Tina The Storyteller

Dear self, You've got quite a bit of pride kicking around lately. I just want you to know, that stuff is poison. Worse than a cup full of sugar on an empty stomach, bad juju. I understand that it creeps in on you, little thoughts you barely even recognize, but the problem is that it adds up and feeds the monster within. I wish that I could tell you that a little is okay on occasion, but the truth is you're an addict and you can't control it. The worst part of it is that you're not just letting pride think good thoughts about yourself, you're allowing it to think degrading thoughts about others. Yes! Don't deny it. I can see what you've been doing and it pretty much is flat out ugly. I see your logic, but I want you to know that it's flawed, because at its core is self pride. You can do it better, blah blah blah. Here's the truth, you aren't doing it so no, you actually can't do it better, so shut your trap about it. I'm not saying that yo...

In case you didn't know, we homeschool in these parts.  I was intrigued by the idea of the Homeschool Mom's Bible. I was not familiar with Janet Tatman, the author of the daily devotional portion of the Bible, but now I'm glad to have her on my shelf. This is a pretty standard devotional bible in regards to set up, there are one page devotionals throughout the scripture, each one stating the page number of the next. It is a two column layout with the latest version of the New International Version. There is a table of contents to help you find the books, a table of weights and measures, as well as a topical index for the devotions. The one thing that I would prefer is for the devotions to be all together at the front, that's just me. It works the way it is, but it makes it tough to find your day if you don't start on January 1st. Now to the content of the devotionals, top notch! They have been extremely encouraging to me in our homeschool journey. Tatman's w...

Our home has always been one that has tried to reduce the amount of waste we create and reuse anything we can before it becomes trash. But we've never been big on recycling. It seems a bit silly to me to have trucks burning fossil fuels to empty plastic containers made from fossil fuels in order to collect and potentially re-purpose part of my trash. I have family that I dearly love that is into recycling though. So this month, as an experiment, I decided to keep my recyclables out of the trash. It's been one week. We barely had an entire trash bag full of trash. If I was able to compost, it would probably be even smaller. (Some things just can't be handled by my garbage disposal, though I wish they could, I'd send all food items down there!) I have about one and a half grocery bag worth of recyclables from the week. Recycling only comes every other week and I have yet to figure out which week that is. I will say that it's pretty neat to have so little trash and m...

Our friend, Scott, got married! It was so exciting to meet the gal that finally got him to say I do. They seem like two peas in a pod, which is funny considering how much disgust he has for peas. I wanted to share with you the moment that I knew something was different about our friend. It happened right after I captured this photo. Isn't that lovely! I always love when the bride and groom are kind and caring when they share cake. Anyway, back to my point. You see, we've shared many meals with Scott. So many that I couldn't count them all if my life depended on it. That happens when you live in a dorm together and crash at one another's house. Scott always had this one habit in regards to table manners. He did not share silverware, spoons or cups. If you wanted to taste something from his plate, you had to have a perfectly clean fork or you might as well take the whole thing for yourself. There was pretty much no such thing as taking a taste of a drink and just forget a...

One of the very first people that Joel and I called to tell that we were getting married is our friend, Scott. It was funny, mainly because he didn't believe us. I think that's mainly because the last time that we had all been together, Joel and I weren't even dating. But that was thirteen years ago. A lot has happened since then. Joel and I got married, we've had a kid, taken and lost a couple jobs. And our friend, Scott, has been there for quite a bit of it. Including an infamous occasion involving me being pregnant, overly emotional, and lobster bisque. But this weekend, we enter into new territory. Scott is getting married. We're very excited for him! This morning, Hannah asked if there was going to be a bacon cake at his wedding. When I asked, he seemed kind of bummed that there wasn't going to be one. So today, I'm working on fixing that. I'll let you know how that turns out!

To kick off the public school year, we're having a pajama day. Even earned some extra tv time with reading books aloud. We might even finish a couple more of our novels later today or I might complete one of the many lingering sewing projects I have stowed around the house. But first, popcorn and Bionicle the movie.

The unofficial end of summer is what the news called today. Kind of funny to think about things like seasons which could care less about our desires have official beginnings and endings. Summer may very well stick around for a few more weeks putting out the heat rays or fall could move in tomorrow and start turning leaves left and right. It doesn't care about our marked days on the calendar, if you don't believe me ask any bride who has planned an outdoor wedding and watched the weather reports. We happen to have some nice ways to mark summer in our home, my husband's birthday is the start of the summer and my daughter's is the end. I sometimes feel a little sad when Hannah's birthday happens, because it means the end of the pool season and all those kids have to go back to school even though the weather is almost perfect for exploring outside. Seems like we should have a month where the kids can go camping and meet bugs and discover that they can survive without de...