Confession: I listened to the Accuser today. Ryan and I stayed up late having a difficult financial conversation, and I finished it by asking him an equally difficult question on beauty (what? I thought it fit…) and he answered all wrong and fell asleep. I lay awake stewing until my thoughts began to swirl into […]
A great, great gift to sit at this table together. A man. A woman. A school boy. A blue-eyed boy. A little girl who prays. Roast chicken is on our plates, and sugared sweet potatoes. Buttered corn and peas, and coleslaw with garden ingredients. We have ice water, and a matched set of plates. Enough
Aarick says, “Huh? That title doesn’t make any sense. Oh. Is Shaunda on the chalkboard bandwagon? I thought so.” Well–Aarick’s mother is okay with that. Never be the first person on the bandwagon or the last to leave, eh? Confession: This is decorating according to Shari. Chalkboard from a garage sale. Chalk, 39¢ from a
On the chalkboard bandwagon at last Read More »
Confession: I am in love with shapes and lines, and for this reason I find icons helpful. If the word icons offends you, edit it in your mind to say symbols. In my house it’s the same thing. Symbolism keeps me afloat by crystalizing an emotion or an experience, drawing it out where I can take
My words go out from me. They plink-plank-plunk into the cosmos of my small tin pail. Then they are gone. Sometimes they age down there, shriveling into crabbed forgottenness. Sometimes they fall. Sometimes they become food, and they are gone, and I have a hard time believing that those three small berries nourish. I pick
Look at this: Ahhh. Fall is the perfect time for salads. This one has apple chunks, craisins, and sugared walnuts over fresh spinach leaves. And an extra ingredient—well, what do you know? A note! Yes. My brother Josh is everything that is excellent and amiable. Among all his outstanding virtues, he has this fault—he cannot
Confession: I’m breaking an internal vow. I had decided not to post pictures of any birthday cakes I make for my kids. This is supposed to be a confessions site, not a brag page. Yes? But here I am doing it, for this reason: if you like decorating cakes, you have to try fondant! Fondant
Fondant and five-year-olds Read More »
Confession: Moving to a homestead-in-making has made me feel like such a city kid, despite the fact that I grew up in the wilds of Minnesota and come from a long, proud line of bumpkins. Most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing. Here are a few things we learned, mostly the hard
Learned this growing season Read More »
Confession: This time of September is always slightly morbid for me. In 1997, my great-grandmother passed, just when the news was full of the passing of Princess Diana. Death struck close to me for the first time since early childhood, a chilling reminder of frailty and mortality. In 2001, a boy from my youth group
Till the current ends Read More »
Confession: There are some household tasks I love… (cooking, organizing, pinning clothes to a line) There are many household tasks I find tedious, a mindless reworking of old ruts… (washing dishes, folding laundry, vacuuming floors) And there are a few household tasks I simply hate. (among which ironing is chief) For the latter two, the
Zooming in and zooming out Read More »