You know that book “If you Give a Mouse a Cookie?” I feel like that’s the way house projects are. You go to do one simple thing like patch a wall and before you know it you’ve remodeled your basement. We’ve lived in our house for almost 9 years now. When we purchased the house, the basement carpet seemed fairly new. Under our tenure, the carpet endured 9 years of wear and tear, 2 floods, potty training two children, and…
I have been wanting to go to Costa Rica for years. I can’t pinpoint exactly what attracted me to the country. I do remember learning about Costa Rica in high school Spanish and thinking it was cool that they didn’t have an army. As an adult looking at traveling internationally for the first time, it helped that it’s a relatively safe and very peaceful country. Being gorgeous and warm didn’t hurt either.
Noel and I ran our first (and likely last) ultra marathon this last Saturday. It was kind of a big deal for us and I’ve also gotten a few questions about it, so I’m going to give the race it’s own post and address a few things.
A few months ago, we were stuck inside on a snowy day. SAD was hitting us hard so we were trying to come up with spring break ideas to make us feel more hopeful about life. The winter blues had us hard though, because even as we tried to dream everything seemed impossible, too far away, or not warm enough to get us excited. Morale wasn’t great. Noel’s cousin-in-law works for Marriott and can sometimes get us discounted rooms. On…
Our big summer trip this year was a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons. We booked our Yellowstone campsite months ago, put it on the calendar, and then just kind of got distracted by other things. When we were debating whether to rent a pavilion for our cheesecake party, Noel and I made a pros and cons list and enumerated the reasons why it was a good idea. One of our biggest reasons would be that our house wouldn’t be…
Author’s Note: Back in January when New Year’s resolutions were all the rage, I set a goal for myself to write creatively once a month. I didn’t care if anyone read it, I just wanted to do it for me. I was successful during the months of February, March, and April, but then fell off the bandwagon. Over the weekend, I went to a writing symposium with my dad. There was a part of me that was not excited about…
Snowy Monday mornings make me long for summer – when children sleep in and no one cries about their clothes. That peaceful reign is distant from today’s anarchy. Bodies collide in hallways, shoes are wrestled onto unwilling feet, both food and clothing negotiations culminate in hysteria. We spill into the garage a cacophony of nagging and whining. Grievances abound until we reach the school’s circle drive – a place of injustice amnesia. Ill will erased, little limbs clamber for hugs,…
“The dead are never far from us. They’re in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air.” ― William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace Today marks one year since Glenna, Noel’s mom, died. The first year was both brutal and beautiful, (or brutiful as Glennon calls it) for our family. I’ve been reading over the posts I wrote in the months following her death…
I’m what some would call a morning person. Ideally, I like to witness the sun’s rising while my feet traverse a trail, relishing the quiet solitude. This personality trait also renders me useless by 8pm. Having used my last energy reserves to wrangle the kids to bed, I can barely muster enough energy to watch television. All of this makes my being here at this exercise dance class at 7pm on a school night a clear deviation from my norm….
Every year I struggle to get into the Christmas spirit and I was expecting this year to be the same. Surprisingly, I’ve been in really good spirits. Now, I haven’t been overly festive or merry, my gift giving skills are sub-par as usual, and our unseasonably warm weather has not carried a particularly Christmasy vibe; however, I’ve felt the true Christmas spirit more deeply than usual this year. The small moments have made the difference this year. It was practicing…