As most of you know, we are trying to live off of our land this year–eating only the food and eggs we grow on our land along with other local protein sources (and necessities we can’t grow here, like coffee and spices). Our goal is pretty straightforward: Eat beautiful fresh food; preserve it for winter;…
Author: Melinda
Ladybug season.
It’s not ladybug season in our garden yet. But it is in our house. We have a small colony living inside a sunny south-facing wall. Little ladybugs march up the shiplap siding in our kitchen and visit with each other. It’s like a little party–a Sunday social with ladies in frilly dresses sipping tea and…
Share this:
Time.
What is the number one thing that everyone wants more of? Is it money? Love? Another chance? More friends? A different house? A better job? It turns out, nearly everything can be distilled into one thing: Time. We want more of it. We want more time to find love. More time to foster friendships. We…
Share this:
This moment: Vacation.
This rare moment of just the two of us–Brian and me–was snapped by Brian’s mom Barbara when we were sitting on the beach in San Diego’s Mission Bay. We were staring directly into blinding sun–the kind of southern California sun that we just don’t get in our northern climate. Barbara managed to get a shot…
Share this:
From a distance.
When I was in college, I applied to study abroad in Italy through the writing program offered at my school, The University of Washington. They have a 100-year lease with a beautiful building overlooking the Campo de Fiori in Rome, and it still operates as their Italian campus for a variety of programs for University…
Share this:
Lights out.
We lost power last night following a snowy windstorm on a freezing day. We built a roaring fire, cooked a pile of pasta and fresh veggies and sausage, and the kids whittled by candlelight. There is a beauty to these long moments of pause. No music, no phones, no computers, no movies. Just the sound…
Share this:
Potato-Leek Frittata
We have a brand new neighbor. She’s two weeks old. We have been eagerly gathering small trinkets for her ever since she arrived. Today we got to meet her! So we packed up our little gifts–a bay leaf bouquet for good luck; watercolor cards and ladybug painted rocks from the kids; a darling little turquoise…
Share this:
Lucky shoes & Smurfette pants.
Folks who know me well know that I’m pretty no-nonsense about clothes and style. I like thrift stores. Nordstrom Rack. Old Navy. Ross. Small local shops. Anywhere with very few crowds. I used to only shop at Banana Republic when I was a working professional, and it was only because the store was small and…
Share this:
Farmhouse Kitchen Remodel.
Last year, as we prepared to remodel our 1901 farmhouse kitchen, I read a blog post about the kitchen remodel process. The woman who wrote it was so incredibly organized that she warned everyone to be prepared because they might have to go 4 days without a sink. People, we went four months without a…
