-
happy holiday weekend friends!
This week it’s Holiday Holiday – right? (Don’t worry – “holiday holiday” doesn’t mean anything. I just made that up.) Today I made pimento cheese for the first time. Tomorrow London is making peanut butter pies – a Keigley Thanksgiving tradition – and Bergen is making Lemon Squares. That boy loves lemon desserts. We are celebrating Thanksgiving with half of…
-
and the list of thanks is longer than the list of disappointments
It was a cold, rainy weekend. Just pretty much gross. One of my favorite pottery plates fell from the dishwasher as my young assistants were unloading the silverware tray. It shattered. This weekend at the exact moment when the cashier at Trader Joe’s said, “That will be $179” I became painfully and immediately aware of the fact that my wallet was in…
-
end of story.
Kevin and I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Ed Welch speak at a conference recently. Among the topics were mental illnesses and brain disorders and depression. Gray Matters was the title of the weekend conference, which I found a fitting name. There was an overflow of information and plenty to wade through for many a day. (Which we have…
-
Home.
Do you know what is good? Home. You know – home. I just adore that ritual of every evening when the house is still the dishwasher is magically doing the dirty work and I pull off my shoes cozy up in a blanket and stretch out on the sofa beside Kevin. I unclip all the do-dads from my hair and…
-
Sunday Crock Pot Meals
I like a crock pot. She’s a genius. We’re kind of good buddies. Like me and Thrift Store and me and Colin Meloy. Almost every Sunday we employ Crock Pot’s clever magic. When we return from our weekly church-attending, grocery-shopping morning we enter our home and a meal awaits us. And although no one in our family minds eating the…
-
Narnian Meals Morning and Night
This year we are reading our way through The Chronicles of Narnia. We are using a curriculum from the same Cadron Creek company that published our last year’s choice – Prairie Primer. It’s been a completely different journey thus far. For a lot of reasons I guess. I really like Narnia. I’m a fan of C.S. Lewis for certain. I have…
-
Rain Day.
A Conversation Between Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh That I Think Perfectly Fits This Rainy Day. I like when you just do nothing. Oh. How do you just do nothing? It’s what you do when grown ups ask, “What are you going to do?” and you say “Nothing” and then you go and do that. _____
-
Christmas Gift Giving Guide
Thanksgiving talk yesterday. Christmas talk today. It’s about holidays this week for some reason. Of course you can purchase your gifts on Amazon. And I don’t want to discourage any excessive or extravagant Amazon purchases, you know. However. There is this glorious alternative to the machine that is Amazon. Handmade stuff by people I love. I’ve mentioned both of these…
-
Leaves of Thanksgiving
Remember when I couldn’t remember if we had any Thanksgiving traditions? This fall we’ve completely acquired an idea from our friends – and probably dozens of other families too – A Thankful Tree. Or – more accurately – A Bunch of Thankful Sticks. It was easy to designate the task of securing branches to my boy – he took the…
-
make my heart believe
Singing with hundreds of others lined up in red-seated rows on an early Sunday morning. A song I’ve certainly heard before but I’ve never listened like this. In all my sorrows Jesus is better. Make my heart believe. And I felt like it was the gospel for me in three lines of music. In all my victories Jesus is better.…
-
ordinary occurrences
On the laundry room floor a very large bag of acorns sits. Collected. Stored and being saved for currency at their friend’s house. In the living room there is a bright cheery yellow canvas bag loaded with rocks. And. A tap on the shoulder. A seven-year-old confession. “Momma. Otto’s bug catcher is empty now. But it wasn’t earlier. So. If…
-
decorating inspiration.
Oh – and another thing. DC was like the icing on the cake, really. The entire road trip was actually more inspired by our desire to visit my brother and his wife. The kids loved Aunt Beckey’s craft room where they were allowed to wade through fabric bits and felted bounty and were encouraged to create and craft to their…
-
The National Gallery
Did I even mention the National Gallery of Art yesterday? I don’t think I did. Growing up, my parents never really talked about art. At least, not that I remember. I’ve come late to the Art Appreciation Game. But I married a good-looking artist and we’re raising a handful of creators so I am educating, learning and teaching. And I…
