What's In My Teapot?

Sometimes snowy day make me feel cozy and sometimes they make me feel contemplative. Today was what you might call a Snowbound Saturday , and while it was mostly a cozy one- watching out the window as Wesley & Gavin did the shoveling, working on indoor projects without needing to stir abroad, finishing a good book over chocolate- it also put me in the frame of mind to miss my friends who are far away... And to remember... The imprint of a stockinged  foot on the woodstove door. Tea bags in the sink. A cozy cabin back an icy lane. And, in particular, a silly little poem learned, oh, about 12 or 13 Winters ago, while in the company of two such missed friends... I looked the poem up and had such a good laugh over the accompanying Pooh & Piglet story that I decided that everyone else needed the chance to be warmed by it as well! You may wish to go here to read the entire chapter! ONE day when Pooh Bear had nothing else to do, he thought he would do something,...

There are some traditions very much worth the keeping, and Doughnut Day would be one of them! This particular Tuesday- the day before Ash Wednesday, when Lent begins-  goes by many names and is celebrated in many ways, but I grew up calling it Doughnut Day and that name still conjures up the very images and smells that came alive in my kitchen today! Doughnut Day at home was always a special day and a homeschooler's delight since you could mix, stir and fry doughnuts instead of doing math and still count it as a day of school! Oh, yes, and a lot of taste-testing was required, too, which is a job with a lot of joy attached, as you can see in the picture below of me at six years old. It had been about 7 years since I was last involved with making homemade doughnuts, and for some reason, this winter I kept thinking about wanting to make them again! I even figured out early on when Doughnut Day was this year so I could keep track of it and I penciled it in Elasa's lo...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I am hoping this sentiment is true even if the photographer is me- an amateur- and the photographs are candid shots, at best! Just in case the pictures don't speak for themselves, I am planning to add some narration to fill in the inevitable blank spots! In mid-August, our family went to a cabin near Brickerville, Pa for several days. This spot is about one-and-a-half hours from us and it was the perfect vacation for the particular stage of life we're in...namely 3 children, including one whirlwind of a toddler. On Wednesday, the 13th, we packed & loaded the van & trailer and actually got out the door before noon! Wesley had outfitted our van with a hitch, and the trailer, on loan from my brother, was perfect for bikes & the overflow of luggage & food that didn't fit in the van. We made a stop at McDonalds for lunch and another in Ephrata to procure a key for our lodging. The next stop was our planned a...