Ordinary Life

In July 2010 , we celebrated Independence Day on Harbor Island and the kids attended Baby Bootie Camp to get ready for new baby sister Riley.      At Bootie Camp, we learned to hold babies, give bottles and change diapers. There were fun foods and lots of shower games, too - like Baby Food Roulette, Baby Sculpting and Bottle Races to list a few. These pictures brought a smile to my face, it is one of my favorite memories. I am grateful for my children and for the times we got to share. 

I looked around the room with grateful affection for the people present and a tinge of sadness over those notably absent. After 43 years, the guest of honor was retiring, exchanging his pulpit for an RVangelism crusade.  (You can retire from church, but never the call.)  The last-minute invitation to attend came after church on a Sunday where I'd just  spent the final hymn and closing prayer at my own church rationalizing naps as biblically-required rest. It had been a long week of all nighters and challenging circumstances. The week ahead promised more of the same.  Had they said 'Amen' yet or had I nodded off again? It was that kind of Sunday.  It is hard to admit I was struggling because it is always hard for me to admit that. I can't always put into words where a dilemma lies. If you don't know how to spell elephant, there can't be one in the room, see?  When the low gas light comes on, you can still eek out a good 20 miles if you're lucky - no cause fo...

Just on the cusp of June, no photos were uploaded during that month, only some before and after. Perhaps we were in the car a lot. 2010 National Champions and home education with Wings (EdVenture & Butterfly Observatory) 

  A decade has past and still, there are places that never leave one's soul. Beaufort is one of those places for me and likely always will be. 

Now I lay me... still awake it's Three AM Midnight of the soul  I'm fishing for words fathoming depths only imagined I cannot anchor here,  Do not wake my love I pray... Keep moving on. 

Same old, same old song, new melodies interwoven... You're not here It's better that way And also, no  it isn't. I watch a low-budget movie We are in it. We are everywhere When you disappear I tell a friend that I have been Both May and cold December Himself,  an August Eagle circling nearer  me He is as far from you as I can get Better or not, we agree It's how things have to  be The movie says Grenen is a land between two seas. Quick embrace on shifting sands, before you fade into you and I flow back to me. Read About Grenen here:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenen  'Same Old Song' by Iron & Wine: 

  'Just friends' will do. 

Ten years ago in April, Tyler Johnson turned 14. We'd not seen him since he was 12 and his biological dad agreed to let Tyler's stepdad adopt him. Before this year was up, we would halt our plans and move across the river, back to Georgia, where I would add Tyler to my homeschooling line-up and a new installment of 'As The Family Business Spins'  would begin.  My children now have a stepmother of their own and though we've only briefly met, I  understand the auxiliary nature of my role in Tyler's life better than before, but also the importance of being patient and kind. Tyler has a mom, whom I didn't try to replace  and a bio-dad  I tried to encourage to step into place...  but, in the end,  my willingness,  the trying,  the birthday cakes and hair dying -  now lay buried beneath the lie  that it was not his dad but I  who tried to erase the chapters he was written on As he now hopes to erase me.  Theory: Make the cake yo...