beauty that moves

peanut butter pie

It's not vegan, I wouldn't call it whole food. But in life, you need to know when to break the rules. Keep the weekend sweet, and make some peanut butter pie in honor of Mikey. 

Have you read Shauna's words? They'll take your breath away. The world of blogging can be hard to understand if you're not in the thick of it, but she paints a clear, heart-breaking picture. The connections are far and wide, and they are beautifully real. 

Carrie and I are making this pie together today, across the miles. She's near Seattle, I'm in New England. There are 3,000 miles between us, and a pie on either end - for Mikey, Jennie, and their sweet girls.

Let's we all live and love big way this weekend... and please, make some peanut butter pie, then let Jennie know you did. 

soulful mothering & unplugged sunday

May I have a few minutes of your time on this solstice morning? I've got a couple of special things to share.

Today I'm visiting with Amanda as part of her soulful mothering series. It's been a beautiful project so far, filled with universal words and images. We are happy to give Amanda and her family a little space to further welcome and get to know sweet Annabel. There is just so much baby toe kissing and soft, tiny body nuzzling that must happen during these early weeks of life, you know?

And also...

We are ready for visitors! It's been such fun to put this together, and I think all that I want to say I will say over there.  So, come on over... and please say hello!

be back soon...

:: Tomorrow morning, just as the sun rises, Emily and I (along with her fellow sixth grade classmates and teacher) will be boarding a train destined for Philadelphia. All sorts of fun things are planned and we are quite excited. (Her sixth grade class has five students, so her teacher and I can provide plenty of supervision. I realize most classes are bigger and didn't want anyone to feel alarmed that we were taking 25-30 children with just two adults!) One of our planned stops that I am particularly looking forward to is food related (of course), we will have lunch one day at The Reading Terminal. Have any of you been there? What little place must we try? Also, I know of one young man in particular who would love a superb Philly Cheese steak recommendation. Leave us a comment, I'll still be checking them throughout the day today.

:: So many your packages are shipping out today!! The rest (later placed orders) will ship out over the weekend or first thing next week. I've developed a nice little system for producing such a large number of zipper pouches that seems to be running efficiently which is good news for all of us! ;) I have a new colorway to introduce next week too!  

:: Julia has so kindly asked if she could borrow a recent post of mine to share at Rhythm of the Home, of course, Julia! I just may be sharing other things once in a while over there too. Who could ask for a more wonderful place to hang out?

:: Have you seen Tara's new venture? Surely a wonderful, unique service to pass along to friends and family. How interesting that Tara offers the perspective of both a child who was unschooled, and now, as a mama who is unschooling with her own family. Beautiful. I haven't commented on the spectacle that was Good Morning America's attempt to educate the country about the life of an unschooling family, but Tara was among the many bloggers who helped give correct insight into the life of such a family. I will say one thing about that piece... did that reporter even notice the half dozen guitars in the thirteen year old boy's bedroom? Why didn't she ask about them and his obvious passion for music? Yet again, I am reminded of the scene in Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon's character is having a fit because people always ask "the wrong questions." Anyway, I can think of many families who would benefit from Tara's wisdom so I wanted to share her link. Plus, I am all for supporting this Veggie RV family find ways to stay on the road and keep on keepin' on...

craft hope... find me there

I spent a great deal of time yesterday thinking of a way to participate in the relief effort for Haiti. I wanted it to feel bigger than me sending off the meager balance in my checkbook, I want to give more than that.

I got home from work and found the info for Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy Shop floating around your lovely blogs. That felt like a tangible, immediate place I could lend myself too. Last night I sent over 20 print donations. If you've been interested in purchasing a print from my shop but (like so many of us) didn't find a place for the expense in your budget, maybe now is the time to squeeze it in. Please know that 100% of sales goes straight to Doctors Without Borders. Amazing, every penny of it.

Hopefully, now feels like a good time to buy that little piece of artsy goodness you've been on the fence about. Or if you bought one already and are rather pleased with it, maybe picking one up for a friend will feel good. Everybody wins here... please consider helping in this way.

You can find my prints here:

1. these are the rules - there are 10! SOLD OUT!

2. not all who wander are lost - there are 10! SOLD OUT!

Check out the many other Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy donations here. Sarah Jackson is heading off the work of running this etsy shop which is a gigantic task to say the least, a simple thank you doesn't seem like enough Sarah. I'm thinking you'd prefer an intravenously fed supply of something caffeinated, but a heartfelt thank you will have to do for now. And thank you to everyone at Craft Hope , an amazing effort that makes me so proud of this powerful, soulful craft community. Okay, go check it out everyone!

where would i be without you?

 

First, it was Miss Smarty Pants herself who persuaded me to fully swing back to the slightly sweet and delightfully creamy way of enjoying my brew. I had a long stint on the "I'll take my coffee black please"  side of the fence, but I'm not sure there's any going back now. Can you imagine making your own vanilla creamer? So good. And clever! I doubled the vanilla because it just seemed like a fun idea. It was probably totally unnecessary but I did. I'd like to try using maple syrup as the sweetener... it might change the consistency though... hmmn. Will ponder that and make it work. Alicia's vanilla creamer is outstanding, I bet many of you have the ingredients to make it right now!

Next, it was Elena and her very lovely recipes that turned me on to three of my favorite ingredients all swirled up in a combination that I have never tried! You should write these things on your grocery list right away and make it very soon. So perfect for autumn.

Then, it was Amanda with her yummy broccoli soup that found it's way to our dinner table the other night. Accompanied by various random things from the pantry to round out the offering. That works, doesn't it?

And finally, it was all of you, my crock-pot friends. Your wisdom and confidence is rubbing off on me!  I decided to put all of Amanda's soup ingredients into the crock-pot early in the day on Sunday. We had a soccer game in the afternoon several towns away, I knew my little athlete would be hungry when we arrived home. I simply gave it a whirl in the blender after we walked in and dinner was served!

You have all made our week so tasty, thank you!