Keiglets
The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.
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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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five finds friday: dutch babies & my babies all grown
It’s Friday and it’s already December and I guess that is just how it’s going. Our tree is up – about a week early, breaking Keigley tradition in order to be sure London could decorate with us. But I have liked having the cheerful lights and the happy ornaments in the living room for an extra week. It’s been so long since I have written a Five Finds post that I think I’m out of practice. (I had to look up what each of the five Fs were!) But you know what I am NOT out of practice doing? Giving my opinions. And that’s basically all Five Finds Friday is.…
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Five Finds Friday (touring college and of course – boots & tea)
This week was fasssst. And pretty lovely and pretty regular and there was a golden conversation with the most wonderful of humans and there were long hard stares directed at me from teens and there were jobs that got checked off to the to do list and a major frustration financially and a car battery that died but a dad who bought a portable recharger and it was the kind of week we all lived – up and down like the ocean waves. And here we are – FRIDAY! funny I like teenagers. And I like raising them and being around them. And I like laughing about them. And you…
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… a new dinner option
May was a blur. Finishing up school for five kids Wrapping up teaching at Meadowlark. Graduation. A wedding in Texas. A drive to the ranch and back. The ranch itself. And I guess now it’s time to get serious about All The Other Parts of My Life. So it’s Monday and I’m plowing along, digging out of a hefty influx of emails in my inbox, fighting the urge to only do Fun Summer Things and resisting the desire to Read All Day Long. I’m still struggling through the ins and outs of this silly Mailchimp Subscribe situation – but I think I’m getting close to solving it. (Thank you for…
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Five Finds Friday (Lost Valley Ranch Version)
We’re home. So many car hours under out belt. I rented a Suburban for this trip (because I didn’t trust my own to make the many thousand mile haul) and therefore I was Solo Driver despite having three teens who have the ability to shoulder the load. (Maybe next year I’ll risk our old Yukon just for the back up drivers.) Anyway, we’re back from the ranch and I’m going to try to share a Lost Valley version of the Five Finds Friday. I’ve thought of that idea for two whole seconds and here I am typing as I think and we’ll all see how it plays out. funny Laughing…
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afterwards.
Well who even knows where to start? A whole bunch of a lot of stuff happened in the last few weeks. I’m sitting on my porch, enjoying the new and improved twinkly lights that accompanied graduation on this porch a few Fridays ago. Our school year is complete. I homeschooled a sixth grader, a seventh grader, a sophomore, a junior and a senior. My teaching at Meadowlark is done, for now. I finished my third year as a Writing and Literature teacher. I’m going to sincerely and deeply miss my students but next year I won’t be in the classroom. I’m not finished with education. I’ll still be on the…
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soundtrack of my mind
I live with the relentless steady beat of the sound of time passing. I am never not aware. This is not hyperbole. Is this awareness a gift or a curse? Yes. When I think, “Oh my word. I never sleep alone. A kid is always making their way into my bed at some point in the night.” The next immediate (actually simultaneous) thought is, “Who cares? I will be sleeping alone so soon.” When my daughter stays in the bathroom so long at night that I cannot brush my teeth before bed and I think, “When will I have the bathroom to myself?” My instant response is – SOON. As in, two seconds…
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Five Finds Friday (teen drivers. the first egg.)
This week kind of felt like a million years long because we did ALL of the subjects for school and worked hard to get up on time and to be regular contributing members of society. It’s hard, y’all. funny Two parenting tasks that rank high on my list of Least Favorite Parenting Tasks are potty training children and teaching teens to drive. Fortunately, I’m all wrapped up with one of those but still right in the middle for the other one. This week Bergen got behind the wheel. He buckled up. Adjusted his mirrors. Then asked, “The brake is the big one, right?” Jesus, take the wheel. fashionable This week,…
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five finds friday (why I’m sticking around for fridays and shows that make me laugh)
You know what’s discouraging? When you type a whole post and then your son unplugs the internet connection and your computer doesn’t save what you typed. That’s a bummer. Also, it’s a bummer when you are so old or distracted or tired or distracted or distracted that you honestly can’t recall the words you typed mere minutes earlier. I think I said something about how I really don’t know how much time in this new year I can commit to writing in this sweet space because I really do want to finish that book. And how Ruth, my writing coach, said that it will be hard and that I will…
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Bergen Hawkeye, HomeLife, Keiglets, London Eli Scout, Mosely Ella Claiborne, Otto Fox Wilder, Piper Finn Willow
teens. parenting them.
I feel like I haven’t talked about too many hard things over here lately. I think it’s because – they’re all hard things. This year has been full of hard things. And yet. We’re all okay. At my house. In this moment. We’re okay. Nothing is currently on fire. You know what I mean? Everything feels hard. And nothing is really that hard. That’s how cliche extreme my brain feels lately. The teen years are vastly different than the toddler years. (I mean, sort of. They’re both years where some kid is always hungry. And where some kid always needs you. But just – differently, you know. Teens are messy…
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The Things That We Keep Doing
It doesn’t matter if I am suffering from writer’s block or insomnia, if the laundry gets finished or the meals are full of protein and vitamin-rich choices. Whether those things happen or those things don’t happen, Life Keeps Marching Along. Last weekend Saylor turned one. We celebrated with cake and streamers and sunshine. We drove to the beach for a day with Hannah because she’s moving to Kentucky next week. (I found my first sand dollar and the waves were the calmest I’ve ever seen.) I convinced Beth to finally get the Marco Polo app so we could keep up more quickly. The beautiful mural in our town is officially…
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Five Finds Friday (last first day, a giant sweatshirt and tomatoes)
Oh it’s Friday? I didn’t know. funny I was opening my car door and I noticed the side pocket. What’s in that pocket made me laugh – and kind of offers a snapshot of my actual life. A knife. Because – safety and preparation. You just never know what the future holds. Bubbles. Because – fun. Lotion. (That almost never gets used). Because – in theory I’d like to have soft skin and smell nice. In reality, I just can’t seem to make those things a priority, even when I put the lotion directly in the car. Cleaning Wipes. I’d say because of the current situation we’re all wading through.…
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five finds friday: at home edition
I just wanted to bandwagon every celebrity and make this an at-home edition of my regular Five Finds Friday post. Except, of course, it’s always the at-home edition since I live and write from home. I mean, usually I do all of that. From home. But sometimes from coffee shops or outside somewhere. But this week everything is exclusively from home ALL THE TIME. This week has felt, like all of yours I’m sure, very long. A giant glass bottle of lotion broke on the tile floor yesterday. It smelled amazing and the shards of glass didn’t hurt so badly when swimming in lotion. At the beginning of the week…
