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writing without a plan. (rambling, in other words)
I had a web hosting snafu this week and the blog was down and out for a while. But I’m all back now and I think I have a plan. (It was actually very comforting to receive the texts and messages alerting me that my blog was unavailable. Made me feel loved by you guys, knowing that you read the words and click over to this space. Thank you, friends.) I’m a little here and there with a handful of loose ends these days so I don’t have a stopping or a starting point tonight as I write this. Last Sunday we had baptisms at church. Man. I start to…
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Hiking With Kids: John Rock Trail
Last week there was a funk permeating our home. The reasons were multiple and included but were not limited to strep throat for one, an infection for another, a handful of extra editing deadlines for me and a schedule with a bit too much Go and not enough Stay. Midweek we had a little Family Meeting (complete with The Rolling Pin That Allows The Holder To Speak) and we refocused our efforts, made a list of what we could Say No to, added in a Family Night of movies and pillows and pasta fagiole and we all left the table feeling a bit more hopeful with the promise of a restful…
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Five Finds Friday (fourteen)
I think the weeks are passing by too quickly. It keeps being Friday before I am ready. This week it’s all about the photos. I just scrolled right through my recent photos and let them be my guide to this week’s Five Finds Friday. FUNNY This girl is funny. She’s been adding in clever accents and witty banter and good timing with mildly snide remarks. What can I say? Sarcasm is my love language. (Also. This photo is stand alone funny as well.) FASHIONABLE It’s definitely still winter here. But summer is a-coming and hotel pools are still an option when one is on a road trip or whatnot. So…
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just a tad too raw for comfort
When the encouraging words aren’t there, sometimes I just type all the bad ones. (and there are so many bad ones, you guys.) At the end of the day, when I am sitting under my yellow blanket and staring at the screen, there are times that I just see a lot of empty. And I write blog posts that will never ever see the light of day. And maybe I talk to myself. (Just a little.) There are days when I cry. And there are days when I can’t even remember what I would be crying for. Days of Numb and days of All The Feelings. It’s all so much…
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How to Create Family Nature Notes
Yearly traditions are fun. They are a kind of glue for a family. The holiday traditions — Christmas Eve pajamas and Books on the Bed. The quirky traditions — The Wildwood Snow Day Policy and Pizza & Red Kool-Aid Night. (This was a recent repeated celebration. It’s our family’s celebration of the first day Riley ever lived with us. And yes, it was actually what I served that six-year-old for dinner for her first meal at our home. It was before Pinterest, you guys. I was working full time. Shoot, it was before the iPhone. Whatever. I gave the entire family red dye (and I have once a year since…
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telling it again and again
Over the past few weeks I’ve seen this idea pop up many times. The idea that it is in the retelling of a painful story that some of the pain can be eased. The idea that with more and more tellings of one’s darkest stories that the distance between the experience deepens and the hurt lessens. On our last visit, Sherry reminded me that when you can tell your story without crying, you’ve made progress. It’s so important to have friends and people with whom to tell your story. It’s why sometimes you find yourself telling your story to complete strangers – like a practice round or something. It’s why…
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Five Finds Friday (thirteen)
I kind of cannot believe I’ve been doing these little Friday features for this long. I’m pretty sure I still like doing them. Are you guys pretty sure you still like reading them? FUNNY Otto still has his blanket friend. You know – Baby Timmy. Uncle Douglas created a new way for Otto Fox to keep Baby Timmy close by. (Maybe this should go under “fashion” instead of “funny”.) (And. You don’t have to tell me. That blanket looks ….. gross too loved.) FASHIONABLE Have you ever heard of Title Nine? I don’t know why their catalog appeared in my mail once upon a time. But it did. And I…
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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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why i wasn’t planning to write tonight
Last night I slept about four hours. I mean, it was the perfect combination to sleeplessness. Piper was not feeling well. She was quarantined to the living room just in case and there was no way that little blondie would have made it through the long night flying solo in the living room. We just have the one sofa. The one sofa upon which the eight-year-old was lying. The one sofa that is not an extra long sofa, but a sofa of more moderate lengths. At first I sat there, working on some editing projects, feet tucked up under myself, quilt on top of both the Willow and the Mommy. It…
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sleep education
I love how when you are teaching homeschool and you are studying one topic in particular, you hear references to it throughout everything else you are reading. (It’s sort of like when you buy a new car or get a new pair of shoes and you think you’ve never seen them anywhere before and suddenly they are showing up everywhere. Or if you are on a road trip and you just lost at the alphabet game because the word “antique” was only on one sign during the last two hundred miles but after one person wins then you see signs at every exit for quilts and quizzes and quarries. What…
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a little weekend whatnot and such
Some seasons of life feel like they are rolling through via slow motion. Some do not. Right now everything feels a bit like Fast Forward with the windows rolled down and the radio turned up really loudly. It’s not bad. That’s not what I’m saying. It’s busy. That’s what I am saying. (And. I know it can change faster than I can flip to a new radio station. So there’s that.) This week we had a handful of fun family moments that really should each have their own blog post. (Who knows? Maybe they still will.) My brother and his family are visiting from New Zealand and I cannot get…
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five finds friday (twelve)
FUNNY I hope that funny kids grow into funny adults. I think they will. We have such an amusing and varied group of friends young and old that I don’t really have a heavy dread of raising a gaggle of teenagers simultaneously – in fact, I think it could actually be (gasp) interesting and fun. Talented and creative young family friends such as our buddy Travis remind me that “teen” is not a curse word and that clever ideas begin early. He helped create a great video for one of our favorite local restaurants – Sidewall Pizza. Watch it. It’s all things promising – a community business partnering with a…
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For the Love: A(n audio) Book Review
So all of my friends are going to stop talking to me soon because I say the name “Jen Hatmaker” too often in conversation lately. For years I’ve told myself that I don’t have time to listen to audio books just for me or to listen to podcasts just for grown ups. And for years that’s kind of been true. But lately, as my Littles morph into Bigs, I find myself here and there standing in the kitchen alone. Folding laundry in the bedroom by myself. Baking cookies when no one else is around. How did this happen? I don’t know. They tell me it will keep happening more and…
