Author: Mia

  • Interest-led Learnin’ & Library Love

    Interest-led Learnin’ & Library Love

    This week’s What to Read Wednesday list is late, yet again, though I’m relieved to report we triumphed over the stomach flu. We’ve simply had a full schedule of activities– these days I feel more like an Uber driver than a teacher. We’ve had the regular lineup of choir, theatre, co-op, speech, field trips, & social events,…

  • The Neverending Story (a fixer-upper update)

    The Neverending Story (a fixer-upper update)

    A quick update on our fixer-upper because, no, we’re not done with the remodel yet. I’m not complaining– we’re chipping away at projects as our schedule and finances allow, refusing to go into debt (or the mental asylum) over this renovation. via GIPHY Instead, God’s forever teaching us patience, and we’re continually shuffling the master honey-do…

  • What to Read in the Car While Waiting for Kids

    What to Read in the Car While Waiting for Kids

    This week’s What to Read Wednesday recommends are comin’ atcha on a Friday since this week our household was verily bowled over by an early stomach flu. Ugh, and just as we were gaining momentum on our back-to-school schedule! Still, we managed to squeeze in plenty of reading between body aches, hot baths, and laundering of sheets. On…

  • No Hands but Ours: Attachment Through the Years

    No Hands but Ours: Attachment Through the Years

    Recently, online champions of adoption No Hands But Ours featured our story as it pertains to: Attachment Through the Years. Check it out here, alongside similar stories, or read on… It’s been four and a half years since we first met our son in China. Sometimes that feels like a split-second ago… I freshly recall the nervous,…

  • For Gramps

    For Gramps

    I hit the Grandpa jackpot. My grandfather’s an honest, patient, even-keeled man. A stoic, hard-working son of Depression-era farmers, he’s the unwavering, unglitzy foundation of my extended family. throwbacks It’s a shame I’m pretty much his opposite, the only traits apparently passed down prescribe my blue eyes, hairy arms, and love of a bargain. Still, I’m grateful…

  • Back-to-School Vibes

    Back-to-School Vibes

    It’s that time of year again: Return to the cadence of rhythm and routine, of cool morning fog, rain showers, sun-breaks, and shadowy evenings; of boots and sweaters and football and hearty stews, of apples and pumpkin spice and… school.  This year I’m teaching an eighth grader, a sixth grader, and a first grader– heaven help…

  • The Ministry of Ordinary Places (book review)

    The Ministry of Ordinary Places (book review)

    What to Read Wednesday in the house! I’m pressing pause on the back-to-school frenzy for a hot minute to share yet another incredible new book: The Ministry of Ordinary Places.  Author Shannan Martin is an ordinary gal– an ordinary gal with an extraordinary grip on being real, being present, and being a good (literal & metaphorical) neighbor. Neighboring…

  • 5 (or so) Seconds of Summer
  • I’d Rather Be Reading

    I’d Rather Be Reading

    For this week’s installment of What to Read Wednesday, I’m reviewing Anne Bogel’s latest book, I’d Rather Be Reading, wherein she shares universal “delights and dilemmas of the reading life.” Bookworm to bookworm, Anne Bogel gets me. “How good it is to be among people who are reading.” I joked upon receipt of my advanced copy* that it’s…