Senior year

Making an effort to get those OOTD's in and document.

As the parent of a senior I'm learning...

There's a lot I can not do. I can not fill out all the scholarships. I can not study for his 4 AP classes. I can not decide what school is best for him. 

So I found little things I could do to make him and made me feel better. 

I could make lunch items available for everyday, mandarin oranges, bananas, mac and cheese. 

I could serve comfort food, mac and cheese, fresh baked cookies, mashed potatoes for dinner.

I could be at every game and have 2 bottles of water ready for after the game. 

I could keep all the deadlines on my calendar and make sure to give him a heads up and offer up my services. 

When he walks in the door I could sit down and listen and hang out. 

I could assure him that we would find a way to get him to college and help him pay for it.  

I could give him more free reign than ever before and talk through how I hoped he would be careful but have fun. So much fun his senior year. And make good choices. He should be on top of the world. 

I could turn down more of my social offers and stay home.

I could watch mindless tv sitting on the couch next to him for hours. 

I could provide a safe place for him to retreat to and be himself.

I could give him a little leeway on his room, his laundry, the state of his hair and beard. 

I could not overreact every time he says, I can't wait until next year, when I get out of here, move out, go away...

I could let him still be a kid this last year.... 

and there were things that made me feel better

cooking, cleaning, nesting, I drank many cups of tea and coffee and let's be honest wine. 

I'm working on catching up on his scrapbooks, since birth, and dragging out all his childhood memories. Yeah that's been helpful. 

Monday blues

Rough days at school make for rough Mondays but we'll meet it when it comes.... looking forward to the weekend scrap retreat. 

2016 Reads

I usually post my top ten reads of the year but 2016 begs a little annotation. This past year especially each read was not an 'everybody should read this book' book. 

A Stolen Life is not the most literary memoir but it is poignant and heartbreaking and in the end hopeful that one human being can be so cruel to another and yet that abused soul can survive and regain her life. 

Several YA books are in my top reads of the year of course. Books like Cinder, Red Queen, Maus, and Challenger Deep. Cinder, a play on Cinderella but with cyborgs, and Red Queen are both dystopian fantasies. Good starts to series that make me want to continue reading. Maus is a graphic novel about the holocaust told by a man whose father suffered terribly. It is a refreshingly simple take on a topic that sometimes feels like we've heard all there is to tell. Speigelman reminds us that every story is unique and I love his honesty. Challenger Deep surprised me because I thought I knew what the book was going to be and it turned out to be something completely different. Its a story about mental illness told from the point of view of a young boy who isn't sure who he can trust, including himself. 

Be Frank is one of those mainstream books that everybody reads but then surprised me by being really good. I enjoyed getting to know Frank. It's funny and heartbreaking and entertaining and insightful. Sweet story.

Prodigal Summer is beautifully written. Barbara Kingsolver is one of my top five authors of all time and this one does not disappoint. I would recommend reading it in the summer. It intertwines people and wildlife and farming and family dynamics in a unique and entertaining way.  

Beautiful Disaster is a racy, edgy, gripping younger novel but not quite what I group as young adult. Recommended to me by an older student reader, this series feeds those of us who liked Twilight and other books with characters who make ridiculous choices. Apparently there is something that appeals to us about these characters!

The Farm is a self published book by the grandfather of one of my students. I loved it. It is based in my home town and so the stories of the places and people I know just spoke to me. It's funny, honest, and just a good, good book. 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is this year's classic that took me by surprise. Incredibly easy to read and get into, this one was entertaining and suspenseful. I loved it!

Hygee

THING TO KNOW

Hygge: Pronounced hoo-guh. Feels like a hug. Means “to be cozy.” Think: candles everywhere, coffee by the fire, fuzzy socks. Ask your Danish friends about it. My One Little Word for 2017

A NEW YEAR!

Outfit of the Day

Going to try to get more of these in this year, be more consistent. We traveled to Kentucky for the Lovin Family Christmas last Friday and came home today. It's been a good weekend.