My Favorite SmallWorld Posts in 2012

January

 

Sifting Through a Life: "It's the pause before, the sacred snippet of quiet that I should be savoring. I should be sleeping or reading or even watching television. In an hour we'll be at the funeral home, arranging displays of a life, a whole entire life of 90 years. In two hours we'll be shaking hands of strangers mostly who loved our person, our uncle, our Max."

February

Good Mom:"It is simple, this mother love. It comes in waves of memory or quick blinks of realization that the years are limited. Some day, in just a few years, I won't have anyone around who delights in hot chocolate or who wraps himself in an afghan while watching cartoons."

March

New York City, Family Style: I divided this amazing trip of ours into four posts:
Lodging, Transportation, Food
Central Park and Times Square
Brooklyn Bridge, 9/11 Memorial, Staten Island Ferry, Top of the Rock
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

April

First Annual Festival of One Act Plays: A Memory."The evening was warm. The grassy courtyard was filled with students on blankets, wearing shorts and t-shirts, facing the makeshift stage. The air was thick with anticipation and honeysuckle. Everything was exactly right."

May

Motherhood Slice of Life:"It is true that there is absolutely nothing in the world I wanted to be, ever, more than being a mom. I marvel sometimes at how I can be a mom now to two teenagers and one wanna-be teen. You know that feeling that somewhere out there, you still exist as a 14-year-old, 18-year-old, 25-year-old? I have that a lot."

June

What I Don't Show You (and Why I Blog Carefully): "A lot goes on in SmallWorld that you don't know about. I decided long ago never to tell stories that might hurt someone else, even if those stories are partly my stories. I don't share personal struggles that my kids go through, or things that are happening in my friends' or families' lives. It's not because I am scared to show you who I am, but because I believe in protecting people's privacy."

July

10 Pieces of Advice for All Homeschoolers, Old or New: "Much more important to me than choosing curriculum or having well-organized shelves or even deciding whether to keep homeschooling is the tremendous task of being a good parent. My pieces of advice really apply to any parents, not just homeschooling ones."

August

Ultimate Guide to Creative Writing Resources for Students: I spent hours and hours putting together this huge list of mostly free resources for teaching creative writing. Don't miss it!

September

Chicago with Teens: Art Institute. 2012 was a year of fantastic adventures with both NYC and Chicago on our itinerary. The Met and the Art Institute were my favorite parts of the trips; Chicago was especially fun with three teen girls.

October

31 Days of Beautiful Things. I spent the whole month focusing on the beautiful things in my days. There were a lot of beautiful things in October: a trip to my alma mater with my daughter as a prospective student )"Today's beautiful thing: being reminded of how incredibly blessed I am/was to have gone to college at a small, liberal arts college where everyone does, indeed, remember your name"); a camping trip to hear the elk bugle at Cataloochee ("Watching these huge, majestic animals was beautiful, as was being out in the valley at 7:45 a.m., autumn just coloring the leaves and fog creeping in and out.");  running with my husband ("I run because Randy and I have 45 minutes of uninterrupted time, just the two of us, to talk about our yesterday, our today, and what's happening tomorrow"); and joining the Vineyard ("One year ago, I would never have predicted that we would join another church.)

November

My Grandmother's Legacy.  "I am grateful for the legacy of optimism and expectancy, of looking for beauty in simple things, of embracing life, of just 'having some fun.'"

December

Finding Peace in the Christmas Program.  "But somewhere about halfway through, I fell in love. … I stopped thinking about how many more acts the bulletin promised (13 at that point) and noticed the lights on the stage, tiny twinkling stars on the trees and wreaths."