Lentil Soup with Sausage

Today was wonderfully cool. I spent a lot of the day outside, and it was as pleasant as its been in weeks. When the temperatures drop about 10 more degrees, I’m going to make this soup. Unfortunately, I think they are going back up this weekend, but soon, very soon, we’ll be eating soup! I’m …

almond biscotti

Almond Biscotti After a long summer (maybe longer) of eating whatever I wanted I am really trying to cut back.  Plus I’m trying to add consistent yoga back in to my life.  My living room is evolving into a mini yoga studio, which is a mini fulfillment of one of my life dreams!  Super exciting. …

D Camp

D Camp Oh Discipleship Camp, lovingly referred to as d-camp. Where should I even start? So much could be said about the 6 days of being at camp with over 100 middle school students during one of the hottest Junes ever recorded in the history of this fine state of Arkansas. Really, the amount of …

Tales of a Wingfeather by Andrew Peterson

We fell in love with The Wingfeather Series this spring. The books are by one of our favorite singer/songwriters, Andrew Peterson. He sings a song called Dreams on his album for children about a kid who is looking for pirates, dragons and all sorts of adventures. In my mind, these books are those adventures. My …

Fall Castle Bluff Camps

One of the events that marks our autumn season every year are our middle and high school Fall Castle Bluff camps at church. So much of what happens in our youth programs at church pours out of these events and they take an enormous amount of support to pull off. Taido and Bobby and their …

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Half Broke Horses is sort of a prequel to one of my very favorite books, The Glass Castle.  The stories from Jeannette Walls’ grandmother’s life are enjoyable and hair-raising at the same time. Lily Casey Smith was born in 1901.  In the book, she tells her adventures in her own voice.  She was a mustang …

Rifle, Colorado

We spent a lovely two days in the area of Rifle, Colorado, a place I had never even heard tell of before last week.  Though we enjoyed our time there, we probably won’t go back since it is so far west in Colorado. Unless, of course, I take up rock climbing, which is about as …

Crested Butte Yoga

Crested Butte Yoga in Colorado at Yoga For The Peaceful If you’ve been following me since our last visit to Crested Butte, you know that I enjoy some mountain yoga.  I went to four different classes the last time I was here, and wrote about every single one of them. (See yoga archives.) When we …

grandmother’s bran muffin mix

In the past few weeks my precious grandmother has moved in with my mom and my aunt in Nashville.  She’s going to split time between here and Tennessee because if there’s one thing my grandmother does not mind, it is a change of scenery now and then.  In fact, her eyes light up when someone …

Mother’s Day and Marriage

for my mama… Every year on Mother’s Day I remember how grateful I am for my mama.  But this year I happen to be doing a lot of reading about marriage and I have to say that what I am most grateful for about my mom today is her undying commitment to my daddy. Recently …

Creaky Old House, Linda Ashman, Michael Chesworth, Great Children's Books

Creaky Old House

Creaky Old House , a children’s book by Linda Ashman, arrived in Simon’s Easter basket and we are loving it! The whole story about how to fix a very loved old house when a doorknob breaks is told in bouncy rhyming verse. Michael Chesworth’s illustrations are gorgeous!  I love this one at a local hardware …

salsa, making salsa, homemade salsa, salsa jars

Homemade Salsa

I’ve posted my homemade salsa recipe before, but here it is again. We’re going through it quicker than ever these days!  Somehow, hot weather just calls for salsa and guacamole. For the tomatoes, we use a big (102 oz) can of tomatoes from Sam’s wholesale, so it is super inexpensive to make. My Mama’s Salsa …

five little ducks book image, cute book in the grass

Five Little Ducks

Five Little Ducks So remember last year when I posted silly videos of Simon singing his favorite songs from Bible Study and you all humored me because of the many purposes this blog serves, one of them is to be a sort of scrapbook of memories. Well, it’s time for one of those again. Simon …

Spring Love

On Friday evening, Whitney took Taido and me to one of our favorite places along with many of our favorite delights to do a photo shoot that was so uniquely wonderful. We packed up some of our favorite books, a new notebook, a yummy picnic and a borrowed quilt. The whole evening was dreamy and …

family = home

Simon came home with fever yesterday so I had some time at home today. Today was a good day for cleaning out. I have been putting away winter and pulling out spring. I was happy to find a flowing spring skirt to put on since the spring sunshine is warming us up. Unearthing an old …

Art Day

Happy Friday! One of my most favorite things about Fridays is that I get to watch the gal I teach alongside every day do one of the things that she was just made to do. Teach art. She is an artist, and she is a wonderful art teacher.  And on Fridays, we need art! We …