1. It continues to be a gorgeous fall. So many sunny days. So many light jackets worn out of desire rather than necessity. The heat from the furnace warms us on these chilly mornings, and in the afternoon, occasionally, we can even open a window.
2. I spent this particular day with two healthy kids that are [...]
Have any of you read The Zero Waste Home blog? It has been on my feed for a while now (kicking my butt) and is probably to thank for waste reduction being on my radar at all (I had previously thought that because we didn’t eat a lot of packaged food or use paper towels [...]
From dear Sarah.
Excerpted from Wendell Berry’s “Discipline and Hope.”
The principle was stated by Thoreau in his journal: “Hard and steady and engrossing labor with the hands, especially out of doors, is invaluable to the literary man and serves him directly. Here I have been for six days surveying in the woods, and yet when I [...]
“Do not hurry; do not rest,” said Goethe. And if I have learned one thing about life with a child, it is this: do not hurry.
Do not hurry.
Do not hurry.
Do not hurry.
I don’t avoid air conditioning just because I am stingy (I am.) But also because I don’t often hear people reminiscing about days spent inside comfortably cool, but I remember from my a/c-less childhood setting bowls of ice in front of window fans, sitting on the dark, cool basement steps, putting my pillowcases in the [...]
We were promised a hot day, and the heat came quickly to us. After breakfast, we set out into the garden to water and play, and by 9:00, the edges of our hair were damp with good, summer sweat. We spent the later part of the morning around a bathtub of cool water and bowls [...]
This time I bought four quarts. Because it would be nice to freeze some. But we ate a quart on the way home, Reed and I. And Adam and I might eat another quart tonight. And shortcake sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Maybe we’ll save freezing for another day.
The best thing about gardening is meeting old friends, again. Like the two little Red Russian kales that self-sowed from last year’s plant. And the sunflowers from scattered birdseed. And all my herbs that I worried about over the winter. Everything looks so beautiful to me. Especially my oregano plant, which began so small [...]
I read this article in October, and didn’t do anything about it until now. It turns out, everything I’ve heard is true. Making your own mustard is pretty much the simplest, most satisfying thing around. It doesn’t even dirty a bowl. Mash up some mustard seeds. Add mustard powder. Add cold water, wine, juice, whatever. [...]
Right now, Reed is sleeping on his mattress on the floor with beeswax and oil in his hair. He is probably on his stomach with his butt sticking up in the air (he often likes to sleep that way at the night’s start). There was a rainbow, tonight, and rain, and we took all the [...]