I thought pickles were a nothing food, no value, no calories, not really food, just salt. I thought they were just there on my plate in a restaurant for the crunch and the pucker, you know? Something sorta green on the plate to make it look like there’s more variety? Turns out [...]
Filed under: family, food, good books, grandma, health, homesteading, weight watchers | 7 Comments »
I’ve read two unrelated articles in the last day that have really made me stop and think. I’ve been in mega self-improvement mode for the last year, and two weeks from tomorrow my sabbatical ends and I go back to teaching full time, so I’m trying to tie up some loose ends.
Looking back [...]
Filed under: children, family, fear, food, good books, health, marriage, parenting, religion, weight watchers | 6 Comments »
I arrived late at my new dentist’s office this Wed. I was in no hurry to get my cavity filled. UGH! Right away I was ushered into the examination room, and within a couple of minutes the dentist arrived and took a look at the tiny cavity in one of [...]
Filed under: creative non-fiction, fear, weight watchers, women | 5 Comments »
I used to say, “I’m a night person.” And, well, I stayed up far into the night working (sometimes grading papers as late as 2 or 3 a.m.), so I figured that being capable of such feats proved that I was, indeed, a night owl. These days, since I am on sabbatical this year [...]
Filed under: creative non-fiction, education, family, weight watchers, women, writing | 3 Comments »
Yes, last night I let my ten-year-old son stay up past ten to watch the total lunar eclipse together. And okay. We consumed vast quantities of hot chocolate and doughnuts from Dunkin Doughnuts. So there.
My husband has been ill with a bad cold the last few days, even had to stay home [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, education, family, food, parenting, weather, weight watchers, women, writing | 5 Comments »
From time to time, I see interesting search terms that people used to find my site, and I try to provide the needed information, however belatedly, for which those folks were searching. Here are three random queries of note:
(1) “Village Empowerment Project” donation
Ah! Is this a query about HOW to donate? If so, [...]
Filed under: Peru, creative non-fiction, food, mining, travel, travel writing, weight watchers, women, writing | 4 Comments »
My husband and I were reading The Hobbit to our son, as some of you may recall seeing in earlier posts where I pointed out several ways in which the book seemed relevant to me (as I prepared for my service trip to Peru). Well, we almost finished reading before I left — got through [...]
Filed under: Peru, children, creative non-fiction, fear, food, memoir, memoir writing, parenting, travel, travel writing, weather, weight watchers, women, writing | 2 Comments »
My sister and her kids gave my little family two fondue pots for Christmas, one is for chocolate and is kept warm with a candle and the other is cast iron enamel and heavy duty. Came with a cook book, too, and that’s where I discovered some new uses for a fondue pot that [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, food, good books, holidays, memoir, memoir writing, weight watchers, women, writing | 7 Comments »
This semester I’ve been working with a student who is going on our service-learning trip to Peru in January. She needed an additional General Education class in liberal arts to graduate in the spring, so I agreed to do an Introduction to Gender Studies directed study with her on women in Peru (spread out over [...]
Filed under: Peru, creative non-fiction, education, fiction, food, good books, memoir, memoir writing, religion, research, travel, travel writing, weight watchers, women, writing | Leave a Comment »
This year was the second Christmas without Grandma. I didn’t fall apart like last year, when we decorated the tree. I didn’t get all sniffly when I prepared the lefse and rommegröt. I didn’t feel particularly glum when I cooked Grandma’s Swedish meatballs.
But I ate. A lot.
Even so, I did not [...]
Filed under: creative non-fiction, food, grandma, grief, holidays, lefse, memoir, memoir writing, weight watchers, women, writing | 5 Comments »
