My list of Christmas action items feels longer than Santa's naughty list. The alarm grunts at me, and the I-should's instantly pop up like hostile beaver heads. Every time I knock one down, more pop up. I'm hoping I don't run out of time to slam them all into oblivion (thank you, imagination) before Christmas Day. My …
12 Days of Christmas: Extraterrestrial Giving
By extraterrestrial giving, I don't mean giving to aliens. Extra is latin for outside-of, and teres means circular or round. In honor of the twelve days of Christmas, it seemed a good idea to commit to giving twelve gifts outside my usual sphere, to do twelve acts that would make God smile. If you show love …
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The Thanksgetting Holiday
Abe Lincoln gave us our country, whole and emancipated. He gave us debate (along with Douglas). He gave us a war and saw it through to the end, at which time he decided that some purposeful, focused gratitude was in order. Although Lincoln's religious leanings seem pendulous, his moral compass was true. As his election …
Don’t Want to Forget: Garbage Sentences
"See, Mom." Gabe said as he handed me his grammar sentences, "They're not garbagy three-word sentences." "What's that?" I asked. "You know. Like you said before: 'garbagy three-word sentences.' These are definitely not that." I looked at his sentences. They were indeed lovely. Gabe writes sentences every day for several subjects: spelling (when he gets …
A Rip-Your-Arm-Out Moment
I want to talk about the paralytic wake of failure, those moments right after we've been dealt a blow. Failure is most bitter when we expect greatness. If I were to run a marathon tomorrow, I'd fail, but it wouldn't be a blow because I expect a body that sputters through a 5K to have …
The Raw Homeschool Mom, My eBook
One of my goals last summer was to publish an eBook. I did it this summer-- better late than never. Were I not the perfectionist I am, it wouldn't have been all that monumental a task, but I am the queen of revisions. I read and re-read, suddenly hating this or that, spending hours and hours …
What You Give to Get “Amazing”
Gabe. 10 years old. He’s amazing. That’s how the pain and hardship begin, when someone besides mom utters the seemingly innocuous words: You’re amazing. My amazing boy practices swimming with kids a minimum of three years his senior. When he was with kids his age, swimming practice started at 10AM. But his amazing asserted itself, and …
The Downside of Being God, A Soldier, A Car Salesman
Raise your hand if you want to be honored today, Memorial Day. I don't want to be honored because I don't want to be dead yet. Neither did the ones we honor. Most didn't intend to die, either when they signed on or in the moment. Most hoped they could serve their country, come home, …
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Incidentally You Have a Brain Tumor and Your Van Won’t Start
I'm not whining, for the record, I'm recording. Those violins are entirely coincidental. Ever have an experience that was so thoroughly insane that you wondered whether God-in-heaven had just bragged about you to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, X?" March, 2014. I had pneumonia. Not walking pneumonia, mind you. Although I walked from the …
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Carpe Diem. They’ll Never Notice the Pillow Cases.
San Juan, 20 years ago. I wore a white sundress with yellow daisies and felt like Ponce de Leon. We posed for pictures on the crumbling ramparts of stone castles and swaggered along narrow cobblestone streets watching artists birth exotic paintings using only coffee cans and spray paint. My hair was half braided into cornrows …
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KL Griffiths 