"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
Family
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
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
Camping at Muddy Run
A bee attack. A tree branch crashes into the ground near the campfire. Rain. Chiggers. The annual family camping trip. Two weeks ago, instead of camping at the river as we did the last two years, we rented a primitive campsite at Muddy Run Park in southern Lancaster Country. Not a tiny campground campsite. Instead, this campsite is on a remote hillside surrounded by trees and next to wetlands, without any other tents or RVs in sight. There's a spring, a creek, and two bridges. (We could … [Read more...] about Camping at Muddy Run
A July Day at Cape May
Hot sand toasted my feet, butterfly kite bobbed in the Atlantic Ocean breeze. I hadn't flown a kite in years, and never at the beach, but from now, a kite will be as essential as sunscreen and flip-flops when I go to the seashore. One of the best parts of living in Lancaster is being only a few hours away from the ocean. On Wednesday, my mother, sister Brenda, five teenaged nieces, one niece's friend, and I went to Cape May, New Jersey, just a one-day girls' trip to the beach. The day came … [Read more...] about A July Day at Cape May