Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

Home

Why We Climb the Mountain

New experiences cause me to have anxiety. Actually, I’m not even sure that’s entirely accurate. I’m pretty sure I always have anxiety, it’s just sometimes I’m more aware of it than others. New experiences make me feel the weight of anxiety more than familiar experiences.

The church we’ve been attending has been organizing summer hikes once a month from May to August. The kids and I went to the first one (when we were still strangers to the church) and missed the second one for my grandmother’s funeral. The third one was rapidly approaching and I was feeling a whole bunch of feelings: nervous, excited, anxious, stressed. The hike was scheduled for a trail I’d never been to in an area about 30 minutes from our house. When it comes to hiking, I’m not new, but most of my hiking I’ve done with Phil. I’m not sure I’ve ever done much of it just me and the kids.

This was my first point of anxiety. Phil is much more level-headed about outdoorsy stuff than I am. I’m usually okay once I get out there in the woods and nature because it feeds my soul to be among the trees, but it’s the getting there that almost paralyzes me. I worry about injuries and getting lost and peeing in the woods. I worry about where to park if the trailhead is busy. Phil, if he worries about any of these things, doesn’t show it. He is calm and collected and handles the unexpected in a way that grounds me. But Phil works on Saturdays and these hikes are on Saturdays, so I was on my own with the kids.

And speaking of kids, sometimes they gripe about going hiking. They ask about how far the hike is and how long we’ll be gone and if there will be bees. The night before this most recent hike, it rained hard and I warned them: it might be muddy, so plan for that. I am not a great motivator for getting people out of the house when I am weighed down my own anxiety, so I thought it was possible that I would just say “forget it” and we’d stay home.

To lessen the anxiety, I try to get as much information as possible. This hike was supposed to be moderate with a steep incline to the top, so I checked my hiking app and read the comments and reviews to see just how steep and incline-y this trail would be. Phil and I once underestimated the designation “very steep” on a hike not long after we’d moved to Pennsylvania. Illinois “steep” and Pennsylvania “steep” are two very different things.

I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for, but I did find two interesting comments:

“Eagle Rock is neat but not particularly scenic.”

“Was disappointed with the view from the top, as it was covered by trees.”

This reminded me of the one-star reviews of National Parks I saw while scrolling social media sometime ago.

And as we hiked the trail (yes, we made it to the meet-up and yes, we had a good time), I thought about that latter comment especially.

Is the view from the top the only reason we climb the mountain?

—

For the second year in a row, I’ve participated in a fitness and nutrition community/program called My Peak Challenge. If you’re a fan of the Outlander TV show, My Peak Challenge was founded by Sam Heughan, and what attracted me to the community and program was the personal nature of the goals and the program. (Also part of the annual fee goes to charity, which is a win, even I don’t use the program at all.) Peakers, as participants are called, are encouraged to “Find Your Peak,” be it a physical goal or a non-physical goal. Sometimes the goal is learning a language or going back to school; sometimes it’s about losing weight or climbing a literal mountain. Sometimes it’s about acquiring a new skill or abandoning something that isn’t life-giving. There are as many challenges as there are Peakers (so, thousands) and it’s inspiring to see people reach their goals and find their peaks.

I consider myself a bit of a slacker when it comes to goal-setting. I don’t like to commit to goals because I’m afraid I won’t reach them. (On the other hand, if I never set goals, I’ll certainly never reach them!) I’m learning that the failure isn’t in not reaching the goal but in not setting the goal in the first place. Progress toward a goal is not wasted effort. There are things to be learned along the way.

This is me preaching to myself, by the way. I’m feeling this tension most deeply in my writing life right now. I am still a writer but I’m not doing as much writing as I think I should be doing, and my writing goals are not particularly ambitious or challenging. Writing is my mountain and sometimes I fear 1) that I won’t make it to the top and 2) that I won’t like the view once I get there.

So I’ll ask myself again: Is the view from the top the only reason we climb the mountain?

—

The reviewers were right. The view from the top of this particular trail was not stunning or breathtaking. We could see a little bit of farmland through the trees but mostly the view was the trees right in front of us.

The view from the top of Eagle Rock

Did that mean the previous hour of hiking was worthless?

Far from it. On the way up our lungs expanded and our legs burned as we traveled up the incline. We talked with those who were on the journey with us (and some who were not; we helped direct a family on the right path that their oldest son, who was far ahead of them, had taken). We tripped and consoled and kept going. We raced ahead and we lagged behind. We stepped on every rock on the path. We stopped to catch our breath.

And on the way down, we talked like old friends. Some of the kids got far ahead of the grown-ups but they were having their own great time. The time passed as if it was no time at all and by the time we were at the bottom, no one was talking about how mediocre the view had been.

All we could do was bask in the togetherness as we gobbled our packed lunches while giving our legs a rest.

“That was so much fun,” my kids both said in the car on the way home.

The view, it would seem, was not the point of the hike.

—

At the top of a mountain or rolling hill, the view might be amazing. It might take your breath away.

Or the clouds might hang low and block the view. Or the trees might be growing right where you’re supposed to be looking. 

Or maybe you don’t make it to the top and have to turn around before you even get there.

Maybe the top of the mountain is crowded and you can’t enjoy the view, even if you can see it. Maybe someone has graffitied the rock or left some trash. Maybe it’s not what you expected at all.

Maybe it’s beautiful.

Maybe it’s mundane.

But was the climb still worth it? 

(To quote a Miley Cyrus song, “Ain’t about how fast I get there, ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side, it’s the climb.”)

What if the climb is the whole point?

—

On that Saturday hike, the talking, the being in nature, the exercise of our bodies was the point of the hike, not the view we would see from the top.

With my writing, maybe the end goal isn’t the point, exactly. Maybe it’s more important what happens along the way.

Maybe the view from the top is only one of the reasons we climb the mountain.

Maybe we climb the mountain to see if we can. 

Or prove that we can. 

Maybe we climb the mountain to restore our souls with the sights and sounds of nature. 

Maybe we climb the mountain because it makes for a good story. Or a picture for our Instagram. 

Maybe we climb the mountain to spend time with friends or family. 

Maybe we climb the mountain to strengthen our legs or our lungs.

Maybe we climb the mountain because it’s there to be climbed.

Maybe we climb the mountain because we can’t imagine not climbing it.

Because we have to. Or need to. Or just plain want to.

Even if we climb it just for the view from the top, we have to accept that we can’t stay there at the top. Eventually we have to come down. And maybe the view at the bottom isn’t the same as the view from the top.

But then again, neither are we the same.

The person who went up the mountain is not the same as the person who came down.

Maybe that’s the whole point of the climb.

The things that keep me going

I was lying on the table as my massage therapist worked her hands and arms across the pain points all over my body, the tension releasing as she held a spot for just the right amount of time. The idea of massage used to freak me out, but now I go for one monthly. It’s a forced kind of rest. I have trouble relaxing on my own. And I’ve been going long enough now that my massage therapist feels more like a friend than a stranger. She probably knows my body better than I do. It’s an appointment I look forward to each month.

Here I am, right after my massage. You can still see the line on my forehead from where my face was pressed into the pillow.

A monthly massage sounds like a luxury, and maybe it is for some, but it’s become a necessity. It, combined, with chiropractic, keeps my back pain mostly at bay, giving me the kind of mobile and active lifestyle I want. (Someday, this might not be the case, so I’m trying to cherish it as a gift.)

These two appointments don’t come without a monetary price, but it’s a price I can’t afford not to pay.

As I lay there I thought about how a guy I once dated implied that I was high-maintenance. I was young and he said it in a way that felt negative so I was offended. (This should have been a red flag for our relationship. There were lots of red flags for both of us, but that’s another story.) At the time, I considered myself pretty low-maintenance. I didn’t take a lot of time to put on makeup or obsess over my clothes. I’m still not exactly sure what qualified as “high maintenance” in his mind, but I must have made a subconscious decision to be anything but high-maintenance from then on.

That manifested as suppressing my needs and wants, going along with whatever my friends, family, or spouse wanted. “High maintenance” meant to me that I was A LOT to deal with, always causing problems or conflict. I tried to be easy-breezy by never having an opinion, by throwing all my energy into caring for other people–first my husband, then my children. It was a lot of years before I realized that I needed to take care of myself, too, and that it wasn’t selfish.Two decades after hearing the words “high maintenance” in relation to myself, I accept and celebrate that I am, indeed, high-maintenance. Honestly, I’m a little suspicious of anyone who might claim otherwise.

Because anything of value is worth taking care of and that includes me (and you). Anyone who lives this life even a little bit is going to need more than a little maintenance to keep going.

Here are some of the things it takes to keep me going: the aforementioned monthly massage and chiropractic care, daily meds (for physical health), occasional meds (for mental health), daily exercise, occasional yoga, time in nature, fruits and vegetables, books (so many books). It’s not an exhaustive list. And maybe your list has other things on it that you need to keep you going. 

Whatever it is you need, don’t let anyone–not yourself or a partner or parents or children or society or random strangers on the Internet (especially not them)–make you feel bad about it.

High-maintenance? Hell yes, we are, because we’re worth it! (After posting these thoughts on Facebook and Instagram, a friend suggested that we change the phrase from “high maintenance” to “maintenance worthy.” I’m in.)

Summer is off to a … start

Summer is off to a … start. I refuse to say whether it’s a good start or a bad start because mostly I’m just grateful for another day, another season of life. A work friend once described June as the “Friday” of summer because school just ended and you’re still getting used to the idea of time off, whereas July is like the Saturday of summer. You can fully relax into “weekend mode.” School ended in June, and it has definitely taken some time to adjust to our new schedule. So here’s the round-up of what we did, what we ate, what we watched and what we read in June.

What We Did

First and foremost, we finished the school year. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. It was a year that felt like a decade and while it had its high points, I’m just glad it’s over. To celebrate, we took a quick trip downtown and bought ourselves some sweet treats at Central Market. (And visited my husband and his co-workers.)

Look how happy we are to be done!

One virtual adventure and the topic was Pokemon. We learned about some of its origins and where it’s headed.

The kids and I joined the public library summer reading program. Because if there’s one thing that’s certain about our summer, it’s reading. My daughter and I also printed out reading challenge logs from our local bookstore Aaron’s Books. Not that I need an incentive to read, but I do love a good list.

I ran 5 miles for the virtual Red Rose Run. It was a muggy morning with an air quality alert, but I did it and that’s all that matters.

Started planning our summer road trip vacation. We’re driving back to Illinois this summer, and we’re taking a couple of days to do the driving so we can stop and see some things along the way. The plans are coming together.

Shots and sports physicals. With one child going into 6th grade and the other a teenager playing sports, our first week of summer break was full of medical appointments, all of which we’re thankful for. And glad to be done with so early in the summer. Our daughter also got her second COVID vaccine.

We hosted my brother for a day visit to Lancaster!

I’m told there is a resemblance

He flew in to Philadelphia for a few days because travel is back, baby, and took the train out our way so we could hang out for the first time in 18 months and the first time in Pennsylvania. I took him to my favorite coffee shop. We fed him a smorgasbord style sampling of foods from Central Market. (See more in the What We Ate section) Then we gave him a driving tour of the county featuring the schools we attend and work at; Amish farms; Intercourse, Pa.; Lapp Valley Farms for ice cream and the cows that provide the milk for the delicious treat; then to downtown Lancaster city for a tour of market and some shops for souvenirs. We ended our day with dinner at Luca, a walk around our neighborhood, and a sampling of whoopie pies for dessert.

My son and I played a game of Battleship.

My formidable opponent

A day earlier my husband had taught him how to play solitaire the old-fashioned way with a deck of cards because there are certain hours of the day that I need to focus on work and other tasks and I cannot entertain. But I offered him a game on a rainy Friday. He chose Battleship and it was a close battle.

Our kids attended a youth group kickoff event at our church on a Saturday night, which meant that Phil and I took the opportunity for a date night. We checked out this new beer garden in downtown Lancaster hosted by Wyndridge Farm (one of my favorite hard cider companies), and it was magical. A mild summer night with refreshing adult beverages and live music. It’s my new favorite hangout. I can’t wait to bring friends there! And our kids had a great time at the youth event. They made friends, which always makes my heart full.

Chilling in the beer garden

An early morning bird-watching walk with my bird-watching husband. We’re in this phase of parenthood where our kids are more independent so Phil and I can do more things together ourselves. We saw a bald eagle because we heard a duck quacking loudly and repeatedly. The duck was not happy with the eagle’s presence. Numerous other birds spotted. (We later saw the eagle again on a morning run.)

Graduation parties. We’ve lived here long enough that we know graduates from high school and college. It’s fun to be included in these kinds of celebrations, but we are now firmly in the “friends of my parents” age group at parties.

Lacrosse camp. Four full days for our son. He came home sweaty and tired every day but he loved the extra time to learn and practice his skills.

Friend dates! I’m finally back to seeing friends in person. I spent a glorious 2 1/2 hours in the park with my friend Alison.

We’ve been using Voxer religiously to stay in touch since the pandemic hit, but it’s so different to talk all things writing, vacations, families and life changes in person. It was wonderful, even when the waterfowl got a little too close and when I was distracted by a gaggle of giggly girls taking pictures near the pond. Then we were able to gather with our good friends, the Stevensons, who now live in Arizona.

No, Phil and Gene are not brothers.

We were only together for an evening, but it was a refreshing reunion and a much-needed time of in-person catching up on our lives. I also had a breakfast date with my friend Carol at Panera, and we had a good couple of hours of catching up on life.

Field hockey. Our daughter is participating with some classmates in a summer league and attending optional turf practices. It’s fun to see her so excited.

On one of the lacrosse camp mornings, we took a walk in downtown Lancaster to a friend’s place, then walked with him back to a coffee shop for a drink treat. We then ordered lunch to pick up at Jersey Mike’s and took it to Long’s Park for a picnic. There,  we walked around the pond and the park for a bit.

Ice cream Wednesdays. We’re attempting to create a definitive ranking of our favorite ice cream places in Lancaster County. We took my brother to Lapp Valley Farms. The next week we went to Hayloft. And now we have a system on the side of the fridge to rank our favorites individually because we cannot agree as a family and that’s okay. You can read more about our flavor choices in the What We Ate section below.

Our current ice cream rankings. Bear in mind, last-place ice cream is better than no ice cream at all.

Science!

Last year’s Halloween costume doubles as a functional lab coat for experiments.

Our first experiment was making an acid-base indicator out of red cabbage, then we tested various substances in our house to see where they fall on the acid-base scale. It was a fun morning diversion.

All the household substances we tested.

Shopped for Father’s Day gifts at Building Character. If you’re local to Lancaster and have some time to shop, I highly recommend this place. You’re never sure what you’re going to find, but it’s sure to be unique.

I visited a local used bookstore in a barn that I didn’t know existed. Phil drove us past it on our way back from a graduation party. I would go to this book barn just for the smells.

I’m on track to need a barn for all my books someday.

I gave blood for the first time. It would have been a memorable experience without any added excitement, but I fainted after giving blood and subsequently (or simultaneously) lost control of my bladder so when I came to I was lying in a pool of my own urine. (Ew.)

Free scrubs for every patient who passes out and pisses herself after donating blood!

I was nervous about the whole process from the beginning. I haven’t tried to give blood since I was in my early 20s and was considered ineligible because I had lived in England for just long enough during the “Mad Cow” disease era. Sometime in the last decade, the Red Cross changed the dates that had made me ineligible to donate so I was no longer unqualified on that basis. Mostly, I just didn’t want to do it, even though I have O blood that I know can help people. I passed all the screenings with flying colors and the donation process itself was practically painless and speedier than I expected. I thought I had it made but when I sat down at the snack table, my vision blurred and I started to feel foggy. “I’m feeling lightheaded!” I announced to the staff. The next thing I knew I was on the floor lying in my urine, looking into the faces of a friendly Red Cross nurse and my husband. It took me almost an hour to recover enough that I could change my clothes and leave on my feet. While I’m not eager to repeat this experience, I know that it’s something I can do. And honestly, now that the worst has already happened, I can be more prepared the next time.

Flew home to Illinois for my grandmother’s funeral. We had not traveled by air since before the pandemic, and honestly, it’s not that much different now. At the funeral I was able to reconnect with cousins, friends and other family I haven’t seen in a while. There is a lot more I could say about this but I don’t have the words yet.

Good news: we still know how to navigate airports and flights

The kids drove and rode four-wheelers all over my parents’ yard and had a blast doing so. They finally look like they fit the machines they’re steering.

Most of the time they were riding separate ATVs. I took this picture as proof they sometimes get along.

And of course, we had an adventure on the way back to Illinois. Our drive to the airport took double the usual time because of heavy rain and a traffic accident. Our flight was delayed multiple times for a total of nearly five hours, but we finally boarded the plane about the time we were supposed to arrive in Baltimore. We landed in Baltimore around midnight then waited for another near-hour for our bags to come off the plane. Finally, we made it home to Lancaster around 2 a.m.

The kids and I visited Longwood Gardens.

Before I knew we would be making a quick trip home, I made a reservation for Longwood Gardens, to keep using the membership I got for my birthday. It was the Monday after our trip home for the funeral, and ungodly hot, but we went for a few hours. The kids got soaked in the 12-minute fountain show, which was part of the plan. We had hoped to grab some ice cream as a treat afterward, but the place inside Longwood that sells ice cream wasn’t open on a Monday. So we stopped at Rita’s instead.

They wanted a front-row seat to the fountains and they got it

Hiking! We made our Wednesdays in the Woods return on the very last day of June with a short hike at Climber’s Run Nature Preserve, which just so happens to be the location of our favorite local birdcam. It was quite the adventure. We tried to cross the creek at an unauthorized spot and I slipped and fell into the creek. We successfully crossed the creek twice after that. There’s often a lot of complaining when we prep for these adventures, but my soul needed the time in the woods.

What We Ate

Sushi and poke bowls for our Pokemon virtual adventure.

Taste of Market. For my brother’s first-ever visit to Lancaster, the kids and I shopped at Central Market on a Tuesday for a lunch smorgasbord for Wednesday to give my brother a taste of the area’s food. Selections included: emapanadas, pierogies, bread, goat cheese, whoopie pies, smoked fish, and deli meats.

Luca. We had three appetizers and five pastas and I wish I could describe them all to you as deliciously as they tasted. The fried squid appetizer was cooked so well our son tried it and liked it. We also had a burrata plate with focaccia and another topped bread selection that I don’t remember the name of.

The apps

There were five pasta dishes on the menu, and we all chose a different pasta and shared a few tastes but each one suited our personalities. We didn’t have a bad dish among us. I drank a dry cider with peaches. Phil had a lemon beer that tasted way better than I just made it sound. What we love about Luca is the seasonal menu. If we went back now, the offerings would all be different.

Gnocchi. Also, I’m in love with the plates.

Pulled pork french fries from Holy Smoked Meats at the beer garden.

Goes great with beer and cider

Ice cream. At Lapp Valley we had cookie dough, cookies and cream, maple walnut, black cherry and raspberry. At Hayloft we had orange creamsicle, lemon bliss, triple chocolate earthquake, and Mississippi mud. At Good Life Phil tried the dill pickle ice cream with peanuts mixed in (on the recommendation of the ice cream server), Isabelle had pink lemonade with chocolate sprinkles mixed in, Corban had banana ice cream with marshmallows mixed in, and I had nutella ice cream with peanut butter cups mixed in.

Our Good Life ice cream

After another field hockey match, we tried Son’s ice cream in East Petersburg. Our daughter had sour berry Italian ice, our son had a root beer float, Phil had Budder Brickle (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) and I had chocolate raspberry chip.

Listen, I’m a big fan of therapy. I also find no fault in this sign at Son’s.

Nachos. This was the lunch Phil requested for Father’s Day, and I was happy to comply.

At home in Illinois, we ate Culver’s: burgers and cheese curds and custard–oh my! It’s one of our favorites from the Midwest. As is Arthur’s Garden Deli, our hometown deli. One of my mom’s co-workers ordered sandwiches, salad and fruit for us to eat for lunch the day of the funeral. Post-funeral, we ate at the restaurant my friend runs with her husband. Pizza and pasta and salad and breadsticks. Comfort food, all of it. A Midwest speciality is taking care of people with foods and I am grateful.

If you ever find yourself passing through northern Illinois, stop at Arthur’s Garden Deli. You’ll only be sorry that there aren’t more Arthur’s Garden Delis in the United States.

Chicago mix popcorn from Nuts on Clark. A tradition when we’re flying.

Cheddar and caramel corn: what could be wrong?

Rita’s Italian ice. Two of us mix it with custard, and it’s a refreshing treat.

What We Watched

When Calls the Heart. I finished season 7 and I had so.many.FEELINGS. And a dilemma about how to watch season 8. I bought the boxed set through season 7 to share with a friend and then discovered season 8 is not available till September on DVD. But it was available digitally for a low, low price. I hesitated, but only momentarily. I am two episodes away from catching all the way up. Who can be my When Calls the Heart therapist when I finish?

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. We watched one episode before our Saturdays got full with other things.

Olympic trials: gymnastics, diving, swimming. 

LegoMasters, season 2. Fun, as always. The creativity and patience amazes me.

Kim’s Convenience. A few more episodes.

Lots of baseball. Even when the Cubs are breaking our hearts, we turn on the game.

What We Read

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. I finished this one in a matter of days and I’m just in awe of how she weaves multiple plots and stories together to leave readers both satisfied and wanting more.

Truman. I pick this one up every now and then and try to make progress, but I haven’t made a lot of progress.

Miracles and Other Reasonable Things by Sarah Bessey. I’ve been meaning to read this one for years. I finally bought myself a copy last year, I think, and now seemed like a good time to read it.

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. I know this is a recent PBS show. I have not seen any episodes of this but heard it was a book. I need a book from every continent for my summer reading challenge, so I picked this one up for Europe. (Really, there are so many choices for Europe, so I just had to choose something.) From the very first line of the book, I was hooked. Herriot is a gifted storyteller. I really enjoyed this book.

The Castlemaine Murders by Kerry Greenwood. Another Miss Fisher mystery for my Australia pick for the summer reading challenge.

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander Mccall Smith. A friend recommended this one to me years ago, and I picked it up at book sale. I read it for my “Africa” selection for the Read Around the World summer reading challenge at our library. It’s delightful.

How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. A gift from a coworker at the end of school. I don’t read enough poetry.

A Murder by Any Name by Suzanne M. Wolfe. This is tagged as an Elizabethan spy mystery and the first line of the book made me laugh out loud. I love a good first line, and I enjoyed the setting and intrigue in this story.

Showing Off (Upside-Down Magic #3) by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Miracle and Emily Jenkins. This started as a way to help our son calm down and go to sleep during the week of my grandmother’s funeral. We’ve been reading aloud this series off and on for months.

—

Well, there you have it. A full month of doing, eating, watching and reading. What have you been up to in these areas?

A month to remember: A lot of firsts for our family in May

I forgot how overwhelming and busy the month of May can be when life is closer to normal. Last May was nowhere near normal, so I was unprepared for how exhausting (mentally, emotionally, spiritually) the month would be. But here we are, at the end of it, and we made it. Summer is knocking on the door, and I’m hopeful for some rest and rejuvenation. Before we hit summer hard, though, here’s our round-up of May: What We Did, What We Ate, What We Watched and What We Read. Buckle up! It’s a ride.

What We Did

One of the first things the kids and I did was re-organized and cleaned out the pantry. Confession: we had a small ant situation that necessitated this action, but overall the pantry shelves become a catch-all, especially after a significant grocery trip. Stuff gets forgotten and pushed to the back. It was in desperate need of cleaning and re-organizing. I did not take a before picture because that would have been embarrassing. The three of us worked together, and my son’s main contribution was taking each item out one at a time and reading the label. Out loud. “This is fun,” he said. Meanwhile, I was holding in a scream.

After we reorganized.

Next up was a trip to Longwood Gardens. At the end of April, we purchased a membership for the year. It was a retroactive birthday present for me since last year I was supposed to go see Hamilton in Washington, D.C. We repurposed the Hamilton money and bought a membership, something we’ve been wanting and meaning to do for years. May 2 was the last day of the spring blooms exhibit at Longwood, so we made the day trip. We had never wandered the meadow trails and honestly, these were some of the best moments of the day because fewer people were on those trails. The main garden area was packed with people in various states of COVID compliance. Stay tuned for future visits because we can.

I love tulips.

May is a month of celebrations, and first up is MY birthday. I took cupcakes to work to share with some friends and some of those friends treated me the next day to lunch and bought balloons for my desk.

I was told I’m supposed to announce my birthday so my co-workers can help me celebrate.

Quarantine. Again! No, that’s not a holdover from last month. Our daughter had a second quarantine just two weeks after her previous quarantine. It’s wild times we’re living in.

All-day lacrosse tournament. (Twice.) I was sort of dreading it, but they turned out to be mostly enjoyable. The first one was cold but fun, even though our team lost all of its games. I enjoyed being around the other lacrosse parents and cheering on our sons. The second one we were at for 10 hours total. So much lacrosse.

One of our firsts in May is that I got tested for COVID. I woke up one morning with cold-like symptoms that had developed overnight. In normal circumstances, I would not have thought twice about the symptoms but it was the worst I’ve felt in a year (even though it wasn’t that bad). After a video call with a health care provider, I got a COVID test. It was negative so it must have been just a body-shutting-down end-of-school-year cold.

We had a FaceTime Uno date with our niece and her parents. One of my favorite things about quarantine is learning how to play games with people via video call. I want to do more of this.

Another first: our daughter got her first dose of COVID vaccine. She will be fully vaccinated by the end of next month, which will bring us great relief.

Phil stopped at a record shop after getting the car inspected and added to his cassette tape collection. Either that or he time-traveled.

I said “yes” to an invitation to drink margaritas at a friend’s house with her neighbors. I usually need a lot of encouragement to leave the house on a Friday night. I have no regrets about this decisions. I met some new people! 

Apparently trying new things with new people is another theme for the month. Since January, we’ve been attending a new church online. This church hosted the first of its summer hikes in May, so the kids and I went. Meeting strangers in the woods? What could go wrong? The answer was nothing. The next day we attended that church in person and have now been there in person twice. It’s not easy being the new people, especially during a pandemic, but this return to community has been encouraging already.

We were nervous, excited and awkward … so you know, totally normal.

We took a virtual adventure to Myanmar (Burma).

And finished the lacrosse season. As fun as it was, it is so good to be done for the year.

Another celebration: our anniversary. I took the day off, and Phil and I went hiking together at Otter Creek Nature Preserve. We hiked for an hour and a half then stopped for a picnic lunch that we had purchased at Wegman’s. Then it was another couple of hours of hiking. Four hours total on a 90-degree day and we ran out of water while hiking because we packed too little with us on the hike. (There was plenty in the car.)

At the Urey Overlook of the Susquehanna River from the York County side of the river.

Then, date night! For the first time since pre-pandemic. We sat on the porch of a local restaurant and ate and drank while it rained. But the rain only added to the experience, and I could eat outside most of the time for the rest of my life and not be sad.

Did I mention that this was my first time eating out since pre-pandemic? We’ve done a lot of take-out.

Isabelle and I ran the Race Against Racism virtual 5K. It was after the reporting window for the race, but our spring was a little bit cray-cray so we ran it on Memorial Day just to say we did.

Before we started running

Then we weeded the garden.

Maybe it won’t be a lost cause after all

And went for ice cream at Lancaster Sweet Shoppe. They were having an anniversary sale. Does BOGO ice cream taste better? Can’t be sure because the ice cream at the sweet shoppe is always good.

I thought we were done with the tongue photos, but apparently not.
I cannot begin to count the number of ice cream photos we have of him.
Her Insta photos always look better.

What We Ate

While we were visiting Longwood Gardens, we bought food there, another thing we’ve never done, mostly because pre-pandemic you could leave and come back, so we would picnic. Among the four of us, we had a wood-fired pizza, smoked cauliflower bites, parmesan truffle wings, a brisket grilled cheese, Hershey chocolate ice cream, and two ice cream sandwiches from a local place called iSwich. We will now be searching for their ice cream closer to home. It’s pricey but all the food was delicious and we needed the fuel for all of our walking.

So. Many. Cupcakes. I had three from Lancaster Cupcake in less than 24 hours: a London Fog, a Cannoli and a Vanilla Party Cake.

I also ate peanut butter pie and a southwest salad for my takeout lunch at work.

We did not light the candle because I was not about to be the reason the fire alarm went off.

And we ordered from Annie Bailey’s Irish Public House for my birthday dinner. I had the Irish nachos over waffle fries. Two of the family had bangers and mash, and our meatatarian ate a Beyond Burger. He is sold on this plant-based protein initiative and I am all for it.

What’s not to love?

Pizza and stromboli from Pasquale’s because of lacrosse tournament number one. It normally would have been a pizza night from our son’s menu but we figured none of us would want to cook after being gone all day. (We were right.)

Mother’s Day breakfast: Eggs Benedict, potatoes O’Brien, danishes, donuts, fresh strawberries, chocolate milk.

I didn’t have to cook: my favorite kind of breakfast

Frisco’s Chicken with some delicious sides: mac and cheese, chicken fried rice, plantains, yuca fries, empanadas.

Smoked turkey breast. Phil did the smoking. We pulled it and made sandwiches for one of our busy lacrosse nights.

Chicken biryani for our virtual adventure to Myanmar.

It was a Burmese take on chicken biryani and we ate this for an entire week as leftovers.

Ice cream at Freeze and Frizz with the entire lacrosse program in our school district. It was 50 degrees outside.

Meat, cheese, bread, almonds, nectarines and a ganache cheesecake for our anniversary hiking picnic.

We made our own charcuterie for hiking.

And then we went out to anniversary dinner at Quip’s Pub, a local British pub. We shared crab dip for an appetizer. Phil had fish and chips (wrapped in newspaper!) and I had Miss Lacreevy’s chicken (chicken with ham and brie and asparagus, topped with balsamic and served over mashed potatoes). And beer. Because it’s a celebration.

What We Watched

More WandaVision. If you read last month’s description of the show, it was not inclusive of everything the show is about. I mean, after four episodes, I don’t have a clear idea of what the show is about. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. The opposite in fact. Compelling. Good storytelling. Every episode leaves us with a “WHAAAAT??” feeling. We finished it, and we still have that feeling.

The Nate Bargatze episode of The Stand-ups. More laughter. Some backstory for the jokes he told in the longer special we watched last month, which I now want to go back and watch again.

And his other comedy special The Greatest Average American. Again, lots of laughs.

Footloose in Switzerland with David and Debra Rixon. Do I now want to move to a Swiss village in the mountains? Yes.

Call the Midwife. 

Kim’s Convenience. I laughed out loud within minutes of the first episode. I’m always reluctant to start a new series, even when I’ve heard good things. So far, this one doesn’t disappoint. One thing that’s hard for me is the accents because I think I’ve only ever heard Korean accents in television in a mocking sort of way. So, it’s jarring to hear them used in everyday conversation as part of the show and not be internally offended. We finished season 1 and are already several episodes into season 2. I’m stilling LOLing.

When Calls the Heart. I was so bummed when the show was pulled from Netflix. I had watched up to season 5 (heart-breaking!) so earlier this year I bought the DVD boxed set and shared it with friends. When they were finished watching, it was my turn. I picked up where I left off with the Christmas special at the start of season 6. And continued watching a few episodes in that season.

The Africam at Neledi Dam, South Africa. In keeping with our birdcam obsession, a wildlife cam in Africa came up on our suggested list and we watched for many minutes and now I’m going to be obsessed even more. I’ve since tuned in to other African wildlife cams. I can’t stop. I’ve seen birds sleeping near hippos, giraffes just eating till they can’t eat anymore and warthogs.

For our virtual adventure, a documentary about the Burma Road that is being built by hand through Myanmar to connect China and India. Fascinating.

Another episode of History of Swear Words. The “b-word” this time. My favorite part of this show is how academic and professional people talk about these words and their origins and usage. I’m also learning about all kinds of jobs I think I wish I could have had.

What We Read

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny. It left me with questions and an immediate need to read the next book, which I requested from the library.

Evicted. Finished it for book club and am still reeling from my second read-through.

Truman. Continued. Slowly chipping away at it. Will I finish it before summer is over? Stay tuned!

When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn. Bridgerton Book 6 and is it repetitive to say that each one is better than the last?

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. It was like reading Hemingway’s journal. And he made Paris come alive at a time when it was filled with American writers. Enjoyable.

Come Back to Me by Jody Hedlund. This is the first in a new series by one of my favorite authors. It has echoes of Outlander themes in it (modern woman time travels to the past, meets handsome rescuer, struggles with decision to return to her time). Not a substitute for Outlander but a strong story that tugs on your emotions in all the right places.

It’s In His Kiss by Juila Quinn. Bridgerton book 7. Not my favorite of the Bridgerton books, but I’m nearing the end and I won’t stop until I’ve read ’em all.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. I’m already about a third of the way through it, and I cannot stop reading about Inspector Gamache.

Bonus book treat: I did not read all of these books yet, but on a particularly stressful day at work, I went shopping at the BOGO (buy one, get one) book fair at our school. I have no regrets.

This stack does not include the books my daughter bought. Do we have a problem? Nope!

Thanks for reading along with our May happenings. Next month brings the end of school and the start of summer and what I hope are more adventures. Till next time!

Cold medicine, crutches and capability

“Why are you in the sped class?”

We were walking outside with some of our students when I overhead a student from another class that was also outside say this to one of our students. I didn’t hear our student’s reply, but I couldn’t let it go, so I turned and said, “That’s not what it is.”  The student who asked the question seemed surprised that I had heard and responded. She asked a follow-up question: “Is it the Leap class?” and by that she meant the “gifted” class. I shook my head and walked on. 

I probably could have had a longer conversation with the student, but I didn’t. Maybe it wasn’t the time or place. Maybe I was reluctant to draw further attention to the student in our class. The teacher of the class and I continued our conversation as we walked and I realized that this is one of the reasons students hate having to come to our class.

We teach reading skills. It’s not a special education class, it’s an intervention class, a distinction I still don’t fully understand. What I do know is that the student’s comment is probably not the first one our students have heard when they say they have to come to our class instead of stay with their friends. And it’s indicative of a larger societal problem.

Needing help in some area of our lives is seen as weakness. As something wrong with us. I try to fight this stigma with our students by constantly reminding them that needing help is normal. Asking for and accepting help is healthy. There’s nothing wrong with that. I don’t know if they believe me, but I know I have to keep trying.

Because sometimes I don’t believe me, either.

—

Earlier this month I developed what I was pretty sure was some kind of head cold/sinus thing, but to be on the safe side, I scheduled a telehealth visit with a provider who sent me for a COVID test that turned out to be negative. My cold symptoms persisted and taking cold medicine helped me sleep and get through the day, so for two days, I relied on Mucinex to keep my cough under control so I could sleep and function.

And I hated that I had to do it.

Photo by Kate Hliznitsova on Unsplash

I can’t remember a time in my life when I was eager to take medicine. My body is extra-sensitive to it, so I usually have to take a little less than what’s recommended as a dose and I don’t like the not knowing: am I feeling better because I’m healing or because of the medicine? (It’s usually the medicine.)

But I’m learning. Medicine is a tool when used properly and responsibly. It can become more than that but sometimes we need a little help to get through the day. Sometimes we need more than a little help.

After a couple of days, I was able to get through a day without the medicine, which felt like a victory. Because in my mind, needing medicine is a sign of weakness. If I need medicine, I’m somehow deficient, unable to function “normally” (whatever that means). I’ve been conditioned to believe that a medicine-free life is the normal way to live.

Maybe I’m not that different from the student I corrected after all.

—

I listen religiously to the “Office Ladies” podcast with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. It’s the only thing better than re-watching all the episodes of “The Office.” (Actually the podcast might be better than that because you get commentary and behind-the-scenes info.)

On a recent episode, Jenna Fischer talked about her anxiety. (Side note: I love, love, love when actors and other performers and famous people talk about their anxiety and self-consciousness. They are regular human beings who have succeeded at a job, but that does not mean they are perfect and love every minute of the fame.)

Photo by Luis Quintero on Unsplash

She said it was like a backpack. Some days it’s light and some days it’s heavy, but it’s never not there. I appreciated this description because that’s how my own anxiety feels. It does not weigh me down every day, but some days it feels overwhelming. On those days, I usually take a small dose of Xanax to help me navigate the world. Sometimes I will tell my husband, “I have to take a Xanax today” or “I’m going to have to take a Xanax to get through this.” I say it like I’m apologizing or making an excuse. Sometimes I’m still ashamed that I have a medicinal tool that works in my life when I need it to.

But the truth is: the anxiety meds help me carry the backpack when it’s too heavy. And a weird thing about anxiety in my experience is that sometimes I start out the day with a light backpack and I don’t even realize that throughout the day, I’m putting more stuff in it so that by the end of the day, I’m carrying a much heavier load than I started with. And the next day, my body aches on the inside from hauling all that stuff around. Sometimes I take the anxiety meds the day AFTER a stressful or overwhelming day because my body has been trying to handle it all on its own.

My anxiety medication is a tool.

I keep telling myself. Maybe one day I’ll believe it.

—

“Crutches are a tool, not a toy.”

I said these actual words in the cafeteria this week while I was supervising a lunch period. A student is using crutches for a legitimate medical reason, and another student grabbed them while that student was sitting and started using them. That’s when I said what I said.

We have the same problem sometimes when our students use the chairs with wheels in the classroom to move themselves from one side of the room to the other. We ask them to please stand up and move themselves and their chairs across the room because these are chairs with wheels not wheelchairs. I don’t know if we’re doing this right, but we’re trying to teach them the difference between rolling themselves across the room because they don’t want to get up and needing to use a wheelchair because of a disability.

My sister-in-law is a vocal advocate for disability rights and correcting the language we use. I learn from her about ableism and ways I didn’t even think to see it in society and in my life. She has taught me to remove the words “lame” and “crutch” from my vocabulary when they are used to describe non-medical situations. 

Photo by Lance Grandahl on Unsplash

I thought about the word “crutch” a lot as I struggled with the head cold. In my head, I thought that cold medicine was a crutch for me to get through the day. It had a negative connotation in my mind. But if a crutch is a tool you need when your body needs help, then so is medicine. Crutches don’t mean we’re weak or less then. It means we need help in some way.

I have a lot to learn. And I’m sure I’m still getting it wrong. But I’m trying to tune my ears and focus my eyes on the way our culture values ability and devalues disability. 

Please, keep teaching me so I can keep teaching my students that there’s nothing “wrong” with them if they need help in some way. Whether it’s with reading or math or social skills or managing their emotions. Whether they need meds or assistive technology.

And so I can see the world more clearly and deconstruct my own ableist tendencies.

—

Talk to me about this topic. Are you aware of ableism in our society? How do you see it? And who or what teaches you more about it?

April showered us with a busy schedule … here’s what filled our month

I thought April would fly by because the first months of this year seemed to drag. But these last 30 days were looooong. Maybe they all will be from now until summer? I don’t know. Anyway, April is over, which means I’ve got another monthly round-up for you. Here’s a summary of What We Did, What We Ate, What We Watched, and What We Read.

What We Did

Welcomed family for a visit. My parents made the trip out here for Easter, and it was so lovely to be together for the first time in seven months.

Why is taking group pictures so hard???

Because they were in town, we celebrated our daughter’s birthday (again). We had a small cake after dinner one night, and she opened presents from her visiting grandparents.

Which meant that the next day, we shopped because the girl had birthday money to spend. I remember when I started to want gift cards for my birthday and Christmas so I could pick out my own stuff, and that is the phase of life we are in now. (Side note: This was my first time out on a true shopping excursion since the pandemic. I didn’t love this kind of thing pre-pandemic and I don’t love it now. I have been training my whole life for avoiding people in public, but some people do not seem to understand the rules of avoidance. We all got through the shopping trip, though. May it not need to happen again soon.)

On Easter morning, we hiked at Shenk’s Ferry Wildflower Preserve. If you’ve been following this space for a long time, you might remember the time we drove our van to this preserve and got stuck on the way out because we took a road we shouldn’t have with the kind of vehicle we had. I was nervous to go back, but my parents were in town and they have an SUV. In preparation for the trip, we learned that the Lancaster Conservancy has since closed that questionable road and made a different parking area. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and we were just on the cusp of peak wildflower blooming. A redeeming experience for Easter morning, as it should be. 🙂

We had to look closely to find the wildflowers but once we saw them, we couldn’t un-see them.

Speaking of flowers, Phil bought some for our flowerbeds, so one afternoon my parents helped me planted flowers around the house. (We also reclaimed a spare tire as a planter.)

If I can offer the world a tiny bit of beauty, I will do it.

Track meets and lacrosse matches have taken over our lives. We went from a full schedule of practices in March to an even fuller schedule of practices, games and meets in April. It’s a bit of a whirlwind right now but we love watching our kids participate in team sports.

While my parents were here, my mom asked what I wanted for my birthday. I need to update my wardrobe, especially when it comes to work clothes, so she told me about this subscription service she’d heard about. I signed up for Nadine West while they were here, and a few days later, I opened my first envelope from the company. They sent me six items: a dress, a top, a pair of pants and three pieces of jewelry. I kept the top and pants (an outfit) and a necklace. I don’t love shopping, but I sort of love this service so far because (surprise, surprise) I don’t have to leave the house. I don’t have enough experience with it yet to know if I can recommend it to friends, but my next envelope should be arriving soon.

This is the outfit I kept.

Our virtual adventures this month took us to Albania and Miami. (Read more about those in the What We Ate and What We Watched sections.)

Taxes. We put it off this year. It didn’t take that long, but we still didn’t want to make it a priority. Still, they’re done.

Quarantine. Again! Womp-womp. This time our daughter had to stay home and do school from home. She took it like a champ, and we’re glad it’s over. For now.

One Sunday afternoon, I walked with some coworkers from my book club. After reading All the Bright Places, we decided to do something to raise awareness about mental health issues. We organized a week-long event at our school and have been raising money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for a couple of months so we participated in the virtual walk by getting together at a local park and walking for an hour. It was a beautiful day with fun company.

The shortest, oldest person in the group (me!) got to take the selfie, so this is as good as it gets!

Summer-like temperatures late in the month had us thinking gardening, so Phil bought some of the plants for the garden and we put them in the ground. This is the earliest we’ve ever planted the garden. Two days later, the temperature dropped and the wind chill neared freezing. We might have made a mistake. I’ve learned that plants are resilient, though, so fingers crossed.

Our baby plants.

What We Ate

Cheese quiche for breakfast Easter morning. I wanted to make something special, and I was pleased with how this turned out.

I love a good breakfast dish I can make the night before.

An Easter feast featuring goat stew, roasted fingerling potatoes, fried cabbage, and kalettes (they’re like a cross between Brussels sprouts and kale) with a cheesecake sampler for dessert. We snacked earlier in the day on cheese and crackers and the like.

Yes, we really had goat on Easter. Africa hasn’t left our hearts or our bellies.

“Forgotten” cookies. I made these meringue cookies because I have a lot of egg whites to use up. I thought it was going to be a disaster, but it actually turned out okay. They were a tasty snack for days.

After all the meringue-ing, these were super simple because you just leave them in a warmed oven.

Potato Musakka for our Albanian virtual adventure. Layers of sliced potato with a beef and onion mixture in between, baked with eggs and milk. Comfort food.

Creamy, eggy potatoes with beef. I would make this again just because.

Angel food cake. Because of the egg white situation. I followed a recipe that was very clear, and I was a little confused about the cooling process, but this cake turned out edible, even if it wasn’t perfect. I will try it again soon.

It wasn’t pretty but it was delicious.

Roburrito’s, a local burrito place, for our April takeout. I had a taco salad in a fried bowl that took me back to my college days when I ordered one of these once a week. Others in the family had nachos and burrito quesadillas.

Arby’s. Because we needed a quick dinner on a lacrosse night. This was my first fast-food drive-through experience of the pandemic, I think. Curly fries=yum.

Carrots. From our garden. That we planted last fall.  They were sweet and tender and got me in the mood for gardening. Phil “discovered” this harvest before he tilled the garden in preparation for our planting. (He knew they were there and took the time to dig them up. I probably would have ignored them or figured they wouldn’t be any good. I’m glad to be wrong!)

They slept all winter and still made a tasty side dish for us.

Mint milkshakes that we made with vanilla ice cream and creme de mint milk from a local dairy.

We aren’t actually sure how to make milkshakes but this turned out okay.

Frita (Cuban hamburger) for our virtual adventure. A mixture of meats for the burgers topped with a spicy ketchup and shoestring fries. Yes, it was tasty.

As good as it looks

Pierogies from a new stand at Central Market where my husband works. These are not your grocery-store frozen pierogies. Plump and delicious. He paired them with a kielbasa skillet for dinner one night.

What We Watched

Nailed It.  This is good for a laugh on a Friday night when the kids and I are winding down from the week. The new season has pairs of bakers–brothers and sister, partners, moms and daughters. It’s double the fun.

So I finished Cheer and I just can’t with the parents of some of these athletes. Cringe-y at best. And I cannot stomach the tosses that end in bone-crushing drops. It’s a compelling series but I didn’t love it like so many people did last year.

We also finished Space Force, which made me laugh SO loud and hard, and Men in Kilts, which made me want to book a flight to Scotland at the first available and safe moment.

Baseball. The Cubs are pretty terrible this year, but that doesn’t stop us from watching a game every now and then.

Call the Midwife. Lifts my spirit every single time. I finished season 7, which was a hard season but good.

Wild Flower, a documentary about a 77-year-old Albanian woman who lived her whole life unmarried so she could help her brother raise sheep and farm. This was part of our virtual adventure to the country. The documentary is subtitled, a new experience for our children as we watched.

Spider-Man: Far From Home. Thank you, Samuel L. Jackson for my new favorite movie line that includes a swear. All around, a fun movie that left me with a lot of question for the future of the Marvel universe. 

Footloose in Oxford and York with the Rixons. If you need a chill and sometimes cheesy travel documentary of interesting places in Europe, check out the Footloose series on Amazon Prime. The Oxford and York one is their newest and it was filmed last summer during the pandemic after some restrictions had lifted.

By far my favorite thing we watched in April was Nate Bargatze: The Tennessee Kid, a comedy special on Netflix. We had a hard week and I requested a show with some good laughs. We all needed the healing power of laughs, and this fit the bill. I laughed so hard I almost choked on my dinner. And I’m still laughing just thinking about his delivery of jokes.

WandaVision. I know. We’re behind. We were catching up on Marvel movies. This Marvel-meets-Bewitched series is oddly compelling. We’ve only seen two episodes so far, but more to come.

Poldark. I still don’t love season five, but it’s only been two episodes. Maybe it will grow on me?

For our virtual adventure to Miami, we watched a couple of travel documentaries about the city. I honestly never thought I’d want to visit Miami in person but now I do.

History of Swear Words, also on Netflix. I needed some “low-brow” comedy one night when my brain couldn’t handle anything else. This delivered. I now know more than I ever wanted to about the f-word and the s-word. I can’t wait to learn more about swears!

What We Read

Truman. Will. I. Ever. Finish. This. Book? (Yes, if I read no other books, but that is not how I operate.) I have a couple hundred pages left, which in McCullough translation is probably closer to 400 regular pages.

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny. The Gamaches on vacation? In the woods of Canada? What could go wrong? Thoroughly enjoyable to see some of my favorite Three Pines characters in a different setting.

How Not to Be Afraid by Gareth Higgins. I finished this one in time for its release on April 13, and I so loved its gentle invitation to transform fear through the telling of better (truer) stories. Transforming fear doesn’t ignore that bad things happen but it asks us to look for other things happening in the world, to pause and be grateful, and to face our fears with curiosity, at times.

Breathing Under Water by Richard Rohr. I finally finished it, long after the Lenten season ended. It’s a small book that packs a spiritual punch in all the best ways, and I’m grateful for its lessons.

Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick. One of the classes I help in is listening to this as a read-aloud, mostly for fun. I haven’t ever read it, and I am constantly impressed with middle-grade fiction’s ability to keep readers interested and turning the pages. I’m hooked and eager to find out what happens.

Evicted by Matthew Desmond. This is our next book club pick. A second time reading for me. Still as moving and shocking as the first time.

Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by James Runcie. Short stories about the vicar-who-solves-crimes. Enjoyable.

The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann. It’s described as Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games, and it is another YA book that hooked me. There are more in this series that I want to check out. Maybe this summer.

To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn. Bridgerton series number five, and they just keep getting better. If you’re sad that Regé-Jean Page won’t be returning to the Netflix series, please let me assure you that there is plenty of good Bridgerton material left for the showrunners to work with.

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny. I started it just as the month was ending. Back to Three Pines for me. I can never get enough Inspector Gamache.

Our son read Slacker by Gordon Korman and is working his way through more Theodore Boone books as well as Stick Dog Takes Out Sushi.

Our daughter is on a Percy Jackson kick along with the Warriors series by Erin Hunter.

Husband started Wild Seed by Octavia Butler but had to return it to the library when it was due.

I’m sure May will be another full month for us. Check back here in June for a full round-up of our activities. In the meantime, you can see some of what we’re up to and what I’m reading on my Instagram feed.

 

How can we make it beautiful?

We live on a road where cars and trucks take the curve with two tires over the center line, speed limits ignored except when there is snow or ice and sometimes not even then. Sometimes a car will disregard the school bus’ stop sign, so much in a hurry or maybe just distracted. So many places to be and anything that delays is an inconvenience at best. 

Lowe’s is nearby so sometimes the cars are loaded down almost beyond their capacity with lumber or new appliances or other building supplies. We watch as arms hang outside of windows holding whatever is strapped to the roof, as trucks pulling trailers bounce into the potholes with a crashing sound that makes us all look up from whatever we’re doing.

Photo by bilge tekin on Unsplash

Sometimes we are the recipients of “gifts”–building materials or boxes that stray from the vehicle they were in and land in our front yard or sometimes in the middle of the road. On a windy day, garbage from God-knows-where finds its way into our yard. I once found a box addressed to someone in Wilmington, Delaware, which is more than an hour from here. 

The most recent “gift” was a spare tire sitting squarely in the middle of the right-hand land in front of our house. I had taken my daughter to track practice and when I returned home, I saw traffic veering around an object in the road. This has happened before and either I or my husband has removed said object from harm’s way. I didn’t think about it at the time, but my son’s bus was only minutes from traveling this same road and later I could only imagine a bus having to swerve into the oncoming lane to avoid a hazard.

I sighed, knowing what I had to do and not wanting to do it.

—

Why is this my problem?

I’ve never liked cleaning up messes other people have made. If you have ever had small children around, you’ll understand that this was a frustrating part of early motherhood for me. News flash: babies, toddlers, young children all create messes and you have to clean them up! My unreasonable expectations that I could control my life and keep it free of chaos if I was careful to do everything just right were shattered after I became a mother. Even before that, learning to live with another human being (husband) in the same house was a shock to my ordered world. Early in our marriage I noticed every little thing that was out of place or that had been moved. I still do this sometimes, but I don’t think it’s as prevalent as it once was. Maybe I need to ask my husband.

But this reluctance to clean up after other people rises into near-rage when garbage skitters across my lawn. Fast food containers. Water bottles. Cardboard boxes. Plastic bags. They dot the yard, and I groan. Our lawn is nothing noteworthy, but garbage certainly doesn’t belong there. Why, why, why, I whine as I grab a pair of gloves and collect the trash, placing it in the can on our porch.

—

The tire in the middle of the road was a turning point in my thinking.

I stood by the side of the road watching traffic swerve around the tire, waiting for the way to clear. I hoped someone would stop, blocking for me so I could remove the tire from the road. Drivers saw me but they didn’t stop and I realized that the tire wasn’t their problem either. When the way was clear, I stepped into the road and dragged the tire to the side. A few minutes later, my son’s bus arrived at our stop without incident.

I wondered if anyone would come back for the tire. Did they even know it was missing? I asked Phil to move it away from the road before garbage day. I didn’t want it to go to the landfill, and I wasn’t even sure the garbage company would take it. So he pulled it into the yard and propped it up against a tree. We joked about turning it into a planter.

And then he brought home flowers for several of the beds in the yard that I could plant while my parents were in town for Easter. My mom transformed the old tire that was left in the middle of the road into a receptacle to hold the Gerbera daisies.

Gerbera daisies are my favorite flower

This is now one of my favorite things in our yard. I can see it from the couch in the living room. It catches my attention from the road.

We took something trash-worthy and turned it into something that holds beauty.

—

“That’s not my job.”

I heard someone say this recently in reference to some trash that was scattered on a lawn in a public place. It wasn’t that person’s job to pick up the trash, and I so badly wanted to ask, “Whose job is it?” just to hear the response. But I kept my mouth shut and thought about the trash that finds its way to my yard. How I’ve thought the same thing: that’s not my job.

I ask myself the same question I couldn’t voice this week: “Whose job is it?”

Right now, the world feels like a gigantic mess that someone else made. (Although if we’re honest with ourselves, we all have contributed in some way to the mess that we see.) I wish I didn’t have to be the one to clean it up. I wish other people could behave responsibly and care about themselves, other people and the environment. 

And I wish I could more clearly see the ways that I leave a mess for other people to clean up.

Not too long ago, on a particularly windy day, our neighbor’s trash can was tipped over into the road, and I saw it as I was coming home from work. It wasn’t my trash can. It wasn’t my problem. But I trudged out to the road and pulled it back in.

Because that’s what neighbors do.

What if we could see the world this way? As good neighbors taking care of each other and the place where we live.

Instead of declaring “That’s not my job” or complaining about having to clean up someone else’s mess, or waiting for someone else to take care of it, what if we looked at the situation anew and asked, “How can I make this better?” “How can I make it beautiful?”

How can we make it beautiful, friends?

Like it or not, it is up to us. Because if it’s not our job, then whose job is it?

A trustworthy guide through the land of fear: Review of How Not to Be Afraid by Gareth Higgins

I’m not the sort of person who likes to be told what to do. You can make suggestions. You can invite. You can demonstrate a better way. But if you flat out tell me to do something or not to do it, part of me rebels.

So, a book titled “How Not to Be Afraid: Seven Ways to Live When Everything Seems Terrifying” could have potentially sent me running in the other direction. Except that for the last year, I’ve felt a lot of fear. And anxiety. You know, the fun stuff that makes me never want to leave the house ever again. The only reason I trusted that what was in this book would be good medicine is because of the author. I’ve been a subscriber to Gareth Higgins’ email newsletters for quite some time, and I know that he knows of what he speaks. See, Higgins was born during a time when northern Ireland was a violent, conflict-filled place. He knows what it is to be afraid to live your normal everyday life.

And what I found was not a bunch of rah-rah conquer-your-fears hoohah. Instead, Higgins makes a gentle invitation that we can transform our fears by telling a better story.

Higgins weaves his personal stories of fears with practices anyone can do to start transforming their fears. And he addresses seven specific fears that humans struggle with (most of us can probably pick at least one that haunts us): fear of being alone; fear of having done something that can’t be fixed; fear of a meaningless life; fear of not having enough; fear that you’ll be broken forever; fear of the world; fear of death.

He says, “This book is called How Not to Be Afraid, but it’s not about eliminating fear. It’s about learning to feel fear without being driven by it. It’s about knowing the difference between healthy fear and paranoia. It’s about becoming tender enough with ourselves and connecting enough with our true selves to find the gift underneath the fear.”

I feel so hopeful after reading this book. That doesn’t mean all of my fears are diminished or eliminated. But I have some tools to help me lean into the fear without being paralyzed by it.

You can learn more about the book here where you can download a sample chapter and watch a video about the book. I hope you’ll consider it. If ever there was a book we needed for the times we’re living in, it’s this one.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of the book from the publisher as part of the book’s launch team. Review reflects my honest opinion.

Nut burgers, vaccines, and Endgame: March was a long month

Was March long because it has three more days than February, or did it feel long because we passed the one-year anniversary of shutdowns due to COVID? Yes? Anyway, I felt like March was kind of blah when it comes to how we spent our days, but some important things happened and I don’t want to overlook those. So, here’s our monthly round-up of what we did, what we ate, what we watched and what we read.

What We Did

Two more virtual adventures, this time to Montana and Croatia.

One and done.

Got vaccinated. Phil got his second vaccine and I was able to get my one shot of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine as part of the push to get educators vaccinated. I took an evening appointment and drove to the vaccination site five minutes from my house and in a total of less than 40 minutes, I was vaccinated. (I had to be in the high-risk observation group for 30 minutes because apparently I checked a “not sure” box on my registration when I filled it out at 5 a.m. a few days before my appointment.) 

Because of the availability of vaccine appointments, our school district scheduled two virtual school days where the kids are on their own to do the work assigned by their teachers, so on the heels of my vaccine appointment, we had two virtual school days.

The first of those days was our daughter’s 13th birthday. I spent most of it resting, alternating between the couch and my bed. I napped. A lot. For me. I usually never nap, so even one short nap a day is a lot and for several days after the vaccine, I took at least one nap a day.

He insisted on taking a picture with his sister on her birthday, trying to prove that he’s as tall or taller than her.

The girl delivered cupcakes to her friends throughout the school district and hosted a Zoom call so they could eat them together and chat on a non-school day. It’s the best we can do for a pandemic birthday party. (This is already her second pandemic birthday, poor thing.)

Toward the end of the month, I paid off my credit card for the first time–I think–in our married life. This credit card was our “emergency fund” for a lot of years, and this year I set a goal to pay it off. Stimulus money helped to speed that goal along, and I feel a great relief to have it gone.

My haul from the bookstore trip

On another virtual instruction day, I took my daughter to the bookstore. I had a couple of books to pick up that I had ordered. We walked out with four more. Then she spent her Starbucks gift card on a refreshing drink on the way home.

Attended our first lacrosse game, a Saturday scrimmage on a beautiful day. I’m grateful that we don’t have Saturday games regularly, but this was a joy to watch, even if the score was one-sided and not in our team’s favor.

What We Ate

I don’t know if I would choose this again.

For our virtual adventure to Montana, we made nut burgers, which apparently is a delicacy in Butte, Montana. It’s a hamburger topped with mayo mixed with crushed peanuts. The website where we found the recipe said some people love it, others don’t care for it but nobody hates it. This is accurate.

I ate this almost every day for a week. No regrets.

We also ate Dalmatian Pasta Fazol for our Croatian virtual adventure. This pasta soup (I guess it’s kind of a soup) has pinto beans and a garlicky broth. We had A LOT of leftovers, but I wasn’t sorry.

Not bad for a first attempt

Our son added to his Saturday menu rotation. The latest dish is spaghetti and meatballs with garlic knots. So, we attempted homemade garlic knots. I’m not great with yeast doughs, so I found a no-yeast recipe that turned out pretty well.

I requested individual packaging for the deliveries and Lancaster Cupcake did not disappoint.

To celebrate our daughter’s birthday we had double chocolate chip cupcakes from Lancaster Cupcake, our award-winning local bakery. Here’s the description: Chocolate cake with a cookie dough filling, cookie frosting, and a fudge drizzle with cookie dough pieces on top. YUM! It was as delicious as it sounds.

Apparently this is the only picture my camera saved from the meal.

She also chose Italian food from a local place called Fiorentino’s for her birthday dinner. Our usual place, we discovered, is closed on Sundays. We are not sorry. Our son had an individual pizza that came in a box with faux newspaper that felt very New York-y. Daughter had baked lasagna and gouda mac-n-cheese bites. Phil had a meatball sub with onion rings. I had a meatball Caesar salad with eggplant fries. All delicious.

All the required elements for March 17

Of course, we had corned beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots, and brown bread for St. Patrick’s Day.

The kids and I got takeout from Gracie’s on West Main on our way back from the scrimmage. Daughter had a stuffed burrito. Son had a hamburger. I had a omelet with home fries.

Veggie pad Thai

Birthdays don’t count for our once-a-month takeout in support of local businesses, so we had Thai food on the final Sunday of March from Ploya Thai Kitchen. Son likes orange chicken, which was on the menu. (We have so many Thai places to choose from in our area!) Daughter and I both had a form of Pad Thai (mine was veggie, hers was crispy chicken). Phil had drunken noodles that he ordered spicier than he expected, but he likes it that way.

What We Watched

Movies

Ant-Man and the Wasp. There need to be more Paul Rudd movies in the world. He is one of my absolute favorites and if he’s ever revealed to be a dirt bag, I will cry real tears.

Captain Marvel. Whoa. If you’re uncomfortable with trauma and healing from trauma and deep searching for your identity then don’t watch this. Phil and I had never seen this one so watching it for the first time with the kids was almost overwhelming. But 90s music? And a woman learning to live in freedom out of who she really is? What is not to like?

Avengers: Endgame. So much to process. I hadn’t forgotten how hard the movie was, but I had sort of forgotten how brilliant it is. And I think I appreciated it all so much more because we’ve so recently watched all the movies so the character arcs were more obvious to me.

Shows we finished

The Crown. I finished season 4 and I have A LOT of feelings. Like a lot of little girls who grew up in the ’80s, I was a bit obsessed with Princess Diana and completely devastated by her death. Watching this season of The Crown, in which Diana and Charles’ relationship is featured, left me with renewed grief and anger. I know that it is a fictional TV show based on real people and events, so all of it may not be true and some of it may be embellished. But I still think it’s sad that an institution like the monarchy broke a woman like Diana and seemingly hasn’t learned its lesson. (See: Meghan Markle.) Am I less enamored of the Royal Family now? Yes. Will I still drink tea out of my William and Kate tea cup? Also, yes.

Schitt’s Creek. We finished it. I wasn’t ready. I have questions. I’m going to need several spin-offs to satisfy my questions. But my brother says good stories have good endings and no spin-offs are needed. (I just don’t want it to end!)

Grantchester. We’re caught up! Finished season 5 and waiting for season 6 like everyone else.

Shows we started

Cheer, the docuseries on Netflix about competitive cheerleading. Lots of people were watching this last year at the start of quarantine. I did not. One night I was needing something to put on the TV that required less of my active attention, so I gave it a try. It’s, um, interesting.

Nailed It! The kids and I love this show and were excited to see its return. It’s also interesting to see the kinds of COVID measures they’ve taken to produce the show.

Space Force. This series co-created by Steve Carell and Greg Daniels is subtly funny so far. Worth a watch if you love the kind of humor found on The Office.

Poldark, season 5. Ugh. I don’t love it so far. The series has departed from the book plots and while this isn’t the sort of thing that would always bother me, for some reason, it does with this show.

Shows in progress

Call the Midwife. I’ve been slowly working my way through this series for years. It’s equally heart-breaking and uplifting, but I love the characters.

Men in Kilts. We’ve enjoyed exploring Scotland with Sam and Graham.

And speaking of travel …

Travel shows

We always watch at least one video to accompany our virtual adventure. We watched a PBS documentary about Montana, and it’s amazing how little I know about some states in our country.

For our Croatia virtual adventure we watched a Rudy Maxa travel documentary and an episode of Bare Feet. There are a wealth of travel shows out there. Since we started doing virtual adventures last year, we haven’t completely struck out on finding a show to take us–virtually–to the place we’re interested in.

Footloose in Madeira with David and Debra Rixen. I’m not sure when we discovered these travel documentaries but they are delightful and feed my travel bug. The Rixens have probably a dozen travel documentaries on Amazon Prime. They are a calm sort of travel show. This one made me want some wine. And to travel to an island.

—

We also watched part of the interview between Oprah and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle early in the month. What I saw was enough to make me sad and angry, especially since I was watching the fourth season of The Crown at the time.

A lot of nights, we watch an episode or two of Good Mythical Morning on YouTube. Phil’s brother introduced us to Rhett and Link. I don’t love every episode we watch, but they do have some interesting content.

What We Read

Truman by David McCullough. Ugh. I’m learning a lot but it’s taking such.a.long.time.

Breathing Under Water by Richard Rohr. I continued with this for my Lenten reading. It will take me past Easter to finish.

Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn. Book 4 in the Bridgerton series, and my favorite so far.

Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood. Not my favorite Phryne Fisher mystery. But this was fairly quickly followed by …

Murder in Montparnasse by Kerry Greenwood. This was my favorite of the 12 books in the series so far.

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. I wait MONTHS for these books in the Inspector Gamache series to be available. This one arrived at the perfect time. Inspector Gamache could travel to Three Pines and find lost eyeglasses or missing kittens and I would still want to read.

How Not to Be Afraid: Seven Ways to Live When Everything Seems Terrifying by Gareth Higgins. Rarely do I tear open the mail and start reading a book immediately, but I did so with this one because I don’t know about you, but I NEED what’s in this book right now. A full review will follow in April, when the book releases.

I finished reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers, a book one of the English classes at school is reading. I’m a new fan of Myers’ work and this one is a creative way to tell the story of a trial for a juvenile charged with felony murder.

Also for school, I finished reading The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin. I read this a few years ago because some students were reading it, but I think I enjoyed it more this time because I did some reading aloud with students.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. This is our next book club book. I’ve read it before, but it’s always good to read and discuss with a group. Still powerful the second time around.

I snapped this pic of him without his knowledge. It’s the only time he sits still without a screen.

Our son’s teacher introduced him to the Theodore Boone books by John Grisham. They read the first book together in class. He has since read the second and third books in the series. Book 4 is on hold at the library.

We read Stick Dog Meets His Match out loud together at bedtime.

Then we moved on to re-reading The Bad Guys books because we have two new ones and we wanted to revisit the previous books. We’re about halfway through the series.

Our daughter read The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. She is newly obsessed with Percy Jackson books and loved The Unwanteds so much that she requested a bunch of the books in the series. She also read a book called Teen Trailblazers: 30 Fearless Girls Who Changed the World Before They Were 20, a birthday gift from a teacher friend of mine.

—

Whew. There it is. March in a round-up.

Ice cream for breakfast, so much snow, and meeting Internet friends IRL: A February round-up

February is a short month, but it sure did seem long. Here’s the second installment of our 2021 happenings. (Missed January and you just HAVE to know what we did with our lives? Click here.) Please understand, that I’m not doing this to justify productivity or prove that something worthwhile happened in this crazy time. It’s a record, for me mostly, and for you, if you’re interested, of how we’re spending our days.

What We Did

Snow was a prominent theme this month. We shoveled snow. A LOT. And the kids actually played in it a little bit.

We’re not big snow players in this house. We had two snow days from school early in the month and then two remote learning days toward the end of the month because of snow.

On one of the early snow days, I finished an “I Love Chicago” puzzle.

I did not miss home any less because of this puzzle.

The kids and I are trying to have some Saturday fun because a lot of times it’s all housework and screens, so on the first Saturday in February, we ate ice cream outside for National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. The waffle sundaes (see the What We Ate section) from Lancaster Sweet Shoppe were delicious, and eating ice cream outside in February is not something I will repeat soon.

At the end of the month, we took a hike at Valley Forge National Historic Site with some online friends from My Peak Challenge. It was a mild day compared to most of the days in February. We hiked about four miles. Our bodies needed the fresh air and sunshine.

Even the gray, foggy days have a beauty to them

Speaking of online Peaker friends, I baked chocolate chip scones in a Zoom meeting with fellow foodies from around the world.

Isabelle and I got haircuts! Our first ones in 11 months. It was such a morale booster, for me, at least. (And I feel the need to say that we followed safety protocols.)

New hair, DO care

I signed up for the Red Rose Run virtual race taking place in June, and I ran twice during our four-day break in the middle of the month. Snow and ice have made running a challenge. I’m looking forward to the melting.

I made bone broth from the Cornish game hen carcasses (see Valentine’s Day dinner). And then made more bone broth from frozen scraps. 

If bone broth isn’t the elixir of life, I don’t know what is

On Ash Wednesday, I participated in a service on Instagram hosted by Kate Bowler and Nadia Bolz-Weber. For the ashes, I wrote some words representing things I want to release in this season and burned them. It was slightly terrifying to light them on fire in my house, but also a little bit satisfying. The ashes didn’t stick on my forehead for long, but I’m still glad I made the effort.

This was unexpectedly thrilling

Some of you know about my obsession with space, stars and planets. So, I watched the Perseverance Rover landing on Mars. I’m in awe of the science, technology and talent that makes this happen.

As a family, we resumed our twice-a-month virtual adventures. We write locations on pieces of paper, then pick one out of the jar and plan a meal and media around that location. Our first of the year was to Cote d’Ivoire, Africa. (See the “What We Ate” section for our themed meal.)

What We Watched

Shows we’re still working our way through: Grantchester; Schitt’s Creek; The Crown; Carmen Sandiego. (See January happenings for more on each of these.)

We finished Mr. Mayor. I don’t know if it will be renewed, but we enjoyed the series.

Spider-Man: Homecoming. This is one Marvel movie that Phil and I had not seen before, and Michael Keaton as villain? Yes, please. Now I want to watch all the Keaton Batman movies again. And Beetlejuice. And really everything he’s in. Michael Keaton is a national treasure.

Thor: Ragnarok. I forgot how good this was.

Black Panther. Is it the best Marvel movie? Arguably, yes.

Avengers: Infinity War. I don’t like that I know how things end.

The Super Bowl. I want Tony Romo to commentate everything. All the time.

Finding Dory. Just me and Phil on a night when I needed a story to help pull me out of my funk. I might like it even better than Finding Nemo.

Ever After: A Cinderella Story. A standard go-to from my single days. Sometimes you just need to feel the familiar feelings of a story to make you feel better.

Men in Kilts: A Road Trip with Sam and Graham. Even though my husband has not seen one episode of Outlander, I asked him to watch this show with me because of the travel and the whisky. We watched the first episode on Valentine’s Day.

Bridgerton. I rewatched after reading the first two books in the series, so I caught some little things that I missed the first time.

Several documentaries/news shows about Cote d’Ivoire for our virtual adventure.

What We Ate

Fisherman’s pot pie. After watching someone eat a pot pie on TV, we were craving it, so I made a pie crust and we used up some of the frozen fish and seafood we had and added potatoes, frozen veggies and a gravy made from seafood stock. Comfort food.

Corn flake chews. And homemade English toffee. We “baked” on one of the snow days because sweet treats make everything better, yes?

Waffle sundaes for National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. A waffle topped with ice cream of our choice (me: chai stroopie; Isabelle: triple chocolate; Corban: chocolate marshmallow) and a variety of sundae toppings (fruit, sprinkles, chocolate sauce).

Super Bowl foods: mini pigs in a blanket; mini tacos; potstickers; salad; steamed shrimp; chocolate chip bars. Much of this was Costco frozen foods, but it was the perfect party food for a house without a party.

Spaetzle. German egg noodles, basically. One Wednesday when Phil was cooking, we had braised pork chops, sweet and sour cabbage, and spaetzle. A very German feel to the dinner. This was our first time making them at our house.

The aforementioned chocolate-chip scones.

Valentine’s Day dinner: 1st course: empanadas from Empanada Gourmet: Uruguayan, three-cheese, spinach and dulce de leche; shrimp; lobster dip and a smoked fish spread; roasted stuffed Cornish Game hens, sicilian cauliflower; white forest cake; Rare Vos beer by Ommegang (shared between Phil and I)

The empanadas
The Cornish game hens
The cake

Fastnachts. Is it even Fat Tuesday if you’re not eating donuts made with potato flour?

Chicken mafé for our virtual adventure. It was a peanut-y chicken stew over rice, and it was satisfyingly delicious.

Wings. We’re trying to eat takeout once a month from a new or favorite restaurant in Lancaster. Our first choice for wings temporarily closed the weekend we were going to eat there, so we picked a backup: Joe’s Famous Wings and Wieners. (We only had the wings.)

Flavor choices were: buffalo garlic, teriyaki, garlic parmesan, sweet buffalo bleu, honey BBQ, Cajun ranch, Thai peanut and hot buffalo

What We Read

Truman. Still. I think I’m about halfway. It’s a struggle.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. This is what the Netflix show Bridgerton is based on. I gave up a night of TV to finish it. Different than the show, but I’ve made peace with shows-based-on-books being a different art form and therefore not needing to be EXACTLY like the book.

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn.

Stick Dog Gets the Tacos. “Whisker-twitching nut-munching demons.” (AKA “squirrels”) My son and I read most of this one together. He finished it one night without me. Then we moved on to Stick Dog Meets His Match.

A Dance in Donegal by Jennifer Deibel. Made me long for a trip to Ireland.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. Gut-wrenching, thought-provoking book about mental illness, suicide, depression. YA. Reminded me of my hometown teenage years.

Breathing Under Water by Richard Rohr. I’m reading this for Lent. And as a companion to a sermon series we’re listening to via an online church service.

An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn. Book 3 in the Bridgerton series.

The Bachelor Girl’s Guide to Murder by Rachel McMillan. I’ve been wanting to read something from this author for a while. I enjoyed the relationship between these two friends and the unique setting (1910s Toronto).

Isabelle’s favorite book this month was Close Calls: How Eleven US Presidents Escaped from the Brink of Death by Michael Spradlin. She loves history and historical fiction, and we heard A LOT about this book as she read.

Till next time!