Laughing at My Future

The students working diligently. So proud of them. Today was our first day of school. Olivia is in 7th grade, Cecilia is in 5th, and Micah is in 3rd, and my goodness is this. mama. tired . No matter how much planning goes into the year, each school day has its own ebb and flow and even the most successful of days can drain a mama at times. Or a dad. Or both. Feel encouraged yet? No? Okay, let me start again. This will be my eighth year of homeschooling one or more of my kids, and to be honest, I'm pretty sure if I were to tally it up, I have logged a lot more failures than successes. In the day-to-day, and even sometimes year-to-year operations, I have spent many a day feeling like I just needed to put myself in timeout for an undetermined amount of time until I could come out with a better attitude because Lord knows I certainly wasn't helping anything when my tantrum over long division matched theirs! (Look, sometimes it's healthy to admit your occasional {read: freq...

Photo Credit: Terri Corbett 2020. Wow. This year took the turn that no one saw coming. Life has been flipped upside down on all of us, and left us questioning, reprioritizing, and altering every aspect of our lives. Being forced to define what is and isn't essential - or rather, having someone else's definition of that forced upon us - has caused most of us to see our lives with a whole new set of glasses. And honestly, I hope we never go back. I hope we never go back to forgetting just how vital our first responders and medical community are.   No matter how you feel about the necessity of certain medications, vaccines, or practices, we have seen these incredible people putting their own lives as second priority in a spotlight they've never before been given. Modern medicine has become a crutch, and those in the field have moved into something we barely give second thought to, let alone take time to appreciate and even more, actually thank.  We as a society have taken for ...

I've come to discover that the most frustrating thing in the world as a writer isn't necessarily a flat-out writer's block, but rather having a zillion words in your mind and the complete inability to get them down on paper. I can't tell you how many countless times this has happened to me in my book-writing journey. In my mind, I've practically finished, not just the book I'm currently working on, but the entire series! On paper? On my computer? I think I've succeeded in putting down maybe 25,000 words, tops? (For reference, I've found the best way for myself to make it through the editing process is to submit a manuscript that is between 85 and 100 thousand words.) So yeah, I'm not making much progress. And it is driving me insane! This year in our homeschooling, all three of my girls are at a charter school working with their teacher for a solid 3 hour block every single week. And at first I didn't even know what I was going to do with mysel...

  This is my Olivia Jane. She's almost 10, and most of the time has more energy and excitement than a solid dozen of me. My sister-in-law and I used to say that she could be enthusiasm for hire. Sure, when we're in the middle of adding and subtracting fractions, or that dreaded long division, she's not necessarily that happiest of children, but let's be honest here, not many are at that point. ;) In general, though, this girl is the personification of " joie de vie,"  or "joy of life." Sometimes it's aggravating, but in general, it's inspiring. My incredibly talented sister-in-law shot this. You should check her out! www.crystellemariephotography.com Enter the "tween" years, and all the fun life lessons that come with them. All of the sudden, my sweet, happy, tender-hearted girl has discovered meanness. And don't get me wrong, I'm not only saying she's fallen victim to it, but she's also turned it around on o...

There are many popular terms circulating these days describing friendship or a group of one's close friends - tribe, village, squad, and I'm sure several others that I'm not hip enough to know (or use - fam, anybody?). My preferred term these days is tribe. If you follow me on social media, you see it a lot. Ballet tribe. Mom tribe. Homeschool tribe. And you know why I like to use it? Because for me, it's the most accurate. When I think of the word "tribe," I think of a large group of people, some related by blood, but all related by location, purpose, and life itself. They work together to support each other, help each other succeed, celebrate wins, mourn losses, and laugh through the tears in the nitty gritty. They go to war together when something or someone is trying to invade one of their own, and together they fight (in whatever capacity they're able to) until it's over. This  is what tribe means to me, and this is why I've chosen it as my ...