Spice of Life

I just finished reading Of Mess and Moxie by Jen Hatmaker (it was awesome by the way).  One of her last chapters is called Rewoven .  She tells a story of a precious handmade baby blanket that was viciously destroyed by the dog and how she took the tattered bits to her mother in law and asked if there was any way she could piece it back together.  She didn't want a brand new handmade blanket but the same one that her baby girl had been sleeping with.  Sure enough, it was lovingly put back together and was even stronger and could now be washed in the machine!  Keep this little story in your mind... You may know of the trip I took to CA with my two oldest kids recently.  It was amazing, such a priceless time of family bonding and relaxation.  At the beginning of the trip I was able to see my Dad.  Quite honestly, at first I was very resistant to the idea because he insisted that he see only me, without the kids but my uncle talked me into it (and ...

In the last week I found out that at the end of May I get the great pleasure of taking my two oldest kids out to California to visit my family.  It's been over 8 years since I've been and that long since I've seen my Granny.  I've seen my cousin and her son since then when she was able to visit us in Seattle but it's been too long nonetheless.  I am beyond excited to be able to see my dear family and to see the ocean...I could cry!  At the same time that I am feeling so much excitement and anticipation I have also been feeling anxious and upset at the prospect of possibly seeing my Dad.  If you don't know my story with him, in a nutshell it's been a very rocky 30 years.  We've had our ups and downs but in recent years he stopped speaking to me.  Last year I decided to write some letters to him with the knowledge that he would likely not respond.  It was therapeutic and healing but also very difficult and painful.  If I do see him, I have no i...

I went to public school from Kindergarten to 12 th grade.  I can only recall one teacher that I really didn’t like but for the most part they were all great and I enjoyed going to school.  We have found that our son has difficulty with traditional school, he has experienced bullying as well as frustration with learning.  He also seems to have what appears to be horrible “luck” with the schools he ends up at.  In Seattle he had an awesome Kindergarten teacher and then when he went into 1 st grade his teacher was on the verge of being let go and his class split and added to two other classes (larger class size, NOT GOOD).  The community raised enough money to keep her on staff…yeah, something definitely wrong with that.  Then when he went into 2 nd grade there was a teacher strike, so he started about a month late and eventually started falling behind…so we pulled him out and home schooled until we moved here to Michigan.  His first year here (2 nd ...

I was inspired last year to begin a new tradition.  Rather than coming up with a New Year's resolution, I would think of a "word" for the year and my word for 2017 was "Present".  I wanted to be more present in life, more specifically with my children.  I decided I would put my phone down more and be with them, more present in conversation, more interested in what they were telling me and more active in their play.  My mom got me this bracelet that I wanted for Christmas and it will forever be a daily reminder to me of not just my word for 2017 but something I want to do every day and every year. This past year as I tried my best to be more present I noticed some things about myself.  I noticed I'm not as patient as I want to be, I get annoyed easily (too easily) and I'm WAY too serious and not as fun as I wish I were.  So I decided that my word for 2018 would be "fun", more specifically that I want to be a more fun mom.  I want to...