"Life truly begins after you have your house in order," Marie Kondo says. Right now, my mom is trying to put our home in order, the century-old brick house that my family has lived in for nearly forty years. She's starting with the attic. "In another ten years, I might be too old to do this," she reckons. The attic contains the debris of her child-raising years, such as a diaper pail and a wooden potty chair. My brother Andrew, the youngest, will turn thirty-five soon. Frugal … [Read more...] about Cleaning Out the Attic
A Poem to Say Good-Bye to Winter
Winter is almost over. Let's celebrate! Winter Grouch Try to love winter, they say.Embrace the day!Get off that couch!Stop being a grouch! Ha! What day? I say.The sun is always hard to find,The sky is only white and gray.And night’s not far behind. Short days, long nights,Stupid blinking Christmas lights!Chilly drafts, frozen nose,White frostbitten toes! Take up a winter sport, they say,Then you’ll like winter anyway,Shout, “Hurray, snow day!"And wish for cold to stay. What … [Read more...] about A Poem to Say Good-Bye to Winter
February Fairy Gardens
Need a winter project while you're hunkered down, waiting for spring? Fairy gardens have been popular for years, and I always thought they look adorable. I had several vacation days to burn this month, so last week I invited my two sisters and their children to come and make potted fairy gardens together. During the summer, Brenda and Joanne both have beautiful flowerbeds and thriving vegetable gardens, and they keep houseplants year round. So I knew they would enjoy this. We started … [Read more...] about February Fairy Gardens
The Big Peach
"It's like spending two days inside a shopping mall," I explained to those who got to stay at home as we undertook the annual 700-mile journey to visit the world's biggest gift market in America's sixth largest city via the world's busiest airport. As Jen and I made our way to Atlanta for AmericasMart last week, I imagined our coworkers and customers from Good's Store silently cheering us on through all the hassles of airports and hotels, two small-town Pennsylvanians in the Big Peach. "I … [Read more...] about The Big Peach
Merry Christmas! Plus a Gingerbread Cookie Recipe
"I can't remember a time when we didn't bake gingerbread men," said my sister Joanne at our annual cookie exchange last Friday. The year Joanne was born, my mother ordered a cookie cookbook from the Farm Journal magazine. Today, the pages of Best-Ever Cookies are stained and yellowed and the mustard hardcover is taped and worn (the jacket lost long ago), and Joanne has seven sons and one daughter, and but the Burkholders still make gingerbread men every year. For the last few years, Mom … [Read more...] about Merry Christmas! Plus a Gingerbread Cookie Recipe