What's the Plott?

I am in Cancun with my bestie. 🤗 Believe me .... It is as fabulous as it sounds! There is sunshine, ocean air, beautiful views, and all the things that make Cancun feel like Cancun. But we are not here for the usual vacation reason. We are here because she had a follow-up appointment at the Hope for Cancer Center. That changes the weight of the trip a little. It is still beautiful. It is still precious time with my friend. But it is also a reminder of everything she has walked through, everything she has changed, and everything God has done in her life over the last couple of years. When someone you love receives a terminal diagnosis with a timeline, you start paying attention to things differently. At the Hope for Cancer Center, every patient has a protocol. What to eat. What to avoid. What vitamins to take. What minerals their body needs. What toxins need attention. What therapies are part of their plan. Every patient’s protocol is a little different because every patien...

Every month since I started going to my chiropractor, I have also been able to enjoy a massage.  Let me be clear before anybody tells me how lucky I am to get a monthly massage.  These are not fluff-and-buff massages. They are not  “light some lavender and pretend to relax while someone politely pats your shoulders” massages. These are real massage therapists who know what they are doing. They work in tandem with the chiropractor, and for almost two years now, I can honestly say it has made a difference for me to stay aligned and loose. I know chiropractic care gets plenty of “quack doctor” jokes and side-eyes from people, but this is one of the few things I have stayed consistent with and actually seen positive results with pain management.  So I will happily take my monthly adjustment and massage, thank you very much. That said, every massage is different; d ifferent therapist, d ifferent technique, d ifferent areas that need attention that day, what have you. T od...

We had a lovely vacation week at my parents’ beach house on Folly Beach. It is our favorite beach, our familiar place, and one of those gifts I never want to take for granted. But as all good vacations do, this one had to come to an end. Because part of getting to use the house is leaving it ready for the next guest, the final day of vacation always looks a little less like beach chairs and ocean breezes and a little more like laundry, sweeping sand, wiping counters, and wondering how one family used that many towels. I love the reset of the beach house as much as the respite it brings while we are there.   I had an event to attend, and I left my kids in charge of starting the first few loads of laundry. When I came back a couple of hours later, I realized they had, in fact, run the laundry.  The washer had filled. The clothes had spun. The cycle had finished. I was so pleased to see the accomplished task.  There was just one small problem. They had not used soap. At...

Truth is a word we use a lot. We talk about telling the truth. Knowing the truth. Standing for the truth. Defending the truth. But lately I’ve been thinking about how many things try to present themselves as truth that are not truth at all. news, gossip, rumors, opinions, assumptions, half-stories, things said with confidence by people who only know a piece of what happened If we aren’t careful, we start reacting to everything as if it deserves the same weight. But not everything that is spoken is true. Not everything that feels personal deserves a battle.  A few years ago, my beanpole son got into a battle of words with another kid at camp. This child called him fat.  Now listen. 🙄 There are plenty of things someone could have called Wyatt that might have at least made us pause and consider if there was a little truth buried in there somewhere. But fat was not one of them. This child had clearly chosen the wrong insult for my kid. 😂 But even though it was not tr...

We have been thinking a lot about genetics around here lately. Which sounds more scientific than it usually is on our little farm. For us, it looks more like standing in a barn staring at sheep, and saying things like: “She has good feet.” “That one has better parasite resistance.” “She’s a good mama.” “We need more like her." Sometimes, it's getting real with our purpose and looking at an animal realizing that not every trait is one we want to keep passing down. That is part of raising livestock. You breed for what is strong. You pay attention to what shows up again and again. Hoof sturdiness matters. Parasite resistance matters. Good mothering matters. Temperament matters. Over time, the flock should begin to show the traits you have protected, encouraged, and intentionally chosen.  But not everything in a flock is only passed through blood. Some things are learned by being near. A young ewe can learn what good mothering looks like by being raised in a herd where other mothe...

The last post in the France Travel series  - although feel sure its influence will be noted for years to come! Paris made me look up. Bordeaux made me look closer. Marseille brought me inside the door. And that feels like the right way to end this little France travel series. By the time we arrived in Marseille, the train ride had been hot, our bags felt heavier than they had at the beginning of the trip, and the rhythm of travel had fully settled into our bones. On the platform, we met a German girl who had lived abroad for school for a few years, and despite her broken English, the conversation was easy and interesting in that way travel conversations sometimes are. You share stories with someone you have never met, both of you going somewhere different, and for a few minutes, your lives overlap in unexpected connections. It would turn out to set the tone for the personal connection felt in this city that was missing from the first two.  Getting off the train in the late of ...