WayfaringStrangers

Several years ago, I was driving home from my part time tutoring job and listening to NPR. I always seemed to catch the Marketplace segment and began to really enjoy it. I've never been a numbers person, but I am interested in economy and society. They had a segment inviting young adults (millennials) to share their stories of how difficult it can be to get by in middle class America. The economy was slowly recovering from the Recession, and I had the perfect anecdote. I went home and typed up my story in the comments section of the Marketplace page. How my husband and I had graduated college with student loan debt...how expensive health insurance plans were....how every paycheck was spent with bills as soon as we had it...how getting married during a recession was basically no fun...how we had to sell our vehicle and buy a crappier one that we could afford. We did not take fancy vacations or eat out much. I stayed home with our kids but had to tutor in the evenings for extra cas...

Ah, it's been a while since I've had a birth story to write about.  So, here's another episode of "Megan's Precipitous Labors." My pregnancy with baby N was overall very good, but also hard. Maybe because I'm getting older and my body has done this a few times. I was more sick in my 1st trimester than before (but nothing severe, thankfully). Later, I had awful restless leg at night, sharp rib pain, and was generally exhausted. Add that to already having 3 crazy boys and homeschooling - oh, and purchasing a house and moving- and I was kind of a mess. Still, I had no complications. My 1 ultrasound showed a healthy baby, and we had decided not to find out the gender. Working with Karen and Jen- my homebirth midwives- was great. My prenatal appointments were all an unrushed hour in her cozy home office. They asked how I was doing. They offered advice for my struggles and genuinely cared for me. There was nothing invasive or uncomfortable about seeing them....

We finally settled on our new home! After 10.5 years away, we are back in Delaware. Our early married life took us from Delaware (where we both grew up), to beautiful Virginia (still my favorite), to Southern MD, to northern MD, and now back to Delaware. We are actually only moving 20 minutes away this time, from our MD rental over into DE. It's not the area of DE where we were raised, but it's perfect for us. We needed s p a c e, and you just cannot get that in northern New Castle county. Plus, we are plugged into our church and homeschool community and didn't want to make more changes. This is home, probably for a long time. The house is move-in ready, but we have big dreams for the house and property. On over 3 acres, we have wishes for gardens and animals. The house itself is a bit small (well, compared to many American standards... But not compared to world standards). We have lots of improvements and renovations we hope to make over time... Although we also want t...

Today is the first day of Advent for this season. Usually, this time of year overwhelms me because of all the expectations and extra "stuff" going on. This year, I am overwhelmed for many different reasons, and I long for the simplicity and beauty of Advent and Christmas. As we enter December, we are anticipating: - A move to a new home -A 5 week winter break from our co-op -Our oldest son's birthday -Christmas and holidays -The birth of our 4th child The move in itself is a lot. We are moving locally- buying a house on 3 acres only 20 minutes away. Still, we've been (sort of) packing for weeks and nothing is in order anymore. This house feels messy and chaotic, and I long to be in our new home with a Christmas tree lighting up the living room. Once we get there, we will anticipate settling in, eventually making changes and improvements, and making this a very long-term home. We anticipate the birth of our baby. I'm 34+ weeks now. I'm close enoug...

We've been living in our (rental) home on the Upper Eastern Shore in Maryland for one year now, so I thought it would be a good time for an update. When we moved here a year ago, we were generally unfamiliar with the area. While Behn and I both grew up in Delaware- which technically is only a few miles away- we did not grow up this far south in the state. So the towns, shopping, roads, and other attractions were generally new to us. Since then, we've really established our stomping grounds. We live in a tiny  one stop-light town in a neighborhood stuffed with great kids and neighbors. Let's start there. Our rental is a roomy Cape Cod on a quiet street. We have firefighters/EMS on one side of our house and a state Trooper on the other side. While we haven't met everyone, most of the neighbors are so super friendly and the kids have a huge group of kiddos to run around with. I've made one especially close friend, which has been a blessing. The kids run around the ac...

Hi there, how are you? How is that thing going, how is she doing, how was your trip? I can listen right now. That must be hard, that sounds wonderful, I understand, I don't know how that must feel. Me too. I can listen some more. We are all Eleanor Rigby sometimes. I'm ok (you didn't ask, but if you did, thank you). This thing is going well or not. I know we are all busy. Can we get together with the kids? Oh, they have camp/VBS/school/an appointment/visitors/you're on a trip? We have stuff going on, too. Another time then, when things calm down (they won't). You didn't see my text, my message, my SOS? Oh yeah, life has been crazy, I get it. (Does it always have to be crazy though? Can we turn down some noise?) I don't want to read that article you shared. You don't want to listen to the podcast I shared, either. I get it. There's a lot of noise. Too much noise. Maybe we can be quiet and talk in the fresh air. Do you want to come for lunch some...

Only if you peer into the creek, still and quiet, might eye and brain in a flash discover a small turtle in your palm. You both blink, surprised. Only if a toddler's chubby hand bumbles persistently for the black ant in the grass, dropping it over and over, finding it again, does the ant finally realize its mortality the moment the toddler discovers its mighty bite. Only if I scan the sky, against cirrus and azure, can I begin to distinguish wingspan of eagle, buzzard, hawk, heron. There's a world up there. Only if one sits on a tree stump, alone, no earbuds, that in five minutes time one may hear the unmistakable slither at one's feet. One was not alone. Only if he must conquer creek will he find a stick to measure depth. Cautiously first, then charging on. Creek is known, joy found. He's a Navy Seal now. Only if we step to edge of pond, clear on top, muddy bottom, there's nothing here- then we toss the pebble and a thousand fat...