I'm just trying to walk myself home.
Monday Grateful: The key to the Mondays is always gratitude. I got home last night from being gone for the weekend at my cousin’s wedding in California. This morning has been a sweet mix of relishing both a great getaway and coming home. Even though a certain 4 year old woke me up at 5am …
I have book club this weekend and this month’s book is Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore. This sweet story about a girl trying to escape from a small town is a fun, light read. Perfect for the beach. Or maybe a cruise. Mostly I think I enjoyed it because …
I didn’t discover Brussels sprouts until late in life. They sort of have a bad rap. But they are absolutely delicious when prepared right. I toss them in olive oil and kosher salt, and then bake them on the top rack of the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. You can throw a …
So when I was going through backpacking pictures from Ben’s trip to Colorado, I realized that I have all these pictures of Cole’s trip in 2006. Since that pre-dates this blog, I decided to go ahead and post them this week. That way one day when my kids are looking for pictures of themselves, they …
For about three weeks, I’ve been reading John Lewis’ book, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. John Lewis was the youngest of a group of Civil Rights’ leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who were at the time of the march on Washington in 1963 considered to be the Big Six …
Chocolate Mint Creme Sandwich Cookies Last Saturday, my pal Bailey and I got together to do a little baking. Bailey is one of my cupcake sidekicks and it was super fun to do something a little more laid back than cranking out hundreds of cupcakes. We made a few dozen of these very special …
Remember all those different blog posts about our trip to Colorado last summer? I guess I got a little burned out on mountain pictures, because I neglected to put these up from Ben’s inaugural backpacking trip. My dad, Taido and Bobby take the graduating seniors backpacking every summer before they head off to college. They …
I went to a play yesterday morning for a school field trip. I was excited to see a play that I had read and forgotten from a long time ago. High school perhaps? Maybe I saw the movie in class. Sidney Poitier was in it. A Raisin in the Sun I remembered that it was …
So, lately I’ve been into curries. I think I’ve made curried dishes about five times in January already. As soon as I found this recipe with potatoes in it, I couldn’t wait to try it. I had curried potatoes a long time ago when Taido and I were first married and I always remembered loving …
At the end of December, Taido and I got to sneak away for our anniversary to a cabin at Devil’s Den State Park. It was like a little breath of fresh air after the holidays. The weather was warm the night we were there, too warm actually, causing a tornado to blow through about 30 …
My aunt Jeanne, with whom I share very similar taste in stories, sent me this recent memoir of a girl who grew up in a Hutterite colony called I Am Hutterite. I had never before heard of Hutterites, but the group is over 500 years old and live communally in parts of Canada and the …
I made a pan of gingerbread on our first snow day at home and we ate it so fast that I decided to make another one the next day. It was gone even quicker than the first one. It is crazy delicious. Lots of ginger and super comforting molasses flavor. Gingerbread Ingredients: 1 stick butter …
Beginning Grateful I made some goals last week. Today when I look at them, they just seem sort of comical. Almost as comical as my Christmas tree still glowing in the corner. But one of those small commitments was to be grateful every day. And to be grateful in this venue (the blog) on Mondays. …
My dad got a Kindle this fall and when I told him that there was a book I was wanting to read that was only available electronically, he immediately bought it for me on to read on his Kindle. When the Christmas crazy became overwhelming I would sneak away and devour a few pages of …
I have a little Merry Christmas Eve gift for ya! We participated in the Joy Project again this year, which made us laugh a lot throughout December. For me, the laughing and dancing together as a family is the value of getting out and bringing the joy! We surprised people with our joyful flash mob …
I made these on Sunday for our holiday shopping event at church and I sold them all. Honestly, I felt a little bad taking peoples’ money for something that is so insanely easy to make, but since all the money is going to buy flour, sugar, chocolate and lots and lots of butter for our …
Whitney asked me for my recipe for enchiladas yesterday, so I’m sharing here for all. Enchiladas are such a great meal for a crowd. You can make them the day before, which gives you more time to do other things on the day of an event, like scouring the floor for the tiny legos …
I’ve said before that we love the mountains. We love to be in the mountains. We love to hike and bike in the summer. We love to ski in the winter. Snow skiing tends to be a little (or a lot) hard on the pocketbook, but it was a huge part of both mine and …
Tomato and Cheddar Potato Soup Today we are moving very slowly. In fact, one little Chino missed the departure for school this morning due to an overwhelming need to despair in a puddle on the floor. She is now outside planting bulbs, because well, it worked for me. Next up, laundry and unpacking. We’re also …
I’ve been in a bit of a funk this week. And I do not like to be down around Thanksgiving. It’s my most favorite holiday. All that food, giving thanks, jigsaw puzzles and family, family, family. But we don’t really get to choose when the uglies come calling for us, or at least I don’t, …