There are only so many nights you can eat cereal for supper. If you are single or you have ever lived alone, you know what I mean. The first night, you feel free and maybe a little rebellious as you fill and refill your bowl with your favorite sugar cereal. But after three nights in a row, it begins to get sad. Not only is your body beginning to crave real food, your soul is hungry for some company. Cereal was never meant to be dinner food, and we were never meant to live as solitary creatures. I am convinced that [...]

Do you remember that feeling you got as a kid, on Christmas Eve? Trying to go to sleep, knowing that when you woke up, there would be presents under the tree? When I think about the anxious excitement that used to surge through me, I can almost feel it in my chest. That feeling of joyous expectation is hard to forget. The thing is, as children, we felt it a lot more. Birthdays, 4th of July  Fireworks, parties, or field trips, all fueled our childhood sense of wonder. And Christmas was the excitement of all of those things, rolled into [...]

This past November, just after Halloween, the stores set up their Christmas displays. Though what is known as the “Christmas Creep” has been happening for quite a few years now, I almost found it shocking. One afternoon, I was doing my grocery shopping, turned a corner, and found myself in Santa’s Workshop. All I could see was red and green, and everything within me seemed to say: It’s too soon. Christmas is such a wonderful and celebratory time of year. It’s a time of giving, going to parties, being with our loved ones, and for those of us who believe, [...]

Almost five years ago, I was newly unemployed. I had left an amazing job in an unhealthy work environment, and knew that before moving on to my next job, I would have to take some time to heal (I had no idea how long I would be without a job). Being very aware of the things I had gone through, my husband was fully supportive of me taking some time off. He only said that if I wasn’t going to be working, then I had to do something. So I learned how to bake bread. It all started one day, [...]