A Wildwood Story

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” -Dumbledore

Gracelaced Retreat

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This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase after clicking through one of my links, I may receive a {very small} commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this blog! It means the world and a cozy fireside chat to me.

I had a surprising and wonderful opportunity to attend a small retreat in the mountains of Colorado with Ruth Chou Simons, author and artist of the book Gracelaced.

>>>insert excited jumping up and down<<<

On a mountain adventure! Left to right: Shae, Kaitlyn, Me, Kristi, Ruth, Gina, Deborah

In celebration of the launch of her book, the Gracelaced team held a drawing for those who ordered multiple copies and I, along with four other lovely ladies from around the country, was randomly selected to attend.

Or, as we discussed over the course of the weekend, perhaps not so randomly selected! We all share a belief that God ordains our days and the smallest details of our lives, therefore, we were together for a purpose and for His glory. I think I forget that sometimes. I believe it in my head, but my heart forgets in the ordinary rhythms of life that God is always present in both my small and big moments.

Our view from the back porch of Vista La Plata.

The retreat was held at Vista La Plata, Ruth and Troy’s mountain home which you can actually rent on Airbnb! {I hope to do this myself sometime in the near future so the rest of the family can enjoy the wild beauty of southern Colorado as I did.}

The setting sun at Vista La Plata was a lovely sight! Pepper was indifferent.

I was trying to think how I might put into words my experience at the Gracelaced retreat weekend.

Restful. I will lead you beside quiet waters. {Psalm 23:2}

Encouraging. Build each other up. {1 Thessalonians 5:11}

Convicting. Hold fast to Him. {Joshua 22:5}

Awe-filled. The mountains speak of a Creator. {Romans 1:20, Nahum 1:5}

Those may feel like overused descriptors yet they couldn’t be truer for me. I never cease to be astonished at how remarkable the body of Christ is. How a group of people who’ve never met before, from different parts of the country and different life experiences, can share a common bond and connect like family!

It wasn’t just Ruth who made our visit welcoming and delightful-the entire Simons family contributed, from Troy giving us an off-road mountain tour to all the boys helping in some way….with made-to-order coffee drinks, s’mores preparation, hauling luggage, and many other practical acts of service.

And let’s not forget the heart of the house-Gina, our wonderful chef!

Gina & Ruth show us how a proper mountaintop photo is done! #gorgeous

Still thinking of her Mexican corn:

I’m super thankful for the time I had at Vista La Plata, and wanted to express my gratefulness to the Simons family, Gina, my fellow travelers for their kindness and friendship, Pepper the dog for his hilarious antics, and others who contributed to the event by sending us gifts. It was absolutely a highlight of my year!

{Be looking for two more posts about the retreat; one sharing all the lovely gifts sent for us attendees, and one giving away a copy of Ruth’s book!}

Update: Gifts from the Gracelaced Retreat

Photo credit goes to…everyone. We shared so many photos that I’m not exactly sure whose is whose. The photos without people (except for the corn!) are definitely mine; surely you can tell by the quality? Heehee! ♥

Top 10 Favorite Books From the Last 100 I’ve Read

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This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase after clicking through one of my links, I may receive a {very small} commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this blog! It means the world and a stack of books to me.

Choosing my ten favorites from the last 100 books I’ve read was quite a difficult task and I bit my lip and sighed a few times over the stress of it all. Besides the following 10, I read 90 more books and most of them were really quite good. These, however, stand out as beyond ordinary. In no particular order:

1. Kristin Lavransdatter

by Sigrid Undset

It’s possible this may be the book I choose as my lifetime favorite, the one that left an indelible impression on me and the one that started this journey of “reading to a 1000.” The experience of holding this book was another one altogether. I found it at my local childhood library, where I have many memories of being sprawled out on the cool leather couches to read, and the hardback copy was decades old with translucent pages printed in the original translation. I was the first to check it out in many years. This was seven years ago now, but I keep thinking I want to go back and see if that library (which I’ve since moved away from) still has the same copy I read. I think holding it in my hands again will give me a thrill.

Written by Sigrid Undset, who was born almost exactly 100 years before me in 1882, this is what I call a sweeping saga. {It’s actually a trilogy, though I read it bound in one volume without really taking note of the three subtitles: The Wreath, The Wife, The Cross.} It encompasses the life of a Norwegian woman, Kristin, whose surname indicates the custom of the patriarchal traditions of the day: she was, quite simply, the daughter of Lavran; therefore, Lavran’s daughter or Lavransdatter in Norwegian.  A historical novel taking place in the 14th century, this is unlike anything I’ve read before or since. The translation of the old language used took me a bit to adjust to, but it was worth the few pages of plodding before I completely fell into the book Wonderland-style. Love, grief, regret, joy, courage, faith, uncertainty-it’s an epic tale I’ve yet to find a match for. Sigrid was a remarkable storyteller, and her depiction of a strong woman in a remarkable time will stay with me long after I’ve forgotten many other books.

2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

I love this book! I can’t say it more succinctly than that. Whenever I find a copy in Goodwill, as I have many times, I squeal and snatch it up. I always want an extra copy on hand to give away. This is a comfortable weekend read recommended by my friend, Kim, who I adore. Over the course of a couple years she kept bringing it up as one of her favorites and I just never got around to it. {Lazy.} Until. Until I came across a copy (BLESS YOU GOODWILL) and finally read it. Kim, I’m sorry it took so long for me to listen to you. I’ll never procrastinate again when you tell me to read something since now I trust your taste implicitly.

Okay, all ramblings aside, here’s what you need to know: this is a series of letters but don’t let that put you off. It’s charmingly written and engaging from the start. World War II is barely over and as the world begins picking up the broken pieces, a London writer, Juliet, begins a correspondence with inhabitants of the island of Guernsey (located in the English channel, naturally I looked it up). The island had been occupied during the war and a sort of resistance group was formed when islanders banded together. As they share their stories with Juliet, she becomes captivated and ends up traveling to Guernsey herself. Juliet’s voice resonates with me more than any other character I can think of; I felt we understood one another and shared similar impulsivities. I suspect other readers feel the same way…

I’m not really doing this book justice; if you look it up on Amazon you’ll see it gets almost 5 stars and over 4,000 reviews! If you need more convincing, check some of them out then order the book for a perfect, cozy fall read. {Or come to my house and I’ll give you a Goodwill copy! #notsponsoredbyGoodwill #ipromise}

3.  The Harry Potter Series

by J. K. Rowling

Maybe I cheated a little by including all 7 books in the Harry Potter series as one of my top 10 selections, but the rules on this blog are bendy so there you have it. If you just came out of an underground bunker and have never heard of Harry Potter before, you are in for an imaginative, delightful experience. Harry is an orphan whose ordinary life is upended by the discovery of a magical side to the world, a school of magic called Hogwarts, and his own mysterious past. There is more to this series than simply the charm of a world where magic is possible. There are deep and moving themes of growing up and understanding oneself, friendship and love-the kind that includes laying down your life-and the complexities of making hard choices during difficult times. There is laugh-out-loud humor and memorable, everyday pleasures captured magically.

Whether you’ve read the books or not, here are some discussions about them I thoroughly enjoyed:

Harry Potter Love @ The Art of Simple

Raising Kids on Harry Potter @ The Art of Simple

4. Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

If you are feeling annoyed by our modern colloquialisms and rather habitual bad grammar, the language in this book is the ideal remedy to restore your good humour. {I spell humour in proper British English as that is what Jane Austen would do and it suits the word perfectly.} As chapter one famously begins, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

Having read and re-read this cleverly told story full of wit and sarcasm, and seen every movie version made, I most definitely call it a favorite. Here we have unmarried sisters, rich men, lovely English countryside, jilted love, misunderstood intentions, scathing pride, stubborn prejudice. Elizabeth Bennet is the second child in a family of five unmarried daughters {gasp} with an unaccountably ridiculous mother, a lovingly complacent father, and capable sense of self. What happens when she meets her intellectual yet haughty match in rich, distant, annoying Mr. Darcy? I laugh, I cry, I swoon, this is a classic I’ll always return to.

I must mention this Jane Austen inspired etsy shop-perfect for fans of her literature! I’ve given several items as gifts to fellow readers and I’ll take a “half agony, half hope” mug any day.

5. Columbine

by David Cullen

Confession: I have a thing for true crime. While I voraciously consume podcasts on the topic, I’m pickier about my literature selections. This is an exceptionally written, thoughtful, well-researched account of the Columbine High School shooting which took place near Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999. I was 17 at the time and it made a tremendous impression on me. I read all the newspaper articles on the story that came my way, and a couple months after it happened I found myself driving by to see the memorial during a visit to Colorado. I felt the displacement and confusion familiar to many teenagers at the time…what exactly had happened, and why? David Cullen does an excellent job answering many of those questions. If you don’t read any other true crime account, read this one.

6. The Man in the Brown Suit

by Agatha Christie

“It is really a hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are.”

“I dare say it is good for one now and again to realize what an idiot one can be! But no one relishes the process.” 

A longtime fan of Christie’s mystery novels, this is absolutely one of my favorites and perfectly quotable. We have an “accidental” death, a cryptic message, a girl named Anne longing for exciting exploits, the odd behavior of a man in a brown suit, and the glories of London in the 1920’s. What more could you ask for?

“I had the firm conviction that, if I went about looking for adventure, adventure would meet me halfway. It is a theory of mine that one always gets what one wants.” 

7. Blue Like Jazz

by Donald Miller

This is another book I heard people reference for years before I finally picked it up. The title continues: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. I appreciated this book very much, even when I didn’t agree. I would categorize it as a memoir; a thoughtful, intimate examination of Christianity and God in the everyday. Donald Miller is honest and personal as he talks about his faith journey, and that’s one thing I love about his book. Also this:

“There is something quite beautiful about the Grand Canyon night. There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. (They hang there, like stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz.) And as I lay there, it occurred to me that God is up there somewhere. Of course, I had always known He was, but this time I felt it, I realized it, the way a person realizes they are hungry or thirsty. The knowledge of God seeped out of my brain and into my heart. I am imagined Him looking down on this earth, half angry because His beloved mankind had cheated on Him, had committed adultery, and yet hopelessly in love with her, drunk with love for her.”

8.The Hiding Place

by Corrie ten Boom

Corrie tells the story of her life, her family, and Haarlem in the 1940’s during Nazi-occupied Holland. A single watchmaker in her early 50’s, Corrie lived with her father and sister on a cobbled Haarlem street where they were well known and respected in their community. The ten Boom family had a great love for Jewish people and their home was a safe house during the war when they participated in the underground resistance movement and were instrumental in saving many lives. Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to a concentration camp when their activities were discovered and…well, you’ll have to read it for yourself!

My first memory of this book was when mom read it aloud to my sister and I one winter when I was perhaps 11. I fell in love with the “Beje” as Corrie affectionately called her home, and the stories of life and faith that took place within those walls resonated with me. During a trip to the Netherlands a few years ago I walked the streets of Haarlem where Corrie rode her bike, climbed the narrow stairs of the Beje, and stood in the hiding place built into the wall of Corrie’s room. It is no exaggeration to say it was one of the most singular and moving experiences of my life.

9. In the Garden of Beasts

by Erik Larson

Erik Larson is a masterful researcher and storyteller. Here he lays out the events which began in 1933, when American ambassador William Dodd and his family moved to the heart of Berlin and growing force of Nazism. Martha, his socialite daughter, vivacious and colorful, led a life behind the scenes which would have scandalized her American friends back home. The family watched in horror as the Nazi regime grew stronger and the world payed little attention. Goring, Goebbels, the first chief of the Gestapo, and many other notable characters whose stories are interwoven with the Dodds and what was happening in Berlin at that time are described in a magnetically readable style.

I found this book a vivid and fascinating read! Larson has a way of taking you back to a time and place in history and giving you a front-row seat to the truth that is quite often stranger than fiction.

10.The Hobbit

by J.R.R. Tolkein

I read aloud to the children the story of Bilbo’s adventures during chilly fall days a couple years ago, and now it makes me think of steaming mugs of hot chocolate, since we often had them in hand during reading time. That or tea-lots of tea!-is highly recommended during the reading of this book. The first chapter begins:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Bilbo is a hobbit living in the Shire who has no intention of grand travels or daring escapades. He enjoys his ordinary, cozy life full of comfort and reading, thank-you-very-much. All of this changes when his friend, the wizard Gandalf, and a motley crew of dwarves show up on his doorstep. He’s needed on a dangerous quest…to the Lonely Mountain where a buried treasure is said to be hidden under the watchful eye of the dragon Smaug. What happens when he says goodbye to his beloved Shire and ventures out in the big unknown? This book is legendary, and perfect for reading aloud to share with an enthralled audience; I’m just sorry I didn’t read it sooner!

And that wraps up my first list of top 10! Thanks for checking it out. Have you read any of these books? If so, I’d love to hear what you think of them!

Photo by Anjeli Lundblad on Unsplash

Things That Happen To Me In Airports

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{This is not an exhaustive list.}

Get majorly lost.

Spend a night on those uncomfortable blue chairs you can’t lay down on.

Pat downs: always.

Security going through my bags and finding that jar of chocolate peanut butter I forgot I’d put in my carry-on. {You didn’t have to laugh when you threw it in the trash.}

Hauling children.

Delays of all sorts.

Confiscation of my pocketknife. Ooops, forgot it was on my key-chain.

Confiscation of my pocketknife AGAIN. Why can I not remember this??

Having to sit near the vagabond who hasn’t washed in approx. 365 days.

Being so early that the flight info isn’t even out nor is any eatery open. Wah, no coffee! #overacheiver

Being so late there isn’t time to sit before boarding the plane. #procrastinator

Sitting on a toilet only to be surprised and horrified by a gloved hand reaching in to my stall from the other side to replace the toilet paper. It’s like a 8×8 inch opening. Blue Gloves can totally see my knickers.

Eat amazing food! {I’m especially looking at you, Copenhagen and Paris.}

Observe remarkable people.

Experience one of the most fascinating microcosms of our world. Travel is the best.

Photo by marcus zymmer on Unsplash

 

The Last 100 Books I’ve Read

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This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase after clicking through one of my links, I may receive a {very small} commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this blog! It means the world and a stack of books to me.

I love reading, discussing books, books about books, book lists, podcasts on books: all things books. Even the aged and sweet smell of paperback perfume. I save book recommendations on Instagram, look them up on my favorite blogs, add to lists on my phone, in my planner, and am generally always thinking about what to read next.

At some point I thought it would be a grand adventure to see how long it would take to read 1000 books. {Hint: a lot longer than I thought!} I began keeping a record every time I completed a book. Not long ago I reached my first milestone of 100 books read {insert 100 exclamation points}! As you’ll see, I like to read from a variety of genres.

{New friends who think I’m an innocent… please don’t be too shocked.}

You Should Know…

I faced a hard truth here: It took me seven years to read 100 books! I began this reading adventure in 2010, and finished in 2017. That’s just a little over 14 books per year. I have friends who easily read that many in one month, even 100 or more books in a year! I was honestly surprised that, as voracious a reader as I once used to be, it took me so long to reach this first milestone.

However, instead of berating myself for not reaching some non-existent standard, I decided to be grateful. Grateful because at a time in my life when I wasn’t reading as much as I had in previous years (oh to be 15 and absorbed in the work of Dickens!) and was struggling with depression and grief, I chose to start, somewhere. I picked up one book, and then another. I may not have felt capable of much, but I could read and engage my mind in life-changing literature and was changed in the process. It’s about the journey, not the time it takes to get there!*

Most of these books I read the traditional way-you know, with an actual book in hand. A few I read on my Kindle, mainly while traveling. I am just now at the cusp of the world of audio books…we’ll see where that takes me!

A couple books here are re-reads. For example, every few years I re-read The Hiding Place and the Harry Potter series. As a teen I read all of the Anne of Green Gables novels (favorite: Rilla of Ingleside) and then recently read aloud the first and well-beloved one to my children.

This list does not include the Bible, devotionals, or countless children’s books and homeschooling material (The Story of the World, Vol 1-4!) I’ve read aloud. It also doesn’t include a large stack of books I’m almost, oh-so-close to finishing. I’ve counted only the books I’ve read completely cover-to-cover, even if some are waiting for me to finish just two more pages before being added to the list.

Many of these books have become a part of me and changed or expanded my thinking in some way. A few were forgettable; others I wouldn’t recommend. One last thing-it may have taken me SEVEN FREAKING YEARS to read 100 books, but many of them were over 500 pages long! So, there’s that. #somewhatjustified #bookbrag

I’ll give you an update on my top ten favorites from these 100! For now, here is the raw list:

  1. Kristin Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset
  2. The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom
  3. The Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  4. Gossamer, Lois Lowry
  5. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde 
  6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,  J. K. Rowling
  7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J. K. Rowling
  8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling
  9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
  10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
  11. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
  12. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
  13. Almost French, Sarah Turnbull
  14. Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde
  15. The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
  16. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde 
  17. Faking Grace, Tamara Leigh
  18. The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
  19. Bringing Up Bebe, Pamela Druckerman
  20. Searching for Mary Poppins, Susan Davis and Gina Hyams
  21. A Stolen Life: A Memoir, Jaycee Dugard 
  22. My Life and Lesser Catastrophes: An Unflinchingly Honest Journey of Faith, Christina Schofield
  23. The Girl from Montana, Grace Livingston Hill 
  24. Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie
  25. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
  26. The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Emmuska Orczy 
  27. Heaven is For Real, Todd Burpo
  28. The Golden Goblet, Eloise Jarvis McGraw
  29. Dawn of the Morning, Grace Livingston Hill
  30. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
  31. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
  32.  Mockingjay,  Suzanne Collins
  33.  In the Garden of Beasts, Erik Larson
  34.  The Best Ghost Stories Ever Told, Stephen Brennan 
  35. A Matter of Basic Principles, Don Veinot 
  36. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
  37. Giant’s Bread, Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)
  38. Absent in the Spring, Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)  
  39.  In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
  40. Finding Chandra, Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz
  41. Unto the Daughters, Karen Tintori
  42. Divergent, Veronica Roth
  43. Insurgent, Veronica Roth
  44. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
  45. All You Need to be Impossibly French, Helena Frith Powell 
  46. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
  47.  Looking for Alaska, John Green
  48. Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth
  49. Shadows of the Workhouse, Jennifer Worth
  50. Farewell to the East End, Jennifer Worth
  51. The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton
  52. Same Kind of Different As Me, Ron Hall and Denver Moore
  53. Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell
  54. Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell
  55. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
  56. Son, Lois Lowry
  57. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green 
  58. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
  59. Dead Mountain, Donnie Eichar
  60. A Rip in Heaven, Jeanine Cummins
  61. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer
  62. Warm Bodies, Isaac Marion
  63. The Life of Pi, Yann Martel
  64. The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger 
  65. Lord of the Flies, William Golding
  66. Animal Farm, George Orwell
  67.  The Money Saving Mom’s Budget, Crystal Paine
  68. Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, Crystal Paine
  69.  Living Well, Spending Less, Ruth Soukup
  70.  The Man in The Brown Suit, Agatha Christie
  71.  The Beautiful Daughters, Nicole Baart
  72. Austenland, Shannon Hale
  73. What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty
  74. Devil’s Knot, Mara Leveritt
  75.  Every Secret Thing, Laura Lippman
  76. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
  77. A Child Called “It”, Dave Pelzer
  78.  Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind, Sarah Wildman
  79. Pride and Prejudice,  Jane Austen
  80. Make It Happen, Lara Casey
  81. The Fringe Hours, Jessica Turner
  82. #Girlboss, Sophia Amoruso
  83.  Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson
  84.  If You Find This Letter, Hannah Brencher
  85.  What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, Laura Vanderkam
  86. Postern of Fate, Agatha Christie
  87.  I Used to Be So Organized, Glynnis Whitwer
  88. Dear Mr. Knightly, Katherine Reay
  89. 168 Hours, Laura Vanderkam
  90. Nourished: a Search for Health, Happiness, and a Full Night’s Sleep, Becky Johnson & Rachel Randolph
  91. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, Rhoda Janzen
  92. Anne of Green Gables,  Lucy Maud Montgomery
  93. Columbine, Dave Cullen
  94. Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi
  95. Money Making Mom, Crystal Paine
  96. I Know How She Does It, Laura Vanderkam
  97. Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
  98.  In a Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth Ware
  99. The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert
  100. Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert

Now on to the next 100…

{Update: here’s my list of top 10 favorites!}

*I’m sure some smart and wise person already said this, but I have no idea who.

Photo credit, in order of appearance:  Kari Shea, Jessica Ruscello, and Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

 

 

Letter 30 {Beach Bums}

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Dear Candace,

I’m writing to you on the 16th floor balcony of our lovely condo overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the very best of views, and perfect for dolphin spotting. The beach sand below is not unlike powdered sugar; the constant breeze invigorating. Cliche, but…it feels like I’m in a dream! The whole family is loving this experience. Our first day here was spent almost entirely in the ocean, riding waves and hunting for shells. I finished a book. We drank gallons of liquid. The paint is coming off my toenails. I have the oddest tan lines on the entire beach (positive about this).

Hmm, do I have to go back? We can home-school right here! 😉

Short but sweet, because the waves beckon and I must go.

Also I must NOT get a sunburn.

Seashells and squid tails,

Rachel

Letter 29 {Snippets, BLT’s}

Letter 31 {A Return}

 

 

Letter 29 {Snippets, BLT’s}

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Dear Candace,

It feels suspiciously like fall outside with the sky an electric blue and the temps dropping to a lovely, cool 60 degrees. It’s the fifth of August. I will only accept such weather behavior as a reprieve from the heat and not as the early onset of fall. I love fall, but in its place; it must bow to summer. It’s summer’s apology for being over. I can’t think about this right now. I need summer with all my heart.

My head is full of books and lessons and lists as we prepare for a new educational year with the kids. Classes signed up for, new math books started, it’s all underway and I am being reluctantly swept along!

I am trying to think about what happened this past week…how do summer days escape so quickly?? Our HVAC unit was replaced, so there was a lot of in-and-out related to that. We hosted a total of four nieces and nephews one day while their mama went to the doctor, I accused the deer of razing down some plants when really it was Tom trimming things up, we went to all the lessons and all the things, another sister-in-law and her girls visited, Caleb’s snake (Mango) returned home after a summer spent at a childrens’ camp, the garden started churning out tomatoes and now my counters are lined with them (BLT’s 4EVAH*), I started reading Seabiscuit, and about 40 other things.

Remember when I started the book Simply Tuesday, something life half a year ago? I’m almost finished reading it. I’ve been savoring it-a few lines here and there during my morning reading over the last several months.

Here is what I read this morning, and it’s sticking to me like a burr:

I sat on a bench with a book and a journal at a local park, but I did more staring than reading. I watched the moms and babies stroll by, the workers with their good intentions toward the public bathrooms, the guy on his bike who roe without a helmet. I read a little about David, how he was both a man after God’s heart and a killer. I thought about how none of us are just one thing, but many shades of light and dark and shadows of gray, proof that we need Jesus.

-Emily P. Freeman

Love,

Rachel

*Facebook post about this: Here is the thing. It’s tomato season and you need plenty of home-grown tomatoes (I can help you with that), thick-sliced bacon (hard for me to share but I will make an effort), crisp lettuce (not weak, watery iceberg; the real green stuff), and mayo (you know you want the chipotle or sriracha kind). Sourdough bread is delightful, too, but if you’re avoiding bread then just wrap everything else together and throw in some sliced jalapeños for good measure. Breakfast, lunch, dinner-boom. Menu planning is over.

Letter 28 

Letter 30

This letter contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase after clicking through one of my links, I will receive a {very small} commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this blog! It means the world and a stack of letters to me.

Letter 28 {Ice-cream Tribulations}

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Dear Candace,

You know how family vacation begins. Finally, the van is loaded. Finally, everyone has gone potty (some of them twice) and is buckled in. You instruct everyone to absolutely not tug on or remove anything in the carefully arranged stacks of suitcases and paraphernalia lest it trigger a catastrophic un-packing event in which the van implodes internally.

You are on the road. Mercy, husband has thoughtfully filled up with gas so the pumps can be avoided.

Of course there is that one stop at Walgreen’s for miscellany. {Why are corn chips so expensive?}

Heading out of the city, you impulsively think it would be such fun to get everyone an ice-cream treat to start the vacation off right. Whispering conspiratorially with your husband, the two of you make a plan. {Or, more accurately, since he’s driving you show him an image of an ice-cream cone on your phone and pantomime the rest so the kids don’t hear.}

Soon you stop at a McDonald’s on a busy exit. Husband has to pee since he ate a lot of watermelon earlier (when did he have time to do that? You’ve only managed to eat ONE HARD-BOILED EGG because, packing). Once inside, the waitress apologetically explains the soft serve machine is dead. No ice-cream to be had there. Back in the van, then off again to the nearest fast food joint. Jack-in-the-box is almost empty! Only two cars in the drive-through, so you get in line.

And wait.

Wait, wait, wait.

An old lady hair starts to grow on your chin.

Your husband looks at you as if to say, “Why are we doing this, again?” You back out of the the line with the other vehicles still sitting in exactly the same place. The person holding everyone up must be ordering 50 menu items in varying combinations.

Forward on the highway you go, and this time you must find ice-cream because of course now the children know. The children are counting on it. The children mustn’t be disappointed. This is vacation, after all!

Ten miles down the highway, another McDonald’s sign is spotted. Ah, this will be easy. It’s not as crowded on this exit. This way to the golden arches! Yay! We’re gonna have an ice-cream cone!

Wait-where is the restaurant? Three more miles north of the interstate? Oh.

Naturally, since it’s the only restaurant for perhaps miles in this desolate land, a crowd has gathered. The drive-through looks a bit busy, and feeling raw from your recent experience, you decided to skip it and “just run inside real quick.” The line stretches from the door to the cashier but you are not. leaving. without. ice-cream. You watch, mesmerized, as the young woman taking orders casually flicks her waist-long, thick, black braids here, there, and probably all over your ice-cream. She moves slowly and gracefully. So slowly. You know you’re getting to your destination an hour late at this point. There’s no use in fighting anymore.

When it’s your turn to order, you rattle off your requests like a pro ice-cream juggler, payment poised in hand. Just hurry, black-haired beauty, so we can get back on the road before the afternoon ends. You think this longingly, wishing you’d never suggested a deviation from the straight and narrow.

She leans into the ice-cream while she prepares it. Strands of hair wilding, ever so close. You wonder when food establishments stopped utilizing those wonderful hairnets. She can’t find things she needs-this and that is in the back and apparently she’s the only one to fetch it. Leisurely she puts everything together, as if fifty eyeballs weren’t staring at her. People in line shift behind you, clearing their throats.

When you’ve at long last returned to the van with your treats, you feel an Olympic thrill. You’ve made it to the finish line! It’s vacation! There’s ice-cream! Blessedly sought-after ice-cream. It’s already melting in this heat.

Are we there yet?

Next road trip, we are quite probably skipping the ice-cream! 😉

~Rachel

Letter 27

Letter 29

Letter 27 {Heated}

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Dear Candace,

The demise of our air-conditioning unit was conveniently timed with hottest week of the summer. There was no fix to be had, no replacement parts to be switched out, there was only the hot, sweaty silence of a broken HVAC system.

The temperature inside the house quickly climbed to 87 degrees and then some, despite my best efforts to keep fans running and blinds closed. As long as there was air-movement, it didn’t bother me too much at first. That first night we slept as au naturel as possible in order to be as comfortable as possible, taking nice cold showers before bedtime and being so thankful for electricity. Only, we hadn’t seen the hottest days yet!

On the first day that temps climbed to 100 degrees*, Tom brought home a portable window unit to regulate the main floor. It helped keep the living room area cooler. Yet even with our fans continuously on, it began to feel oppressive inside the house. The next night he bought a bargain priced old-fashioned window unit and stuck it in our bedroom window, which helped tremendously. I began to see we were becoming collectors of small AC units and fans of every shape and size. Besides all the ceiling fans, we have 4 portable fans also running constantly. The whirring and droning noises sound like a small airplane is about to take off inside the house. If the children had a hard time hearing me before, it’s impossible to get them to listen now. “What? Huh? I can’t hear you mom. I had no idea you told me 49 times to pick up my socks/shoes/dishes/books/toys.”

I just checked on Drew-he’s fast asleep on the basement floor, snuggled on a sleeping bag with his head against a large floor fan. Literally his head is on the fan.

Did you see this post about the St. Louis heat wave of 1934? I have nothing to complain about.

I have many words about my current situation, but I’ve limited my FB updates to these:

When it is 87 degrees in your house because the AC unit chose the hottest part of the year to die a permanent death, do you want to bake in the oven or cook on the stovetop? No. Use the dryer, take a relaxing bath? No and heavens no. Eat ice-cream three meals a day and dream of plunging into icy glaciers? YES
#wewillsurvive #butourdeodorantwillbetested

It’s cooling off in STL! A temp drop of about 10 degrees leaves us with a comfy 95! #rejoicealways

Stay cool my dear,

Rachel

*104 the last two days!

Letter 26

Letter 28

Letter 26 {Blackberries + Nostalgia}

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Dear Candace,

July is in full-swing and with it some familiar heat and humidity, but it’s still such a beautiful summer!

Blackberries. With July comes memories of blackberry picking as a child and all the scrumptious treats first my mom, and then my sister and myself, would prepare; namely:  jam, cobblers, and best of all PIE. Blackberry pie is my jam. The butter to my bread. It’s only contender is peach pie with warm cinnamon sauce. But in July, there can be no other pie except the humble yet remarkable blackberry.

In the early nineties, before cell-phones and helicopter parenting, Mom would drop Mara and I off at a nearby conservation area. We were given a wagon, buckets, water, and instructions to be at the rendezvous point at a specific time. Then we were left alone, trudging through the wilderness, to a familiar patch of wild, thorn-encased blackberries sharing space with poison ivy.

It’s remarkable we didn’t meet our demise in those lonely woods, by wild animal or serial killer hiker. One hot July afternoon, Mara began to feel the twinges of heat exhaustion so I laid her out in the shade and kept right on picking. There are sacrifices to be made for blackberry pie, you know. I would often get poison ivy on my face from those outings, turning into an oozing, puffy spectacle known as Cauliflower Girl. The boys were mad about me in those days.*

We’ve been traveling deep in the Ozarks for Hosanna’s horsemanship lessons, to a little farm nestled by a creek and woods. It’s a lovely drive through rich green countryside, and I’m never exactly sure what the speed limit is, though farm trucks and motorcyclists pass me regularly on corkscrew roads. We drive by old white farmhouses, garden patches, fields of corn, and homemade signs that say things like WE HAVE WORMS.

During our recent visit to the horse farm, the owners graciously led us to their blackberry patch to pick the biggest, sweetest, juiciest berries I’ve ever seen! True story. Those blackberries were the epitome of everything a blackberry should be. Three times larger than my thumb, one berry filled your mouth with its juicy goodness. While Hosanna was working with the horses, Drew and I stained our fingers and mouths roaming through the bushes. In short order we picked enough berries for a pie, which became my one fixation. No matter how tired I was, or how many dishes and chores needed to be done, we must! have! pie! Back at home that evening, I quickly put together a homemade crust** and filled it high with the glossy berries. Pie for dessert, pie for breakfast the next morning;  that’s how July is done! Until peaches are in season, I’m quite content in my current relationship with Missouri’s obsidian jewels.

Thinking now of blackberry wine,

~Rachel

*There were no boys. Mad or otherwise.

**I must be out of practice! It was not the best crust, being a bit chewy and rather a poor representation of the large amount of pies I’ve made in my lifetime. Such things keep me humble.

Letter 25

Letter 27

 

Letter 25 {Freaky Friday Arm}

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Dear Candace,

I’ve been sleeping so much better lately so naturally it was time for a bout of insomnia.

The other night at 2am I woke abruptly, feeling odd. I quickly realized I couldn’t move my right arm! It was asleep, with that funny deadened sensation. This was not a usual occurrence. I moved positions, trying to stimulate my arm. It would not be stimulated. I sat up. My arm began to feel tingly, but still it would not go back to being my arm. I got out of bed and stood up, fully awake yet wondering if I was dreaming that my arm wouldn’t work. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and left for the bathroom. There, I googled “why is my right arm dead” and received terrifying answers about my heart. I did little pumping motions and tried squeezing my hand into a fist, well aware that these were not my preferred hours for exercising. Eventually, the feeling returned but not before I was fully freaked out. Upon my return to bed, I had to be careful about how I placed my arm so as not to let it fall asleep again.

And then I lay there for one hour forty-five minutes.

Finally realizing that my reassurances every 10 minutes of “I’ll be falling asleep any minute now” weren’t working, I turned on the phone light and grabbed my book off the nightstand. {That’s how I finished Hatching Twitter so quickly.}

Other things I did to pass the time: go potty and while walking through the dark kitchen, think about how horrible it would be to see a silent figure standing in the corner. Walk faster to the bathroom with the echoes of true crime podcasts filling my sleep-deprived mind.

Eventually, I was afraid all my tossing and turning in bed would bother Tom, so I finished the night {er, morning} in the living room. I felt mad at Jack and sad for Ev (you’ll have to read the book).

After 6am I crawled back in bed, mercifully sleepy and hopeful I could get in a couple hours of rest before taking Drew to his morning swim lessons. That 9am alarm was not easy to wake up to! But I rallied and rushed out the door as one does when life must go on.

In other news, the deer ate the new growth off my new hosta plants and now I hate them. Not the plants, the deer. It’s war.

Still sleepy,

Rachel

Letter 24

Letter 26

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