Do-over

Seeing some of the more neglected corners of my home in the photos of my last post inspired me to impose some order over the weekend. Here are my do-overs for my closets. Because I believe in second chances. Don't you?

Basic Joy

Anne Bentley Waddoups

“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

— Mary Oliver

Hello, I'm Annie. Writer, researcher, professor, mum. Enthusiast: developmental psych, innovation, ideas, travel, design, stories, and a good laugh.

“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”

— Wendell Berry

First time here?
A few posts to get you started:

Marriage
Passing the bridge of sighs
A modest proposal
A modest proposal ii
Adeste fideles

Life
Uncurbed enthusiasm
Liner notes to growing up
Sunday dinner @ 135
Playing big
In praise of late bloomers

Parenting
Triptych
Bless her heart
Paging EB White
Nine and a half
Madeleine, 16
Keystone parents
She holds these truths
Louie, Louie

Latest Instagrams:

A quick retreat with these two wonderfuls did my soul good. I met Jen and Deirdre in 1997 when we all moved into the Alexandria VA ward at the same time. We’ve served together, laughed, mourned, celebrated, learned, and cried together. Brene Brown talks about move-a-body friends; these are definitely two of mine.
Also: Woodland Biscuit Company is divine. Get thee there. The end.

Today I had a fantastically low-key day. And apparently all the emotions I’ve been marching past lately came tapping me politely but insistently on the shoulder.
...
So when G called and told me he gave away our Dansk wedding plates (in all fairness to G, I had told him all the kitchen items could go because I forgot those particular plates were there in DC) I became way more weepy about it than I normally would. Suddenly the loss of the plates became a stand-in for the loss of continuity and history and 5-people-around-the-table and everything else we’ve left behind in this in-between phase of the move. So I broke down a little, sitting there in the supermarket parking lot—a good cathartic cry, like a built up rainstorm—and then started the car and headed up the canyon. As I rounded the bend to the cabin THIS was unfurled across the sky. Message received:
Everything’s going to be okay.
And also? they’re just plates.
...
p.s. G promptly arranged to go retrieve the plates first thing in the morning. Because he’s a keeper as well as a giver.

Three-hour lunches are my favorite kind of summer luxuries. (And if they include three generations plus Glenna, that’s just straight-up bliss.)
...
p.s. I have discovered I can’t help raising that eyebrow in every photo, even when I try not to. Presenting my (accidental) signature look — 🧐
Send help.

Celebrating 75 years my terrific dad has been on the earth ✨ (And in the second shot he’s the handsome fella in the middle, at age 18/19 and looking a bit like his grandson Sam ❤️) #fathersbefore
(p.s. have you seen the @mothersbefore IG account? I love it.)

Reading:

RT @Maxsather: A timeline of colors of Mr Rogers sweaters. https://t.co/L9dyXm33sf
about 3 months ago
RT @tarawestover: From Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel acceptance speech. Stories are about one person saying to another, This is the way it f… https://t.co/UYGqHD7aME
about 4 months ago
Ouch and yep. https://t.co/yvDy5pKdpm
about 7 months ago

Writing Elsewhere:

Segullah
Letters to a Parent
Nest and Launch

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