Tag: family life
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Contemplation
I’ve been a bit fuzzy-brained today. We had plumbers in this morning, which was good because a minor problem got solved before it became a major one. It was something I could have done, in theory, but the First Reader suggested we call in the pros. For one thing, they would be able to spot…
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Force Field Spider
This is a story from four years ago. Sometimes life with teens is richly rewarding in deeply peculiar ways. I miss my girls at the same time I am SO proud of them for being independent. So the story behind the spider in its personal forcefield I was told as I’m getting up one morning.…
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Morning Ambushed Me
I’m sitting at the kitchen table on this Christmas Eve morning, chatting with the Little Man and First Reader, patting the cat or the dog when they come within my arm’s reach. It is a pleasant sensation to be here, now, even if I did wake up far too early. I was out of…
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Happy Monday
I’m sitting here, holding my socks in one hand and coffee in the other… how am I typing, you ask? Well, I keep putting my socks down and sipping my coffee and touching the keyboard and repeating it all very very quickly. Not really. It just feels like that after this weekend. You know…
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Scattered, Smothered, Chunked and
My dear First Reader introduced me to the phenomenon that is Waffle House when I first came to Ohio more than seven years ago now. At the time, the little one nearest our house was his favorite hangout spot. He knew all the waitresses, and soon they knew me, too. They let me to know…
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Parenting is Hard
August is trembling on the brink of existence, and with it comes the end of summer. The Little Man goes to high school, the Junior Mad Scientist is already planning her curriculum for her senior year of homeschool, and the Ginja Ninja is working like a fiend to save up and move out. The First…
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Tempus Fugit
I’m back to chasing the cursor. Once, it was the blank page that challenged me, waiting for the graphite or ink to be spread over it in symbols that could be sounded out into meaningful patterns. Now, it’s the cursor flying across the screen, sometimes backward to correct an errant finger, but mostly onward, ever…
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Mom’s Taxi Service
In years to come, when I look back on this era in my life, I might possibly miss it. Possibly. That’s a bit of a stretch at the moment, while I seem to be perpetually tired, hungry, and exasperated. Then again, I didn’t think I’d miss having wee ones who didn’t sleep through the night…
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Cul de Sacs, Chickens, and Potholes
When we picked out the house we would eventually buy, I only paid superficial attention to the neighborhood. Actually, our primary concern with it was that the house we were buying was on the high end of value for the area and might not appraise at the asking price. Obviously, as we’re living in it…
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He’s Average Height… For a Boy
My blog readers know I have a son, who goes by the Little Man around here. He’s 11 1/2 now, and he’s all boy. I’m not saying that to say anything other than he’s a boy. It’s not that my girls don’t make fart and burp jokes, they do. They just aren’t… well, this morning…
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The Wood Guy
When we moved out into the country and into a rental, it was during a relatively mild November. One of the things about this house we were told early on, and made us happy, is that it had a dual furnace system. A propane furnace for backup, and an “Energystar efficient” wood furnace. Because of…
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When Chaos is the New Normal
The human mind likes routine. We complain about being bored, but when allowed, we tend to do things in the same way. For some people, routines are more important than others. For children, they are very important in setting up behaviors and habits that will last them a lifetime. For good or for bad. Sometimes,…