The final word

Okay everybody, I give.

I am on the wrong side of the digital divide, and I'm embracing that fact. So here's the deal:: I'm burning a new feed today for my new blog, and that means this subscription won't automatically hook to the new posts....but I do have all of my subscribers addresses and I will input all of those into my new subscribe button....All you'll have to do is click the confirmation email you'll receive and we'll be back in business. I do SO hope you won't disappear, and please contact me via email kate@ncpublish.com or blankiechronicles@rocketmail.com if you aren't getting updates or don't receive a confirmation email.

For those of you following me via google or another reader, I can't do much except ask you to please hop over and add my new site to your reads....and thank you profusely for doing so!

In the meantime, you might have missed the following posts::
monthly mindfulness:: The Mantra
Inside:: Outside
Farm Fresh
Jumble
Monthly mindfulness:: sticking point
Our classroom

Thanks again for following along-- I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new site (if I haven't already;))...
-k

I swear, the subscription thing is ALMOST fixed. In the meantime, please do pop over here and read my mantra for the first installment of Monthly Mindfulness. Many thanks friends!

We're getting there...

Workin' out the kinks...

Hello my friends! I haven't quick worked out the kinks of this whole transferring subscriber thing....

New post up (today and everyday)-- just click right here!

I'm MOVING!

I’m sitting in the dark as I type this, a baby sleeping across my legs and a growing boy’s arm flung across my stomach. Justin is out of town, I picked up multiple writing gigs with deadlines all looming today or tomorrow. Homeschooling will kick up next week.

And in the middle of that, I decided September 1 HAD to be the day I welcome you to the new blog.

Hmmm...

On one hand, I’m typing in the dark, longing for sleep, still with a pile of stories yet to be written. One the other hand, it is a perfect opportunity for me to start thinking about my new monthly mindfulness focus, especially because I’m kicking it off with the topic of time.

A perfect opportunity for me to remember that this new adventure can and will require flexibility. You know, the kind that requires a lot of deep breaths, a lot of to-do list revisions, and a lot of "long run" vision. The kind I had to exercise a bit of last week when we wen to the fair, where I tried to hold back overtly loud sighs as my boys learned how to shoot guns (in a very non-sanitary environment no less)

and rode rides run by people who looked intoxicated,

and chose foods like this at the midway.

Of course, that deep breathing paid off in these faces,

and in the fact that this is the prize of choice in my house

and, perhaps best of all, after one bite of cotton candy, I got a rousing round of "Yucks!" Yup, this is what we had leftover upon leaving.

Not so bad. A little flexability. A few deep breaths. I have a feeling this is going to be a mantra of mine now that we're going live with the everyday posting...

So without further ado: please come visit me here::

www.theblankiechronicles.com

And excuse the construction dust. No one ever said I would understand what the heck “custom css” means. But we’ll get there.

*If you aren’t getting updates from me this week, please pop over to the new space and resubscribe. We’ll kick off our “real” daily posts tomorrow.

In this moment:: One More Weekend

In this moment::

I am:: watching our baby become a little person with a big personality. A personality that involves a lot of silliness

and a bit of sass

and apparently, an obsession with Converse high tops. Yup, she's definitely my girl.

I am:: feeling the coming change in season. The light is slipping away so quickly, the wind is shifting, the clouds have returned. We run outdoors the minute the sun warms the sand

but we're trying to embrace the cooling afternoons (and pajama days)

when the rain pours down so fast Max is sure it is really "falling up."

I am:: filled with satisfaction in a dreary Saturday spent indoors, playing, napping, and eating a divine meal not prepared by me (yahoo, daddy-o!)

I am:: getting geared up for a year of adventurous living and learning with my first born-- because yes, I do a lot of thinking at the beach;)

I am:: realizing that these posts-- after 11 weeks-- are coming to a close, making way for a new series of weekend recaps, and a daily dose of words that will center around a year of redefining time and self and the way we learn. I'm so very excited to start this work-- and am so very grateful you're coming along.

Fantastically Free!

I was planning to post about my massive re-organizing mission, and I will, but not today. Because today, I just need to celebrate the goodness of friends. I need to write down-- and fully recognize-- how it feels as if the universe is making sure I know our family is walking down a path that is just right for us.

This summer, while sitting upstairs in our craft nook, looking at a blank space that needed *something,* I decided to go thrifting. I hit every thrift store in our area, with growing determination that what I needed was an old school desk. I found one, in poor condition and just an era too early (it had a bench seat attached the the front and no seat for the actual desk). Every other week, I revisited shops. I sorted through church parking lot sales and garages. And when we made the decision to return to a homeschooled life, I felt even more invested in finding a desk that would be perfect for the space AND the way we learn.

Enter my friend Tammy, who had no clue I was searching for said desk, when she offered to give me (for free!!) a 1950s version she bought years ago.

A brief sanding of the metal, a five dollar can of spray paint and one hour later it was exactly what I'd hoped for all along.

I've been flying high on my good fortune for the last couple days, so excited to welcome this new piece of furniture into our home. The boys have already done "homework" there, and we've spent a good chunk of time talking about the feeling it has-- this sense history, of other children's stories.

That desk was enough to make me feel even more excited about our homeschool year. And then? I got a call from another friend who had just moved to a new house and was prepping for a major garage sale. She offered a sneak peak to snatch up homeschool resources that she was no longer using. I rushed over, and nabbed all of this

and this (new to us Hanna's!)

and this

and when I started to take out my checkbook, that sweet friend shook her head with a smile and refused to let me give her a single penny (I plan, however, to use this tutorial to whip her up some lavender sachets).

Wow. A free desk. Free school supplies. All coming this week, all a surprise. Sometimes, when you make a choice and settle into it, I think the world makes way for everything else to fall into place. A little faith and trust (and pixie dust?) goes a long way. Knowing that feels so, so good.

In this moment:: Weekend Ten

In this moment::

I am:: soaking up every bit of sunshine. We've had so few warm, blue sky days this summer, that when the sun decided to burst through the clouds last week (and actually stay out for five days and counting), our entire community seemed to step outside and celebrate.

because this is what we wait for, what we know will eventually come.

I am:: cooking up a storm. It hit me this week, that the fresh foods of our local farmers will soon be turning to fall flavors, and I went into stock-mania mode. Marinara sauces and blanched greens are filling my freezer to the brim. If only I hadn't had that dream (the one where I canned tomatoes the wrong way and then ate them and, well, you know...), my shelves would be filled to the brim too. Ah, well.

I am:: buried in the crafty delights of this book. And even if you aren't a sewing-project kind of person, I still say you need to add this to your stash. It's filled with the simple truths of life: choose joy, live with ease, and enjoy the ride. Plus, it is a very good thing to support people like Amanda, who make their own paths and celebrate mamahood with such style.

I am:: brimming with excitement for Noah, who passed into the Mate ranks of sailing school during the last week, just in time to hear promises of junior race team next year. Not only did we watch him fall in love with a sport this summer, we also go to watch him conquer fears and join into a community all of his own. What a gift.

I am:: loving this guy, and not just because we're married.

I am:: organizing and de-cluttering and all of the things I need to do to make space in my brain and heart and head for a homeschool year. There's much to say about this subject, so I'll elaborate this week, and today will just say this: it feels so good to minimize, centralize, and put a little order into our joyful chaos.

I am:: aware that just as this

becomes this,

Our experiences are part of a natural cycle, but also, the result of effort and dedication and commitment. My friend Tom always says "bloom where you are planted." And this week, I honor the beauty of doing just that.
(by the way, as I typed that sentence, I was treated to a nose-to-nose encounter with a hummingbird on my front porch. Bloom indeed).