Gretchen Louise
He Giveth and He Taketh Away
The hardest thing about living far from where I grew up is going back. Going back and seeing how people have changed. The added wrinkles, the feebler steps. They jump out at you, mockingly asking why you stayed away so long. Yet it is because of the absence that they are so easily noticed. The…
Give Us Wisdom
Sometimes I have to laugh at the varied reading material we have sitting on our coffee table. Hot Rod magazine right next to the latest issue of No Greater Joy. The Ezzo’s Childwise beneath Ginger Plowman’s Don’t Make Me Count to Three on heart-oriented discipline (coming more from the same perspective than you might guess). …
I love my oven
If you know my sister-in-law Marlys or me, you know we love to cook. But a cook without an oven is a very sad cook. Just ask Marlys. She finally has a working oven again. A brand new Wolfe! After their Heartland oven’s most recent break-down, the new part (that took over a week to…
"Don’t That Make You Wanna Fall in Love…"
We’ve been married just two years, but my husband and I have begun to realize we’re already falling into that “old married couple” category. We like going to bed early. We have to have our Sunday afternoon naps. And they just don’t make love songs like they did when we were young. A few months…
seven years…
My dearest little Pumpkin, I wish Mommy had brought her camera with her tonight. And yet, the camera lens would only have captured the cute little redheaded baby girl eating tortilla chips at the Mexican restaurant. The camera might have caught her daddy and mommy sitting next to her. But it wouldn’t have been able…
Fiction for a Midsummer’s Day
Early spring days at our little family antique store can be a bit slow, lending themselves to rearranging the displays, dusting the tables, and reading some good old books. (It would really be unpardonable to read a new book behind the counter of an antique store, would it not?) Three of them stood out as…
The Adventures of the Fleece Stocking Cap
Merritt came home Saturday afternoon and announced that he’d found the missing stocking cap. We’re always losing hats, gloves, coats–they get left one place or another, and eventually make it back home to the laundry basket. So while this may not sound like such an unusual find, let me share with you the history of…
Nightime on the farm…
It’s night night time on the farm. Everyone’s fed and tucked in for the night… The hens are roosting in the Chick Inn. The baby pullets have their night time ration of food, their heat lamp is plugged in, and their apple bin is covered up snugly against the cold wind. I even fed Ooffy,…
My Cookbook Shelf
“Food prepared with a light heart and in a happy frame of mind is often the best food. Preparing the special foods that are favorites of those you love…making just a little effort to garnish the salad with a sprig of parsley, a bit of grated cheese, or a wild strawberry from the nearby meadow….
Recipe for a Good Cookbook
Flipping through a new cookbook, just glancing at the pictures can make your mouth start to water. But before you pay for the cookbook based on salivary appeal alone, take a second look, and see if you can actually make the recipes included. Is it so gourmet that it calls for ingredients that aren’t in…
Laundry Day
Mondays are usually laundry day here on our corner of the farm. Unless we’ve used our day off from tending the store to go to town, I usually tackle sorting the loads of laundry as soon as Merritt’s off to do his day’s projects. It’s the kind of thing one wants first-of-the-week energy for. Especially…
The End.
The End.