I’m not going to lie. I’m frazzled. As I alluded to in the previous post, I am a person who makes rules for myself. I don’t make a lot, because I want to keep them all. But, I make them. And, the thing is, to make rules is to assume a certain order. Order has…
Author: Gwen Shaneck
Breaking Free
Last week, seems like ages ago now, I was thinking about rules. My rules. The rules I make for myself. The rules I live by. I always imaged that everyone did this. But, my husband doesn’t. Why would anyone else? On Gretchen Rubin’s personality quiz, I’m a questioner, which makes sense. It also makes sense…
My Favorite Books of 2019
Better Late Than Never…. The last time I wrote about books, I gave a broad overview of what my reading life has looked like since 2015, the year that I began keeping track of what I was reading. In that time, 2019 was the best year for fiction that I think I have had in…
Book Lists – Do you keep track of your reading?
A while ago a friend lamented that my son had not started a “Life List” to keep track of the books he read. This friend sighed and left me with the impression that all was lost. What was the point of keeping track of anything if you hadn’t kept track of everything? For a few…
Kindergarten Reading – The Reluctant Homeschooler Edition
For the moment we’ve taken our house off the market. That means that instead of using homeschooling as a stop-gap for my Kindergartner we will be finishing out the year. This alters my plans a little bit. I don’t really think there is too much that should be required of Kindergartners besides letter knowledge and…
The pain continued
If I thought that having my precious girl in my arms would settle my mind and rid me of the anxiety I felt during my pregnancy. I was wrong. Babies die. Sometimes for no reason. And, I was convinced that she was going to die. Weeks turned into months turned into years. When she was…
A Tale of 3 Miscarriages
October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. And, October 15 is World Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I meant to write on that day. To write something. Anything. But, I mostly avoided the computer for the whole week. It seemed that anything I could write would be… not enough. Ten years ago, I…
I have words
You know how some days you have something to say. Something to say, desperately. You plan it. You dwell on it. You think about it. Nonstop. Do you say it? No. It’s too big. It’s too scary. It is too important to mess up. You need time. Lots of time. Times is something that you…
The Best Plants for the Neglectful (And Why You Should Have Them)
I come by my plant lady status honestly. I grew up in a house of plants. My mom is a great gardener and has always had tons of plants crowding out all of the windows. Even when I was in college, she would frequently bring a potted plant for me to take care of. I…
Meet Rex (Rex Begonia if you’re fancy)
I thought about what I promised yesterday. Yes, I will talk about my plants. What plant lady wouldn’t? But. This is not going to be a how-to or a “everything you need to know” about houseplants. There are a number of reasons for this, the chief of which is that I’m not a houseplant authority….