Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
Polly Castor 
I have to say I am blessed with some wonderful ecumenical friends. I’ve had the privilege of representing my church on our town’s clergy association for many years now, even serving two years as president. All eighteen of these people are excellent. I love this photo which I took yesterday of our local Rabbi and … Read more
Happy Halloween. Today my thirteen year old daughter was a skunk, my sixteen year old son was Jesus, and my eighteen year old daughter for the first time did not dress up, surprised to find it repugnant to be anything other than herself. Me? I wore the beloved orange. All but the top two of … Read more
This version of Psalm 23 is from Walter Wangerin’s The Book of God: The Bible As a Novel, page 255: I am not lonely. God is here. Hand at my shoulder. Word in my ear. The Lord is the shepherd who leads me down to quiet pools and a soft green ground. He feeds, restores, … Read more
I made this felted bag for my mother a few years ago, and this summer when I helped downsize their belongings and move them to smaller accommodations, I inherited it back. It is perfect for carrying in the months of October and November, and probably only then. Astute friends and blog readers have noticed it … Read more
I live in a beautiful area. You can get a whiff of it here, enhanced by the golden season around us.
Well, I’ve been back for a month and the promises I made here have not come to fruition. I thought I’d catch up quickly on my return and that just hasn’t happened. It was taking me so long to edit my pictures from my month away that I then got behind on current content. So … Read more
Last weekend, I went to two local art shows which I probably would have had art in if I hadn’t been away this fall. Last Friday night, my husband and I enjoyed the buffet reception at the SCAN art show, and then on Sunday, after a lovely lunch out just the two of us, we … Read more
More than 6 billion dollars worth of art is stolen each year. This book is the remarkable memoir of an undercover FBI investigator who tracked down lots of it, but not as much as he wanted to. Art theft is not as difficult as trying to sell the works after stolen. Even when one bides … Read more
My sixteen year old son and thirteen year old daughter entered work in four different divisions at the 4H Fair yesterday and they won the Best in Division in all four. (This is for work over the previous year and the entries were anonymous.) My daughter also walked away with the Best in Show! See … Read more
This is one of our favorite family recipes. It comes from my husband’s Aunt Ruth, although we use a proportion of whole wheat flour I do not believe was in the original recipe. My youngest daughter has made enough money to buy a good bicycle cooking this for devoted fans. Today, my husband made … Read more
The Webster definition of “subjective” is personal, emotional, instinctive and intuitive. Its antonym is “objective” which means actual, real, empirical, evidence based, verifiable. Mary Baker Eddy calls matter, sin, disease and death “subjective states of mortal mind.” This carnal, human mind is differentiated from the divine Mind, which we are indeed truly subject to. But … Read more
Recently I searched my blog to share this recipe and found to my surprise I had not featured it. So this post is to fix that heinous oversight! We love this and make it often; it is especially fun this time of year when you can get Brussels sprouts on the stalk. When I … Read more
Today I read some articles (click here) and (click here) about famous artist David Hockney doing art on his iPad and iPhone, to the extent that it comprises his current exhibit. I was inspired to immediately pop the $4.99 for the “Brushes” app for my own iPhone, and here are the first images I’ve created, … Read more
Last night I hosted the homeschooling High School meeting at my house. There was a good attendance, even though only half of my huge RSVP list actually showed. This was probably good, as my living room is small. We had almost every stripe of homeschooler present, except possibly the strict one-box-curriculum-provider kind, or complete unschooling … Read more
My daughter is studying the life of Andrew Carnegie right now. This amazingly successful “man of steel” immigrated from Scotland at 13 and started working as a bobbin boy for 12 hours a day six days a week making $1.20 a week. Ten years later was making $400 a month working 9 to 5 as … Read more
Not particularly spicy but very interesting, this fascinating vegetable was grown in a pottery friend’s garden. After you peel off the paper, they look like a tomato. We roasted ours, making delicious salsa verde for some awesome nachos. Give them a try if you ever have the opportunity!
Yea! So glad this is done, albeit belatedly. Every year I swap out last year’s books for the next year’s homeschooling books. I usually do it in the summer but this year was too busy to get anything but the first two months planned. So I didn’t get to the rest until yesterday. In the … Read more