Winter is almost here, at least in most parts of the U.S., so why am I writing about ice cream?  This year on Thanksgiving, I served ice cr...

I love words.  As a writer and an editor, I guess that's not much of a surprise.  Written or spoken, words are what get me.  I've ...

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere, and not a pie in sight!  Pumpkins have invaded the courthouse lawn in Sycamore, Illinois, so it must be P...

Front porch wreath, burlap wrapped for fall Today I am relaxing and working at home on this rainy Monday to recover from a whirlwind we...

I haven't had a lot to write about lately, but I thought today I'd share a couple of images. My office is a little cubby under ...

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."  When Socrates said this, I doubt he was talking about my dinner table, but he might as w...

In the fall of 1981, Mrs. Haggard made the best coffee cake I had ever tasted.  I was in my first year of graduate school. Mrs. Haggard ...

I have been a hooking fool, ya'll.  Since my last post about my crochet square project, I have made fourteen more squares.  This ha...

You may remember my very blackened Spanish chicken from about a month ago.  It was flavorful but not very pretty. Recently, Ann, from On S...

Well, I finally did it.  I dumped an old friend.  After nearly 24 years, we'd been through a lot together, but he just wasn't holdi...

My husband was out of town this past weekend, so I decided it would be a great opportunity to repaint his office and the attached sitting r...

Late last week I received a large envelope in the mail.  Inside was a notebook.  It was the Traveling Notebook from Chantal Loves Vintag...

My daughter and I were sorting through old photographs during her recent visit.  We had a drawer full of photos from my husband's famil...

This morning, Alfie and I went on one of our rambles around the prairie and the countryside.  I've written about the prairie before ...

One of the benefits of living in an old (and I mean old ) neighborhood is the mature trees.  When we bought our house eighteen years ago, o...

By accident the other day, I happened to catch a little of Nigella Lawson's TV show.  She was making a super easy oven-baked Spanish ch...

Now that I finished my oversized crochet baby blanket , it's time for me to get serious about my other crochet project, the  200 Croche...

"The first zucchini I ever saw, I killed it with a hoe."  -- columnist John Gould in  Monstrous Depravity: A jeremiad and a lame...