• Family - Parenting

    A Visit to the Library with Small Children

    September 26, 2023 - By 

    One of the reasons I choose to record moments of my daily life is because they can so quickly be lost to the annals of time. Even if you remember the overall gist of what happened, it’s the small details you forget. And the best stories happen in the details. Our memories may be faulty but the things we write down will never be forgotten. This particular library visit is one that happened almost seven years ago, when my oldest was a toddler and my youngest was just over a year old. I stumbled upon it tonight, and -well –…

  • Throwback

    The Taste of Memories

    September 21, 2023 - By 

    Our brain, that clever, complicated organ, is a keeper of many mysteries. So many mysteries, in fact, that I’m not even going to attempt to list a tenth of them. I just want to talk about one of them: the link between memory, scent, and taste. Did you know there’s a word for that? The moment when a certain smell or flavor triggers a memory? It’s called a Proustian moment. And lest you think I had that little tidbit just hidden up my sleeve waiting for the right blog post… I didn’t. A quick scan of the internet led me…

  • Family - Parenting

    The Importance of Being Bored

    June 19, 2023 - By 

    “I’m bored. What can I do? I’m soooooooo booorrrrrreeeed.” I have distinct memories of whining this very sentence to my parents for many years of my childhood. The response was usually along the lines of “go play outside” or “go read a book” or “go ride a bike” or, the ‘ole standby classic “YOU figure out something to do.” However, something is different when my children whine this at me these days, and the reason is: technology. Because of the options that are available to them versus the options available to me 30 years ago. With technology, there exists a…

  • Uncategorized

    Please, bring me all the flowers

    June 10, 2023 - By 

    Ever since they were little, the boys have gifted me with wildflowers. Dandelions, mostly, but sometimes wild violets or delicate white morning glories. And I dutifully tuck them behind my ear or put them in a glass of water or press them into a book for preservation. Even now, at 8 and 10, they still bring me flowers. These sweet souls, may they always share their love and happiness with me, whether it’s in the form of flowers, hugs, or I-love-yous. I’m here for it.

  • Farming

    Lazy Gardening

    May 10, 2023 - By 

    Last year, as spring approached and gardening season was about to begin, I got — well, there isn’t really a better way to put this — I got a bit lazy about it. Good gardening stewardship says you need to clear out all the dead brush from the previous year’s harvest. Removing things like weeds and dead vegetation helps prevent insect pests from overwintering in the debris, making their grubby little homes in there and emerging in the summer to annoy you and make your gardening life more difficult. We just tilled it all under and called it a day.…

  • Farming - Fun

    Herding Goats

    April 21, 2023 - By 

    Did you know that you can rent goats. I mean, if you’ve been following my blog and you’ve read this post then you know this already. But if you’re new here then – yes, you can RENT GOATS. Rented goats are, in my opinion, some of the best kind of goats because you get all of the benefits with none of the responsibility. The wonderful, spunky, capable, knowledgeable lady who owns the business (aptly named Goats on the Go) takes care of all the details. She sets up a perimeter fence to keep the goats contained to their area. She…

  • Family

    When it Rains (and rains and rains)

    April 21, 2023 - By 

    The theme of this April has been rain. Akin to that old saying, “when it rains, it pours.” And also, that other one about April Showers so whomever is out there I’M WAITING FOR THE MAY FLOWERS ANY DAY NOW. It has been pouring rain in my life both figuratively and literally for the last week. This past Sunday, while on a rainy Florida Vacation, my husband and I watched the much acclaimed movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” A movie summary on Wikipedia describes it as such: Evelyn Quan Wang is a middle-aged Chinese American immigrant who runs a laundromat with…

  • Family - Fun - Parenting

    In the Blink of an Eye

    March 28, 2023 - By 

    I touched on this the other day, when I wrote: Time flies slowly then disappears in the blink of an eye. In our family, we are at that cusp. That age when you recognize that your kids are Big Kids. Just a few years away from Teenagers. That every moment they are still a Little Kid – you should cherish that. It’s almost a part of your past. They are almost too grown for those midnight nightmares and impromptu hugs and can-you-cut-the-crusts-off-my-bread. Which is why, as a grown woman of over 40 years old, for the last two nights I…

  • Uncategorized

    On Youth and Aging

    March 27, 2023 - By 

    When I was nineteen, I wrote a poem about getting older. This is that poem. Time is tricky. Not in a dramatic sense, but in the sort of gradual sense where years go by and suddenly you realize that you’re not twenty anymore. Yet there are still those days when your back doesn’t hurt and you get enough sleep and you eat properly and you may, in fact, still feel twenty. They say – these same people who once advised that time will creep up on you until it smacks you in the face – that a similar phenomenon happens…

  • Throwback - Travel

    The Vast Nostalgia of Addresses Past

    March 13, 2023 - By 

    I have moved a lot of times and lived a lot of places. Different cities, different states, different countries. And whenever I re-visit a place that I have lived before, I expect it to have changed. But on a couple of occasions, it hasn’t. Which, oddly, is even worse. You would think that going back to a place which remains the same would be like dipping your toes into a warm pool of nostalgia. Oh! Here is the same wallpaper that I stared at while I sat at this same kitchen table and ate buttery cinnamon toast from the same…