Marni Hall

I love discovering mutual connections on Facebook. One of my college roommates married the cousin of a friend I met many years later, which I discovered when I commented on a post by one of them, and the other said, "Hey, how do you know...?" It's already delightful knowing them, but it creates a fun friendship triangle, somehow making our connection feel deeper.  Someone in my neighborhood asked about a singing instructor, and since my girls are musical I looked up one of the people mentioned over and over in case we decide someday that voice lessons would be a good idea. She was friends with so many people in different circles of mine that I wanted to send her a message and say, hey, we're not currently friends, but apparently we should be because we like a LOT of the same people. Turns out she'd grown up in my current neighborhood and helped with a play one of my daughters was in (while I was helping with a different play). I briefly met her, but not enough to ...

The weather here is uniquely warm this year. We have a tradition of celebrating the last warm day with a slurpee, always happening with a spike in temperature in November, but this year I've wondered if we need to have another slurpee day in December. Then I look at the forecast - though sunny, 45 degrees isn't slurpee weather. I walked outside and realized a bit later that I tracked these leaves in on my shoe. Pretty enough for a picture.  A few days ago my children were out enjoying a nice day in the backyard with a friend. They needed my help with a crisis situation when they realized there was a bird in our shed, ("leave the door open, it will get itself out") and I saw they had been at work on quite a project, gathering and sorting a beautiful nature collection. From Katherine Paterson, "Children are born with a wholesome sense of curiosity. I won't argue that, but wonder is more than curiosity. It demands an element o...

With homeschooling classes on hold for the month, I'm setting goals for myself to use this time well. Amazingly, lot of my Christmas preparations are already done, and I am excited about the openness of the month. I want to... - art every day - clean something every day Both are stretches. I printed some habit trackers for myself and to encourage my children in setting their own goals. This is definitely a part I love about homeschooling - the open time available for them to discover who they are and build talents. A few inspiring things... "‘The question,’ she replied, ‘is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.’ ” from Oathbringer, I believe page 931 (going off kindle). "The opposite of spare time is, I guess, occupied time. In my case I still don't know what spare time is because all my time is occupie...