Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

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Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: Every Picture Tells a Story

  • Frankie, please come home!

    It's not what a parent likes to confess, but lately Max and Belle have been misbehaving. I mostly blame Max – he knows better and Belle is just a baby, following his lead. And he's leading her to team up against Frankie. Yes, Frankie is a bully. I don't like bullies, but he's a little…

  • Connections

      Here I am sitting on another Friday facing a jam-packed weekend and I haven't even mentioned the last one yet! How did Friday sneak up on me like this? Has it really been a week since I helped surprise Lexie for her 50th birthday? (She's the one in the blue birthday sash.) I didn't…

  • Be Still. Balance. Breathe.

      Stand still, planted in the meadow. Breathe in. Breathe out. Listen. Hear the birds kreee-kreee across the pond, Belle and Max munching grass near my feet. Feel the minute. Close my eyes and really feel it… feel my heartbeat counting off the seconds… "On the tightrope of life, only one thing allows us to move…

  • Carry On, My Dirty White, Blue Collar Son

    There's nothing like a rock concert to make you feel eighteen again… the music pounds so hard it chips away the years. You can't remember if you turned off the coffee pot, but lyrics long-buried in the rubble of your brain flow out of your mouth – the soundtrack to scenes of your life, years…

  • Loose Ends, Apologies and Clarifications

    I owe my kids an apology. I implied in XOXO Nina Barbara that they were slackers in the Mother's Day department. I didn't intend to, but nonetheless, reading back over it now, I understand why my sweet Tommy slipped a pressed flower into the card he sent me with a note explaining "I couldn't let…

  • Grateful for #53

    Tom turned 53 today. If you've read much of my blog, you know I never take birthdays for granted, but I'm especially grateful for each one of his we get to celebrate. I've spent too many hours sitting in hospital waiting rooms praying for him … come too close to losing him too many times.…

  • Heaven is a cool pond, a field of tall grass and some little frogs

    The dust disappeared about mid-morning yesterday. I noticed the sunshine seemed a bit brighter and the sight of the yellow wildflowers dancing in the breeze made me happy. Just thinking of their movement as dancing let me know my vision was beginning to clear. It didn't even matter that I was settling in for hours…

  • Dealing with the Dust Storms

    Depression settles into me like a fine dust, obscuring reality just enough to be an annoyance. It reminds me of the dust storms in the Texas panhandle my grandmother told me about – one minute its a sunshiny day, you're going about your business, whistling … and then this darkness rolls in, seeping into every…

  • Luck, Love, Laughter … Motherhood

    When you think about it, life is so very fragile, so touch and go, and there are so many things that can go wrong – that do go wrong sometimes – that it's a miracle any of us are even here.  When you think about the pain of childbirth, the exhaustion of taking care of…

  • XOXO Nina Barbara

        I staggered in from the grocery store this evening with a hunger headache, clutching my to-go bag of Panda Express orange chicken and mixed vegetables, leaving the groceries for Tom and Daniel to lug down to the house. All I could think about was taming my growling stomach and aching head. But then…