I don't know if I've ever caressed a book so much. ​ Rainy days rock 🙂 KJ
Sigh
Book Preview: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry
I don't know if I've ever written a book review before I've finished the book, and I certainly don't intend to start now. But I feel strongly enough about this particular book that it deserves some sort of a mention, right now, even though I'm smack dab in the middle of it. Fredrik Backman owns... Continue Reading →
Travels and Messengers
I've been slowly making my way through Sig Olson's wilderness essays, Wilderness Days. They're gorgeous. I sent the kid up to the outfitting job with a copy, because where better to work through essays on the Boundary Waters than on the edge of the Boundary Waters? I don't know if she's had the time or energy... Continue Reading →
Breathe…
It's been a wild ride. But here I am, settling back into a normal, albeit new routine, and it feels good. Two weeks ago, we took kiddo #3 to Madison for the State National History Day event. We toured the Capitol. We ate Nepalese. And she, with her intrepid partner, did great, and had the 5th... Continue Reading →
Book Review: The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce My rating: 5 of 5 stars If it is possible, Queenie's story is even more compelling than Harold's. This is a beautiful book. Harold's story, from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, is told here from the perspective of the woman he is walking to... Continue Reading →
Book Review: Jayber Crow
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry My rating: 5 of 5 stars Confession: I've never read any Wendell Berry. So when I say I've been reading Wendell Berry, it strikes me as a very lofty thing to say. A dear friend called Jayber Crow the best book she's ever read. Another dear friend, upon hearing that... Continue Reading →
Eleventh Hour.
I feel a latecomer to Lent this year. The 11th hour worker. I've been Orthodox for fifteen years this year. This is my fifteenth Lent. And somehow every one is still different. I don't know that I truly came late to the Lenten spirit this year, but the differences were not subtle, and it didn't... Continue Reading →
I threw away food today
My husband did not argue. I've been on a month-long dairy-free experiment these days, partly hoping to clear up a six-week plugged ear, and partly as an exercise in solidarity with my dairy-free fifteen-year-old. Dairy is one of those things that gives me cold sweats to consider living without. I love it. Cheese makes everything... Continue Reading →
Birds and Babies
I'll make up for my overly verbose last post with an abbreviated one today... I just saw my first tufted titmouse. Ever. Here at my own birdfeeder. Where the squirrels play. Yes, he was adorable. The slackline is up, the treehouse is swept out and in use, and the driveway is muddy. The first tree... Continue Reading →
Yesterday, 4:20pm
Vern Libke is banging on my windshield wiper with a wrench the size of my arm. Libke's Auto Service sits here at the corner of Highway 47 and County J, just south of Woodruff, Wisconsin, in the same garage that has stood here since 1967, yet I don't remember it from a single on of... Continue Reading →
Understanding me
It was one of those few and far-between epiphanies. The forehead-to-palm moments. In Quiet, Susan Cain was pontificating on the need for solitude in concentration and creation. The basic need for peace and quiet when embarking upon any creative  - or deep thinking - process. She wasn't writing about writing, per se, but she did quote a... Continue Reading →
Coldframe
That retreat, that last post about the seedlings needing tending, they both ushered in something I've never previously managed. Something I've never really even tried. Not for fear. Well, maybe a little for fear. But mostly because I have some very specific priorities, and while writing ranks pretty high on the list, it does not... Continue Reading →
Tucked happily into the gorgeous hills and woods of Wisconsin, I write about life, faith, and the humor that both require. 
Tales From the Nexus 