Scraps

I've had feedback that you guys like it when I just share ordinary stuff from my ordinary days-- the books I'm reading, the things I'm seeing, the recipes I'm cooking, etc. But I never know quite where to put it all. Do I blog about little random things all willy-nilly like? Do short snippets count as whole blog posts? Because lately short random bursts are about the only blog posts (for lack of a better term) that I seem capable of.

My mind is a hodgepodge of thoughts that seem to zigzag around inside my head, careening into each other and sometimes getting knocked out. Just last week I forgot my stepfather's birthday, my mom reminded me, I said I would call him later (since clearly I was past getting a card to him through the mail) and... that was the last time I thought about it. On Friday I received a text that said "Hey is your daughter still coming?" And I got that heart-seizing thing that is forgetting something and letting someone else down. I had told a neighbor up the street that I'd send my 14yo up to talk with her about babysitting, committing her to Friday after school. And after I sent the "I'll send her up" text I... never thought about it again. (It all worked out, she ran up there and met the neighbor but still... I hate forgetting things.)

And so you see why putting out cohesive, insightful, relevant blog posts on a semi-regular basis is probably not gonna happen. But scraps? Scraps I can do. And so on Mondays it will be my aim to pull together a post of scraps-- random thoughts, links I think you'll like, recommendations for products that help me (sort of) hold it all together. I will start today with these scraps, and hope that in some way they serve you well.

I am making this this week. I will also probably make chocolate chip banana bread because I have two sad looking bananas that need to serve a greater purpose.

I made these last week to take to some friends' house. They asked that I bring dessert and that it be something pumpkin. These were like pumpkin pie if it were on a shortbread-type crust with a really good topping. I am thinking they might make it onto my Thanksgiving menu.

This woman's blog is just lovely. I loved her reading lists and general discussion of lovely things. I can't believe I've never heard of her before now, but I'm glad I finally did.

I'm participating in this this coming Christmas. I love love love Shellie Tomlinson and I'll pretty much do anything she tells me to. So, expect to see five days of posts about her Heart Wide Open Christmas blog hop here. There's a link on the post to sign up if you'd like to participate. This is going to be fun so don't wait! (PS. Please don't hate me for bringing up Christmas in October.)

And finally I liked this article. It's about how print books are better than ebooks. Yes. They are.