Mindy's Non-Adventures

Hello, friends. It's that time of year where we all become introspective and think over the happenings of the year. As I've thought about 2018, I came to the conclusion that I might have peaked as a person in 2017. I never came up with a solid goal for this year so I inevitably drifted. If 2017 saw me being successful in everything I attempted, 2018 was certainly a year of sloughing through the muck to make progress.  All year my church has had an emphasis on praying and then sharing when God answers those prayers. We were supposed to be specific in choosing a person/situation to pray for in anticipation of seeing God move. When God would answer that specific prayer, we had an opportunity to share. It was beautiful to see God answer prayer after prayer each week. All year I've watched videos and heard testimonies from people who have had their prayers answered in a huge way. Unfortunately, I was not in any videos nor did I have a testimony to share because my specific pra...

Hello friends!  I finally made it back to my Sunday evening Starbucks session, and let me tell you. I have lots of oversharing for you tonight.  You're reading this right now which means you already know that I am an introverted oversharer. On its surface, that might seem like a paradox, but it is not. I've always been the blunt one in my group. Well, others call it bluntness. I call it speaking my truth when I feel like it. I feel like it more than most others would prefer. Basically, I suck at meaningless chit chat. If I have something on my mind, I want to talk about it. Since I recognize that's not usually a good idea, I tend to be quiet instead. If you can't say something nice and all... (here I use the word nice to include all topics that most people don't really want to talk about when you have 5 minutes to chat with kids around. For example, US immigration, Syria, homelessness, is Baby, It's Cold Outside actually offensive or a feminist anthem, why do pe...

Okay. I have something to tell you. I've been planning something for months. I've only told a handful of people because it feels completely indulgent, and honestly, I was a little embarrassed to tell you. I've felt some guilt on multiple levels on this thing I'm about to tell you. I feel guilty leaving my family to survive on their own for a few days. I usually work out all the logistics for my family when I go do something, but this time, I'm leaving them to their own devices. I've been afraid of people's response when they find out, but now that I'm two weeks away, there's nothing to do but finally let out the excitement because in two short weeks I'm.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GOING TO DISNEY WORLD WITHOUT MY KIDS!!!!! You read that right. I'm going to Disney World with my friend. We have fast passes and restaurants booked. I ordered matching t-shirts because if we're going to Disney...

Before anything else, can I just say that Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK?!?! How did this happen? How are we nearly halfway through November? I am so unprepared! I didn't lose 5-10 pounds in preparation for the holiday season! This is all Dunkin Donuts' fault with their $2 afternoon coffees and blueberry donuts. That's it. I quit them this week. I'm eating salads, roasted vegetables, and healthy proteins. You will not tempt me, Aldi, with your pain au chocolat. Get behind me drive-thrus and pizza places. Well, at least I'll try. I'm not sure how committed I am which means I'm not actually committed at all. But I want to be committed so that's something, right? Actually, I just remembered I have two Thanksgiving potlucks this week so...yeah. This isn't boding well for my non-stretchy jeans. Anyway, here's the real stuff. Last night we had dinner with some of our dearest and longest friends. They're the ones we visited in Honduras this summer. We ...

Good evening, friends!  So, I'll just jump right into it. Last week was emotionally exhausting and complete with a couple of milestones. First, Tommy started his very first job, AND he got his drivers license. I still can't come up with the right word to describe what it feels like to watch your child drive away by themselves for the very first time. It's a mixture of terror, pride, sentimentality, freedom, and "what if". Whatever word covers all those feelings, that's what I felt. Then there's the job. Tommy started at Dunkin Donuts on Friday. Yeah, I know. It fits with my new addiction nicely. Basically, Tommy has had a big week.  I admit I became a little EMOTIONAL about it all (um...you might have seen my Facebook oversharing), but please don't think that I'm in any way unhappy with things. I'm thrilled that he has a job and that he's driving. Okay, he's not actually driving much on his own because we need a third working car. That...

Hello, friends. So. We all have that thing or two that is our signature trait; the thing that people identify us with. I have two, but only one is applicable for today because someone said it to me this morning, and then I exhibited it this evening. People tell me that I tell the truth. Bluntly. Or that I say the things that they wish they could say. Some people admire it, but really, I just lack a filter. I see it as more of a fault, but there ya go. The thing is, I don't share nearly enough for me to feel all "transparent" or whatever the new buzzword is for today. I generally feel like I hide most of the things we're all supposed to hide. And then I'll say something like I said tonight, and I think to myself "Oh. Yeah. That's why people say I'm blunt." This evening as I was talking to another mom, she asked me about homeschooling. She admitted she didn't know very much about it and it seemed overwhelming. Then she asked about testing and...

Two days in a row you say? Why yes! Part of pulling myself out of hermit mode means I can think about other things. Today was a surprisingly big day for me. I've had a project slowly going on in my home since March, and today, I finished it. Like, completely and utterly finished. Why did it take me seven and a half months to finish? Well. I will tell you. First, I'm slow with these kinds of things. I know, it's anticlimactic, but there it is. Design is not my strength so it takes my brain a long time to visualize how to get the result I want. Second, it was a personal project that had some emotions tied to it. Earlier this year I brought home a dresser that had belonged to my grandparents. Once my grandmother passed, her belongings had to be dealt with, and I received this dresser. Originally, I planned on using it as a dresser since we actually needed a new one. Once we moved it across the state and up the stairs into my bedroom, I quickly realized that was not going to ...

Hi friends. It's been almost two weeks since I've posted anything, and that can only mean one thing. I have begun to hermit. Yes, I use hermit as a verb. I think it most aptly describes what I do when I'm figuring out how to handle a thing that feels overwhelming. And so friends, let me invite into my mental hermitage for a few minutes. If it were a real room, it would look like a hobbit hole, dimly lit, covered with books, and with a giant, cozy, cushy chair in the middle of the room. There's a fireplace with a low fire and a window, but there are flowers growing on the outside so no one can look inside. See, it's not depressing...just quiet, peaceful, and private. Hold on. Before I describe why I'm hermitting, I just realized it might be weird to have a room in my head. Does anyone else do that? Like, is it normal to have mental places you go to think. My hermit hole is where I go when I need to work through a big thing. When I'm stressed, I go to the la...

Happy Sunday, friends!  Let me start off by warning you that I've had a headache all day, and I've decided to switch up my music choices so I have no idea what this will do to my ability to proofread. In case you're interested, I'm going back to Switchfoot to see if it will work as background music. Okay...now then. If I spoke to you in person last week, I might have seemed a little off. I basically questioned all my homeschooling choices and might have told you I was considering quitting all the things. Friends, I am not quitting all the things. What I was actually doing was coming down from the hurricane. Yall. Hurricanes in Charleston are a three week event for some of us. Nope. Can't do Switchfoot. I'm back to Kings of Leon. Anyway. Week one of a hurricane involves increased vigilance for our chosen weather resources. Small talk is centered around the potential storm and whether one will stay or go if the need arises. We buy extra water and snacks at the s...

Okay friends. So I just finished writing up a delightful little thing about our past week, but we all know how the week went. Our lives came to a screeching halt, and we've tried to keep ourselves busy until this massive and slow as ketchup coming out of a Heinz bottle storm did its thing. You all get it. I don't have to rehash it. We are all so over Florence. Instead, I'll tell you about this other thing that happened! First, I need to explain something to you about myself. When I'm thinking through an issue, I have to look at it from every possible angle. I will read a position on said issue and internally argue against every point I read. Then I'll read something else coming from the opposite angle and argue every point they make. I will argue all the points in my head and sometimes out loud until I either get to a point that I cannot refute OR I realize there's no way to definitively know the answer. At that point, I'm okay with making a choice and hol...

Happy September everyone! Summer is in its final throes and fighting back hard against autumn. It's a valiant effort, but I think we're all done with 90+ weather in September. In my heart, I am pulling on my cozy socks, sliding my cocooned feet into my boots, wrapping myself in scarves, and twirling in the blowing leaves with a hot apply cider drink in my hand. Alas, today will be in the 90s again so I will put my sandals and tank top on with bitterness. Hot, sweaty bitterness. But anyway. I have settled into a happy place. After rereading some of my posts from earlier this year, I can tell how far I've come. The beginning of this year was chaotic and sad. I've since eased into a nice season of calm and boring. I can take a deep breath without the tightness that accompanies the anxiety of too many commitments and worry over whether or not we're already behind with our school work.  Unfortunately, some of my people have stepped into a more difficult season of...

Okay. We're almost done with August so it's time for the new school year reminder. My homeschool facebook pages are filling up with questions. The bright, shiny, new homeschool moms are full of optimism, morning baskets, and unfilled laminated charts. They are posting all of these great blogs and pinterest ideas that they've only just discovered. They are precious, and I love them. They quickly realize that things are not going as smoothly as they expected, but they're still overflowing with hope that everything will be pintastic once they find the right curriculum/organizational method/meal planning calendar. They remind me of myself before I was overrun by the actual work of homeschooling. Then there are the homeschoolers that have a few years under their belt. Their oldest might be around 9 yrs old followed by a stairstep of youngers. These are the ones that are looking around their house and realizing "Wait. What if this can't get better? What if  this  i...

Hello friends. It's been a couple of weeks. We've been getting into the business of beginning school, but I don't want to talk about that. I have nothing new to add at the moment. Okay, except this. Last week was our first real week of school for my two oldest. It also happened to be the week that I'd scheduled four dentist appointments and three eye doctor appointments. The dentist was scheduled 6 months ago before I knew our August schedule. The eye appointments had been put off all summer so I had to get this monkey off my back. Charlotte's glasses broke a few months ago and, being the middle child that she is, her need kept getting pushed to the side. Sorry, child. I'm doing my best here. At the end of six appointments (because one child decided to get sick for our first week of school. Ahem. TOMMY), we had zero cavities, three kids with glasses on the way, and one child being directed to the orthodontist for evaluation. Yes, we're going from one child...

Hello friends. Today is the day I make the mental switch from "care-free, let's just be flexible and do what we want" Mindy to School Mindy. Yes, they are different people. If Beyonce can have a stage persona, I can have a Summer Mindy. Maybe I should name her. I'm open to suggestions. In any case, I briefly went over my son's reading assignments for the week this morning, told the kids to make me a back to school wish list, packed up my laptop and planner, and landed at Starbucks to complete the mental transition. I woke up this morning with a weird mixture of anxiety and mopiness. At first, I thought it was because my husband's trip was unexpectedly extended. Then I checked my lady app and realized I was 6 days out from celebrating another month of no new babies so that explained most of the mopiness. Then I remembered we need to do school stuff, and that was when Anxiety Mindy kicked in. I can't straddle summer and school. I simply cannot function hal...

Well friends, we're halfway through July. It's hard to believe, but we'll be back to our school schedule in a few short weeks. After a busier summer than usual, we've gotten into the home stretch. I have very little scheduled in the next few weeks so we'll be making good use of those waterpark passes we bought this spring and hopefully take a few trips to the beach. I'll continue to do some deep cleaning in our house because Lord knows it's not going to happen once school really gets going. I mean, I'm going to try, but once I get into the homeschool doldrums, things like mopping get pushed deep off my radar. Can you get ahead on mopping? Like, if I mop every day for the next few weeks, will that cover all the weeks in the school year I won't mop? If someone asked me about my mopping habits, I could say on average I mop about once a week. That's a summer of mopping followed by a school year of minimal mopping. Maybe I shouldn't tell you how...

Okay friends, Honduras. I'm ready to talk about it. I think. For the few unfortunate people that saw me on Friday, I kind of word vomited random Honduras experiences at them. I think I have a better grasp on the week now so you're safe. In general, I felt like Honduras was a constant clash of extremes. The setting was unbelievable. I kept saying everything was beautiful because I couldn't think of the right words to cover it. Everything was also rough. There was a raw edge to the place that we simply don't have here, at least not that I've ever seen. It made my slice of the world seem very sanitized. Don't get me wrong. I like sanitized, but I liked seeing a world not quite as manicured as the one I live in. Both are beautiful in their own way. Anyway, enough of that. Here are the details. First, let's get some things out of the way. Honduras is different from South Carolina. Yes, there are people riding horses for transportation. Most of the roads outside...

Well folks, I'm home. After nearly 2 weeks of traveling to Asheville and then Honduras, I have seen a much more varied and colorful spectrum of the world than I usually see in my corner of South Carolina. I feel quite confident in saying that after spending 8 days in Honduras, I know exactly how to fix immigration, Honduras, and modern missions. We just need to.... just kidding. I have absolutely no flipping idea how to fix any of it. Not a single bit. =D I'll definitely be writing up a post on all the things we saw and did in Honduras for those of you that are interested, but I need to work through my big ideas first. Leading up to our trip, I read different articles and posts on what to expect when I get home. I expected and prepared to feel a rush of anger at the excess I'm surrounded by. Maybe that will come in time, but that's not the feeling I'm getting yet. I expected to have a difficult time dealing with the disparity between the two cultures, but what str...

Some of you must know by now that I do this annual homeschool planning weekend thing that my friend and I call HOPLAWE (for HOmeschool PLAnning WEekend). In a nutshell, my friend and I schedule a weekend many months in advance for us to go somewhere and sit in a hotel room for a few days so we can do whatever we need to do to prepare for the upcoming school year. Each Hoplawe is different simply because we need different things each year to be prepared. Some years I am working out schedules, writing up lesson plans, and getting cozy with my curriculum of choice. Some years I've read books on how to make myself do the things I need to do. One year I slept a lot,and that was okay. Sometimes the most important thing we can do is sleep for a day and a half to let our brains recover from whatever emotional trauma we've put it through. Hoplawe has evolved from a weekend split between my apartment and the guest suite to a hotel in Columbia for 3 days to Charlotte and Ikea for 3 days...