H O M E G R O W N

"This is it. Right here. This moment you're in. This is life."  It's a cliche phrase but the reality of it hit me today. So much of our youth is spent planning and dreaming. We get in the habit of planning our lives away. We are so obsessed with the next step that we do not live today. We have so much living to do and so much time that has to pass between one milestone and another. But those milestones aren't the only moments where we are really living.  My grandmother was 53 when I was born. For twenty three years I had the great privilege of living my life with her in it. I wish I could have known her longer. I wish I could have known the Caroline Jean of 1953, 1967, 1975, etc. It's made me realize that there could be someone one day that wished they had known the 2019 me, just like I wish I knew the 1967 Caroline. We are living in the rushed mornings... hours behind a desk... during our commutes and chores... and our little evenings with

I miss the old days of the blogging world -- circa 2011 -- when far-flung home schoolers got to know each other better by endless scrolling through each other's blogs. But that was a long time ago. Since then we all have graduated high-school, gone to college, gotten real jobs, moved into apartments or houses, and maybe even gotten married or had babies. What with building lives and being out in the world, many of us have lessened our social media presence considerably. And that's glorious, really. Once there were lengthy blog posts and daily posts and now we share only snippets about ourselves in Instagram stories, or simply lurk on apps and sites and don't say a word. We've put down roots in the real world and made efforts to be "more in the moment."  But somewhere during the pursuit of "being in the moment" I stopped documenting all the good stuff. Time is flying by without markers. I want to appreciate all the joy that there is in