I’m a planner.  And I am good at it.

From my mom, I learned how to make lists and schedules and do it all.
From my dad, I learned the value of hard work (enter Chad’s jokes about me being a dairy farmer’s daughter).
From my husband, I learned that I schedule 110% of my time.

I recently found myself ready to go for an appointment, with 5 minutes before I had to leave.  Five minutes.  I can do something with that.  I stripped the bed, grabbed the towels, and headed for the laundry room.  However, once there I realized … Read the rest

I decided to log off of Facebook for 30 days this fall.  I was hesitant – What if I miss important life events?  What if there is news?  How will I know what’s going on?

When I logged back on, I discovered I hadn’t really missed anything.  At all.  Don’t hate me – your lives are important to me.  But the conversations I got to have with some of you were better I think because I hadn’t been keeping up on your lives via the internet.  I didn’t already know what you did last weekend.  Instead we got to actually … Read the rest

Our home has always been loud.  From having three in diapers to now three (almost) tweens.  We’ve got some volume going on.

On a not unrelated note, these children have never been allowed in the bathroom with us.  There needs to be one place I can go, in my home, alone, and experience some quietness.

The shower.  Oh the shower.

I don’t just listen to music in the shower, I will spend as much as five minutes choosing just the right playlist for my mood.  Oldies?  Led Zeppelin?  The Head and the Heart?  Let iTunes decide?  Gah, let me look … Read the rest

Our days are made up of little decisions.  One after another, we determine what we can live with and what we cannot.  Some days, the “I can live with that” decisions catch up with us.

As a general rule, I need to wake up to a clean kitchen so I can start cooking breakfast at 6:30am.  This means going to bed with a clean kitchen.  THIS is where I struggle.  I don’t WANT to do dishes when I’m ready to go to bed.  So really this means doing dishes immediately after dinner.  I’m sure there are many who do this … Read the rest

Last fall I wrote that I was leaving my job, and didn’t know what was next.  If you don’t know, allow me to fill you in.

For almost a year now I have been a substitute teacher in our school district.  There are 50 schools in the district, but I only sub at the two my kids go to so that I can get to know the teachers and administrators there better, and quite honestly I believe it would be too lonely for this relational extrovert to hop all over the place never forming relationships.

When this all started last … Read the rest