Our little mountain in Tennessee is actually having a traditional, authentic autumn season. Instead of boiling hot weather followed by two weeks of what feels like a classic autumn, to be immediately trounced on by our local version of bitter cold. I’ve lived here 31 years – and this has been the first autumn that has felt like a traditional … Continue reading →
I’d never much like meatloaf until one day within the last decade, I rummaged through my aunt’s recipes at her kitchen table. I came across a recipe of my great grandmother’s,(Mary Eva, called Maymie to her friends and Muddy to her grandchildren). The recipe for her chili sauce my grandmother made. I’d never much cared for it as a child, … Continue reading →
June is our family’s Big Birthday month. We celebrate with one Big Party. One reason it’s my favorite celebration of the year is because the setting is outside. When they’re all outside – the boys and their girls, the grands – no one cares so much about the noise. The little ones’ energy doesn’t seem so big in outdoor spaces, … Continue reading →
When the words don’t come, it puts me at a loss. That the words don’t come doesn’t necessarily herald a hard season. Sometimes it heralds a season to be savored. A season to just pause and take it all it – the sweet and the sour, the high and low, the tough and the tender. It’s been a year! Not … Continue reading →
I love stories: Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall Stories – and Christmas Stories: Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore, The story of Saint Nicholas of Myra – oh, how I loved that story – a story of being seen and cared for when we feel unseen and hopeless. Then there’s It’s a Wonderful Life, A … Continue reading →
“. . . breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” ~ Acts 2:46 Something happens at a table where bread is broken together. Maybe the bread broken together is … Continue reading →
I’ve been trying to catch my breath. . . so I baked. I baked a Chicken & Cauliflower Rice recipe from I Breathe I’m Hungry. I made a Flourless Chocolate Torte – and Lavender-Pumpkin Scones. I found all kinds of pumpkins – and exchanged Summer with Fall. Then I Fall Cleaned – much like Spring Cleaning. It was a deep … Continue reading →
I love celebrating birthdays – one-year-old birthdays to 90+ birthdays. I love filling the table with favorite dishes and desserts, considering the table detail for the little ones and the big ones, the celebrant and the celebrators. Children’s gifts? I love the whimsy of finding the right gift for the right child. Can I tell you how exciting it is … Continue reading →
I remember turning my completed thesis in to The Dean of Graduate School’s Office and waiting, waiting, waiting. I’d pop in and ask – I was on pins and needles. I’d fought an uphill battle to get to that point. My initial thesis-adviser kept sending other students to persuade me that creative writing was not my thing – if I … Continue reading →
Last week we won the trifecta of Snow Storm Challenges: No water! No electricity!! No Propane! Praise God for warm blankets! Praise God for Hope!Praise God for gas-filled cars to recharge batteries and find some warmth!Praise God for restaurants that stayed open!And Praise God for the Electric Company Power Crews, the dispatchers, the road crews who salted and cleared the … Continue reading →
