A Year of Firsts

Rediscovering magic in the everyday.

family

  • Summer Check In: 8 months

    If getting through January is like watching concrete dry, then August is like pouring honey into a cup of tea; it’s golden and sticky and sweet, and while it looks slow and lazy, it disappears way too fast.  I can’t believe school is starting here in just a few days (I know it’s already started… Read more

  • Death on Vacation

    It’s been challenging to write weekly over the summer. Partially because my daughter is home with me everyday and alone time is more scarce, and also because my brain is constantly boiling and after using it for the non-optional tasks, there is not much left. And yes, I do have AC, but somehow while that… Read more

  • Big Spring Project

    Of all my firsts, my big clothing drive was the biggest, and I just finished it. It was a massive commitment. I started collecting in May, and finally delivered the goods on June 21. This all started because I thought it would be fun to host a book swap with some friends, get some free… Read more

  • Knots

    I remember my dad packing a bunch of something in the back of a truck with me. I don’t know if it was one of the many times I moved, or a vacation, or some other occasion where I was moving a bunch of stuff from point A to point B. He would remind me… Read more

  • Tangibles and Intangibles

    This week, my husband pointed out that our kousa dogwood had its first ever blossoms. Several years ago my mother-in-law, knowing that I really wanted one, came to visit and presented me with a long stick with a root ball that she had placed in her trunk. When I asked her what it was, she… Read more

  • Evolution of Grief

    This week has been a hard one. I saw this picture of the evolution of grief. It’s just meme psychology, of course, oversimplifying something really complicated. But the idea I liked was this: grief never really goes away, but we build our lives around it and learn to live with it. In this book on… Read more

  • Spring Check-in: Four months

    In February, I posted a two month check in so I decided to try that again. It was a nice mile marker for me. I used to really love doing my annual review at work. Not necessarily for the accolades, but I always enjoyed the exercise of reviewing my goals, writing down what I had… Read more

  • Stories from Earth Day

    This week was the 55th Earth Day, and aside from some fun social media posts, and participating in my annual Town Wide Cleanup for the 3rd year in a row, I didn’t think too much about it.  The town clean up is an “on your own schedule” affair, with the town providing bags, rubber gloves,… Read more

  • Heavenly Birthday

    This Sunday, during Easter celebrations, my Dad will celebrate his first heavenly birthday, turning 77 on the other side.  Fitting in a lot of ways – he passed on Christmas Eve, the day before the holiday of birth, and his birthday is on Easter, the holiday celebrating death and resurrection. He was a lefty, so… Read more

  • A Legacy of Just for Fun

    This morning I was getting River ready for the bus, doing a few items on my own to-do list, and mentioned I was thinking about what to write today. River knows I love writing, and that I do it all the time, and she is aware of the blog, but hasn’t read it.  Without missing… Read more