Nonfiction

  • Nonfiction,  Personal

    Destination Imagination

    Ryan was excited when he handed me his Destination Imagination sign up form this morning. Destination Imagination is a really great afterschool program where teams of kids choose a challenge (the choices are generally STEM, Art, or Service Related) and work to build a solution to that challenge. In March, they present their solutions at regional tournaments where they are scored on their creativity, workmanship, and teamwork. It is a great opportunity for kids to take the lead, learn to work as a team, and let their creativity fly. Last year was Ryan’s first year participating in Destination Imagination. It is the perfect afterschool activity for him, but it wasn’t…

  • Nonfiction,  Personal,  Places,  Prose

    On Moving to the Mountains

    “The mountains are calling and I must go.” The popular John Muir quote really speaks to the pull of nature and mountains. Living where I do, I see the quote all the time on bumper stickers, decorative logos, and Instagram hashtags. Well, the mountains called, and I moved. Moving to my awesome little mountain town in New Hampshire’s White Mountains was easily the best move that I have ever made for my family. When Ryan was younger, we moved around quite a bit between the demands of college, graduate schools, and just finding the right spot for our family. While moving around wasn’t ideal, it did give us a chance…

  • Nonfiction,  Personal,  Prose

    All About Me – Blogtober

    This year, I am trying a new challenge called Blogtober. It is a challenge among bloggers to post a new blog post every day for the month of October. I only just found out about this challenge this year, and it reminds me a lot of NaNoWriMo in terms of being a great motivator to write daily. Last year, I tried NaNoWriMo and had a great experience. Unfortunately, I completely neglected my blog while I worked on my novel and have been struggling to get back into a blogging rhythm ever since. I am really hoping that Blogtober will help me rediscover my blogging groove. The suggested prompt for today…

  • Nonfiction,  Personal,  Prose

    Unblocked

    It has been a crazy couple of months, and sadly I have completely lost my writing routine. I have a long and ever growing list of posts that I want to write for this blog, and yet every time I sit down in front of the computer, I feel completely blocked. I was in a great blogging rhythm right up until I took a break from my blog to participate in National Novel Writing Month in November. Clearly, I should have made more of an effort to to stay current on this blog, because I completely fell out of the habit of posting here – and I really love continually…

  • Nonfiction,  Personal,  Prose

    Resilience

    Resilience. That is the word that has been bouncing in my head this week. As a therapist, it was a word that came up frequently when writing therapy goals and progress notes with clients. It is also one of the behavioral standards that kids are rated on at Ryan’s school. What does it really mean though? Imagine walking across hot coals. If you cry and scream the whole way across, but then keep on walking and are willing to try it again, are you resilient because you bounced back? Or not resilient because you cried and screamed? Do you need to cross the coals without flinching in order to be…

  • Nonfiction,  Places,  Prose

    Festival of Colors

    Fall has arrived. School is in session and there is a chill in the air.  Families flock to apple orchards and pumpkin patches.  The lush green of the woods has been replaced by vibrant yellows, oranges, and reds.  The changing colors of the leaves announce the season more clearly than any date on a calendar ever could.  The background of any outdoor picture immediately gives away the season, while tourists line the sides of roads eager to document the beauty of the leaves. You won’t see these colors in Winter, Spring or Summer. In our old town the Fall Foliage Festival was the event that was anticipated all year.  Committees…

  • Nonfiction,  Prose

    A Happy Place

    Turning on the news lately makes me want to scream, but like a tragic roadside accident, I cannot look away.  There is so much that I want to say, but I can’t.  I am afraid that if I open the floodgates even a little, I will never be able to close them again. All of those words, memories and tears will just come falling out and I won’t be able to stop them. So instead, I focus on my happy place. For years, my happy place was not a real place at all.  Instead it was a state of mind that I could take anywhere.  I would put my headphones…

  • Nonfiction,  Personal,  Prose

    Finding Stability and Home – Part Three, My Dream House

    In early March, after losing out on a property that Cal really liked, he pointed out another new property that had come on the market.  I had already shown him the listing for the property before our last trip up north to look at houses, but he had immediately told me it was old and overpriced, so he wasn’t interested in seeing it.  Apparently he hadn’t paid much attention the first time I showed it to him beyond the age of the home and the price. Now he was excited about the house.  It was a beautiful, well-maintained home in an absolutely perfect location.  There is not another property anywhere…

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  • Nonfiction,  Personal,  Prose

    Finding Stability and Home – Part Two, Our House Hunting Journey

    Cal and I have been house hunting off and on for about three years now.  Circumstances changed at different times, so we weren’t able to be seriously looking for that entire three year period.  We initially looked to buy right when we were first moving to New Hampshire.  We looked at houses and made offers.  Our initial location criteria were the best school districts in the state and being centrally located for jobs.  After a few months of looking we decided to get a rental before the new school year started so that we could all be together.  Our rental was in a small town in the Sunapee/Kearsarge area of…

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