Sweet Simplicity

My favorite season of the year is finally here and I am happily baking, decorating and enjoying the colors and crispy air that accompany the autumn season! Fall tends to be a busy season for my family and it tends to be the time of year that I dedicate to tweaking...

A few weeks ago, we had our living room painted. In the process of preparing for the painters, I did a massive declutter. After the painting was finished and it was time to put everything back in its original spot, I took a moment and realized how much more relaxing...

Whew, it was a whirlwind of a ride for the first half of 2020! Every time I think I have seen or heard it all, something new comes on the news and my anxiety level takes another step higher. Sound familiar? This time in our lives has brought new meaning to the word...

Well, we have made it to the halfway mark of what I think we can all safely say as been one of the most tumultuous years in our existence. Summer feels different this year — instead of being chock full of vacations, county/state fairs, baseball games, carnivals and...

As I sit at my computer, rereading past blog posts and pondering the upcoming summer season, I am reminded of how very different the world is now from any other time in my life. For me, summer usually includes the promise of warm weather, fresh produce, beach...

As I write this column, I am in the second month of the COVID-19-induced shelter in place. In some ways, this virus has imposed simple living on many of us whether we wanted to simplify things or not. My May calendar — which is usually chock-full of youth baseball...

When I started drafting this month’s column, the virus that has now become a household word was still just a news headline — one that I was paying close attention to but not something that I honestly expected to completely change our lives and routines in truly...

Is there anything better than coming home to a clean house? I honestly can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see (and smell) my house in the immediate moments after I have cleaned it from top to bottom. It has become an increasingly rare occurrence in recent years,...

Confession: February is probably my least favorite month of the year. The holidays are over, my pants are too tight from holiday indulging, my wallet is at an all-time low and the weather outside is less than ideal. I ride the struggle bus this month, to be sure, and...

The start of a new year and a new decade is here and like many of you, I am already feeling the inevitable resolve to take the turn of the calendar into a chance for new beginnings and fresh starts. Even as I was in the midst of my December holiday preparations, I was...