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Important Stuff I’ve Learned About School
Now that the kids are back in school, I’m back in school. Long gone are those mindless afternoons sitting by the lake followed by the 9:30 requests to take pictures of the frogs caught in the fading sunlight. Now, at 9:30 p.m., I am instead asked, “Japan wants to move the U.S. military base out of the country; how does that parallel the situation between the early American settlers and the Native American Indians?” This is followed by, “I only have 3 sentences, and I need 5.” But with kids in four different grades, I’m learning other things about school too –” importan” things. At the new hand washing fountain,…
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I made my own essential oil soft scrub today
I’m frustrated with cleaning products that claim to be safe and environmentally-friendly, yet I still can’t pronounce the ingredients listed on the label. So much for clean and green. Probably best to stick with the standards: vinegar, baking soda and borax. Baking soda and Borax are amazing cleansers. Baking soda actually suffocates mold so that it can’t live. And vinegar, by itself, is great for killing germs. But, to give these home made cleaners an extra punch, I always refer back to my sound and true essential oils, like tea tree oil, thyme, eucalyptus and fir tree oil — they kill mold, bacteria and are great disinfectants. The lingering scent…
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I’m Giving Up Yogurt
I’m replacing it with chocolate, and a handful of my lakehouse, frozen blueberries for a quick mid-day snack. Turns out, the survival of probiotics through the stomach when they are carried in through chocolate is three times greater than the survival rate of probiotics eaten in yogurt. Read more about Maramor Chocolates and why they’re so good for you, here.
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I Love To Feed People Who Are Really Hungry
We fed him an entire meal grown at the lake. Corn, Hard to believe you got your start from a paper bag. Carrots more zucchini Green Beans and Cantaloupe. (The seed packet said “cantaloupe” but we opened them, and they were green — but they tasted ripe, and did not taste like honeydew melons.) And, “after too much sadness,” Blue Gill pulled from the lake. Man, they were good. We fed our friend, and it has been weeks since he’s had a good home-cooked meal. He’s working on a big project. We waited until after dark for the boys to bring in the fish in from the lake. I kept…
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One Wet Towel
When I woke and walked outside, I found two pairs of shoes neatly positioned along the edge of the dock. These were not ours. Around the fire pit, there were a couple of damp t-shirts stretched out over the logs. A couple of those might be ours – it was hard to tell from where I stood. Along the steps, there were plastic cups bearing sports team’s logos (the kind guys like to keep), with just a drizzle of liquid left in the bottom. I looked further down the shoreline at the neighbor’s house. There, I could barely see the outline of someone huddled on the front step, still asleep.…
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Clean Your Floors with Peppermint Tea
Ants, and most insects, cannot stand the smell of mint. I found a recipe for using tea to clean wood floors in my 1950 household craft book (the tannic acid in tea creates a beautiful shine and color for hardwood floors.) So I combined the two to make a wood floor cleaner that repels insects. Here’s the recipe: Steep 6 peppermint tea bags into a quart of water. Add one-quarter cup of white vinegar. Add 10 drops of tea tree oil as a disinfectant. Store in a spray bottle, and spritz your mop and clean. This mixture, because of the vinegar and the essential oils, will keep for a long time, under…
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I Never Took The Time To Tell You This
When you stand in this spot in the front yard of my childhood home, and look directly across the street, and then just to the right, you will see the house that Mom would always nod to, and proudly and defiantly refer to the woman who lived there as “her best friend.†While she has a great sense of humor, is infinitely witty, and is as sharp as a tack, she was always extremely loyal and a person that my Mom staunchly depended upon. When I go back home, I always know where to find her; at one of the glorious global craft shops that dot Main Street. No matter…
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They work like magic, but vision boards are anything but
I have a 10-year old vision board up in the attic of my house that includes pictures of a red barn, a house on the water, surrounded by trees. When I pasted them on my board, I was merely cutting them up because the images soothed me; I liked looking at them. And the rest is history. I had yet to discover their power. A vision board, inspired by this book: Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams is a board where you place your wishes. You could use magazine pictures, or your own sketches… whatever seems to draw you in. What you’ll need to make your own:…
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Getting Lost In The Country
On our way to pick apples, I drove along country roads, with a sketch of a map in my head for navigation. For the most part, I just followed a square grid in my head to travel north east, toward the apple orchard. I thought, for a while, that I was lost. Time looked as if it stopped here. But, I was open for adventure. I always am… Here, at this general store, the owner scolded me for taking this picture of the “Putnam Dyes.” Later, she invited me to take more pictures in her “gift shop.” This was after I paid for four ice cream bars… with cash. Here,…
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