I'm just trying to walk myself home.
I know you can make gingerbread at any time of the year, but for some reason I only make them at Christmas. Christmas and Gingerbread Men just go together, like Easter + Bunnies. Ice Cream + Summer. I love the way gingerbread makes your house smell like Christmastime. I’ve used Martha Stewart’s gingerbread recipe for …
Imagine if one day I was sitting in my house back in Arkansas and I saw on television that thousands and thousands of refugees were fleeing their country from a war somewhere in South America? And they were flooding into Mexico, hoping to get to the USA. But the border between Mexico and Texas was closed? …
Happy December Y’all! Already this week, we have put up our tree and covered it with new silver-spray painted salt dough ornaments. They are the easiest + happiest Christmas craft ever. Do it this weekend and you’ll have big smiles, I promise. Last night, I introduced 30 sweet gals to the joys (and the mess) of …
November arrived in Aberdeen all golden and glowing, but today at its close, it is icy and crisp. I’ve stomped through lots of wet leaves this month, but today the leaves are frozen and crunching beneath my boots. I’ve driven down to Aberdeen Beach in all sorts of weather this month to wander along the North …
Happy Thanksgiving Friends! (That’s me waving to you from across the pond!) Since I am not cooking a turkey or even baking making Grandmother’s rolls today, I thought I would take a few minutes to share a collection of the thoughts of my heart from the past week or so. Because I am just a …
Yesterday I told a story about being far from home. Like many others, I have been closely following the stories Syrian refugees who are far from home for much harder reasons than I am. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be heading to London today to attend an event with World Vision that will …
For me, a small inconvenience of being far from home is that I can’t pay for everything the way everyone else does. Because I don’t have a chip and pin credit card. The fact that I have to sign for purchases is like having “I’m an AMERICAN!” written in magic marker on my forehead. I try to …
Y’all, the sun will set today at 4:07pm. The weather this time of year in Scotland hurts my feelings. Many days we don’t see the sun at all but just varying shades of gray. Or grey. Then the gray fades to black before you know it. Now that we have been through two winters in …
I shared a whole bunch of autumn photos earlier this week, but maybe my favorite is this one of Simon being so super happy to see his big brother. We skipped school last week to pop over and see Cole at camp. It was the highlight of Simon’s week for sures. October was a busy month …
Hello Beautiful Scotland in Fall! The colors of the leaves right now are my consolation for 4:30 sunsets. They are AH-MAH-ZING. Every time I go outside, I take about fifty pictures of trees and leaves. So here are my twenty highlights from the last ten days or so. A spot discovered near Aviemore while visiting Cole …
#CarveAHeart As a little something different this year, Simon and I carved hearts into our pumpkins in partnership with World Vision. Because Halloween is a night of “scary fun,” for my kiddos, it’s an easy time to talk about what it’s like for children all over the world to be in fear. Simon is really …
An Epic Climb in Northwest Scotland: Suilvan Epic climb days always start early and end late. We started walking in low autumn light towards the hulking shadow rising in the distance. Our goal was before us. I love walking behind my boys. And their friends. We made this climb during October holidays with another …
So I’ve been attending this international gathering of women this fall and one week we all brought food from our countries to share. Of course Italy totally wins at All Things Food. A gal from Italy brought a cookie that is meant to appear like salami but is actually chocolate. I knew immediately that I …
Last week we drove further north in the country of Scotland than we ever have before. Past Ullapool and all the way up to Clashnessie Bay. The bay is a little further north than the sleepy village of Lochinver. We drove miles and miles on tiny roads without seeing any other cars. It was eerily …
The first time I ever entered an ethnic foods store was with my mother-in-law. We pulled up to a small shop in a strip mall I had been to several times, but I’d never before noticed the unassuming “Indian Grocer” placard among the other larger shop signs. Accosted by strange smells upon entering, I followed my mother-in-law …
Scotland in September started out in the sunshine. I had a visit from a very dear friend. Kelly and I have been friends since we were in elementary school and she has visited me everywhere I have ever lived. She is the sort of friend with whom you can pick up like you have never …
I will forever remember it as one of the loveliest walks of our entire time in Scotland. It was Taido’s birthday weekend and we talked Ben and Simon into getting out for a longer day so we drove a little further than usual (over an hour) and hiked a little further than usual (over 10 …
Hi friends, Happy October to You! We’ve had a gorgeous month full of walks that I’ll be highlighting in photos next week, but now that it’s the weekend, I’m baking pumpkin bread and listening to the Pitch Perfect soundtrack on repeat. Here are a few links I’m loving lately: A highlight of this month was …
The first year we were in Scotland I was a little puzzled to discover that the schools have a two week holiday in October. It seems like a strange time of year to be out of school and the weather is often less than ideal. But now we have embraced this yearly hold over from …
Blackberries are growing everywhere in Aberdeen right now, and it’s slowing my walks way down that I have trouble walking past blackberry bushes without stopping. I’ve snagged all my sweaters on these dangling vines, and tights are out of the question entirely. Some days I carry a bucket and fill it up so I can …