Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

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 …

waffles with strawberries, rise and shine waffles, yummy breakfast

Rise and Shine Waffles

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 …

BSF, Bible Study Fellowship, BSF rules

Whoever Welcomes One of These

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. …

Lessons from Lemony

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 …

tulip shoots, ash wednesday, lent, spring

Ash Wednesday

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 …

A Story About Finding My Hiding Place

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, …

Snow by Orhan Pamuk

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 …

The Shaping of A Life by Phyllis Tickle

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 …

Light in the Darkness

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 …

Oven Baked Three Grain Oatmeal

Oven Baked Three Grain Oatmeal This is my new favorite (and easy) hot cereal: Three Grain Oatmeal. I’ve added it to my breakfast arsenal, especially for when guests are in town. You put it all in a casserole dish (or in my case, a cast iron skillet) the night before and set your oven timer …

Zucchini Vichyssoise

Here are all the reasons I can think of that I am currently making a vichyssoise. It’s simmering on Anna’s stove as I write. 1. It’s cold here in Chicago. 2. I’ve been reading Barefoot in Paris, which is the book in which this recipe is found, and it’s cheaper than actually going to Paris. …

Three Soup Recipes

Lately, I have been defying the 90 degree weather by making soup. I mean, it’s OCTOBER for crying out loud. It is supposed to be fall. I am forcing my children (and friends) to eat soup while sweating in my kitchen, made hotter by turning on the oven to make bread. Cruel really. but I …

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

i have been reading eat, pray, love by elizabeth gilbert for several weeks. i started it because hello, anne lamott has the endorsement on the cover, and i love her. i would love to loan it to you, but it’s overdue at the library and someone else has it on reserve, thereby blocking my ability to …

Yoga Groupies

  My newest yoga instructor’s name is Jeanie. She is precious, I tell you. But honestly,  I think I have yet to meet a yoga instructor I didn’t like. Jeanie has blond hair, the usual yoga body and, get this, she’s had seven children.  You heard me.  Seven.  They are all grown, and so now …