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a little this, a little that
I wouldn’t actually want to live a life that went in a steady straight line. Steady straight lines aren’t really my thing. But this month – this past week – I’ve been bumping and trotting along a hundred little paths. Here are some of those paths and where they’ve been leading: I’m working with two very talented local artists to create a mural on the side of a building in Travelers Rest. I’ve long wanted to bring some new art to the streets of TR. I’m no artist and actually painting a mural would not register in my skillset. But organizing and promoting and gathering the right folks together –…
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weekend ramble. (a weekend both peaceful & productive)
You know you’re old when a little yard work on Saturday leaves you with aching muscles and tired shoulders on Sunday. Sometimes I think about owning a home with ten acres and a manicured lawn and four bathrooms and multiple levels. But then I think about all the work it takes to maintain all that. And I’m content with my single acre and my brick ranch after all. This weekend was a good one. Full of two things I wish every weekend could boast – both productivity AND rest. That’s a win for me. Saturday had us tidying the lawn and trimming back bushes that threatened to grow past the…
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five finds friday (avett. curl cream. views.)
This week I used one of my favorite pens until it actually ran out of ink. I didn’t lose it. I just actually used it to its very literal potential and capacity and now it’s gone. What a good run. Shockingly enough, I also used up an entire tube of chapstick in the exact same week. As in, I felt the need for chapstick. I opened up the tube of chapstick only to discover that it was absolutely empty and every bit of its grapefruitness self had been used by one application at a time over the entire summer. Will you look at that? What a big week – right?…
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That Movie Viewing List
Sometime recently I mentioned that once a week the kids and I have a movie night featuring a movie (or sometimes a show) that I want the kids to watch. These are not the usual just-for-fun films that we find ourselves watching too often. These are movies that serve some other purpose. Many of you emailed or commented that you’d like to see my list. Your wish is my command. (When it’s this easy, that is.) What I have here is a wildly random list of movies and TV shows that have been recommended to me, that I have gathered from other sources, that I’ve occasionally seen that I would…
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Five Finds Friday (Saylor’s reading and Ryder got a haircut)
We’re beginning to find a rhythm to school and to work again. Which, you know, means that some glitch will happen soon. When my kids were babies, it always seemed like as soon as you figured out a good sleep schedule or as soon as baby learned to nap routinely, then a growth spurt happened or we took a trip that threw them out of sync again. It’s really no different with teens and big kids either. But we’ve all made it to Friday so congratulate yourself. funny Saylor has some big plans to shape her life from an early age. flavorful Watermelons at the end of the season are…
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my social dilemma
These kids I live with always want to watch movies. Always. But the movies they choose are primarily veneer, shiny, high dollar sort of films. On their own, it seems they seldom click the documentaries, the historical films, the movies that grow their empathy or their understanding. So I started a family movie night (weekly-ish) where the movies are all entirely chosen by ME. (I have a list. Of course I do. And I’m just working my way right through it.) Last night the list got a new contender and I bumped The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind in favor of The Social Dilemma. (Don’t worry – we’ll make our…
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An Ode to EB White
Classes have fired back up and I have ten students in my World Lit. & Writing class this year. I don’t always follow through on this ideal, but I try to do assignments with my students from time to time. (Not the research papers or critical analysis papers – come on, you guys, I already served my time and paid my dues.) Last week I showed them a famous portrait of E.B. White by Jill Krementz – the wonderful author who brought us Charlotte’s Web, among other enduring classics. Then I assigned them the task of writing an ode to Mr. White, sitting there in his simple space, trying to…
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Five Finds Friday (face cream, Community and Carlos)
The days have been too full and the time has felt too short and I’m beginning to feel familiar again with that line from The Hobbit (I think) about feeling like butter spread too thin over toast. Or something like that. This week I’ll make this list short and sweet because I am currently feeling ambivalent about writing. A word that was a vocabulary word this week for my class. And a word that I always thought meant that you felt indifferent about something. Turns out, the actual meaning is having both positive AND negative feelings about something. (Precision of language, right?) funny Maybe I’ve already mentioned it. But London…
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Five Finds Friday.
Somehow, when the calendar says September, I keep thinking it should FEEL like fall already. It does not. We live in the wrong state for it to feel like fall in September. funny Bergen started it. He wrote, printed and posted this sign. (After acquiring a signature from every family member.) Now there are at least two other similar signs posted around our home. flavorful Long live the classic BLT – bonus points for tomatoes fresh from the garden. fashionable I attended a wedding last weekend. It was fun – for many reasons – but one, because it had been a real long time since I had a reason to…
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mid-week ramble. is that a thing?
Well. It is now. It’s already September and I don’t know anything about anything except that TIME ALWAYS DISAPPEARS. Even when you think it’s going slowly. Our homeschool co op begins this week. Prepping for teaching other kids, therefore, also begins this week. Honestly, that prepping started a while ago. But the routine, week part of prepping is upon us. My home is now officially a Teen House. More teens live here than non-teens. Otto and I are outnumbered. We must join forces to survive. Homeschool is underway entirely. Which means my kitchen table is a war zone all day every day. London is learning that college classes aren’t all…
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Lists: The Only Way I Ever (Sometimes) Get Stuff Done
You know, I forgot. I always forget. How challenging multitasking is when the school year officially begins. I mean, it’s hard always. Multi-tasking. Parenting. Life. But this homeschooling gig is a FULL TIME JOB and I already have a FULL TIME JOB. This week I’ll have FOUR teenagers (and I’ll surely post and whine more about that soon so you’ve been warned I guess). And next week I start teaching other people’s children again on Thursdays and is it okay if I say it again? I ALREADY HAVE A FULL TIME JOB. It’s a lot of spinning plates and if you know me you know that I break the plates…
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five finds friday. (celebrating two years in our home & pleated skirts)
Greetings from Recovering From Sunburn Still. Population: 3. Ah. Those freckles and fair hair are not serving us well currently. funny Finding this on my phone. What is happening??? fashionable It’s so funny how styles come and go. And how, if I had saved most of my clothes from the 80s, my daughters would be in heaven about now. But I did not. Here’s what else is funny. The older I get the less I care about fashion and the more I care about liking what I wear and having fun with my clothing choices. Lately I’ve been obsessed with pleated skirts. Which I assumed were unfashionable because they used…
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Losing Time: The Cost of Spontaneity This Week
Do you ever have one of those weeks where you just feel as if you’ve lost time? As in, you look around you and you have, you know – basically nothing – to show for your days? I mean, it’s not true. Entirely. There’s been the care and the feeding of the folks I live with. There has been work accomplished. A decent amount, I suppose, if I’m really examining it closely. And yet. It just feels like an off week. It started off with a BANG. Maybe a little too much actually. We’re all just paying the price of spontaneity I guess. Sunday it just seemed like a good…
