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A French Dessert and a Fresh Read
For me, one of summer’s great joys is scarfing down mass quantities of berries and stone fruits. Another one of the season’s pleasures is sitting in a shaded spot, curled up with a good book. When the two converge? Serendipity. Last week, the fruit box delivered by my CSA farm was packed tight with eight pounds of sweet cherries. My husband, son, and I stuffed as many into our mouths as we could. Immediately. When we wiped the red juice from our faces, though, we still had quite a few cherries left. Enter, The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane, the delightful debut novel by Kelly Harms that I happened to be…
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Back to School Style for Grown-Ups
The hot hot summer has begun to cool and soon it’s time for back to school. Since I’m not a teacher and no longer a student, and since my son is still in diapers, I can think about the first day of school without panic. (Though I do still have that recurring dream about not knowing where any of my classes are…) Memories of the first day of school are heavy with nostalgia for me and, I imagine, for many of you. I was a nerd kid, and I used to lay out all of my school supplies on the carpet just to look at them in the weeks before…
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Summer Wardrobe Syndrome
I have a recurring problem that pops up every year around this time. My husband has come to anticipate it. The sequence goes a little something like this: First, I stand inside my closet with my hands on my hips and declare that “I have no summer clothes.” Then I remember that they’ve been packed away in a huge Rubbermaid tub since September. I retrieve said tub and promptly throw half its contents into a bags destined for Goodwill, ReThreads (my favorite secondhand store), or an upcoming swap party. A garment gets tossed in a bag if it meets any of the following descriptions: (a) I can’t zip it or can only zip it…