Category: journey

Birthdays and other such miseries…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments
Ahh… Birthdays… 
Over the weekend we had immense amounts of birthday wonderment for Gen as she spent three entire days celebrated the commencement of her twelfth birthday. While three seems extreme, most of it is my fault. And life’s fault. And, well, it just is… On Friday we went to get mani/pedis and then to get her hair cut (she was going for an A-line) and highlighted. What resulted, $72 dollars later, was Genny emerging (after FOUR HOURS of service to her hair,) was Gen looking EXACTLY the same. Am I the only one having difficulty understanding this? I saw the foils in her hair… And yet- NOTHING changed. Not her highlights… Not her cut/style. Nothing. 
And we frantically scurried along to survive the multitude of errands needing our attention before her sleepover- which rocked… 
Saturday she requested lunch at a local place with sings birthday ballads and delivers towering ice cream sundaes. 
Sunday, her actual birthday, brought her a cake batter pancake breakfast, family presents, a shopping day at the mall spending birthday money and gift cards- and then a trip to the movies to take in the latest Wimpy Kid installment, (which we all LOVED!) . 
Today is my thirty fifth birthday and it has completely sucked. 
it has sucked for all of the good reasons… My husband loves me. Really who can complain? He loves me so much that he literally stressed out and ruined the day succumbing to the pressure of making it a good day… 
Of all of life’s ironies… 
all in all, I’m glad our birthday season is behind us… 
Now if Spring would just get the memo… 
Until then, I will just spend as much quality time with my son, who flew in for some family leave before heading to Germany for three years. 

Today…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay9 Comments
Today I am just needing to talk. I am needing someone to be there and listen, and to tell me they know how i feel. 
Today I am looking for understanding. Understanding of the facts that I’m not perfect, and never will be. Understanding of the fact that my life won’t fit into your a-typical little box, and I am ok with that… 
Today I am needing something. Anything. Compulsively I am looking at my phone, at my email, at my facebook, at the wall. I glance at my to-do list and want to do none of it. 
Today I am biting my lip and forcing tears backwards. I am binding it all together and cheering myself to get through tomorrow night. 
Note world: come 11 a.m. on Saturday morning- I am giving myself permission to freak out, cry, yell, pound fists and admit to anyone who will listen how completely helpless and overwhelmed I feel. About everything. About everyone. 
But this isn’t about Saturday… It’s about today. 
Today I just want someone, anyone, to be there… 
But if there was someone- I wouldn’t have the first clue what to say… 
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Doing the Friday dance…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay4 Comments
i haven’t been able to find a good chunk of time to work on the manuscript, in weeks, and I’m pretty sick over this… Just yesterday a girlfriend, at lunch, was reassuring me that I’ll always have my writing (or something like that, i forget) and I just cringed… Anyway, while my book sits collecting metaphorical hard drive dust, at least I’ve got blog posts, right? The one, from this week, that I am most proud of would be the one about my foster mom Julie. I have a photo of her, holding my adorably chubby Genny, sitting beside my bed. It has caught my eye every morning this week…

Bittersweet…

Moving on…

Best thing i stumbled across, on the web, was this post, which is absolutely WORTH the click… IT IS Great. Moving. Identifiable… 

All week I’ve had things on my mind… The two most pressing were the situation in Japan, which is just so heartbreaking… And Lucas, who turned 22 on Sunday. We miss him so much and, of course, would rather he been home. Even so, we are so proud of him for his selflessness and willingness to serve our country. Plus he has kidney damage, which sucks…

Top five moments were:
1} uncomfortable but vital heart to heart discussions.
2} dinner and hanging out with those friends that are your forever friends.
3} going to a crazy, but fantastic interior design sale followed by an incredible bakery lunch, with a friend.
4} refinishing/recovering chairs with my husband.
5} finally finding a vegetarian cookbook that i love. 


This week I’ve really been loving Satellite, by Guster. {If you aren’t familiar, I encourage a listen. SUCH a great track!} 
Best recipe was definitely this Burrito Casserole… We had friends over and even though loved it. 
For school we studied the judicial system, state government and did an indepth study of the Salem Witch Trials.

I’m reading All Is Vanity… I stumbled upon it, at the library, and was thrilled. Drowning Ruth is one of my favorite books. I am really excited to read it.

Next week I’m looking forward to birthdays. Spring break, swimming, birthday parties, friends, gift wrap, cake… What’s not to look forward to? 

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Sort of like Where’s Waldo, only WAY better…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay5 Comments
It’s really easy to notice, in every direction we look, the devastation in life. This week it’s Japan. It seems like we all know someone who is suffering from Cancer; someone who has lost a child; marriages ending… It’s a never ending cycle. I guess it is something about the way we are wired, that the majority of us sort of get lost in the ugliness. Life becomes tragically bleak and misery abounds… 
But what kind of life is that? 
Should we feel guilty that we set our dinner table with a well balanced meal while someone, somewhere, is starving? I don’t think so. 
I am learning more and more, every day, that I have the responsibility to find the beauty in my everyday… 
I say mine, because my beauty may look differently than yours. 
But think about it, for a second. Imagine one of your worst days. A day where nothing seemed to go right and every minute seemed to lead to you feeling more broken and alone. What if, in the midst of that horrible day, something caught your eye and convicted you with so much inspiration and beauty that you found yourself overcome with tears of joy and gratitude. 
How much would that one little moment change that day? Your heart? Your life… 
I want to have an eye for beauty. True beauty- that I could spot it anywhere… 
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image courtesy of katie hansen’s photostream

And, it’s a wrap…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay2 Comments

Here at Chez’ Wagner, it has been quite the week…

Wind, snow , sunshine, blizzards, sixty-five degree days… Unpredictable, if anything…

My favorite Rainy Day in May post would have to be this one though, for the life of me I can’t understand why.

The most incredible thing I encountered on the web was this video…
Top five moments:
1} getting our garage (after three years) organized. (PLUS it was 65 that day!)
2} lunch and a matinée with a girlfriend.
3} Lent… I get excited about things like that!
4} funny text bantering with Chw about sending him to the gallows. :) {we’re cool like that!}
5} Going to see the Broadway tour of Fiddler on the Roof.

Best song this week was this one, HANDS DOWN!

Best recipe was Vegetarian Korma. It’s a family favorite (even my meat loving husband loves it!) only we change a few things… and I use Sweet potatoes for half of the potatoes it calls for. And we don’t use onions.

While practicing the ways of the home educating we studied horses, specifically caring for them, the science of them and ways they’ve been used and bred over the years. We are reading the play Romeo & Juliet for literature, which has of course brought about some interesting discussions…

Best thing I read was chapter eight in One Thousand Gifts… It may be taking me a long time to get through this book, due to almost no time to read, but every time I get the chance i just love it all the more.

I am really looking forward to an interior design sale, with a girlfriend tomorrow, followed by a film critique… {You know I’m anxious to get out of the house when I’m uber excited about critiquing ;) } Also hoping to sneak in some sort of date with the husband but we’ll see…

How was your week? What were your best moments? 

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