home observations

Waking Up the House

In a new house, I’m forming new habits. One thing I’ve found myself doing every morning is opening curtains and blinds room-by-room. I refer to this as “waking up the house.” While I used to open curtains in the morning in our old house, there weren’t as many to open (just a couple) and I didn’t open them one after the other, like I do in this house. I just have to let the daylight…

Continue reading

challenge family home technology

In Search of a Basement Pencil Sharpener

Having moved recently, I was missing our basement pencil sharpener. I have a couple of small, hand-held pencil sharpeners to use, but they aren’t effective at making a nice point without chewing up the wood on my cheap, soft pencils. What I really needed, and wanted, was a sturdy hand-crank pencil sharpener that mounted to a wall, preferably in the basement. You know, the pencil sharpeners found at the back of most school rooms that…

Continue reading

family health history ideas process tips writing

Writing: Using Health Intake Forms for Character Development

Forms are on my mind recently, partially because I finished filing our taxes and partially due to a project at work. I have filled out a LOT of forms in my life. From tax forms to social services forms to grant applications to healthcare forms, all ask for some intensive and often highly personal information. After you’ve filled out the same information (name, address, phone, email … etc., etc., etc.) for the twelfth dozen time,…

Continue reading