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December Update
We are four days into December and my de-Grinch-ification efforts are going well. Presents have been purchased, although not wrapped. We have a tree with ornaments. We have candles, Advent and non-Advent. I signed up for the gift exchange at work. ME! The Grinch! Signing up for an extra gift purchase! Am I having a…
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Casey, the Anti-Grinch
My blog is fixed! It was broken for weeks, and I could not bring myself to even begin investigating the situation. I have this blog because I want to write, not because I care about encryption protocols! A ten-minute chat with Bluehost tech support solved the issue. If only I had done this weeks ago.…
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Checkmate
I am still luxuriating in all the space we suddenly have here in this new house. Do you know how many times I used to have to clear the dining room table at our last house? When the kids were home full-time I remember clearing art projects in the morning for lunch, and then clearing…
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Home
For most of my life, home was my mom’s house in my hometown. We moved there right after I turned four. My sister and I spent the next several years building elaborate My Little Pony villages in the basement playroom. I spent hours on my pogo stick in the driveway where my dad parked until…
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Like Molasses
I feel like I am moving in slow motion when it comes to house projects. An example. One of the things that most excited us about the new house was the finished attic space. There is a legitimate bedroom up there, and right next to it there’s a funky, finished room with a skylight. We…
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Piano, Resurrected
I started piano lessons this week. I’ve been wanting to get back to lessons for several years but have hesitated for various reasons. One reason is that for the past several years I’ve also been applying for jobs, and it’s hard to commit to lessons when you have no idea what your life is going…
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You can never go back.
We sold our old house this week. I drove by it on the way to work on Thursday morning–staring at the orange door, knowing it was no longer mine to unlock. I know that house will start showing up in my dreams soon. And it will probably make me dream-cry. Does anyone else cry in…
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Calm Before the Storm
Despite having very confidently typed out that title, I would not characterize the last several weeks as calm. I spent this morning wading through someone else’s junk. We had told the sellers of our new house that we were happy to keep any items that were specific to the house. In my mind, this meant…
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Tips for planning your family trip to Japan
Despite having taken Japanese in college and knowing many people who have been to Japan in the last ten years, I was extremely intimidated by the process of planning a family trip to Japan. But we had an amazing time! We made some mistakes, yes, but we also had a lot of wins. What we…
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Disasters
My oldest kid had a strange homework assignment the other day: ask your parent about a natural disaster that they have experienced. My first thought was that I hadn’t lived through any natural disasters, but upon reflection I realized that I have. After recounting all these incidents to my oldest child, he sighed and said,…