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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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chipped nails and stacks of mail and practicing my mom skills all over again
Those are two things that bother me. Stacked mail.Chipped fingernail polish. The mail, staring at me and demanding that I take action, makes me feel like I’m running behind and will never catch up. As I type and I see the bits of pink and bits of gray on my fingernails because I thought – this time, this time – I will paint my own nails and keep up with their maintenance. It’s difficult to keep it all together, even in the summer when keeping it all together is less structured and requires less effort. May and June were busy little months, full of trips and drives and graduations and…
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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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five finds friday (berg keeps being funny, trip highlights and delicious drinks)
Without school to guide me, I just don’t know what day of the week it is. Also – side note: I can see that my Mailchimp subscribing idea is not working correctly. I see that it sends you an email but the mail contains nothing. No link. No post. Just annoyance. I’m angry at Mailchimp. And I want another idea or option so I’m going to start working on that. After the ranch. Or something. In the meantime, if any of you know a better mass mailing/subscribing option, I’m all ears. Better yet – if any of you want to magically make that happen, I’ll pay you – in London…
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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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five finds friday (shower curtains, carnitas, earrings and how I’m either denying reality or crying – so little in between)
This season has been like a tilt-a-whirl of emotions. For everyone at my house. We’re tired. We’re emotional. We’re wrapping up a few things and it kind of feels like May wants to smother us slowly and there’s so much celebration and good planned but it’s also tangled up with bittersweet and uncertainty and sadness and what does feel a bit like the universe shifting for some of the people I love and live with. funny This week Mosely came out of the bathroom and said, “Your shower curtain fell down.” And she was right. It had. At some point I assigned the fixing of that situation to Bergen. When…
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a couple things …
I just finished reading Jane Eyre for the 19th time. (At least.) I just adore the novel. Every single time I read it something new strikes me. I see it with different eyes. Remember the cool Literature Odyssey I was planning to take my students on last year? The one that was canceled when everything for everyone was cancelled? We’re reinventing it a little bit. It’s a teeny bit less literary (because so many of our spots in Massachusetts are still closed) and that hurts my literary-loving heart. But it’s also still really fun and (Lord willing) will take place in June and involves seeing wild ponies. I’m just excited…
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spring madness. it has descended upon us.
Distracted. Unable to complete tasks I begin. Unmotivated. Moving from one space to the next. I remember feeling this way at the end of my senior year of college. (Probably my senior year of high school too but that’s so very long ago.) This is what spring and right now looks like at my house. We’re all just barely holding on. This is a picture of my car. It is where I sit sometimes when I want to be alone or have a private conversation. I call it my office. I’m ready to pull the plug on assignments and what difference does any of it make anyway and it’s getting…
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Scrunch Map: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a review post. Timberdoodle graciously sent me a free product in exchange for a review. A review that is always my own, honest and hopefully helpful. _________________________________________ If it says map, I’m probably interested. I like maps. Of any kind. For as long as I can remember, this has been true. I loved the gigantic car Road Atlas my dad kept in our maroon station wagon. I used to pick up every free map available from the rest stops on road trips. I love spreading them out over a table, mapping my route by tracing my finger across the roads. I like looking at the options and thinking about short…
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Q Bitz Solo: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a review post. Timberdoodle graciously sent me a free product in exchange for a review. A review that is always my own, honest and hopefully helpful. _________________________________________ Not everyone in my home loves games as much as Otto and I do. (This is a genetic tragedy I am still trying to get over.) (He and I have been playing Monopoly Deal steadily since Christmas. We’ve kept a running tab and so far he has beat me 34 times.) Because of this flaw in our family dynamic, often I look for games that can be played both with siblings or solo. Q Bitz fits that bill. (I mean, it…
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evening thoughts or why I can’t get it together this month
Two weeks before Christmas I started a bathroom remodel project. It was supposed to take two weeks. Maybe even finished before Christmas. The mirrors were hung this week and the towel hooks are in place and it’s April. So goes everything in my life. (Side note: I adore the finished product and couldn’t be happier with the whole shebang. It was worth the wait.) Last week was Break Week and I didn’t even come close to finishing my long list of MUST DO items. I think the only mantra in our house lately has been the one that has all of us looking at a clock and exclaiming, “Are you…
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parenting advice: for you & me
Get help. What does this mean? I don’t even know. And, it’s too vague to be actually helpful. But also. Get help. We cannot solve all of the problems our children have. I mean, we aren’t supposed to exactly be solving their problems anyway – but sometimes that lands in our laps as well. It’s more like I can’t meet all the needs. Why on earth do we think we should be able to do that? We can’t do it in any other area of our lives, why would this be different? We outsource all kinds of resources for our jobs and our lives. I happily hire folks to haul…
