Category: Posts

  • A Simple Star Wars Birthday

    A Simple Star Wars Birthday

    A long time (four years) ago, in a galaxy (country) far, far away, a young Jedi was born– one who would bring balance to the force (our family)… Little Man is four today! And officially obsessed with all things Star Wars. Heartbroken when he couldn’t join his sisters at the theater when it first released this past winter (he’s just not there…

  • Awakening East – a book review

    Awakening East – a book review

    I’ve just completed the most incredible book that’s left me yearning to pack up my family and move overseas… The premise is this: Along with her husband, the author adopts her children from China. Years later, they return as a family on a radical pilgrimage of sorts, with the aim of immersing the children in their birth…

  • Kimchi from the Garden: a Full of Days guest post

    Kimchi from the Garden: a Full of Days guest post

    Growing a vegetable garden is a family commitment of time and energy… Husband configures and constructs the beds, preps the soil, installs trellises, and lays ground cover. The kids enthusiastically sow the bulk of the seeds, introduce beneficial insects, and lend a hand in the harvest. I enjoy watering daily by hand, monitoring growth, tending weeds, and thinning the crop.…

  • A Frequent Picnicker’s Guide to Jellystone

    A Frequent Picnicker’s Guide to Jellystone

    America’s first (and arguably most famous) national park is basically in my backyard: An hour drive, or twenty minutes as a crow flies. Each summer, visitors descend from every corner of the globe to behold it’s splendor. You don’t have to be a geology geek to appreciate it’s raw beauty. Since moving to Montana we’ve become frequent flyers… as locals,…

  • Checkout Line Bullies, and other musings

    Checkout Line Bullies, and other musings

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    in

    While checking out at Target last week, Little Man was secured in the cart, chattering cheerily, while the girls buzzed about, keeping a reasonable radius. A pair of middle-aged women behind me in line, apparently aghast that my kids were not nearly catatonic enough, grumbled, groaned, and guffawed, and openly ridiculed my parenting with unwarranted hostility. I was aghast, and frankly felt bullied.* Conversely,…

  • Independent

    Independent

    Happy Fourth of July! According to my prized, new-to-me set of Encyclopedias, copyright circa 1964, we’re having a very traditional and authentic Independence Day weekend… One year ago on the blog: “Simple Summer Fun: Cooking For Your Family Without Cooking Your House” Two years ago on the blog: “Proud to be an American” Three years ago on the blog:…

  • Constant Gardener

    Constant Gardener

    Mercy. I am a constant gardener: Constantly fighting to tame my wayward organic garden again this year. I love working in the garden, but do find that here in Montana it’s a lot of, well, work to grow one successfully. Though I lost thirty-two tomato starts to a late snowfall; though my daikon radishes have bolted and are…

  • Simple Joy

    Simple Joy

    Yesterday I turned thirty-#*@&^%. Accordingly, this was my anthem: The day prior, Handsome Husband whisked us all away to my happy-place (aka Jellystone, complete with requisite pic-in-ic basket)… … but the actual anniversary of my birth fell on a work-day; thus, I was left to my own devices to celebrate. Kids in tow, I set about indulging in some favorites, without apology: Free…

  • Summer Scrapbook

    Summer Scrapbook

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    in

    So I don’t forget, since I don’t scrapbook… “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” -William Shakespeare “What a happy summer this has been… the same summer will never be coming twice… never quite the same.” -Anne of Ingleside > “Play is often talked a out as if it were a relief from serious…