Snapshots of Edinburgh, Day Trips, Scotland

In The Pipeline

Happy Friday! I hope you’ve had a great week. I had coffee with strangers no less than THREE TIMES this week. Y’all, that is a really lot of getting out of the house and chitty chatting for this introvert. I feel certain I will make up for it by not meeting anyone new for a …

Snapshots of Edinburgh, Day Trips, Scotland

Snapshots of Edinburgh

Last week I took Ben and Simon to Edinburgh for the day because for Christmas, we gave the boys tickets to see The Lion King. This is the second time we’ve gone to Edinburgh just for the day, and I have grown to really enjoy doing it this way. We hop on the train early …

Expat Story Budapest Hungary

Expat Story: Budapest

Once upon a time I visited the beautiful city of Budapest. That was a very long time ago, but reading Adelina’s Expat Story about living there is making me what to plan a trip there soon! Expat Story: Budapest, Hungary Tell us a little bit about yourself. My name is Adelina and I am from …

A Story about an Art Collective, Stories, Walking Towards the Unexpected

A Story about An Art Collective

Traveling with Ben and Simon can sometimes feel a little bit like having Pippen and Merry in tow. Simultaneously fun and exhausting. The trick is to keep them moving, which is how we found ourselves walking around Calton Hill in Edinburgh one day last week. In addition to the National Monument and other various important …

Seven Bridges Walk in Ballater, Scotland, #48walks, country walks

Seven Bridges Walk (1/48)

Happy Monday, friends! I am high as a kite today about the response to the new project, #48walks. Lots of wonderful walks were shared over the weekend in the Facebook group and on Instagram! You can still jump in and walk with us this year in any way you like! Joining and sharing and tagging …

In The Pipeline

Fractures of light on the edges of the clouds. I’m always watching for it. The light. Watching my boys taste tiramisu for the first time. Getting a letter in the mail. Light. I’ve been meditating on the idea of light in the darkness this week. For me, often darkness = depression + despair. Which is …

Storytelling, Storyliving, Walking, #48walks, 2014, A Year of Walking

Walk with Me?

Friends, it’s no secret around here that I love to lace up my boots and go for a walk. I love to get outside. I do not like the word exercise. But I love to see the world on my own two feet. For most of my life, even though I love to go for …

In The Pipeline, Chinos in Cartoon Form, Hannah Alexander Carpenter

2013 Favorites

Friends! How these first days of January have flown by! Confession: I have not left the house this week except to go to church and to walk to and from school. And I am still not caught up! But it’s time to throw off the PJ pants and head out into the world because it …

Urquhart Castle, Rainy Day in Scotland, Snapshots of Scotland

Snapshots of Scotland: Winter Edition

We started our New Year in Stonehaven, Scotland, which is a village by the sea about 30 miles south of Aberdeen. For Hogmanay, which is the New Year festival in Scotland, locals in Stonehaven light huge fireballs at midnight and swing them around while walking up and down the street. There were probably 50 people …

Expat Story Singapore, Boiling Wok

Expat Story: Singapore

I’ve been enjoying a little down time to finalize where we are going on the blog and in the world in 2014! Looking forward to sharing more of my plans soon so stay tuned! For now, here’s a new Expat Story from Singapore! Boiling Wok (as she prefers to be called on the internet) hails …

That’s A Wrap

Dear readers, I have thoroughly enjoyed these last couple of weeks of storytelling and story sharing. I hope it has been as great an exercise for you as it has been for me. I actually had a hard time choosing these stories. If you’ve ever met my daddy, you know I could write an entire …

A Story about A Pop Up Camper

A Story about A Pop Up Camper

The twelfth and final story of my Twelve Days of Stories is actually the beginning of a story. It is a draft of the first chapter of the book I have been writing. I hope that one day these words will take shape in print form that you can hold in your hands. Thank you …

Twelve Days Of Stories at The Chino House

A Story about Anger

A Story about Anger Three babies in five years is what it took to throw me over the edge. Mixing lack of sleep at night with defiant toddlers by day was a recipe for fraying nerves already, but then Taido often would have to leave town for work. I was exhausted at the sound of …

A Story about A Thesis

A Story about A Long Time Goal

A Story about A Long Time Goal When my husband sat me down and told me that he wanted to finish his masters’ thesis, quit his job and move our family abroad to get a PhD, I told him to go for it. “I’m all in for this adventure,” I said. But in all honesty, …

A Story about Love

A Story about Love

Taido and I are celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary today, so it seems like as good a time as any to tell you our love story. Since you already know the end to this story, it might be helpful to start in the middle, when it looked like maybe I would not end up with …

Twelve Days Of Stories at The Chino House

A Story about A Very Bad Grade

Here are the words I spoke to my parents upon receiving the only “F” of my university career: “I think one ‘F’ on a transcript shows character.” A Story about A Very Bad Grade I started college by majoring in psychology, but I was not one term in before I switched my major to English. …

Twelve Days Of Stories at The Chino House

A Story about A Passport

In 2010, my husband and son, Taido and Cole, had a trip planned to go hiking in Switzerland for Cole’s 13th birthday. The night before the trip, there was a small problem. This was first published on my blog that same autumn. A Story about A Passport We were all leaving town on Friday morning, …

10 Life Lessons I've Learned From My Dad, vintage backpacking

A Story about My Daddy

This story about my daddy was previously published as guest post on Sarabeth Jones’ beautiful storytelling site, The Dramatic. A Story about My Daddy Some people take trips to the beach for their family vacations. Others go to Disneyworld. But me. In exchange for the beach or for Disney, I got mountains. And even though …