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two decades. the last was the growing up. the next will be the growing out.
Because I’m an extensive note taker, journal writer, daily recorder of stuff, I am frequently aware of how many months something has been happening or what day such and such an event occurred or what we were all doing thirteen years ago on January 23. (Of course, pair this with the fact that I frequently forget where my phone is and what I told the kids they could do when school is finished and that’s a more whole picture of who I am.) At any rate and back to the point at hand. This blog has been circulating for more than one entire decade. And with this new year being…
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five finds friday (ukuleles & queso)
The task of motherhood is a full time one. Anyone who has been a parent and anyone who has been a child knows this. And yet, not any of us, stay at home parent nor 80 hour work week parent, actually has a full time schedule to commit to that one role – the role of parent. This has been a week of full on parenting tasks. Swinging back into school routine is painful for all of us. Add in lengthy allergy appointments and big teen discussions/decisions that always occur late into the evening and work deadlines and it’s a sweet little recipe for exhaustion and frustration. I thought I’d…
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Looking Ahead.
Somewhere around the beginning of each new year I haul my children to some place pretty and force them to talk about last year and next year. And if they aren’t chatty, I force them to listen to my monologue. Whatever. This year it was rainy and drab and we didn’t explore a mountain view as we usually do. We headed to a pretty little coffee shop with a wide open space and a light and airy feel. This year I did more than plan a talking session. I printed what is called a Dream Guide from Jennie Allen’s website. It’s a helpful tool to enable you to look back…
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five finds friday (superstore, fly fishing, sloppy joes)
I’m going to take your word for it that it’s actually Friday. Alright? I can’t seem to get the kinks worked out of this blog lately. Some updates need to happen, I thought I handled them – I don’t know. I just know that when I share these posts on Facebook the photos are not appearing as they should. Right now though, I’m just shrugging my shoulders and wishing it would all get square on its own accord. funny When I like something I tell everyone I know about it. Is that an enneagram type? Often I am guilty of telling you about it at least four times. It’s a…
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current plans. current mood.
The holiday schedule makes me feel as if I’m back in college. I’m staying up too late. I’m regretting it during daylight hours. I’m pretending I barely need to be responsible. I’m eating whenever I feel hungry instead of at routine intervals. And I’m eating when I’m not hungry at all – just for fun or for community or for flavor or for the sound of a crunching chip while I read a book. At night, I’m shoving stacks of clean, folded laundry to one side of the bed and sleeping right beside it – classy. This is what 46 looks like this season, apparently. It’s this in between week…
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hi.
Hi. Remember me? This is the season where I’m up late and I’m up early. Where my body will likely pay the price for my actions and my lack of sleep. Where the kids and I are hustling and bustling between This and That and The Other. Where I think about my mom and this little black notebook that she carried in her purse to record what gifts she bought for which kid and it seemed sort of silly to me back then but now I know why she needed a book. Because it’s Too Much Information. Overload. Do I have the items to stuff each stocking equally? Have I…
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Chasing the Christmas Chain
I don’t know how long it’s been. Probably since kids were tiny. Those little countdown calendars of some sort, you know. Nine years ago the format shifted from adorable and quirky to a low budget paper chain. And paper chain it has stayed nearly a decade later. Like EVERYTHING currently, it is more and more difficult to find daily time to chase the tradition. But if you know me, traditions matter A LOT, so chase it we must. The kids still all look forward to it, even those teenagers, so I’m willing to make it fit and work it out and do what we can to keep the chain going.…
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holiday tears: doing the best we can
It’s always unexpected. And yet. It’s right on time. It was an average Sunday morning. Not one of our better ones. Call it holiday grumpies or the price of too many late nights or the stress of getting it “all” accomplished, but the atmosphere at our home was anything but cherry and light. Bells weren’t ringing and chestnuts weren’t roasting. Attitudes stunk. I was pretty confident that I was doing my part to raise what might be the world’s most selfish children. I also felt the need to let those children know their trajectory toward that end goal. My sprained ankle made it difficult for me to take a walk…
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five finds friday. (the driving. the giving of thanks. the funny video. the perfect measuring cup.)
I have a friend with as many children as I have who are all at about the same ages as mine. Sometimes when we see one another, we make eye contact and we don’t even have to open our mouths. We just know. Life. Is. Busy. It is full. We spend HOURS of our days in a gas-guzzling tank of a car driving someone to something. It’s where we are. We aren’t complaining. We’re just – tired. It is a literal part time job to drive our prodigy to and fro. It is a line item on the budget to foot the bill for the gas for all the back…
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Colorku: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own. ________________________ Oh goodness – this is a pretty one. And I know that isn’t the goal of this game or product or educational tool. (I don’t exactly know how to categorize this one.) But I’m also saying – it’s so cute. The colors are beautiful. Just look at it. It’s called Colorku. I keep wanting to call it Color Sudoku because that’s what it basically is. If you’ve ever…
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she’s right, he knows her name.
It was maybe three weeks ago when we woke up to faucets that wouldn’t turn on. Water that wouldn’t flow through our pipes. We didn’t know it at first, but it was an issue with our water pump and we had to replace the entire unit. (Which is hidden deep down inside our well.) That weekend Piper and Otto had gone camping with our friends and they were just returning, all campfire and dirt smelling. Piper wanted a shower. But there was no water at our house. There had been none for hours. She talked about how she just wished there would be enough water for her to take one…
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holiday links.
If you have any plastic cash or actual green bills after Black Friday, I’m going to make a list here of some ways you can spend what’s remaining. Full disclaimer – yes, everything I share here can help me earn plastic money and genuine money as well. Most of it in rather tiny ways, but we all know how piggy banks get filled – one coin at a time. Let us now commence my pretty much shameless plug here for all the ways I use side hustles to foot the bills for my family. (And let me include a photo here so you can see how tall and cute these…
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parenting reminds me I need Jesus
I wish that I had a couple lives to live. Maybe then there would be enough time to learn from my mistakes. To change the course. To turn the tide. Maybe then I could see the storm before it hits, predict the lightning before it strikes. It turns out, parenting is just another experiment. And, when you get some hindsight, a little distance in the race itself, certain aspects become more clear. But you’ve already turned the corner when you realize you could have taken a different route. It’s a frustrating reality. This bigger picture. This scope. And the longer I parent alone, the more I realize that single parenting…
