Vulnerability

This past summer, I watched a Ted Talk by Dr. Brené Brown, a leading Social Work professor who has spent ten years researching vulnerability, shame, courage, and authenticity, with a more recent focus on living in a wholehearted way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o I opened her book, Daring Greatly, and flew through the pages. Drank up her words. …

Huckleberry is One!

Today, our day was all about Huckleberry. We napped, we couch-snuggled, we slept in until almost 8 am! Dogs have a way of scootching into our lives {And in between us on the couch.}  Believe it or not, Huckleberry isn’t completely in charge of the McCann family household.  However, he does have more expensive shampoo …

Best Breakfast: The Buttered Tin

We discovered a bakery/cafe that feels like breakfast in bed. Sun shines through the windows and drenches the wooden tables and the butter yellow tufted booth seats with its warmth {even in these below zero days!}.  Plates are loaded with colorful, fresh fruits and veggies and hearty home-baked bread.  Their bacon is THICK, and their …

Places to go, Lattes to Drink… The Bean Factory

Sometimes, this is how I feel about living in a cold state: We’ve had an especially ridiculously cold start to winter. There are many things you can do to ameliorate the situation, including but not limited to buying fur lined Sorel boots, always wearing your fur lined hood, a scarf, a hat, mittens, and sometimes …

Grateful.

When I was out shopping on small business Saturday, I saw the most lovely, authentic sign in a home decor shop from {this store}. It read, “Thank you God, for blessing me with so much more than I deserve.” After spending the past week bopping from family home to family home, sharing amazing meals and …

An Apple a Day.

We’ve been eating apples a lot lately. Like it’s our job.  In lunches, as after school snacks, and smeared in apple butter form {a serendipitous moment of “I followed the recipe for overnight crock pot applesauce, but woke up to one overcooked, browned batch of newly named apple butter”}. A peck {or so} of macintosh …

Places to Go, Things to Do… Lake Harriet!

As we continue spending time embracing all that St. Paul’s twin city has to offer, we spent one Tuesday evening in late August at Lake Harriet.  If you’re hanging on to summer and need some last-minute lake time, check it out! Harriet has two beaches, plenty of greenspace acreage and dog-walking/running/biking paths. We met some …

The Veggie-Table Farmstand

Take a lemonade stand, switch the sweet summery drink with crate-fulls of vine-ripened tomatoes, peppers, and state-fair-sized potatoes, and ramp up the cute factor by 1000%. That should give you an accurate mental image of my Labor Day weekend visit with some friends in Maplewood.  They moved to the twin cities from Wisconsin too, and …

Wednesday Thankfulness.

The sun is shining and temps are climbing above eighty degrees for the fifth day in a row in my corner of the world. Which is a big deal for a city who had snow barely over a month ago! I am feeling particularly blessed today. For many things. I can hardly believe it’s July …

Puppies!

Ready for something adorable? Drumroll please… We’re getting a beagle! Annnd We CAN’T WAIT! We’ve named him Huckleberry McCann, still looking for a stately middle name.  Suggestions?  He is growing daily with his siblings in South Dakota at Lonesome Grove, and we are planning on road tripping to his breeder’s home and picking him up …