I’ve been at it again on Pinterest. Usually I avoid it- because there’s only so much I can do- but after a prolonged absence, I’ve been googling and that inevitably leads me to Pinterest. I logged on. I had 938 notifications that I’m not going to go through. For some odd, very, very odd reason,… Continue reading Manic Decorating
My eldest son and I were talking about travel the other day. I think I was bemoaning the fact that I didn’t take a gap year- or, as would have been more helpful personally- a gap decade after high school. My initial college performance wasn’t what you’d call successful. Mostly it was just needlessly expensive when I… Continue reading Life vs The Stuff, or, What I Have Learned From Cats and Bats
I put things off. I procrastinate. I avoid. These are issues I’ve long dealt with, and to be honest, have no idea why they developed into the problem that they have. I don’t remember any adult in my life modeling these behaviors, but I certainly picked it up somewhere. To be honest, the procrastination thing… Continue reading Waiting
I have always liked the song Add to the Beauty by Christian artist Sara Groves, because it seemed to say practically everything I believed about how life was and how it should be viewed, lived, practiced. Which is to say, it doesn’t have anything to do with ease or comfort, but everything to do with… Continue reading Add to the Beauty
I seem to have this weird problem of breaking bones just prior to big life changes. Way back in 2005, at nine months pregnant, I had gone downstairs to check how much water had seeped into the basement- this was a regular occurrence in the spring and summer months in Southeastern Nebraska- the combination of… Continue reading Complications
I haven’t moved often in my life. The extent of my moving experience is dominated by memories of dormitories, which isn’t quite the same thing. Throwing all of your clothes and a mini-fridge into the back of your mom’s Geo Metro is a little different than the lengths one must go to move six of… Continue reading Place
Every year. I don’t get it, but every single year we see the stores gear up for sales that people stand in line for, we see Christmas Trees for sale in mid-November. We see the holiday of Thanksgiving (certainly one of the more poignant holidays, in terms of meaning, that we have) totally skipped in… Continue reading The Futility of the Christmas War
Three weeks back I received a message on facebook (remember that for later on) telling me that our local school board would most likely vote to close down our village school. A little history. Our town had its own school at one time. With the population dwindling over the years, we joined forces with the… Continue reading Goodbye to the Village School
My desk sits in our little front room, and is surrounded on the north and east by windows that look into our front yard. This morning, as I was wrestling with a particularly difficult section of an assignment on diversity, I noticed some movement on the ground outside that north window. There were ring-necked doves,… Continue reading The Blessing of Birdseed
I just came back inside on this rather cool and blustery day. I’d gone out to watch Cliff and Leroy flush the sewer system. Also just to have a chat, because they’re two of my favorite village experts. Cliff no longer lives here, but drives out several times a week to help with assorted town… Continue reading The Storm of ’09
Wren & Starling 