A Mindful Life

* = recommended   strike = don’t bother   neither mark = it passed the time    FictionA Fine Balance*A Lifetime BurningAtonement*Bastard Out of Carolina*Bee Season*Empire Falls*Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets*Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban*Hateship, Friendship, Courtship…HolesIndependence Day*In the StacksMy Son’s StoryRisking Everything: 110 Poems*Spilling Open*Ten Poems to Open Your Heart*The Blue FlowerThe Cat Who [...]

* = recommended   strike = don’t bother   neither mark = it passed the time     FictionCharming BillyDrowning Ruth*Five Quarters of the Orange*Girl With a Pearl Earring*Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone*High Fidelity*Holidays on IceHow to Be GoodIf You Lived Here You’d Be HomeI Know This Much Is True*Love MedicineProdigal Summer*Skipping ChristmasThe Blind Assassin*The Hours*The Huge Book of [...]

My brother makes a kick-ass stuffing. He and his wife are visiting over the holidays and he will make said stuffing. Today I received the following in an email from him: Lest I forget, here’s what you’ll need to have on hand for stuffing: One bag of herbed stuffing cubes (e.g., Pepperidge Farm) – not [...]

Remember the one-hit wonder by Right Said Fred, I’m Too Sexy? The attitude really fits Stella sometimes.

I am busy, oh so very busy, and distracted by all the business of my busy-ness. So I almost didn’t read the post at Rebekah’s Musings. I’m glad I slowed long enough to do so. Mr. Noblett, you have not visited my mind for a long while. I’m glad you did today. You inspire me [...]

Here’s some good advice from Bad Andy, a barrista, artist, and father-to-be. As a customer who always orders a grande brewed coffee half-decaf with no room for cream (I like plain strong black coffee, a quick and simple order), I heartily agree. If the coffee shop is busy and you want to make your trip [...]

This image is a metaphor for the type of person I see myself as: multi-faceted. You are seeing me reflected in my front door. Some facets offer images of the outside world, a metaphor for the person I present for general consumption. In another facet you can see “right through me” to the backyard door; [...]

It’s Monday. I am waiting, hoping to hear good news about a job I want. I’ll know sometime this week. Meanwhile, I continue to play Santa. I dropped off more packages at the post office today. We’re all done ordering gifts for Husband’s family. I hope his mother’s package arrives today so I can wrap [...]

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. –Robert Louis Stevenson

This morning has been a flurry of food creation. I’m on a toffee-making kick since I discovered how. Of course, I’m not making it for me, silly! Husband pleaded with me to make a toffee without the chocolate, but I refused. He pouted. So as a surprise I made him another Meyer lemon buttermilk pie; [...]