What makes a post popular?On my blog, which is an unfocused mish-mash of ideas that flit through my mind at any given moment, the all-time top posts are as follows: Castile Soap for a Simpler Life (and blemish-free face) Thick and Chewy, Fast and Easy Pizza Dough Overnight Crockpot Steel-Cut OatmealWhat am I doing posting about the perils of my attempts to multi-task?Why … [Read more...]
Multi-tasking Doesn’t Work for Me
Multi-tasking has never really worked for me. I've tried. Over the years, I've felt like there are many times when I've had no choice but to do a dozen things at once. But when I do that regularly—when multi-tasking is my mode of operation, nonstop, every day, from sun-up to sundown, I get agitated. I feel all frenzied and harried. I leave one of the two or seven … [Read more...]
Yann Martel on Life of Pi, Interpretation, Stillness, and Art
A couple of years ago, urged by a friend, I read Life of Pi, by Yann Martel.It left me fascinated, and a little confused. I guess I'm not so good with obscure stuff. So I was quite interested that the Festival of Faith & Writing brought him to speak. Would he explain the book for the slow-of-brain?The evening began with an amusing glitch. Martel was introduced by a … [Read more...]
You. Are. Blessed.
During the festival, I spent time with several single people. I was walking with one of them to a lecture and mentioned that I was blogging. He said that some friends of his were bloggers, as well. I asked if they had a particular topic that they focused on, or if they just wrote about life.He said that one of them was married, and she and her husband were trying to have a … [Read more...]
Connections and Conclusions
As I stepped into the room where Phyllis Tickle was speaking, our eyes met and, in her words later, "I jumped! Did you see me jump?" She remembered. She remembered the transatlantic flight we shared in 2005, and the descent that led to my child's airsickness. She remembered how my husband and I mopped up vomit as the plane landed. She remembered handing me a paper … [Read more...]
Festival Friends
I rode up with a friend of mine, but she wasn't attending the festival. She's visiting her sister here in Grand Rapids. Another friend of hers was going to be at the festival, but I'd never met the friend of my friend.What I'm trying to say is that I came alone.And a mom of four doesn't go places alone very often.So as I rode the shuttle bus from the hotel to the college … [Read more...]
Live, from Grand Rapids, it's the Festival of Faith and Writing!
Approximately 2,000 writers, readers, editors, publishers, and assorted literary types are converging at Calvin College for the biennial Festival of Faith and Writing.I'm here for the first time ever, to listen and take notes.This event pulls together a wide range of authors--novelists, poets, essayists, memoirists--to present various thoughts on writing and faith. And … [Read more...]
Time to Run
Along the path to the Gulf we admired trees that don't grow in Indiana--for Midwesterners, this is the stuff of postcards and screensavers. And yet, there we were, walking right past them, on our way to dig holes in the sand and make drip castles.Friday night we all took a long walk to what eventually became known as "Hermit Crab Cove," near the place formerly known as my … [Read more...]
More vacation pictures–and a gross face-in-place
It's a nature bonanza here on the coast of Florida! Last night, we fell asleep to an owl's hooting. As I walked to the bath house this evening at dusk, I heard a mockingbird going nuts, singing a crazy medley of migrating birdsongs one after another fast and furious. This Great Blue Heron hangs around near the fishermen. So regal. He moves with smooth … [Read more...]
A boring slide show of someone's vacation pictures
I'm on the lookout for Floridian faces in places, but haven't seen any yet.I'd like you to see that we did get a sunny day yesterday.I went jogging one afternoon—the first jog in several weeks, I blush to admit—along the beach. I rounded that bend in the distance, not knowing what would be on the other side. We’re in a very undeveloped part of Florida, and as I rounded it, … [Read more...]
WFMW Containerize Kids Laundry
Shannon is suggesting a "Greatest Hits" edition of Works For Me Wednesday. While last week's overnight crockpot steel-cut oatmeal instructions were wildly popular, this post was a big hit in its day. It first appeared in February 2007.I’ve never liked doing the laundry–especially for six people–but what aggravated me the most were two particular steps in the process: … [Read more...]
Monday FunDay (week 10)–Get Up and Play
Welcome!You've arrived at home base for Monday FunDay, a carnival dedicated to swapping simple, amusing–maybe even silly–everyday ways you enjoy good, clean fun.Monday FunDayTo participate in Monday FunDay, just post a story, idea, or explanation at your blog of how you and/or your family has livened up Mondays (or any day).Then link up via Mr. Linky below (if you don’t … [Read more...]
Trees
In the beginning, God created trees.It wasn’t the first or only thing He created, of course, but He spoke vegetation into existence by commanding the land to produce it. And there came the trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. God saw that it was good, and then He closed out the third day. Done.And to this day, we can think about trees, bearing … [Read more...]
Good Friday
Yesterday we attended a Maundy Thursday Seder meal at our church.The children remarked at the confusion--Monday? But it's Thursday? I pointed out that it's a near-homonym. Then it became a joke--Maundy? But it's Thursday! Ha-ha-ha.Yes, well, anyway, I tried to explain the basics of a Passover meal to my Gentile/Protestant kiddoes. We haven't observed any kind of … [Read more...]
WFMW "Truth or Bare" Modesty "Tests"
My tween-aged daughters appreciated this outside, objective source of advice for determining the modesty of an outfit from The Secret Keeper website: "Truth or Bare," a set of modesty "tests." Obviously, a reader's personal standards might be much more or much less conservative than this, but it's a starting point to discuss modesty standards, and why they matter. … [Read more...]
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