Itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny homestead (by that I mean condo garden)

February 23, 2013.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep Sometimes you just have to change your perception of a thing. This isn’t the same as changing your perspective. I mean, no matter how I view the garden space off of my condo patio, it is what it is. A small plot of clay-filled soil, a few pots, and a lot […]

True Grit is under your fingernails

December 30, 2012.Reading time 5 minutes.

By Amanda Cleary Eastep The bunny is looking at me with black eyes from it’s fuzzball face. My heart begins a slow melt that seems to move to my mouth, which turns down at the corners, the lower lip protruding in a “that’s so cute I could cry” pout. My daughter and I have wanted […]

Fall Walk

October 20, 2011.Reading time 1 minute.

While the title Fall Walk aptly summarizes a post about taking a walk on a lovely fall day, it also brings to my mind our life journey, beginning with our first steps. Walk, fall down, get up again. Try not to fall, at least not as hard as the last time. For me, a perfect […]

Life’s a Beach

June 15, 2011.Reading time 2 minutes.

Only 45 minutes from our Chicago-suburban home in Illinois is a nice stretch of Lake Michigan beach over the border in Indiana. We time the day to begin with lunch at Depot Dog, which we affectionately refer to as the “weenie wagon.” Meet some of our faves: (l-r) the Razz-Do, chili dog, and Chicago-style Polish. […]

Knit from Dirt

January 26, 2011.Reading time 5 minutes.

[In anticipation of the end of winter–yes, I start anticipating early–I’m sharing something I wrote last spring. Ah, spring…] He made us from this. This darkness, this ancient batter of living and dead and living again things. I like that God made us from dirt, instead of from nothingness. I like that we walk earth’s surface until […]