Last week I missed writing this weekly feature because of work deadlines and someone actually told me that they missed reading it that week.

Which makes a late night writer like myself feel appreciated – so thank you.

 

 

funny

 

I live in a madhouse.  A circus.  A carnival.

And like all circuses and all carnivals, when you’re on the tilt-a-whirl you feel pretty good.  When the cotton candy is crammed in your mouth in a giant pile of soft purple sugary goodness, it’s all high and no low.

Eventually comes the crash, however.  Especially when cotton candy stomach meets tilt-a-whirl stomach.

My kids are funny.  Until they’re not.  But even then, sometimes they still sort of are.

 

 

But when the gang of them all are in unison on some certain opinion or topic, say for instance – let’s just pull a purely hypothetical idea out of thin air here – to attending a field trip I have arranged, and when they all come together like some rabid clan, they are not only persuasive, they’re equally hilarious and ridiculous.

Even when this was a two parent home, we were wildly outnumbered.  But somehow, as a lone sheep standing against a pack of wild wolves, being solitary feels even smaller than you might imagine.

During this particular (not at all specific) imaginary situation, the kids gathered their collective forces. First they made cohesive and strong arguments in a list formation of why they should be allowed to have their say.  Then, they wrote a song about why they should be exempt from said outing.  A song complete with written lyrics and a bridge that threw one brother to the wolves – or, I guess – to the sheep.  “Send Bergen,” they sang.  As if he was some sort of sacrificial offering.  (I think it’s because, most often, he’s the only voice saying he doesn’t mind going places.)

 

 

Are you wondering if their song was successful?

Well, I’m not pretending that I am always standing solid in the face of such opposition, but on this go-round, in this imaginary scenario, we all piled in the car and took that drive to the dairy farm of yesterday’s post.  A victory for the sheep I guess.

 

fashionable

 

I showed you the cool hats designed locally for Travelers Rest Here.

Now we are moving on to t-shirts.

 

 

It sort of feels like you’ve arrived if your business logo is on attire – right?

 

 

flavorful

 

Let’s keep it local this week, shall we?

You guys.  I love strawberry season.  And it’s practically here.  I’m so happy about that.  I make a lot of jam during strawberry season.  (If you let us stay at your house on our giant Beyond Wildwood Summer Road Trip, I’ll bring you some jam.  A diversion here, but I think we need a new name for this year’s journey.  Last year it was Beyond Wildwood.  Which I really liked.  But maybe this year we need something new.  I’ve already forgotten the first year – something about our trail.  Wait, it was called Making Our Trail.  I liked that too – pretty sure you guys made up both of those so I’d love your help for a third year.)

But back to strawberries.

Our favorite creperie (what, everyone doesn’t have a favorite creperie?  Well, you would if you lived in my town.) is serving up loads of strawberry options.  Today, while the younger kids played at their friend’s house, the big girls (or should I say teenagers?) and I went to Tandem and ordered up one of each to share.  It was a strawberry celebration.  And it was perfect.  (I mean, we’ll be full for the next three days, but that’s fine.)  (By the way – it’s Nutella on two of those beauties.)

 

 

For the entire months of April and May our breakfast choices rotate between oatmeal with strawberries to yogurt and granola with strawberries.  Back and forth.  On the weekends, pancakes with strawberries.  It’s a good life.

Oh – and homemade strawberry ice cream.  

What else should I be slinging my strawberries across?

 

faithful

 

This is still a local theme, but maybe a little bit vague.

I am grateful for answered prayers through the kindness of regular practical people.  For needs directly and surprisingly met.  For redemption of even the mundane chores that we all have to wade through and just get accomplished.

Also – how beautiful are the colors this spring? Is God not to be found in these glorious colors bursting forth?

 

 

feels

 

And another local one.  But this one you can get shipped to you anywhere – completely unlike crepes.  They don’t ship well.

Through work I fell upon a business called Local Stature.  They make shape cut outs with maps of your town.  I heart stuff like that.  Maps. Signs.  Nostalgic items from where we’ve lived or where we’ve loved or where we’ve hiked or cried or had babies.  I love signs.

And this one is so great. It’s South Carolina but with the map of TR inside of it.

Here’s a regular TR one that we actually just gave away.

 

 

And here’s our sweet family one — see our little pine tree (our little Wildwood) where we live?

 

 

They can create any shape and add any extras you can dream up.  Plus, the owner has sisters named both Riley and Piper, so there’s that too!  (And she’s really very sweet!)

 

 

 

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