One of us in this household is training for an ultramarathon, and I’ll give you a hint: it’s not me or the baby. [An ultramarathon doesn’t have a precise definition of length—it’s broadly considered to be any race longer than 26.2 miles. In this case, the race in question is 50 miles, the first 15 of which take place on the Appalachian Trail. No big deal. A totally casual workout.]
Read moreSOUR CHERRY SOURDOUGH STREUSEL PIE
One of the books that really affected me in high school was Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I’ve since reread pieces of it and it surprises me how intense it is: violent and brash and deeply spiritual in a way that almost feels dark. But I can still understand why it moved me so—not unlike many formative experiences around that age, it was the newness of it, the way it simultaneously cracked open my world to become wider and spoke to something deeply familiar within me.
Read moreDOUBLE GINGER MOLASSES COOKIES
One bit of constancy to the world (especially these days, with less to reliably ground us) is that things can change in an instant. One minute you’re having a rather nice day, reading a new novel on the dock after a quick and refreshing swim or walking on your favorite trail in the woods, the ground dappled with late afternoon sunlight, and the next minute you hear the ping of an incoming text message.
Looking back, you watch yourself reach for the phone, still feeling relaxed and loose, not realizing that scary news sits there like a spring, tightly wound inside a string of words, ready to unfurl rapidly and blaze hotly like a comet across your day.
Read moreCREAMY FETA PASTA
Are you in the mood to hear about some nice things? (Please tell me you just shouted “YES!” out loud. If you didn't, perhaps examine your emotional state? Maybe pour yourself a glass of wine? Oh, it’s only 10 AM, you say? Have it with a piece of buttered baguette and call it a “French breakfast”, I suspect you need it.)
- These dresses, made in the UK by a Ghanaian designer, are so wildly beautiful that I’m tempted to buy a few despite having absolutely nowhere to wear them. I particularly love this red striped shirtdress, this blue batik-printed maxi dress, and this one-shoulder situation which also comes in blue.
Read moreZUCCHINI LEMON MUFFINS
Here I am, sitting outside with a mug of tea, wrapped in a blanket and stubbornly refusing to accept the fact that it is straight up cold outside. I showed up at 7:15 this morning for the “Dirty 30” circuit workout class, held in the parking lot outside of the trainer I occasionally visit. (Yes, it is AS FIERCE as it sounds. My muscles currently feel like jelly.) Katie—the trainer—runs small group classes, which are wicked hard combination of kettlebells and TRX and core and crossfit and medicine ball slams and sprints and more varieties of squat jumps than I realized existed. She’s been running classes outside all summer—and soon it’ll be too cold to carry on like this. Like so much else in the world, we’ll just have to see what happens next.
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