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A Little July Celebrating
For oh, I don’t know, THIRTY years or more (actually, a few more than thirty) I have been celebrating July Fourth in one very specific location and in one pretty traditional manner. July Fourth, for the majority of my life, has meant a trip to the farm in Virginia. Last year all the things were cancelled and so staying home was the way July Fourth went down. This year, due to a month-long cross-country trip by the patriarch and the matriarch, and also a gall bladder being removed from same patriarch, July Fourth at the farm was once again a no-go. Did I weep when I heard the news? I…
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this little moment.
I cannot fix the world. Sometimes I don’t even want to try. But I think I can help (kind of) fix six little parts of the world. Six small stones that have the potential to have ripple effects on the surface of the water of the world. They share my last name (or did, pre-marriage for one of them). And my window of time is shockingly small. But recently, I had this gift of a glimpse of a better way. I was cooking in the kitchen and quietly listening – and storing it all up, feeling like Mary more by the minute. (Not in some holy way, mind you –…
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the weekend ramble (for a weekend that did anything but ramble)
This weekend hasn’t rambled at all. In fact, not an ounce of my life has been slow lately. Or quiet. Our house has been a cacophony of hammers and drills and walls coming down and decks going up and progress. It’s all very exciting and all very exhausting. I’m so grateful for the wide range of talents my friends have. And for their incredible generosity in sharing those talents with me and my family. Early on, my friend Hannah said she’d love to help me rebuild our deck when we moved in. I knew it would need repair before long and I really wanted a larger deck if possible.…
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Five Finds Friday (a town takeover & a blanket no-one needs (or do they?) & a tv show that I just love too much)
I think I missed last Friday’s post here. What was I doing instead? I can’t even remember. But here we are again – all Fridaying it up, you know. FUNNY This has been a pretty funny week. And I am ALL for that. I’m giving it the thumbs up and everything. The kids have created a town in the woods. They’ve organized it precisely, divided it equitably, have a currency and a governing agency that has been voted into existence. They aren’t messing around, guys. They adore having friends over and building new residences and hospitals and stores. (By the way, coal currency is king in…
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sunshine & apples
And some days are just so full of sunshine. Isn’t that the way it is – the rise and the fall and all the in between? Yesterday my dad breezed in the way my dad does. And – in a more planned but no less exciting manner – a sweet family friend joined us last night for a few days of good times and regular times. Today some really fun things happened: The weather was on point perfect. Some of the kids wore light and unnecessary long sleeved shirts. I wore both leggings AND a sleeveless shirt. (I heart the mild October ways here in the south. My…
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Five Finds Friday (an applesauce recipe, a Kenny Rogers reference, an inadequate list)
FUNNY Our kitchen cabinets currently look ….. kind of out of control. I had several of the kids practice their times tables by writing them in chalk on the chalkboard cabinet doors. There are three sets of the threes times tables and the numbers scratched wildly everywhere are making me feel a little unstable. I should probably erase them tonight. FASHIONABLE All that rearranging and resorting and window seat making sent me searching for fun pillows. How cute is this one? I love fun throw pillows. But they can get expensive. There are lots of really cute ones available on Amazon for under…
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birthdays and broken dryers
A lot of good went down this weekend at our home. The house has once again been redeemed from its brush with Reorganizing and Rearranging With Lacey and the rooms are in basically pretty good order and walking around at night in the dark is no longer a fear-inducing obstacle course. One of my friends with a pretty high tolerance for disorder stopped over during the height of the insanity and commented something like, “Wow. Even for you – this is crazy.” (Yeah, it wasn’t a compliment at all, of course.) School ran pretty smoothly and we are already half way to our first six week break. (Whoever suggested teaching…
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people. loving other people. (and a Grizzly Adams reference)
I think sometimes about disappearing. Moving away into the mountains and going all Grizzly Adams and Sign of the Beaver. Little House on the Prairie and back to the land. You know. And giant and huge parts of me think that sounds so fabulously incredible and dreamy and fantastic and all things wonderful. But goodness – we need community. (And by we I mean more than just my immediate family. I mean the collective we. You and me. Us. Everyone. We.) We were born for community. We were not made to be lone rangers and just me and Jesus kind of people. We need other people. God gave us people. Joys are…
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Five Finds Friday (five)
FUNNY The kids have really been enjoying taking photos lately. And I keep finding gems like this on my phone: FASHIONABLE I know I am partial to this model – but you guys, isn’t she the cutest? She’s modeling this terrific and surprisingly bouncy scarf made by my talented friend at Phoebeflock. And it’s a perfect stocking stuffer, hand crafted and one of a kind. FLAVORFUL For our weekly family movie night we like to eat pizza. Except when we don’t. And then we like to have homemade Chinese food. The last time we fixed our Chinese (ish) dishes we realized we were all out of our favorite…
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what to give a seven year old for her birthday
Knowing that our little friend Hanna was leaving the country soon made the choice of a birthday gift harder than usual. No one wants to receive a toy you can only play with for a month or two before you have to give it away or sell it at a yard sale. And there just isn’t room in the limited luggage for another stuffed animal or book or Lego set, no matter how cool it really is. So I asked Piper what she might like to give Hanna. And she suggested an experience. I loved that idea. Another night of fun, a fabulous little memory, to share with your friend…
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Texas ya’ll.
Texas is hot. It’s also in a different time zone. (But of course everyone knows that – right?) And it’s home to one of my favorite families and my favorite Emma. We have eight kids all together here and we are enjoying the high volume chattering and the endless snack consumption and the book reading and good times. We’ve been using incentives to encourage them to clean up – like offering them tokens that they can later exchange to buy popcorn with toppings for movie night. The boys ended their baseball seasons this weekend and we were able to watch a couple of games and see Colton wear his official…
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A Weekend Round Up and A Tiny Music Giveaway
So much happening in the past few days. An overload of fun and friends. Some long time buddies trekked it over from Charlotte and we all met at our favorite apple orchard and picked apples – en masse! The next day our family loaded a bunch of those North Carolina apples in the car to share the love and drove to the peach state. We enjoyed dinner with some sweet and generous friends. (Truly. We live in a wealth of blessings to have so many kind and generous friends.) The kids stayed with them whilst Kevin and I ventured into the big city to meet our pals Nate…
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In the Heart of the Country
You know how much I love Virginia. We had this idea to share the love a little. And so we invited some friends to trek it up a few states and experience Virginia with us. Sadly, really truly sadly, not all of our buddies could make the journey up this time for a host of reasons. But one family was able to drive down that gloriously long driveway with us and bask in the beauty that is The Farm. I don’t want to gush too profusely – I love my friends who couldn’t make the journey with us too much for that. But I will say this – it was…
