What have you been thinking about doing? Now is the moment to begin creating the future life you want to live. Wonderfully, if things don’t go as planned, now is always the moment to begin again.
“The future is always beginning now.” — Mark Strand
Quiet Time Fun: Coloring with my Kid
The other day while his little brother was asleep, my 6-year-old asked if instead of the normal reading together we do at this time, I would sit down and color with him. Of course, I said yes. He wanted us to both color in the same design. So he chose an image in one of our coloring books, I copied it onto two sheets of paper, and we both sat down with our colored pencils to begin coloring.… Continue reading
Health Snack: Fresh Watermelon
Watermelon is the quintessential summer fruit. It’s tasty, wonderfully refreshing, and watermelons peak during the hot months of summer. Today we took slices of our local, organic watermelon outside to eat as we enjoyed a hot, plans-free summer afternoon. It felt and tasted like a slice of paradise.
In addition to tasting delicious, watermelon is also wonderfully healthy. Here are some of the health benefits of watermelon:
Watermelons, in spite of being 92% water, are nutrient dense, containing a wide array of vitamins and minerals, including large amounts of Vitamins A and C, more lycopene than any other vegetable or fruit, as well as a wide assortment of other nutrients (Szalay, 2014).… Continue reading
Simplify Saturday: Change your Laundry Routine
Do you find yourself spending a whole day doing laundry once a week? Or perhaps, especially if you have little ones, do you find yourself doing multiple loads of laundry each day? If so, I highly suggest finding a way to combine your laundry loads so that you can cut the amount of time and work it takes you to complete the laundry.… Continue reading
Treats for Gathering: Easy Treats for when you’re Getting Together with Friends
Gathering with friends is a wonderful blessing. It gives us the opportunity to share, to listen, and to simply spend time together. Getting together is a wonderful way to build community, honor special occasions, and simply to celebrate the everyday pleasures of life.
When we gather with our friends, there’s almost always some sort of food laid out. People tend to gather in the kitchen, and whether or not a meal is planned, having snacks to serve is never a bad thing.… Continue reading
Get Moving: Play with Water Outside
We’ve definitely had hot summertime weather for the last few weeks. We don’t have an air conditioner in our house, so in the afternoons things can get pretty warm. When the temperature creeps up, we frequently head outside for some water play.
Sometimes my boys pull out the hose and it hook up to a sprinkler. Often we fill water squirters with water and spray them into the air to make our own rain showers.… Continue reading
How to Make Your Own Apple Pie Spice
When we visited my grandmother over the summer, she gave me a jar of Apple Pie Spice she had received as a sample when placing a large spice order. She didn’t see herself using it, so she passed it along to me (along with a sample jar of cardamom, which she is now going to wish she kept because I’m going to post more recipes using it ::wink::).… Continue reading
Thought for the Day: Ogunlaru
Today, let’s try to truly be with the ones we are with. Be with your lover. Be with your child. Be with your friend. Be with your grandmother. Be with yourself.
“The greatest gift you can give (yourself or anyone else) is just being present”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru… Continue reading
Life: When a Freecycle Pickup Goes Awry
Earlier this week, a person posted on my local Freecycle board looking for 3-ring binders. Perfect, I thought. I had two boxes full of empty binders that I had used to store files that were now empty (see HERE) and ready to go to a new home. I happily responded that I had two boxes of binders that I would be glad to give away, and we set a pickup time.… Continue reading
3-Ingredient Maple Chai Ice Cream
For most of the summer, the local dairy where we get our raw, grass-fed milk has not had cream. However, the other day when we went to pick up our milk share, there were a couple of jars of cream sitting in the refrigerator. To say we were delighted at the prospect of making ice cream with real cream is a bit of an understatement.… Continue reading