For years, I found myself frustrated, even sometimes angry, when unexpected expenses came in and messed with my neatly laid out plans. As a planner (and former banker), I wanted to pride myself on being financially responsible, but medical bills, rising costs of everyday necessities, and raising kids kept throwing the budget out of alignment….
Laura Ingalls Wilder or Jane Austin? Log cabin set in the American prairies or victorian mansion in the English countryside? Two very different settings, and yet I have always found a love for both. There is something so wonderful about getting lost in someone else’s story, set in a different time in history. There is…
As I am sitting at my desk attempting to get some work done, my phone keeps beeping. Most of my notifications turned off means that what comes through generally requires attention. Both my boys are in school, but they still manage to interrupt my day with access to phones. “Mom, can you remind me to…….?”“Mom,…
A great deal of our lives is made up of tasks. The little details and habits of daily life, carried out with a sense of pleasure and beauty, can be just as important to us as the tea ceremony is to the Japanese. The way you handle the details of a meal or a bath,…
We live in a hidden gem, a small circle of houses tucked away, inside city limits, but unnoticed by most. Our little circle sometimes feels as if it lives in the past, with children and dogs playing outside until dusk calls them in. It’s the kind of neighborhood where we can walk next door and…
This year the reminder arrived in an email. The reminder that childhood food insecurity continues to be an issue, made worse by these past fifteen months of pandemic life. “Can you help?” A few years ago, this question arrived at our home on a postcard in the mail. Without much thought, it sat on the…
