The Archives

I suddenly remember why I never made it to the Olympics. As a doe-eyed youth (you can’t picture it, can you? Go take a swig of black coffee. It helps the imagination), I aspired to go to the Olympics running … Read More

Within 45 of minutes of punching that gleaming “publish” button on yesterday’s post, I dug out an old beat-up pair of sneakers (ok, fine, honesty police — I had someone tall and useful dig them out for me. Happy now?) … Read More

It doesn’t happen often, but this morning as I puttered about my kitchen, I found myself drawing a big fat blank on what to talk about today. All that I can come up with has an unfortunate tendency towards the … Read More

I recently brought shame upon myself by admitting that I am internally nothing more than an old man belting out, “You kids get off my lawn!” at every phrase I find personally distasteful, and then I proceeded to name some … Read More

I was a young mother when I first read the quote: “Expectations are the death of relationships.” (Side note: I used to think that transitioning from being a “young mother” or perhaps more aptly, a “mother of young children” to … Read More

…would be a muffin. And a totally legit breakfast choice. I have been threatening, er, promising to convert you to eating cake for Sabbath breakfast and today we shall make our first true foray down that sugar-laden trail of joy … Read More

I sometimes worry that Pharoah is my spirit animal. If you have taken my (dare I say) absolutely brilliant advice and joined me in the Bible Reading Challenge, then you know we are currently in Exodus. My eldest quail became … Read More

Quite a few years back, my grandmother read a book about eating for your blood type that I think was a bit popular in weight loss circles at the time, though I don’t believe that was why she read it. … Read More

There are phrases that I absolutely hate. Actually, I seem to be gaining more and more of these phrases as I get older, which is probably a sad predictor of just what a cranky person I am going to be, … Read More

As I stood at my kitchen sink this morning, listening to the incessant roar of traffic out my window, the candle on the windowsill flickering as I worked through 55,000 pods of borlotti beans, I contemplated how many things have … Read More

I am married to a fun man. He has the best ideas, so when he said he was able to take a Saturday off so that we could take the kids to Mount Rainier for the first time, even though … Read More

On the way to Mount Rainier, there is a Waffle Stick stand. Don’t know what that is? Neither did we! But the Beloved has had the itch to take our kids to Mt. Rainier all summer and today, we finally … Read More

I am choosing not to let it hurt my feelings that of the thousands (…) of readers I must have who just aren’t admitting it out loud (smart. Always look busy), not a single one noticed that I broke my … Read More

We own cats. I feel that I have already made a fair number of startling confessions on this blog, so by this time, you really have no excuse for being shocked when I tell you that I am not a … Read More

Of all the places we have lived (and there have been a few), Feodora owns the market on all things perpetual, interminable, unremitting and unceasing (Yes, I am aware those are all synonyms. Aren’t you glad I didn’t bother to … Read More

My beef is not with pumpkin spice. As I see it, pumpkin spice is like platform shoes: it can be done fantastically, something Mary Tyler Moore would pull off with class, or it can cause necks to break. Granted, my … Read More

There are myriad different levels and brands of fatigue. There is the 36 hour labor fatigue, the sitting in Seattle rush hour traffic fatigue (which, it is worth noting, sometimes gets confused with being homicidal, but it isn’t. It is … Read More

“Definition of Luddite : one of a group of early 19th century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest broadly : one who is opposed to especially technological change. The Luddite argued that automation destroys jobs.” This is an uncomfortable admission for me. I feel my hypocrisy … Read More

It’s happened. The first day of school here at Feodora has come and gone and in the blink of an eye, fall has arrived. Like, we could literally see our breath this morning. SO. WRONG. But there have been signs … Read More

The weather has not turned to autumn coolness, and I was standing in the yard with my cup of coffee, following the instructions I had been given to “Watch!” Normally, this is when I hold my breath while the quail … Read More

I would never dream of so maligning the characters of any of my fluffy and darling quail as to suggest that there have picky eating tendencies. Perish the thought. But there is a particular giddiness I feel when I stumble … Read More

I know. Enough with the peaches already. Get a new fruit, get a hobby, GET A LIFE. And I solemnly swear to get right on that… next week. But come on — this is my last Sabbath breakfast pitch before … Read More

Credit where credit is due: today’s post comes with a nod to the Beloved, who walked out to breakfast this morning with toilet paper stuck to his face, the remnants of a shaving battle that he apparently lost. He burst … Read More

My sister (huh… I just realized I don’t have a pithy non-name for her the way I do for everyone else I mention in the blog. That-Gorgeous-Creature-Who-Is-Literally-Everything-I-Want-To-Be-When-I-Grow-Up feels a little wordy, though definitely on the nose… let’s call her Superchick … Read More

I have made the conscious decision to try and make use of my local Communist cell, er, library, as it were. Now that a very pleasant person, willing to speak slow and use small words, has taught me how to … Read More

School may be throwing me an evil grin from just around the corner, cackling about how my mornings spent in superfluous baking and Wodehouse novels are a mere blink away from being over, but the perfect watermelons live on (ha, … Read More

It is a running joke amongst my bevy of quail (side note: did you know that was a thing? I always thought it was a covey of quail, but apparently bevy is the more appropriate classification), that their mater is … Read More

This week’s Sabbath breakfast feature (now just recklessly trying out titles, because even though I think there is somebody reading all my nonsense, y’all are eerily quiet in the comment section and offered no suggestions) is distinctly seasonal. As in, … Read More

There is something mysterious that happens on the eve of company coming over. I have a theory that it is a gene that lurks quietly until word comes that a toddler you did not birth is going to come in … Read More

Until today, I could not have told you just what it was that Daffy Duck was blithering about. And to be fair, his mama’s succotash could have been a suffering and I would not dream of diminishing his pain by … Read More

In a world full of money making schemes, a few basics rise to the top (according to the interwebs, and we have established the flawlessness of this method, no?). Listed towards the top, actually, is blogging… Step One: produce excellent … Read More

They say even negative attention is attention… It all started with my husband’s teeth being made of butter. Well… and probably years of my feeding him butter. I can accept some share of the responsibility here. But he had developed … Read More

“Buckle is a dessert which combines fresh seasonal fruit, a rich cake batter, and a streusel topping. The result is a rich, dense cake with a moist crumb which is sometimes compared to coffee cake. It is an excellent summer dessert, and can … Read More

UnPublish(Able) is adding a new feature! I can hear your thoughts screeching to a halt — it had features before this? Yes, silly. The “welcome to the show” feature, the “hoo boy, aren’t you glad this isn’t your brain?” feature, … Read More

Edith Schaeffer was known to describe the worthwhile effort of making a home beautiful using whatever God gave you, telling stories about the lean years when table decorations consisted of whatever sticks and wildflowers her kids found and brought inside. … Read More

I blame Mo Willems. If he had not introduced the whole notion of Nanette’s Baguette to the world, after blessing our socks off with great pieces of literature like Elephant and Piggy, Knuffle Bunny (Mr. Willems, if you are reading … Read More

Do follow my train of thought, please. It started with dinner last night. As I have perhaps already mentioned 18 or 19 times in the last 7 days, my floor is flush with perfectly lovely peaches, plums and glorious pluotts … Read More

Seeing as I have already devoted a silly amount of space here to waxing poetic about the stone fruit in Washington State in August, I will restrain myself today. Suffice to say, the peaches are beautiful. What do you do … Read More

If ever there was an idol thoroughly ripe and ready for a great heaving into eternal hell fire, it has to be the idol of simplicity. This leapt to my attention, not for the first time, this morning when I … Read More

I hate that my computer thinks I misspelled that (that and wow, I often misspell the word misspelled… awkward), because it rubs my face in the fact that I live in a world largely unfamiliar with pluotts. A cross between … Read More

Hot days in Western Washington are a different beast than in Eastern Washington. While the weather is overall much more moderate over this direction, I did not realize when I moved here that there actually are people with no air … Read More

I hate biking. Before you take to tsking me (because seriously, if that is your heart’s desire, start with something bigger, like my tongue ring, that I think Star Wars is boring or my propensity to sneak ice cream from … Read More

I have long debated with myself whether this observable talent of mine is more of a superpower or a spiritual gift — perhaps you can solve the internal dithering for me. A definitive word from you, the readers, and I … Read More

I was reading the blog of an old friend this morning, someone who has become a sensation in the homesteading world. Yes, I think, ironically, that is a thing. You would think that internet fame and grubbing out your living … Read More

It seems to me that there are basically two ways to break into a new community. You can either dole out small pieces of information about yourself, breadcrumb style, and assume it will be like the frog in the pot … Read More

Years ago, I was introduced to a workout program called T-Tapp by a drop dead gorgeous friend of mine, who also happened to lose a ton of weight doing it (the two are not related. She has always been a … Read More

In the Hebrew (ha! I love starting a sentence that way. Makes it sound as if I have a clue about anything in Hebrew. Kind of like when people say, “Now that I’m in my forties…”), the word Feodora means … Read More

Stereotypes are fun. Let’s take a look at some, shall we? And I bring this up (heaven forbid I ever have a train of thought and fail to punch your ticket for the ride) because I got it into my … Read More

The drive across Washington State in midsummer is a feast for the senses. Actually, it is a literal feast too, if you do it right. It was not a conscious decision to acquire 80 pounds of peaches, nectarines, apricots and … Read More

One of the most prominent reasons that I never started a blog before (apart from all the ones I have already referred to elsewhere, of course. You have not read those? Is it possible that you are not, how shall … Read More

It should be noted right off the bat that if you badmouth Google, you will pay. In my experience, the primary currency they extract comes from the nerdy henchmen living in their mother’s basements who run Google Maps, modern day … Read More

It makes me sad to think that I live in a world full of people who don’t know who Tito Puente is, or that his version of Take Five is even better than the original (you win the bonus round … Read More

I swear. These are all connected. If you were to take this title to heart in a last-shall-be-first sort of way, I think you would discover depths far beyond what I even write. You may also get a headache. Forewarned … Read More

I’ve been thinking a lot about hiding. And not only because that huge batch of towels I washed by hand in my bathtub the other day turned out to smell disturbingly like the baked feet of a person who has … Read More

It’s a funny thing. On Friday of last week, I was bemoaning my utter lack of usefulness as a human being. I honestly don’t know why the zombie apocalypse is a concept in my mind, but I know for darned … Read More

A smarter person would have stopped making fun of things by now. Because sure enough, anything that I really commit to open mockery, especially if I have done so on the record in a public forum (say, Thanksgiving dinner), is … Read More