Monday Night: Our New Favorite Dinner
Tonight we’re having Orecchiette with Rappi and Meatless Sausage. Don’t worry! It’s not as strange as you’re thinking. (After trying this recipe just once, my family insists we now serve it every Monday night. The girls will take any leftovers for lunch tomorrow.) First, some definitions: Orecchiette: Italian for “little ears.” It’s a kind of […]
Scented Holiday Pinecones
I walk past the scented pinecones in the grocery and craft stores, and I think about how I might make them myself. Sure enough, I find a recipe for Holiday Scented Pinecones that I cannot wait to try. I enter the forest and find the trail of pine trees. I gather my collection as the […]
Perhaps the Best Hospitality
Last night, I stayed at a complete stranger’s home. A family from the church that brought me in to speak agreed to host me instead of placing me in a hotel. I didn’t even know the name of the family. I just knew I’d sleep in a bedroom, and that I needed to “be OK […]
Traveling: My Top 10 Tips
I’m an expert traveler now! For those of you beginning your travel life or for those wanting to prepare for a new season of travel, here are my favorite travel tips: Wear a scarf or sweater for chilly planes. Use a drop of lavender or cinnamon oil on your scarf or sweater to calm you […]
“You are a delight.”
In honor of my birthday today (43!!), I think about how wonderful it feels to have others delight in you. Perhaps it’s such a treasured experience because it reflects something beautiful and often overlooked about God: He delights in us. Consider Deuteronomy 30:5 and God’s declaration that He will delight in His people, or Psalm 18 […]
And the Boo Platter Continues
Back in 2015, I posted my last Boo Platter delivery to the elementary school. But this end of an era never stopped me. So today, I build another one: I know it’s not my best work, but over the years, I’ve become more authentic and less worried about perfection. Here’s a look at some of […]
Pennsylvania Golden Autumn
Some New Verbs: Stultify and Promulgate
As you know, I love verbs. I love precise verbs that sound like what they mean. Two students use two new verbs in their essays that I love: stultify and promulgate. One writes that the repetitive and restrictive practice of standardized testing in elementary school stultifies and exhausts students. Stultify means to stifle, bore, suppress, […]
Book Love
This morning in church, my older friend–the one who gives me books she believes I must read for my own development–hands me a gift.
The Lemon Tree Grows
As you know, I love watching things grow from seed. On this rainy and cold Saturday morning, I see the Lemon Tree growing, and it brings a bit of spring sunshine into the room. Those little leaves that stretch upward to the light remind me that, even in the brittle autumn season, I shall still […]