I start nearly every morning with a cup of tea. It’s mostly herbal, so I don’t have a caffeine addiction. I just like tea. I value the centering, calming effect it has on my early mornings. Also, if I make it at home rather than buying it at a local drive-through, it’s very inexpensive. My…
Fall is synonymous with apples. But, you can easily pick more apples than you know what to do with during a brief outing to a local orchard. You can make classic desserts like apple pie or apple crisp, but one of my favorite things to do with fresh apples in the fall is to make…
EDITOR’S NOTE: I first shared this craft along with several other fall art projects a few years ago at the parenting website Mumbling Mommy. Empty plastic milk jugs are excellent resources for craft projects, and this pumpkin treat holder is one example. I like finding ways like this to reuse or recycle what I already…
He was a lay leader in my family’s small church. A gray-haired single man in his 50s. He taught Bible classes. He held positions on church committees, served communion, and made sure there was a huge celebratory cake in the fellowship hall on the Sunday when I was baptized along with several other church members….
It’s apple season. My kids love going to our many local orchards and picking apples by the bagful. It takes only a few minutes to fill a bag, and we usually fill several bags. What to do with all those apples once we haul them home? Here are a few ideas: Eat them uncooked. Eat…
Until recently, I had never canned a blessed thing. However, when I went overboard with U-Pick strawberries at a local farm one spring, I decided to learn how to make freezer jam. It was a baby step toward real canning. I actually did use a water bath canner this past summer for the first time…
When I plan family dinner menus every week, I try to have my kids each pick a meal they want to eat. The catch is that they have to help prepare and cook their individually chosen meals for our family. I have two children ages 10 and 6, so they each spend at least one…
Fall is my favorite season. The smells. The foods. The colors. It’s also one of the easiest seasons to decorate for without spending a lot of money or putting in too much effort, and a little bit goes a long way. Often, you can decorate with things you already have around the house. Here are…
In these days of Pinterest, countless food blogs, and sites like allrecipes.com, I’ve drifted from using traditional cookbooks. Online, I can find anything to suit my tastes or my family’s tastes. I can search for recipes that use specific ingredients. I can ogle over the pictures on Pinterest and click on whatever looks good. I can…
I live in an area of the Midwest that periodically experiences power outages because of snow storms, ice storms, or severe thunderstorms. Sometimes, the power goes out while the sun is shining and there’s hardly a breeze. Thankfully, most times these outages are brief, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. However,…
