HomeLife
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard
-
Exhibit A
So lately Maggie has been boldly issuing demands and challenges from her blog. She even claimed that her spouse was the most lovable of all spouses and encouraged her pals to make glowing lists about their own husbands’ incredible attributes on their own blogs. The two Sarahs made endearing lists about both of their beloveds. But those girls are newlyweds after all. Instead of a list, and because I like to buck the system for the mere sake of bucking the system, I offer you instead . . . a photograph. Let’s call it Exhibit A. This photograph features a little girl’s Barbie doll wearing a pair of home-created sandals.…
-
You Tell Me
Is it wrong to dress your children in Run DMC and Rolling Stones t-shirts if the shirts were on sale for 75 cents at Target? I drew the line at ACDC. A girl’s got to have standards – right?
-
Friday Morning
Yesterday morning I broke an unwritten Keigley household rule. I turned on the television first thing in the morning. Let me ‘splain. Because Wilder had eaten breakfast off his normal routine, Kevin had already left for work before I was able to take a shower. I really wanted a shower. “Hey guys? Who wants to watch Curious George?” You might call it poor parenting – I call it buying a half hour of my life. My aspirations actually reached beyond the cleansing shower. I had just purchased some eyeliner (don’t tell Riley!) and I wanted to experiment. While in Virginia Emma had given me brief instructions on applying eye liner.…
-
Just What We Need
What do the Keigleys NOT need today? New brakes on Kevin’s Tahoe? No. We needed those. And purchased them this afternoon. Groceries? Actually, we do need these. There is neither milk, bread nor bananas in our house currently. How about a new puppy? You’re right! We do NOT NEED a new puppy today. But guess what we picked up and carried home this very afternoon? Yes. A new puppy. A beautiful twelve week old chocolate lab puppy. Magnus. (Middle name yet to be determined, although it must contain a reference to The Beatles, as all of our other domestic pet names have.) It was free, after all. And registered. A…
-
Oh Virginia!
After each bathroom break and after every question of “When will we be there?” you begin to question whether the drive is worth the effort. But then you pull in the farm’s driveway. The air is sweeter. The trees are shadier. The breeze is breezier. Yeah, it’s worth every squabble over a crayon, every fast food meal indigestion, every mile and every hour on the road.
-
Wishes
Mosely came running in from playing outside. She approached her older sister cautiously. “Riley, do wishes really come true?” Riley hesitated and glanced in my direction. I just smiled and figured I would let her handle this one on her own. “Well, Mosely. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t,” Riley ventured diplomatically. “What did you wish for?” Mosely looked skeptical. “If I tell you my wish, then it definitely won’t come true.” “Actually Mosely,” Riley said, “Sometimes when you tell someone your wish, it can actually come true. Like if you tell Mom and Dad your wish, it might come true.” Smart kids. Sometimes wishes come true. Sometimes they don’t.…
-
A Rose By Any Other Name . . .
Is it really true? Does one thing become another thing if we use a different word to describe that thing? (That sounds complicated.) Because here’s a word I would rename. Prison. I’m thinking about calling it by another name. I’m thinking about calling it . . . vacation. Yeah. Vacation. Three meals a day. Not prepared in any way by my own hands. And if I am really contrary, those meals will be carried to me in a private, quiet room where I sit alone on the only piece of furniture available. A bed. Time set aside with regular consistency each and every day to exercise. And a facility in…
-
Wee Little Finnian Facts
Tonight, even as I type this, Piper Finnian is sleeping in her big girl bed. A bed without walls. A bed that does not mandate containment, but merely suggests containment. Wait, did I type “sleeping”? She is not sleeping. At last check, her lights were on. I have corrected that situation and now we will proceed to see how the night breaks down. In other Piper news, she learned a trick from her friends Mandy and Jody. And it’s really cute. She lies down somewhere, anywhere, puts her hands behind her head and says in an exaggerated sigh, “Lax”. (Which means “relax” you know.) Oh and she can also drink…
-
What You Want
One morning recently London approached me and out of the blue stated, “Mom, God just doesn’t do what you want.” What? “What do you mean?” I asked. “Well, last night I prayed for God to shut the door and I waited and He just never did it.” I didn’t laugh. Because I didn’t think it was funny. I thought she was right. Sometimes God just doesn’t do what we want. Period. I didn’t try to convince London that God does do just what we ask. Because I don’t think that’s true. And she is young, not dumb. I didn’t try to explain that her demand was illogical. Because to her,…
Keep Reading . . .
Oh hi. It’s me.
books that work their own magic.
parenting reminds me I need Jesus
-
The Day For Fathers
First. My Father. When I was a kid I thought my dad had the same super powers that every kid thinks their dad possesses. You know, eyes forever roaming the world that can quickly pinpoint ME hitting my brother across the back with my Cabbage Patch Kid. The Long Arm that could reach all the way into the backseat of the station wagon while driving the death-defying curves of the back roads up the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Disappointed Look when my report card comments revealed the classroom sins I thought I had kept hidden. The Ability to Magically Produce Money out of the air when I really wanted…
-
Maybe
So maybe I just didn’t keep up with laundry as well as I should have this week. And so maybe Piper Finnian is wearing the pajamas that she wore last night, because they were conveniently lying beside her bed where I conveniently dropped them (I mean wisely placed them) this morning. And so maybe Bergen just went to bed wearing swim trunks and a t-shirt. And maybe Mosely went to bed wearing Bergen’s Batman underoos, Bergen’s almost-too-small-for-her running pants and Bergen’s little boy white undershirt. And so maybe London is sporting a more classic pair of Bergen’s underwear – the whitey-tighties. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do some laundry. Or maybe not.…
-
Tears, Glorious Tears
At this house, it seems as if someone is always crying. Little Mister Wilder cries when he is hungry. And he cries when he can’t manage to flip his thumb in the correct direction and maintain its position in his own minuscule mouth. He cries at four a.m. and he cries around seven thirty as well. If his diaper change is taking too long, tears ensue. When the food that should stay in his stomach flows out of his mouth and around his head, he cries about that as well. For Piper the tears are born of genuine frustration with her current lot in life. She wants to go outside…
Keep Reading . . .
… typing therapy …
Guatemala: Day Two
Raising Girls: embracing help through Awaken
-
Tricked!
Doesn’t this maple syrup look like a healthier, better for you, version of syrup? I mean, look – there are woods in the drawing on the label and maple syrup comes from trees – right? And this company has been making this sticky stuff since 1889. Shouldn’t that imply quality? Yeah, at least that’s what I thought when I saw it on the shelf at my local grocery store. At breakfast I was reading the back label, something I should have done at the store I guess, and realized that it was just normal old-full-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup syrup. Shucks! I was tricked by a nice label.
