stories and pictures

When I woke up on January 1, 2021, I felt lighter, as if in the night I'd dropped 20 pounds ...

Dearest 2020, I knew you were trouble from the start. While I am grateful for myriad things - extra one-on-one ...

Well before Thanksgiving was underway, I knew I didn't want to stay home for Christmas. Obviously, a pandemic makes this ...

Before Dad passed away, we all talked about what he wanted to happen with his remains. No question, his heart ...

Here I go again asking that you keep my family in your thoughts: My grandpa died suddenly and swiftly on ...

Last week I sat in the car with a dear friend as I finally said the words I've been holding ...

Ten years ago this week, we took family photos in Amarillo. It was a weird time - Chuck was living ...

I don't know what to call this space - these days that unfolded "after Dad died". I don't want everything ...

When I try to recount the last nine months, the one looming shadow over everything was Dad’s illness. Everything changed ...

August signifies two things: The impending return of school and my birthday. In fact, I don't want to even think ...

The Great Pause is long gone, that beautiful, restorative, slower pace my family enjoyed throughout April and May. I can’t ...

The Przyluckis came in town to celebrate Becky's birthday and Father's Day, so we soaked in more family time over ...

We've had back-to-back weekends of house guests, first with Karin and the kids, then Corey and Alex, and finally, my ...

Becky, Jeff, and Owen came to town last week to be with us as we heard the results of Dad's ...

Despite all of the temptation to buy a boat, we've decided to spend another summer season renting one. (It is ...

Right now, in between our sluggish attempt to finish the school year and staying up-to-date on COVID-19 news, I'm sourcing ...

First of all, Happy Birthday, Dad! It's a milestone, and I'm so grateful for it 🙂 While most of the ...

Almost daily I feel overwhelming gratitude for where we live. Not just America, not just East Tennessee. I love our ...

We are two weeks into Dad's treatment for cardiac sarcoma, and now the rehab center, where he lives full time, ...

Those two things, in theory, should be unrelated, but sometimes things fall together on a calendar for a reason. For ...

I don't even know where to begin. My father had a stroke on Dec. 8 while on a business trip ...

By now most of you know my parents are in California on account of a medical emergency with my dad ...

It has been a full week fraught with surprise, worry, and anticipation. We are near the end of our fall ...

We were happy to host family for Thanksgiving dinner, and it ended up being the first year we mixed both ...

More has gone on here than our trip to England and Wales, so it would be a shame to make ...

It was our final full day in the UK, and we wanted to make the most of it. Instead of ...

Like I said in the previous post, our AirBNB in Nant-y-Derry was a DELIGHT, even though it didn't have WiFi ...

I was still high as a kite the morning after meeting Philippa Gregory at Sudeley Castle, deliriously happy as we ...

Just when I think I'm done running half marathons, I convince myself to run "just one more." When I learned ...

Our fifth day in England was the most special. Not only was it the day that our driver showed up ...

To Windsor! We hopped the train again, this time westbound to the tiny town of Windsor. Last year we visited ...

When Karin said she wanted to see Hever Castle, I didn't mind one bit. Interestingly, it was on our third ...

We both enjoyed every second of sleep we got that first night. It is definitely the trade-off for flying overnight ...

When Karin and I met in 2001, we became fast friends. This is actually the same origin story for all ...

I seem to average one post a month these days, so that's a good indication of how busy we've been ...

We're only halfway through the month, but the momentum of the new school is already giving me whiplash. Is summer ...

Earlier in the spring, my sister asked me if Jeremy wanted to join Owen on his summer youth trip, and ...

My Uncle Bob and his wife, Carie, came to visit the week of July 4th, and I was more than ...

I know, I know - we just went on vacation. BUT, Karin and I like to skip out of town ...

As promised, we made sure the boys set their feet in London before flying back to the States. A quick ...

The weather was a bit gray when we left Levanto, an indication that the remainder of our Italian experience would ...

It was hard to leave France, if I'm honest. We had just found our stride with the neighborhood and language, ...

We scheduled a morning to sleep in and take our time, which was necessary for happy moods and getting some ...

If you'd have told me as recently as January that I would want to go to Monaco for a Formula ...

It was a genius move to sleep in the hotel connected to Gatwick Airport because our Easy Jet flight from ...

Last year, when Chuck and I flew to the UK, we opted for an overnight flight so we wouldn't lose ...

At some point during winter, Chuck and I started talking about where to take the boys on a summer vacation ...

Several years ago, as a gift to myself, I decided that as long as we are homeschooling our academic year ...

I don't know if this is a short-lived phase or the beginning of something, but I've become a Formula 1 ...

When I became a Mumford & Sons fan, Chuck and I were in the midst of trying to move back ...

In my former life, blogging was an almost-every-other-day thing. I had so much to say, so much to post, so ...

We don't get a lot of snow around here, but when there's a threat of an inch, schools and businesses ...

I have a short list of artists I want to see in concert. As a fan of not wasting time ...

January is supposed to be an inspirational month, a time when folks have the most amount of resolve to improve ...

Honestly, we did our best. It was a tough year, so it's hard to be festive during a time that's ...

I signed up for the Santa Hustle Half Marathon in the Smokies back in the summer, not yet knowing that ...

My parents are moving back to Tennessee, and since they are already in the process of the move, it made ...

For a dozen reasons, we didn't want to leave Scotland. How can one look forward to a trip for more ...

By Day 9, we were acutely aware of how quickly time was passing us by. It was an impossibility to ...

Having spent one full day in Edinburgh and one full day in London, I for sure knew I was a ...

We arrived in Edinburgh Thursday evening just as it was getting dark. We were fortunate to find our Airbnb apartment ...

The night in Horsley near Newcastle was a delight, and the Airbnb apartment where we stayed was in an old, ...

Of all the unpredictable details of our anniversary trip - the pleasant weather, the ease in which we navigated the ...

The plan for Wednesday, October 10, was to spend the morning walking in Oxford and driving through the Cotswolds before ...

Last week I had a near heart attack when this site went blank. A corrupt plugin (or perhaps a plugin ...

Originally, my plan was to drive to Brighton, then Dorset and up to Oxford, but when I couldn't find room ...

Every day we spent in England was meticulously mapped out to make the most of our limited time. Scotland was ...

We visited more than just Hever Castle on Day 3, but my affection for Queen Anne Boleyn warrants its own ...

I've already confessed to the number of photos I took throughout our 12-day trip. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed, but ...

In 2006, Chuck and I started talking about taking a trip to the UK. Until last week, it had always ...

Chuck and I are going on a trip, but before we leave I have eleventy billion tasks to complete. I'm ...

It began on Tuesday night, September 4, when Major lost his mind. Evenings are typically low-key for our blue tick ...

We are fully immersed in the fall schedule - homeschool co-op classes, soccer for Jeremy, another round of equine therapy ...

We'd gone out to dinner one night this summer to one of those restaurants with TVs scattered throughout the room ...

Last fall, after Jackson finished nearly three months of occupational therapy to help with his spatial awareness, fine motor skills, ...

Earlier this year, Chuck started asking me what I wanted to do to celebrate turning 40 years old. Figuring that ...

We've caught a bad bug. Something happened this summer, and I can't necessarily pinpoint when everything shifted. The idea of ...

While our lifestyle affords us plenty of family time, Chuck and I don't get a lot of time just the ...

Typically, by mid-June, I'd be nurturing a well-groomed garden and plucking off a zucchini here, a tomato there. In previous ...

The first time Jackson asked to repaint his bedroom, which had been a shade of light blue since buying this ...

The original idea for one our 2018 Girls Weekends was to reunite in New York City where our friendship really ...

The moment we finished our last day at the homeschool co-op where the boys attend and I teach, my brain ...

Eleven years ago I entertained a personal physical challenge: could I run 13.1 miles?  For some, that was a reasonable, ...

There are good things that happen during a time of mourning - favorite stories are told, family members gather to ...

I don't remember the first time I met my future father-in-law, but it was sometime in the early spring of ...

Yesterday was a bad day of school. Those days happen. Sometimes it's on account of bad moods, other times it's ...

Are you ready for the longest race report ever? There are a dozen reasons why I shouldn't have run this ...

After our day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and subsequent day of rest by the pool) it was ...

Previous post: Hogsmeade Village After lunch we walked through Universal to reach the discreet entrance to Diagon Alley, which was ...

We had one full day at Universal, and that limitation required careful planning in regard to arrival time, meal time, ...

As homeschoolers, we do what we want. It's glorious. It's magnificent. Our first spring break was spent at home, and ...

Five years ago I was accosted by a girl in my head. She showed up uninvited, as if she'd been ...

A couple of days ago I was on a six-mile run while listening to West Cork, an Audible True Crime ...

You can start here if you like. You can also start with Part One where I talk about the importance ...

Read Part One first. The reason to take care of yourself first can be summed up with a simple analogy: ...

I've been sitting on this post for a while. Sometimes it's hard for me to know when to share something ...

This post probably feels random for most of you, but bear with me. One of the things I decided to ...

Last week Jeremy got his tonsils and adenoids taken out after we realized that more than 50 percent of his ...

It all began with "Mr. Brightside" and Hot Fuss in 2004. It was a new sound, something I hadn't heard ...