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How To Afford Adventure (When You Don’t Have a Fat Income)
There was a time, a very tiny sliver of a window of time, after college and before the onslaught of adoptions and births, that I was living in a two income, two full time employed people, home. Two incomes is a pretty sweet deal. Especially when the two incomes were both fair and generous and the debt ratio was…
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the plan we’re living . . .
Sometimes I know I can be a sub-par mother. We continually go to bed without taking the time to change into pajamas. I forget to have my children brush their teeth, especially in the mornings. That shower after swimming rule (and shower before swimming rule) has never been enforced strongly at our home. The kitchen lives in a perpetual…
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weekend rambling
Here’s what I have for you – weekend thoughts, as discombobulated as my life is. (And it’s not even been an especially busy weekend or an especially discombobulating couple of days. Go figure.) The smell of scones has been ever present for the entire weekend. (It’s a delicious smell, for certain, but I don’t want to consume any more…
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Five Finds Friday (good and bad drinks and one of my favorite novels)
This week has been less speedy, but not less full. Maybe it was the rain. The rain sloooooows me down. I’m sure the boys’ tomato plants are grateful for the rain, but it’s not my favorite thing. In the end, though, we made it to Friday . . . . funny This week we made iced…
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I see you ……
I knew when I saw her, ran into her in the bank. I was leaving, she was entering. I knew then, that she was being brave. That waking up that morning, assembling a coordinating outfit, that was bravery. When I looked into her eyes, I saw the carefully placed eye liner. That was brave. Have you lived that kind…
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garden variety hope (that isn’t actually garden variety at all)
For what is most assuredly the first time in the past two years (and longer), I feel something quite foreign to my heart. Something I am terrified to touch, something that scares me and thrills me and makes me long to stick my head in the sand instead of look it square in the eyes. I think it’s called…
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Our Next Road Trip — And Your Helpful Ideas
This summer (or spring still, technically) we’ve got a gigantic old road trip in our future. I heart road trips. I like it all, really. The driving. The planning. The seeing stuff we’ve never seen. The seeing stuff we saw on other road trips. Stopping at our favorite traditional stops. Car games. Singing (the same songs)(endlessly) in the car.…
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What I Got To Call “Work” Last Week
Remember how I told you that Hannah told us to watch this TV series called The Kindness Diaries on Netflix? And how we did and then I told you guys about it? Right after starting the series, I saw a flyer and a Facebook post saying that the chap in the show – Leon Logothetis – was coming to…
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Five Finds (a funny video, a weird shirt, a delicious cake)
I’m not even going to say it this week. Birthday weeks are fun. My life is time-consuming – to me and to the other people living near me and brushing around past me here and there. I sort of think I should offer a blanket apology to all of humanity that comes into contact with me. It’s like my…
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Local Beowulf Class: My Girls Loved It, Maybe Yours Will Too
Even though my official piece of paper declares that I have a degree in English and Theatre and Communications (it was so hard to choose), I am always looking for opportunities for my children to participate in the arts in memorable and challenging ways. I know that, even though the deepest core of my home education philosophy is reading and…
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From One Gigantic Number to the Next: Happy Birthday Bergen Hawkeye
Today my oldest son turns twelve years old. Twelve years since I hugged his wee baby self in a hospital room in Virginia. His Monday night birth caused us to miss Riley’s third grade recorder recital. A recorder recital. With twenty third graders. Playing their plastic recorders. (And Bergen’s been bringing good gifts like that our way his entire…
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Why The Success of Your Marriage Matters to My Kids
On Sunday we were honored to have brunch with a dear family and two sweet friends. Laughter was as abundant around our scratched farm table as was the delicious food. (Quiches and a Dutch Baby. Homemade whipped cream.) And it wasn’t just adults making adults laugh – the kids, ten in all – were engaged and charming and full of…
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Five Finds Friday (when kids dance for a star)
Every Friday I am a broken record. What? Where did the week go already? For our house it’s been a week of driving back and forth to theatre camp – goodness, a daily morning and afternoon commute requires a great deal of gas. (A truth which the rest of America already knows, I assume.) I believe I prefer staying…
