I'm just trying to walk myself home.
every once in a while, as i read a book, i am compelled less by the actual story than i am by the sheer beauty of the words that seem to lilt across the page and create images in my mind as crystal clear as the flowers that are blooming today outside my living room …
For a road trip, I need a lot of snacks. Maybe it is because I have a little problem with control when it comes to food. There are many scary things out there masquerading as food that I do not want to have to eat. Or to feed to my children. I am trying to …
the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. from a report by the commission on reading, as quoted by jim trelease in the read-aloud handbook i think i have talked before about how much i love to read aloud to my kids, how …
it is a superb day for a blanket and a good book. since school was canceled because of the rare appearance of snow in arkansas, i spent nearly two hours in the tub this morning finishing the inheritance of loss which i started over christmas. i don’t know why it took me so long to finish, possibly …
Who is Great? Matthew 18. In the moments of clarity between the clouds of sickness, i have been thinking a lot about what it means to be great. This has been a conversation on my heart for a while now. Last weekend, a friend and I spent a late night talking about how we celebrate …
How much do you love Annie’s Naturals goddess dressing? It’s so yummy, right? I’m pretty sure my mother-in-law introduced me to it one year in Taos. My friend, Natalie and I have done everything possible to get this premium dressing for less money. We took turns driving to Whole Foods to buy it on sale. …
Here is our recipe for Swedish pancakes. Taido makes this at least once every other week at our house. We got it from some precious friends from our Chicago days, and they are melt in your mouth good. Our kids eat these so fast they burn their tongues. There has been much debate in our …
Allow me to introduce you to My Favorite Salad. I cannot tell you how much I love this salad. I could eat it every day. It’s simple. it’s yummy. and I almost always have all the ingredients on hand. If I don’t have everything, it is super easy to vary. Almost any cheese, fruit or …
This is our standard pancake recipe. We use it at least once a week at our house, and we even premix the dry ingredients when we go camping so Taido can make them in the woods, where they taste even better! You can add in any kind of fruit, as well as chocolate chips or …
A food system organized around quantity rather than quality has a destructive feedback loop built into it, such that the more low-quality food one eats, the more one wants to eat, in a futile–but highly profitable–quest for the absent nutrient. from In Defense of Food, p.124 Quality rather than quantity. It’s an idea that I …
I was doing my BSF lesson this morning and I wanted to write all about this one question that is on there, but then I remembered that I was a volunteer in the BSF children’s program last week and I had wanted to write about that. So let’s just pretend it is last Wednesday afternoon. …
One of the many great joys of reading The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket is the cleverly disguised vocabulary lessons throughout the entire series. The oft repeated phrase, a word which here means, followed by a definition of the word just used, introduces a word or phrase that might be unfamiliar to the …
I promise you I did not stage this picture. We have finally reached the end of The Series of Unfortunate Events, a collection of books that we have loved together as a family this season. When I came down the stairs yesterday morning, very sleepy still at 6:30am, I found sweet Mary Polly on the …
Today is Ash Wednesday. I love this day. I love it in a I really want to unearth every possible spiritual blessing from this significant day kind of way. Which means I love it, but I don’t necessarily rejoice in it. For me, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a season that will end with …
Finding My Hiding Place in Monday Morning Mantra Chanting Starting monday morning (and therefore my week) with yoga is one of the most sane choices i make in my schedule. And this morning, it did not disappoint. Our instructor worked us hard, but in yoga, you don’t realize how hard you are working. You’re just following…moving, …
i finally finished snow by orhan pamuk. my head is still swimming a bit from all the quotes i want to save up there. it is set in turkey…i was drawn to reading it because i have a friend who is over there right now and it made me feel like i’m sort of traveling to …
more quotes from snow…i know you can’t get enough… on a poem ka writes during a major political upheaval in the city (artistic excuses!): one of its important ideas was the poet’s ability to shut off part of his mind even while the world is in turmoil. if this meant that a poet had no …
this week i am reading the shaping of a life by phyllis tickle. i am embarrassed to admit how very long ago i borrowed it. a shameful amount of time has passed. but now that i’ve begun it i’m sure i will be returning it soon. it is precious. i’ve talked before about how much …
Isaiah 58 1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what …
Back to school after Christmas break this morning. I got up at 5:30 because I so wanted our first morning back to school to be a smooth one. It’s just so brutal if we end our break with a rushed morning and everyone yelling. So, I made raspberry bran muffins, a new recipe from my …