Happy Labor Day, dear Readers!
I am writing this on my porch, something I wasn't able to do during the dog days of summer. I just love sitting outside, listening to the wind rustle the trees and the snickering and buzzing of the insects.
Here we are in the last third of this year. August was a busy month for me, with kids coming and going, and a few days spent in Chicago tending to errands and appointments. Now we have all settled into the new school year. The school I work for opened but I can do all my work remotely. My younger son is stuck at home doing college online while his siblings happily returned to their campuses, even though they also
take most of their classes online.
So much more happens on the computer and on the screen these days (my teaching and my day job, for example) that I cherish tangible and "real" activities even more.
Yesterday I was suffering from a heavy heart (being a mom is hard), and I opened this cross stitch kit I'd ordered back in May. I threaded the needle, started counting, and found myself rediscovering a
craft I hadn't done since high school. It seemed as if moving that needle in and out of the canvas and engaging in creating something beautiful helped mend my broken heart. Turns out, cross stitch is therapeutic! Plus it was plain fun to reconnect with my younger self. I remembered a small wall hanging featuring a rooster that I had gifted my grandmother, and that she displayed in her hallway. Whatever became of that thing, I
wonder?
That had me thinking of the crafts I learned from her, which brings me to this:
Writing Family History Prompt:
What crafts were done in your family? Who did them? Is there a particular piece you loved?
I plan to include prompts like these in my newsletters from now on, so stay tuned on that.
Memories of glorious days spent out in the magnificence of nature are another thing that sustains me when times get tough. The above image is from a wonderful hike my daughter and I did in the Indiana Dunes in August. For me outings like that are the fuel in the tank that keeps me going when the road gets bumpy:
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August also had me indulge in one of the best escapes ever: Getting lost in a book.
I pulled out my back and was fortunate enough to have one of the most magnificent books I have read in a long time waiting on my nightstand:
I actually drafted a newsletter about this book right after I finished it but that draft became way too long for a newsletter and ended up becoming this blog post.
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My favorite Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year), is around the corner. Since I am looking forward to baking my traditional honey cake, it is my recipe for you in this edition:
Fun tips:
- Last year I got myself this pan for four mini loaves, with which I bake smaller loaves that I can easily ship off to my kids in grad school and college.
- Honey cake tastes best when you make it a few days ahead of time so that the flavors can develop.
This picture of a leaf hanging on a gossamer thread in our very own woods appeared in my article
Fall is my favorite season, and I am glad it is around the corner. Gossamer threads are already entangling me on my walks through the woods.
This year, thanks to the pandemic, I will get to spend fall pretty much exclusively in the country. Amidst the glory of the changing foliage! I am really looking forward to that. In the meantime, while we're all struggling along, please remember this saying, which I aptly found in my Flow Daily Calendar this morning:
"Nothing truly good was ever easy."
from the movie One Day
Be well and feel free to write back! I love hearing how you are doing.
Greetings,
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