-
Don’t decorate early – but do buy these early.
I’m officially Team Wait Until After Thanksgiving to Decorate. (It’s fine if we aren’t cheering for the same squad. I still like you.) But I am also officially Team Plan Ahead Shop Ahead Buy Early because – well, mainly because I’m also a charter member of Team I Have A Lot Of Children And A Small Budget paired with my membership to Team I Like To Make Lists and Get Things Done. Which means, if you’re keeping up, that although I never (and I do mean NEVER) decorate before Thanksgiving, I absolutely do plan Christmas before the turkey day trots along. I buy presents when I find sweet deals…
-
Five Finds Friday (jam & friendship & adventure – oh, and a fan)
The last Friday in July? That’s just wrong. funny After the kids attended Camp Wexford – have I told you about that? Okay, I will – they came home wanting to make their own versions of slime or oobleck or goop, whatever you want to call it. (It’s the ooey stuff kids love where you basically mix cornstarch and food coloring and water and it’s slimy and slippery and endlessly appealing to kids.) We had run out of cornstarch and Otto felt it his mission to repeatedly check on the status of whether I had refilled our supplies of cornstarch or not. “Mom, have…
-
Beyond Wildwood: The Way Out — good intentions vs. reality
Oh y’all. I had cute intentions of sitting in a hotel room or at my friend’s house and typing up a little overview of our days so far. Instead, we stopped to see a bevy of friends the first day (stops which were both planned and spontaneous and such a happy mix of it all) that I was too busy driving or hanging out to write anything. And that evening was too perfect to visit with Beth & Beth from the college days that I didn’t want to spend our limited time looking at the screen and typing words when I could be looking at their faces and speaking…
-
Five Finds Friday (incredible sauce & lifetime friendships)
FUNNY Our world is full of funny things. Outside of a store in our little downtown I saw this mannequin with this name tag. FASHIONABLE You don’t have to wear all of your fashion, now – do you? Whatever. I’ll share what I feel like here. I make the rules. (In this tiny square footage, that is. Just here. I make the rules right here. It’s tiny, but it’s mine.) My friend Beth (who named my bag Sean Penn) is a super talented artist and probably a super talented nurse. I say probably because I’ve seen Beth’s art. Her nursing – well, I’ve never been…
-
a picture book of the days.
The days have just been flying by. We have taken great pleasure in hanging out with our friends this week and have tried to stuff the days with fun memories, relaxing moments, rope swings, baking and sharing our town with our out-of-town buddies. And – I find that I am just too tired or too something to write at the end of the day. Please forgive me for resorting to sharing another series of photos. But it’s what I’m going to do ………
-
Retrospective.
I’m home now. (I have been for several days.) The Asheville Girls Party has ceased. There are dirty dishes in our sink (but not because Kevin and Riley didn’t take care of all that. They were amazing- but that’s a post for another day.) Laundry needs to be shifted from washer to dryer. I need to unpack my suitcase and put away the excessive number of clothes I brought with me (just because I could). But it is good to be home actually. I always sleep better in my own crumpled dilapidated bed beside my husband. But it was good to be gone too. Good good good to relax with…
-
Asheville. 40. All good.
I’m celebrating and chatting more than typing and writing today. But here’s a few snapshots of the adventures thus far. We’re enjoying the cabin. And one another. Eating. So many choices. Shopping. Walking downtown streets. Paying a skinny man in a puffy jacket on a street corner to write a birthday poem. Which turned out to be a remarkably beautiful piece of written word. Thinking about trying to convince Kevin to stand on a street corner while I write poems about people and the kids draw pictures for them. Would you pay for that? Sharing old stories about the Beth Babes. Crashing a closed party in a downtown restaurant just…
-
where this day finds me
I don’t know where you are. (Because that would be super creepy.) But I’m cozied up in a cabin in the North Carolina mountains with a hot tub, a box of Crunkles, fluffy white robes, a semi-roaring fire, a newspaper on our porch and four incredibly funny and entertaining friends. It’s New Years. And we are celebrating my long time friend Beth’s birthday – she’s forty! So far we’ve eaten fried green tomatoes and grits. Chatted into the wee hours. Laughed. A lot. Maybe even cried a little. And we’re only just beginning.
-
all around the campfire.
This weekend we went camping. In a tent, eat food you cook over the fire, camping. No showers all weekend, sleeping outside in a plastic covering with seven other people, camping. We loaded up the supplies, drove to Kentucky, met up with Beth and her girls and even had a drop in visit from Gretchen and her family. And the location for the three of us former college roommates to gather was so apropos. We were merely miles away from our original meeting place, our Alma Mater, Cumberland College. (Now renamed University of the Cumberlands, but I hold a diploma from the first name so I’ll call it whatever the…
-
cheers.
I met Beth through church. I forget how exactly. But I think it’s pretty possible that I started reading her blog before I actually met her face to face. Because that happens sometimes. Even when you live in the same town. And attend the same church. What I like about Beth in real life is what I like about Beth in blog-life. She’s funny. She’s regular. She’s real. She cares deeply about her family. She is passionate about seeking God in all things. And she knows what it’s like to home school one kid with a couple more under foot. Now we’re pretty new at our friendship – just a…
Keep Reading . . .
close to midnight/ sisters
just recounting a day . . .
When Buying Local Is So Cute
-
goodbye
Goodbye Beth. Drive safely back to Kentucky. I will miss chatting with you this week, flopping on the sofa after the kids were finally in bed and watching DC Cupcakes and some show about Gene Simmons that was surprisingly entertaining, scooting around town seeing cool stuff and swimming (or standing) in the lake with our many many children. (Yeah, my many many children and your two. I know.) Goodbye Raven. London will miss talking late into the night with you, reading books with you, coloring mounds of papers covered in self-portraits and rainbows and dogs and horses, riding in cars together and just generally enjoying one another’s company. Mosely will miss…
-
continued . . .
Today. Not everything on our list was accomplished. Tears were shed when someone’s head was sat upon and when someone’s neck was poked too hard by a plastic dragon and when someone felt sad that someone’s sister’s neck was injured by someone’s prized dragon and when bedtime arrived earlier than it seemed it should have. But, mostly, it was a fun-filled day with adventure and chaos, laughing and making memories. (And isn’t mostly just about as good as any of us can hope for? Particularly when you are talking about eight kids and two adults.) This morning we took in a Dino Trax show over at camp. This afternoon we…
-
summer.
The summer season seems to be crashing to an end around here. Oh – the calendar still says August. The days are still sticky and hot. But the summer schedule is winding down. Camp ends this week. The School of Keigley will be back in session shortly. A beach trip is calling to us. (The countdown of days is written on the chalkboard.) I always have liked to cram things in at the last minute. I used to study for major college exams the night before. Too many papers were written hours before turning them in to the professor. Birthday cakes are often baked very late on the birthday eve.…
