Category Archives: Uncategorized

So, my dill pickles are practically world famous. Alright, let’s be honest: people who have been to other countries like my dill pickles. But that’s mostly just a collection of friends and family who have been gifted a jar over the years. However, last year’s batch was unique for two reasons: 1) they turned outContinue reading “Getting pickled”

The past few days have been the perfect days of summer – low humidity, warm temperatures, a nice breeze and a brilliantly blue sky. The weather has embodied why I hesitate to go away in summer… it’s just spectacular here. The side effect of this gorgeous weather is two-fold: we have cool nights, which areContinue reading “Morning fog”

So, one of the jobs I self-assigned to myself is the job of gathering enough kindling for the winter. Okay, I can admit several things about this self-assigned job. First, it’s not absolutely necessary for many reasons. One, we have geothermal. We are certainly not going to be cold if I fail to bring inContinue reading “The zen of kindling”

Today, I come back from a two-week vacation and finally get to experience for the first time what it will mean to work reduced hours. While technically the change happened in July, I only worked half of the month and didn’t get to experience much of the difference. Additionally, I have a call in justContinue reading “Of transitions and such… .”

Lots of things in our life are dictated by the seasons, much in the same way it was for our grandparents and their parents. In many ways, all of us still follow a seasonal calendar so it’s really not that uncommon. There are only a few places where our alignment with the calendar seems toContinue reading “Harvest season”

A few friends have expressed their anxiety lately. The issues run the gamut of the usual – kids, jobs, spouses, pets, houses – and the 2020-version of “usual”, i.e., the pandemic. In the meantime, I’ve been coming out of my own bout of anxiety. Again, all for the usual reasons and the unusual reasons. Yet,Continue reading “Requirements for simple peace”

With this year being the noticeable exception, this last week is usually the first right turn into summertime. What do I mean by that? Well, there’s summer and summertime. Summer is just a season. Summertime? It’s a state of being. It’s a slow down, drink your coffee and your iced tea on the back porch,Continue reading “Ahh… summertime!”

Tomorrow is our seven-year wedding anniversary. Today is the anniversary of two of our dear friends with whom we share a somewhat “double wedding.” And while I’ll spend a little time tomorrow remembering that day and celebrating the life we have built, it’s important for me to pause today and celebrate where we are. It’sContinue reading “Seven years and one day…”

The past week has brought about a pretty happy change. First, I took five days off. Essentially, I already had a four-day weekend with the Memorial Day holiday, but I added on a day to make it a five-day weekend. Not something I do often but after not having a vacation since the end ofContinue reading “Keeping it in perspective… .”

These days, life has been a little overwhelming. Work got busy, the garden got busy, the cats still take up a lot of time and the noise and upheaval surrounding the pandemic, vaccinations and “new normal” started to wear on me. I ended up somewhere between “How did I get here” and “Where in theContinue reading “Weaving in and out”