What’s in the Garden

I took a break today from lying down (2nd day in a row spent mostly in bed due to migraine + asthma). With Tom’s help I was able to spend a couple of hours doing light – EXTREMELY LIGHT – yard work – planting tulips, trimming back/removing old, damaged, and dead branches, and enjoying the […]


Imbolc, Lunar New Year, Beginnings and Delays

[meant to post this LAST weekend, but …. ] As usual, my plans fell apart almost as soon as 2023 was underway. Students came back to school in pretty bad shape. For weeks they struggled to engage, their stamina for learning and effort was almost as limited as at the beginning of the year. AND […]


On the Cusp of 2023… (repost from fb)

[originally posted on facebook on 29 Dec 2022] On the cusp of the new (calendar) year, I am thinking about ways to make teaching a little less stressful, and time at home a little more serene. I am revisiting productivity (organizational and scheduling) strategies that, in the past, helped but were abandoned over the last […]


Early Morning Musings (on the last Friday of 2022)

This article from the BBC, originally published in April of 2022 got me thinking: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220412-should-we-be-eating-three-meals-a-day How much of our modern ailments are directly related to our modern conveniences? How much of our modern concerns (climate change, pollution, inflation) are directly related to our modern “advances?” And perhaps most importantly: What can I do, in my […]


Sewing and Crafting Update End of 2022

[note: I usually make active links, but for some reason my editing software won’t let me do that today. I will try to update later on when things are working again. Until then, you can select the entire link after https:// and copy-paste into your browser.} This year I was determined to finally start on […]


Winter Traditions in Our Family

Traditions…. many cultures have “winter solstice” or solstice-adjacent holidays. Our family draws on several different traditions this time of year, though most of them are less religious for us than cultural. Advent (yes, the root of the word adventure! see https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Advent for derivation) is a season of watchful waiting and preparation for Christians in many […]


Testing and using new-to-me crochet patterns

One of the things that I think is lacking in today’s “fast everything” culture is handmade gifts. We have been too quick to abandon work that takes time in the interest of “saving time” when what we make may be not as perfect as mass-produced (and likely cheaper) goods. This deprives both ourselves and the […]


Sewing for School

This is a long time coming: Started July 2021 when I realized I wanted some very specific items to keep students at their desks (covid protocols will be in place for the foreseeable future due to the age of my students). It is now November 2022. I did NONE of these tasks. Some of them […]


Accessibility and Invisible Conditions: Musings on Making Life Work

[Started 22 June 2022, Finished 6 November 2022, small edits 30 Dec 2022, and a note: I am not a medical expert and many of the strategies I describe here are things I researched or stumbled upon on my own as my experiences with medical professionals have been frustrating and often completely useless. This is […]


This week in the garden: (last week of June 2022)

It finally got warm around here. A little too warm. Near (or slightly above) 90 at our home three days in a row. Not today, of course, when I had planned a little garden tea with my mother and one of our children! Today we’ll be lucky to reach 70. Still, the warmth was wonderful […]


© 2005-2024 Stidmama All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright