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holiday season. not for the faint of heart.
Some nights you complete a puzzle at 1 am with your daughters and you know the price everyone will pay for staying up so late but you also know the moment is necessary and worthwhile, has value and importance. And that’s the horse you are betting on. Some nights you head to your bedroom and a boy and a puppy are cuddled into your space already and you know that it is Gift Enough for the moment. Navigating holidays in divorced families, blended families, step families, broken families, dysfunctional families is like walking across a room strewn full of Legos barefoot at 1 am in…
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A New Deal – not like the FDR kind, just like the regular kind
This is an affiliate post. Well. It’s a post I want to be an affiliate post. I’m going to tell you about a website and if you are interested and sign up like I did, I’ll get a kickback. That makes it an affiliate post. I guess. End of disclaimer. __________________________________ It doesn’t sound like it should work. I don’t even know how long it will work. But, currently — it does. It’s a website that offers discount codes and deals on Amazon. Maybe you already know about it. (I’ve never claimed to be first at much of anything. Not in a race. Not in discovering new music or…
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weekend ramble (Christmas edition)
Our house is a hodge podge of Christmas lights and furniture shoved in the wrong corners to accommodate an outdoor tree in our indoor space but it’s our first Christmas at The Burrow and we are not complaining. The interior temperature is appropriate and comfortable (even though my dad says he still thinks it’s cold) and we all have had such fun embracing the holiday in our new home and even Otto is known to walk through the house with a happy sigh and to announce to anyone within earshot, “I love our new house.” The tiny dog is balanced on top of a stack…
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five finds friday (long weeks, podcasts, fresh flowers)
It’s been one of the more hectic weeks at our house in recent history. Can’t even recall exactly why. Also, this week we must have set some record with terrible customer service – from the UPS guy who ranted at my fourteen year old daughter and literally said the words, “You order too much” to the Wal-Mart employee who would actually not get off the floor from the sorting task she was doing to help ring up my purchase. Also. My computer charger died. That’s an annoying (and expensive) problem that has to be solved sooner than later. Ugh. But the weekend is practically here and it’s time to…
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Things People Say
People are weird – right? I mean, we love them and we ARE them, but people say crazy things. I do it too. I open my mouth and words spill out and sometimes I do not even know what those words will be until it is very much too late. (I have friends, by the way, who NEVER do that. Maybe it’s personality, enneagram number, more self control – I don’t know.) When I was living with many small children, there were frequent comments and stares. Things like, “Are they all yours?” “Are you running a daycare?” “You’ve got your hands full.” Actually, I still sometimes get a…
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the week(end) ramble — holidays are hard and they’re beautiful
There were no published words last week. So you might imagine I have a lot of stored up words for right now. And that’s kind of true. I used good old pen and paper and hand wrote quite a bit the last week. It was satisfying. Maybe those ramblings will find the light of day. And maybe they won’t. Holidays make me feel all sorts of things and some of that stuff I like to share and some of that stuff it’s better if I don’t. Being divorced has not stopped being hard. That brokenness is never more evident that when a season demands and promotes traditions…
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five finds friday (pickle flavored cotton candy & charcuterie)
All week long the only thing I have thought is – sunshine. I need sunshine. There’s been endless rain. So much endless rain. funny This week two different people sent me a photo of pickle flavored cotton candy. I don’t even really like pickles all that much. Although I do love cotton candy. fashionable Tis the season for beanies and sock hats, toboggans and woolies. Or whatever you call them. Should I try the beanie with a hole cut out for your ponytail? flavorful It’s everywhere. I know it’s not exclusive to any one person or to any one restaurant…
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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…
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weekend ramble (why daylight savings time is my enemy and some fireplace advice)
My brain is not engaged in any sort of holiday mode. And yet, Thanksgiving happens NEXT WEEK and we all know it’s just a fast rolling downhill snowball to Christmas and the new year right after that. But that’s alright. Like all things, it’s coming whether we are ready or not. I do love traditions though and Thanksgiving and Christmas sure do hold an awful lot of good ones. What I do not particularly love about this time of year is that blasted time change. You. Guys. When it gets dark before I have even started getting supper ready, I feel the need for hibernation. I loathe…
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five finds friday (not enough photos and a funny tv show and hand art)
Friday is happening, whether we are ready for it or not. I never finished Tuesday’s To-Do list so what does that mean about my week? funny Sometimes I like to watch a silly show that makes me laugh. Remember for a while I was stuck on Kimmie Schmidt? Now it’s a show called Single Parents. It is nothing like any single parenting I have ever actually experienced. But. Every now and again it almost sort of is. Better than that though, it’s just funny. fashionable Last week (I think) I asked if any of you had ever clicked on a Facebook ad and ordered…
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Fishing and Uncles and The Video Proof
They talk about it all the time. Otto wrote a short story about it for his class. Fishing. And, in particular, fishing with Uncle Danny. My two sons have an obsession. And Uncle Danny is like a rockstar. And he lives on a lake too – which wins big bonus points. So when the opportunity arose to get those two young fishermen casting their lines into the water with my brother, we each got in our cars and drove to the TN line and exchanged a couple of wide eyed, big grinning fellas for a couple of days. My heart felt a…
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Bullet Journals. Thoughts & Ideas.
I’m a planner kind of girl. I couldn’t tell you the last year I lived without owning a planner and using a calendar. I’ve researched planners. I’ve purchased one planner in January and bailed on it by March, paying the cash again to buy another, more useful one, before spring. I’ve stood for a literal hour at Barnes & Noble, holding various options, considering page texture and page weight, placement of dates and the layout of weeks. Does it have lines? Are there spots for weekly meal planning? I have so many opinions (and not just about calendars but everyone already knows all that). One of my favorite go-to…
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A Grove Giveaway, A Question About Dish Soap (is there a correct way to apply it to a sponge?), and a Cute Red Caddy
This post is sponsored by Grove Collaborative. I’m going to share my thoughts and my experiences completely and honestly, but it is an affiliate link. It’s Saturday and that’s not a day I traditionally post. But then I received a reminder from Grove* that it’s a giant giveaway weekend and it ends on Tuesday and that just doesn’t seem like enough time to make a decision so here I am, making a Saturday post. Plus, it’s a REALLY good one with the absolute best scents so if you have never ordered Grove before, this is FOR SURE the time to do it. (These make such great gifts too…
