Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Saturday morning: mulch the flower beds. Saturday afternoon: beach. Let the summer begin. We packed up the jogging stroller and one very small land shark, then waited in line on the overpass with a bunch of tool spring-breakers. That makes us the nerdy has-beens who jog on the running trail before hitting the sand. At…
Proverbs 31 Cake I’m sampling—ah…I mean…checking—the buttercream cake icing when it sings through my brain like color in the “Wizard of Oz:” Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ (Proverbs 31:28-29) The Wedding Cake It’s that good. I…
Here is something unthinkably boring my parents used to do with us: go on day trips to gardens with no playgrounds. Here’s what we did with Isaac Saturday: day trip to Bellingrath Gardens in nearby Mobile. All we need now is a Ritchie Valen’s tape, or maybe an old album of Glad. Ouch. I am going…
Who thought of babies?! A lot of people told me, “You’re gonna love this baby so much you just can’t imagine!” when I was pregnant. I thought they were…you know…lying. But loooook at this baaaaby! Isn’t he precious?! I just loooove him! I sing him this lullaby that always calms him down and doesn’t really have a…
“Tea ceremony is to appreciate now. Not the future; not the past. It is focused here, inside this bowl of tea. It is to not waste any moment.” ~Honda-san, Japan House, University of West Florida This is in Florida. It felt like one of those kooky dreams outside of time/space boundaries: I am in Florida….
Turns out we’re part Irish!! My mom’s side circa 1700-something!! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! My mom always makes corned beef and cabbage to celebrate. This year, I tried my hand at it for the first time. It was easy (recipe at the end)! …but it all turned out purple. Finish it off with a local…
The heat of the summer broke at last. Sunlight filtered through the trees into the garden, where the first leaves of autumn rested among the mossy stones leading the way to the tea house. October 16—Isaac was less than two weeks old and we’d leave Japan for the States in under a month, but this…
