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Valentine’s Day, and the days surrounding it.

Last year, it was candles and flower petals and chocolate-covered strawberries. It was takeout from Outback Steakhouse in the comfort of our own home. (Thanks, Covid.) It was hand-written cards and a quiet evening. Literally the calm before the storm. Because it was also an ice storm. A long power outage. An absent husband from all his running around helping other people.

This year, there were no candles, flower petals, or strawberries. There was no storm either.

Life isn’t ever perfect. Sometimes one part of it is, sometimes another part of it is, but it’s never all just entirely perfect. And that’s part of the beauty of it. ...continue reading →

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Spoiler alert: an extremely long, rambling, and probably quite boring exposition on our last six days of existence here on Egan Street. Consider yourself warned.

My to-do list for today very plainly says, “Don’t blog until after weekend,” with a row of smilies after it, but I’m realizing that since I’ve started blogging again, I tend to write about the good. And mostly just that. It’s easier to post cute pictures and expound on the toddler and his kitty than it is to even try to begin delving into the hard.

But if there’s any time to try, it might be now. Because it’s been hard. There hasn’t been a lot of sweet or cute or easy. And maybe instead of waiting till I have something fun to write about, I should just jump in now.

So at the risk of sounding like I’m complaining, here goes . . . ...continue reading →

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Once upon a time, we had a kitty named Paws. We named her before we saw her, but lo and behold, she did have little white paws. We named her Paws because we were planning to get two kittens, and it was Eric’s idea to name them Paws and Claws. Well, when my mom went kitten-hunting, she was only able to get one, and it was such a pretty little thing that we kept the name Paws.Paws was a lonely little kitty, until one day a mangy, ugly brown and black cat showed up at our back door. And kept showing up. We had our Claws, and the name couldn’t have been a better fit.

Paws and Claws. ...continue reading →