Tag: Family

It’s dribble time!

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Cricket started basketball camp today. I’ve been to countless soccer, t-ball, and football practices, and at least that many swimming lessons and soccer, t-ball, football, and basketball games with Miss Tadpole and Bubbles. Basketball camp is a new one, though.

Gotta love it when they ask at the last possible moment. Cricket brought me the sign-up form at 8:00 a.m. this morning; camp started at 9:00 a.m. It’s fifteen minutes from our house to the school, and I was still in bed.

Apparently he’s been getting tips from the older two – Bubbles had me help him with a homework assignment the other night and waited till 9:30 p.m. the night before it was due to get me what I needed to help.

Kids. 😀

Do your kids participate in any extracurriculars?

(c) 2017. All rights reserved.

You’re only fourteen once

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It’s Miss Tadpole’s birthday today, and she is fourteen. It’s hard to believe that – it seems like just yesterday when we met.

Seymour and I had decided to take the kids bowling. We thought introductions would be less pressure that way; they arrived first, and Bubbles and I arrived a few minutes later. They invited us to bowl with them and we accepted. We had a blast together, and afterward, she invited us to have supper with them.

Completely her idea.

I’ve been thinking more and more about those early days lately. They seem so long ago, and yet…not. I swear it was just yesterday that she walked up to me, tugged on my shirt, and said, “My trouble name is Tadpole Mary Kauffman.”*

And if I’d have smiled any bigger, I think my face would have broken.

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So have a happy birthday, Miss Tadpole – you’re only fourteen once. Before you – and we – know it, you’ll be fourteen no longer.

*name changed to protect the silly

(c) 2016. All rights reserved.

Today I’m thankful for…

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…in no particular order:

  1. A functional washer and dryer.
  2. All the caffeine.
  3. Good health.
  4. The best husband in the history of marriage.
  5. Cherry pie.
  6. My friends and family around the world.
  7. Wonderful writing groups.
  8. A job that pays the bills.
  9. The car that gets me there (and everywhere else).
  10. Bad jokes.
  11. The small load setting on my new washer, because sometimes you just don’t have enough socks to do a large load of whites.

    Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I hope your day was full of family, food, and fun!

    (c) 2016. All rights reserved.

    Uh…

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    It’s been a whirlwind weekend full of family, friends, and fun. If you’d seen me, you might have mistaken me for my dear departed kitty cat, Shadow:

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    I feel like I’ve been all over the state this weekend, but it sure was fun, and I have a slew of things to write about in that favorite moments book I bought.

    What about you – how did the weekend treat you? Are you ready for Monday?

    (c) 2016. All rights reserved.

    Favorite moments

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    wp-1478542669369.jpgYesterday was not a stellar day. I was grumpy. I don’t know why I was grumpy, but I was, and it seems to have carried over into today as well. Then again, today is Monday, and if that’s not reason enough to be a little grumpy, then I don’t know what is.

    Anyway.

    Yesterday afternoon, we stopped in at Staples while we were out running errands. I could spend a small fortune there, if I had one to spend, but I behaved myself yesterday and confined my purchases to two. One of them I’m already regretting – it’s a file folder, one with multiple pockets for storing lots of things. I bought it to keep Bubbles’ school things in, mementoes of each grade he’s completed. The problem is that I can’t fit everything in it. I can’t even fit all his preschool stuff in it, and it’s not that there’s a lot of it, it’s just big. Really big. His first grade folder alone is probably bigger than the file folder I bought to put it all in.

    Maybe I should have invested in a box.

    Anyway.

    The other thing I bought was a journal. I really don’t need another – I have two or three that I haven’t filled yet at home, plus a whole shelf full of ones I have filled – but this one called to me. It’s called “Favorite Moment a Day” and that’s all there is to it. Each page is lined. There’s room at the top for the date, and then it says, “Today’s Favorite Moment:” with plenty of room to write.

    Or at least, there might be plenty of room to write if I’d have printed instead of writing in cursive. People always remark about how small my writing is, but my printing is even smaller than my cursive.

    Anyway.

    wp-1478543452363.jpgI thought it would be a good purchase because it’s small enough to carry around in my purse, and I want to start looking for the good in each day. If I have a place to write down some of that good, maybe it will start to outweigh the bad I seem to focus on so easily. For instance, despite yesterday’s lack of stellar-ness, I did have a pretty awesome moment…

    Ten things

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    With Labor Day now but a memory, I feel it’s time to kick my blog back into high gear. And by high gear, I mean posting more than once a month.

    Because, you know, I’m a writerly type. And writerly types write.

    Right?

    Right.

    Okay, then. It’s been a while! I’m still trying to make my head stop spinning after the whirlwind that was my summer, which I truly can’t believe is over already. It’s true what they say – the older you get, the faster time passes. And with that in mind, here are some of the ways I spent my time this summer:

    1. Camping. A lot. Camping includes, but is not limited to, swimming, tubing, hiking, fishing, playing cards, roasting marshmallows, grilling, and touring maize mazes, nature centers, petting zoos, and museums.
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    2. Not writing. I’m finally starting to feel the ideas…

    A letter to my son

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    Today, I send my darling baby boy out into the big, wide world. Next year his little brother, Thumper, will follow him, but I don’t want to think about that just yet. For now, I’m just trying to get through today…

    Dearest Cricket,

    I cannot believe you’re starting kindergarten today. It seems like only yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital, home to the proudest big brother and sister this family has ever seen. It seems like only yesterday that you started walking, started talking, started sleeping through the night.

    It seems like only yesterday, but of course, it wasn’t.

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    It was six years, one month, and twenty-six days ago. Hardly yesterday, and yet it doesn’t seem like it was so very long ago. How the time flies!

    You looked so grown up this morning as you headed out the door in your new school clothes. Your rockin’ Ninja Turtle backpack looked almost as big as you as we walked down the driveway to meet the bus, and your hand in mine felt so very small.

    But I know you’ll be fine. You’re in good hands. You have a fantastic teacher and a wonderful school, and I know you’ll have fun. I know you’ll talk my ear off when I pick you up tonight. I hope you’ll stay excited about school, because today is the first of many first days for you, my boy, and I hope they’ll all be as much fun as this day. I hope you’ll make lots of new friends, the kind that will stay with you for thick and thin through the rest of your life.

    Most of all, I hope you’ll never forget that no matter how old you are, you will always be my little Cricket. I love you, buddy.

    Love,

    Mommy

    How did you handle your kids leaving for school?

    (c) 2016. All rights reserved.

    Adventure time!

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    Can you believe June is half gone already? It seems to me like school just ended. Hard to believe that was two weeks ago already. At this rate, my little Cricket bug will be heading off to kindergarten before I know it!

    *counts weeks left of summer*

    Only ten weeks left. That’s not nearly enough summer! 😀

    I had great plans for this summer. Plans for writing and querying. Plans for camping and adventure. Plans for fun. But after a spring filled with revisions left me sapped of my writerly mojo, I haven’t written a word in weeks. So what have I been doing?

    Well, I have been camping. Twice, even. We had an adventure at the campground pond this past weekend, and an adventure in an antique store on our first camping trip. Said antique store had a calligraphy set, complete with a pen, four nibs, ink, and instructions for several different calligraphy styles, for only a dollar. I’ve taken up the pen a couple of times, but with less-than-stellar results. I can’t wait till I have more than a half hour at the very end of a long day to get in some practice. 🙂

    I’ve listened to birds singing, cats fighting, and thunder crashing. I’ve seen roads washed out and rivers raging. And I’ve read a couple of fantastic books.

    Yes, books. Glorious, wonderful books.

    I’ve always got something to read with me, but it’s been a while since that something was a book. And not just one book – two books! I’ve read two books in the last two weeks, and it’s been a very long time since that happened last.

    Oh, you want to know which books I’ve been reading? Very well, then… (Please be warned: mild spoilers lie ahead.) 🙂