Just like so many others in my family, my Aunt Nancy was an extremely creative person. She was an avid knitter and enjoyed lots of other crafty pursuits, but one in particular eventually took the lead and became her favorite: making quilts. She started quilting in the early 1980s, completing her first quilt in 1983. After that there was no turning back. For nearly four decades she pieced and sewed, gifting her creations to lucky friends and family members like me (I received a quilt for my college dorm room as well as baby quilts for my sons). For as long as I can remember, if she wasn’t holding court…
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- Amazing People, Best Thing Ever, Blessings, Fun in Knoxville, Jim Has Mad Skillz, We Are An Awesome Couple
On Getting Lost and Found
The very first argument Jim and I had as a married couple was on our wedding day. We left the courthouse in Norfolk, Virginia and drove back to Knoxville; he was on leave from the Navy for the rest of the week. After a very long eight-hour drive, we got off the interstate and had to navigate through downtown Knoxville, which has lots of one way streets and odd intersections. It wasn’t long before we got completely turned around and totally lost. This was way before cell phones and GPS navigation (imagine that, kids!), and we didn’t have a map in the car. I wanted him to pull over so…
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The Comforts of Home
This morning, exactly two weeks to the hour after I was at O’Hare airport and getting on the plane that would take me to Jim after his cycling accident, I was at McGhee Tyson airport and getting on the plane that would take me home. In the past two weeks I covered every single emotion under the sun as I watched Jim’s condition go from only being able to speak one word at a time, having practically zero memory, and needing assistance walking to a state I would call “100% back to normal other than the residual bruises and healing wounds”. The fact that this happened at all was tragic…
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To Grandma’s House I Go
I’ve been thinking about my grandmother a lot lately, especially as I toss around ideas for the essay I will write for this year’s Listen To Your Mother show in Chicago. Memories of her come and go, and sometimes she hangs around in my brain for an extended period of time. I don’t mind at all; in fact, I rather enjoy it. My Grandma was a huge presence in my young life. We visited her house all the time, and she spoiled her grandkids like crazy. She was one of the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever met in my life. I’m often in awe of the fact that she…
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Keepers
This past weekend I spent a few hours filing approximately 1300 emails that were just sitting in my inbox, driving me insane. A cluttered inbox equals a cluttered mind, and I’ve been all cluttery since about April. Many of the 1300 emails were LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER-related, of course, in ALL! THE! CATEGORIES! My extensive collection of not-really-used-since-April email file folders includes a LTYM folder as well as sub-folders for the Chicago show, the national team, and all twelve of the new cities I’m working with this season. And that’s just LTYM; don’t get me started on all of the other folders. It’s quite a system. When I use it,…
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Stepping Out.
I am all about stepping out of my comfort zone these days. I haven’t always been that way and it’s still not always easy but I firmly believe that many of the things I have and things I am able to do have resulted from my “getting uncomfortable” at times, and setting things in motion somehow, by either taking action or just putting the ask out there. I just realized that this week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the day I put the wheels in motion for the thing that has affected just about every element of my life ever since: my marriage. Thirty years ago this week I ended…
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Those Shoes.
I smile a lot. I know, it can be sickening to the people of the world who aren’t so happy-go-lucky. Sorry/not sorry. I just try to spend lots of time appreciating the little things as much as the big things. Here’s one little thing that always always always makes me smile, no matter how many times I’ve seen it–and I’ve seen it hundreds of times: Those are Jim’s shoes (Keen sandals) on the garage floor right behind his car. He wears those shoes from the house out to the garage, where he pulls his bike off of the ceiling hooks and leans it up against the brick wall outside. Then…
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Pet Names
Alternate names I have for Roxie, in no particular order: 1. Sissy 2. Mama 3. Mamacita (I don’t know; it just came out one day and stuck) 4. Beebs 5. Baby 6. My Baby 7. Babes 8. Sweets 9. Siouxsie (yes, as in “and the Banshees”) 10. Bougie-Bougie (shut up) 11. Mooshie 12. Mooshie-Booshie Alternate names Jim has for Roxie, in no particular order: 1. Nothing I can list here because this is a family blog. He DOES call her those special names with love, which I guess explains why the second he walks in the door, she drops me and my “Bougie-Bougies” like a hot potato and makes a…
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I Really Love Love.
I am one of those people who uses the word “love” very freely. If you know me personally—or let’s face it, even just on Facebook—you might think I overuse the word. “I love this song.” “I love cookies.” Regardless of what others think, specifically those who believe that the word should not be dropped at the slightest little thing and instead saved for truly important things and people, I’m fine with how I am. I know in my head the true hierarchy of people and things that are the recipients of my feelings. Obviously I love my kids way more than I love steak. (Which says a lot because I…
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We’re All Adults Here.
Major milestone in our house today. This guy? Turns eighteen today. EIGHTEEN. His coming of age means all kinds of things for him, of course. Among other things, he is eligible to vote, and as he pointed out at the dinner table a while back, he can now sign himself out of school “should he need to leave early for any reason.” Ahem. This birthday also impacts Jim and me, of course. It’s a little stunning to realize that on this, our younger son’s eighteenth birthday, we are no longer legally responsible for anyone except for ourselves. Bizarre, even. I casually mentioned to J two weeks ago that he only…
