Category: Uncategorized
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Progress Over Placement: Our Homeschool Midyear Reflection
Boy1 and I have officially reached the halfway point of the school year—90 days in. Bravo to us. 🎉 Granted, the first 43 days were “imported” from public school, but we’ve already learned so much together and made meaningful progress since then. As we head into the second half of…
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Intentional: Reclaiming My Time in 2026
Intentional. That’s my word for 2026. I landed on it while journaling in one of my many Monica Sweeney journals (if you know Zen as F*ck, you know the vibe). One prompt asked me to list what I struggled with across different areas of my life—personal, professional, family, and everything…
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Singing the Wrong Lyrics (and Letting It Be)
On a recent road trip, I listened to Boy2 confidently belt out the wrong lyrics to a song. For a split second, I almost corrected him. But then it hit me—one day, his little voice won’t be shouting any lyrics from the backseat at all, wrong or otherwise. I know…
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Bottling Up a Little Holiday Magic
The holiday season truly is my most wonderful time of the year. When we’re all piled onto the living room couch watching a Christmas movie, or driving around town to admire the decorations, I love seeing the warm glow of the lights reflecting off the boys’ faces. Their wonder and…
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When Trauma Whispers Instead of Shouts
Trauma has a way of sneaking up on you. One minute you’re driving home from soccer practice, singing along to the radio, and the next you’re blindsided by a memory from a previous life—one that brings you to tears without warning. If you have any understanding of adoption through the…
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Keeping the Magic (and Meaning) in Christmas
If you know, you know. Anyone else’s photo reel look like this? When we first started this tradition, it felt like one more way to bring a little extra magic into the holidays for our boys—boys who hadn’t always experienced very magical holidays. In fact, when Boy2 was just five…
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It Takes a Village
According to Google AI, the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” is widely believed to originate from African proverbs. Its exact source may be unknown, but the sentiment reflects a beautiful, long-standing truth — raising children has always been a collective effort. When we adopted the boys,…
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Embracing the “Firsts” We Do Get
I was scrolling through old photos of the boys the other day. We’re coming up on our three-year anniversary as a family—a day we celebrate as “Family Day.” (Adoption day is in August.) It’s one more reason to be thankful in November. Looking at those pictures, I couldn’t help but…
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Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone: How I’m Doing with Homeschooling
“But how are you?” I get asked this almost as often as I’m asked how Boy1 is doing with homeschool. And it’s a fair question — how am I doing? I thought about homeschooling Boy1 for a long time before actually making the leap. The biggest obstacle for me was…
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Learning What Works: Homeschool Adjustments with Boy1
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about homeschooling Boy1 is the flexibility. I talked about this in a previous post — Teaching the Way He Learns — and believe it or not, we’ve already made some adjustments! In just a few short weeks, I’ve learned so much about what…
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