are not my favorites. But here we are anyway. I like starting things. But being in the…
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Going to Guatemala
Guess what word is hard to spell? Guatemala. I’ve looked it up and let autocorrect help me way too many times. I think I finally remember that there’s an E after “guat” even though apparently my brain is desperate for it to be an A. Despite that tricky-to-me spelling, Bergen and Piper and I are heading to Guatemala in February. We have an opportunity to travel with my friend Hannah and her husband and a small crew of other folks we’ve yet to meet. One of the best ways to describe this particular trip is that it’s a bit like a Habitat for Humanity trip except it isn’t with Habitat.…
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that magic moment
Imagine you live in a place where snow is a rarity. Say, South Carolina, for example. And you somehow missed the news of the potential snow and the mad dash of Southerners to grab up every loaf of bread and gallon of milk as if we might actually be trapped in our homes by the snow. So there you are. Blissfully unaware of the long lines and the milk rush and you go to bed like you normally do. Then imagine you wake up, earlier than anyone in your house, and you scuttle around quietly and as you head to the kettle to start the water boiling for your morning…
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The Nomadic Professor: A Timberdoodle Review
You know the routine. This is a sponsored post. I received this product at no cost to test and to review. But that’s the end. The words and thoughts and opinions are completely my own. _________________ Just like ALL of my own life, homeschooling has shifted and changed in the seasons of our family’s life. I only have older students and this year I graduate my FOURTH child and no, I cannot comprehend all of that. So far all three graduates have chosen their own good paths, as they do, and I could write an entire book with my thoughts on the pressures we put on high school students to…
