• wedding anniversary card tradition
    Family

    Wedding Anniversary Card Tradition

    My husband and I have started a new wedding anniversary card tradition. Instead of buying new cards for each other every anniversary, we are reusing the same card year after year. Every year we will take the time to write a note to each other in the card, making sure to date each note so we don’t have to look back and guess which year it was written. I suppose you could implement this wedding anniversary card tradition with two cards or share the same card. Either way, the point is to keep an ever-growing collection of anniversary notes all in one place.   I’m fully expecting that after decades of doing this,…

  • best sound in the world family laughing in orchard
    gift and learning

    What is the Best Sound in the World?

    What is the best sound in the world to you? I have been thinking about this question lately. I’m curious to know what you think is the best sound in the world. If you had to pick only one sound, what would it be? Is it the sound of the waves crashing against the shore? Is it the sound of a cat purring? Is it the sound of your baby’s first cry after being brought into this world? Is it the sound of “I love you” coming from your partner’s lips? Is it the sound of rain coming down on your roof? Is it the sound of your name being called as you walk across the stage to…

  • inner tubes on a beach living in the moment
    Family

    The Magic of Living in the Moment

    Editor’s Note: I originally wrote this post 3 years ago. However, I’ve been trying to spend less time on my phone lately. Or at least be more intentional with the time I do spend on my phone. So far, the least amount of average time I’ve spent on my phone per day is 2 hours. Most of that is work-related, but plenty of it is simply idle scrolling, which doesn’t bring a whole lot of added value to my life. Since this topic has been on my mind and there are a whole bunch of new readers in the last 3 years (thank you!), I thought it would be a…

  • sunset over rock wall halcyon
    Family

    Halcyon

    Halcyon, when used as an adjective, denotes a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful. Isn’t that lovely? The word is pronounced hal-sē-en (hal-see-en). I ran across the word halcyon in two different books last week and did not know what the word meant when used as an adjective. When it is used as a noun it refers to a bird. One of the books was a children’s book, so that prompted me to pause and question the depth of my vocabulary. How many words DO I use in a day? Also, this is the second time I’ve read this particular children’s book out loud to…

  • wedding picture from 1999
    Family

    What We’ve Learned About Our Marriage While Quarantined

    Handy Husband and I had an insightful chat about what we’ve learned about our marriage while quarantined during the Covid-19 pandemic the other night. I was cutting his hair, so I had a captive audience to discuss all the observations and mushy feelings that had been floating around inside of me the last 49 days, 12 hours, and 47 minutes. Before you think this hair cutting thing was an act of desperation while quarantined, I can assure you it was not. We cannot blame quarantine on how he looks because I’ve been cutting this man’s hair for over twenty years. I’m pretty sure even before we got married he asked…

  • happy birthday cake happy birthday handy husband
    Family

    Happy Birthday Handy Husband

    I’d like to take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to wish a very happy birthday to Handy Husband. In case I haven’t made this abundantly clear, this blog would not exist without Handy Husband’s support behind the scenes. It is his technical skills that keep this blog online. My brain has no desire to handle all the programming that is required to keep a website running, so I’m thankful that he handles this aspect of the business for me. It is also his DIY skills that give us 93% of our blog content. That’s a wild guess at the percentage. It’s probably closer to 99.99%. He has no…

  • online learning during pandemic weekday quarantine schedule
    Family

    Our Weekday Quarantine Schedule

    We are following a loose weekday quarantine schedule during the Covid-19 pandemic. Why? Since we are staying home can’t we cut loose when it comes to schedules and routines? The urge is there. Trust me. However, our household seems to function a little better with a bit of structure. Plus, things still have to get done while we are staying home. Handy Husband has to “go” to work. The kids have to “go” to online school. Blog posts need to be published. Oh, and we all need to stay sane. Minor detail. Here’s a glimpse into our weekday quarantine schedule. 6 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.: DON’T BUG MAMA HOURS My…

  • playground fun humor break
    Family

    April Fool’s Day Humor Break

    Does humor get you through tough times? It certainly helps me! Today I’m digging four years (!) into the archives to bring you an April Fool’s Day humor break. These stories, taken straight from the mouths of my little babes, still make me laugh. HUMOR BREAK #1: ACRONYMS ARE TOUGH (originally posted here) My daughter and son were playing some sort of game. I don’t know what it was. I just know they weren’t fighting and they had created costumes. These costumes involved using eyeliner to draw whiskers on their faces. The point is THEY WEREN’T FIGHTING. My son’s character (I’m fairly certain he was a cat) suffered a tragic…

  • middle school lockers
    Family

    Last Week Before School

    My kids start school at the end of this week! I can’t decide if this summer flew by or was unbearably slow. Maybe a little of both. I’ve decided that in a mother’s mind, these two realities can exist at once. And that’s okay…as long as it doesn’t drive her completely batty. And look how little my son used to be. Time really must be flying because I swear he was just 4-years-old and now he’s going into 4th grade! AGH! To that end, I’m taking this week off to spend time with the kids, so that I will really, really miss them when they head back to school. Plus, I…

  • Family

    That Time My Son Broke a Window

    It was bound to happen. The only thing that surprised me was that it took almost 9 years to occur. Since we’ve moved out of our rental and got our security deposit back (because priorities!) I can now tell you about that time my son broke a window in our house. It was what happened AFTER the window broke that has me wondering who learned more from this situation: him or me? How did my son break the window? With a ball, of course. *sigh* He threw a ball in his bedroom and with either extreme accuracy or supremely bad luck he launched that ball through a window. Now, in his…