How Easy It Would Be
Tonight is Enchilada Night at our house. It’s not a fancy recipe, but it’s a great one. The hardest part is softening up the corn tortillas (either in oil or butter–not so healthy, I know). Then you roll them around refried beans, cooked ground beef, sautéed onion, and any kind of seasonings you like. I […]
Favorite Fall Days
I love the bright blue skies and the changing colors of fall. So beautiful! So crisp! I love the burnt orange colors of this particular tree against that. I hope you’re enjoying the colors of the season!
Strange Gatherings: What We Noticed When We Moved Here
When we moved here to Pennsylvania, we couldn’t believe that every single weekend in the fall boasted about a different kind of festival for the family. Apple festivals, pumpkin festivals, craft festivals, farm festivals, Halloween festivals, yarn festivals, corn festivals, hay festivals. . . Every county in the land had their own festival. Every weekend, […]
A Different Kind of Harvest
It’s the end of the raspberry harvest, and soon, we’ll put the whole garden to sleep. One season ends; another begins. Now, we enter into a different kind of harvest–a harvest from within, hidden and cozy–of lessons only late Autumn and Winter can teach. This kind of harvest is just as fruitful indeed.
The Childhood Meal We Hated
Today I tell my students I’m making Tuna Noodle Casserole for my family. You would have thought I proclaimed I was serving recycled garbage. Some gasped. Some rolled their eyes and shook their heads with compassion for my children. “Don’t do it. It’s terrible. No casseroles. Ever. Not ever. Especially not tuna. No.” “You mean […]
The Apple Farmer’s Favorite Apple
One reason I love living in Centre Country is the Way Fruit Farm on Halfmoon Valley Road (don’t you love that there’s a real road somewhere called Halfmoon Valley?). Way Fruit Farm began selling those first apples in 1867, and six generations later, Brooks and Sharon Way, along with their daughter and son-in-law, continue the […]
You Cannot Measure This (The Next Extraordinary Piece of Art)
Do you remember how in November 2012, Ted Cantrell, the Texan Artist, sent our family the Most Extraordinary Piece of Art that symbolized how we make beauty from pain and find worth in the most ugly thing? Click that link to be encouraged beyond measure. That piece was called, “Love will Find a Way.” Maybe […]
A Little Direction: Pressure the System
Today I remember the Second Law of Thermodynamics that systems, if left alone, move towards disorder. Without external pressure or the applied pressure of an organizing principle, things move towards chaos. I know this to be true in my kitchen, in the bedrooms, and in my own mental states. I pressure the system by ordering […]
The 2 Things that Made it Great
Once someone asked me to visualize a great day as a mom. What two things would mean it was a great day? What two things would have happened? She asked me not to overthink it but to just blurt out the first two specific actions that came to mind. I loved this question because it […]
Go Paint the Acorns: Our Favorite Autumn Craft
As soon as the acorns fall on the pathway to school we gather them up in our bowl to paint them. It’s year three of this craft, and this year, we have even more fun. A friend joins us, and even the middle school daughter pauses to paint. Enjoy! A Super Cool and Easy Autumn […]