Open Window

Welcome to the Year of the Ox.

Yesterday, many, many months since our last visit together, my friends and I decided to get together for a walk.

~1~ A few months ago, my husband installed Christmas lights on our back deck. We have always admired our neighbors’ string of multicolored lights on their back deck. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I look out our bedroom window and see theirs and think how cheerful and friendly they are. […]

The other evening I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to eat. Then I opened the freezer and saw some bacon.

I have never considered buying a mandolin—neither the musical instrument nor the kitchen tool. But if I wanted to try to make this dish, I might as well do it right.

There’s something about the simpler times in between the flashier liturgical seasons that speaks to me.