Writing has always been my therapy. The bigger the emotions, the more I NEED to pour out the words in journals or on this blog. So when my dad passed away, you can imagine I filled dozens of pages. My dad was the single most influential person in my life. My very best friend and idol when I was a toddler, and the person I went to first for advice…
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Narcissists and the Circular Argument
Circular argument. Another one of those terms I never knew until I lived it. I mean, there is no conversation with a narcissist in the traditional sense of the word, in which we … discuss. Like, for example, I would just love to say, I don’t think our daughter’s school is working out. I think we need to consider a different school. And then he would respond like a mature…
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A Chicken and Egg Story
Y’all…. I HAVE CHICKENS. Which no doubt comes as a complete and utter shock to those of you who have been following my blog for any length of time, on account of how you’ve always known me as a hip and sophisticated person. Yep, I DO still live in the city, mere blocks from downtown. But I have also gone country, back to my roots, at least a little, with…
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Pretty
A man died this week. A man who, by all accounts, was a blessing to all who knew him… at least all who knew him during the twenty years that I knew him. He had been my Sunday school teacher and neighbor during the early years of my marriage. His wife is a Facebook friend of mine, and she made a post asking for stories about him to be emailed…
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Hiding
“Did something bad happen to you and it made you hide? I had a stalker, and it made me shut down my social media.” I’m sitting at a convention and our speaker just said those words and I felt the floor drop out from under me. Yes. Yes, I’ve been hiding. My ex-husband reads every word I write here and sends me hateful, vile comments on every post I write….
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Lack and Abundance and Marketplace Sofas
I almost bought a couch yesterday. But I didn’t. I saw it on Facebook marketplace, which is my favorite source of nearly every furniture item (and, um, everything else) in my home since I became a single mama with a house to furnish. I mean, I had furniture before, but I’ve made a deliberate effort to not bring anything into this home that was contaminated with some sort of negative…
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A Good Man.
Susie recently celebrated big birthday number EIGHT. This is SO hard to believe, since I documented her birth story on this blog here like TWO WEEKS AGO. We had a party. She got some gifts. And seeing as how my mama taught me good Southern thank-you note etiquette, I have, naturally, taught my girls the same. One thank-you note in particular was written to a certain gentleman friend who has…
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I Know
I know. I know that You reach down from on high and take hold of me and rescue me from the deep waters. I know You have never let me drown. I know that You gently lead those who have young. I know that You are my Shepherd and I SHALL NOT be in want. I know that I have never been in want. I know that I can be…
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Patient and Kind
I’ve been reading The Love Dare for Parents lately, and I tell ya what…. I’m only four days in, or maybe five ~ I lose track on account of how I’ve gone back and re-read the chapters two or four times each, ~ and it has gutted me. Patient and Kind… These words are stuck in head lately, and it’s because of this book. This book has hit me where…
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Non negotiables
Laughter. Thinking the same things are funny. Laughing at all the same ridiculous TV shows and movies. Sending memes, videos, and Bitmojis back and forth all day long because we know what will make each other laugh. Because I’ve lived a life where the only time I ever laughed was when he tripped over something in the middle of the night, and that was unbearable. Peace. Tranquility and peace in…
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Happy
Well, as it happens, today’s fifteen minute blog segment is going to fall in the middle of the night, as did yesterday’s. This time it’s because my eighteen-year-old daughter decided to drive from Tyler to Lubbock at a time which put her arriving at her dorm at 1am. Like the helicopter parent I apparently have become, I made her send me her CL every thirty minutes. I aged ten years…
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Entitled
Did I promise to write for fifteen minutes a day a while back? Without editing? Just, you know, write fifteen minutes, and post? Every single day? To work toward my goal of … something, I can’t remember now, and I guess it stopped being important. Seems like I promised that a while back. It probably goes without saying that I haven’t done that. I mean, I stuck to it for…
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