Category: Experience

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Slice of Life Challenge – March 13 – Epsom Salt Bath Review Part 2 of 3

My Epsom Salt variety review continues and includes several more of Dr. Teal’s Soaking Solutions in today’s blog post.

One of my librarian friends recently purchased a gorgeous wooden bath tray that stretches from one side of the tub to the other. She can rest her book or her Kindle on the shelf and even set her glass of wine on it as she stretches out to read and soak.

I’d been considering making a similar purchase as a way to inspire myself to relax in the tub with epsom salts more often, but when I showed up for toddler time at the library, my friend suggested that I might have to lead the dancing to Tootie Ta that day. Turns out, she’d dropped her heavy wooden bathtub tray on the top of her foot and was concerned she’d broken some bones and couldn’t dance.

I’d broken my own ankle last September, and it suddenly flared up at the thought of dancing. I couldn’t lead Tootie Ta, either ( I missed out, big time). I also concluded I didn’t need the risks of a wooden bath tray. I manage to find my own injuries without help.

I continue to look for ways to relax in a bath, since I’m more of a shower gal, so I’m using epsom salts as a measure of good self-care and experimenting with the variety I like best as I re-condition myself to pause and enjoy more moments and give my muscles the TLC they deserve.

In yesterday’s post, I compared Black Elderberry and Calm Your Mind, and I liked Calm Your Mind best for its citrusy-berry fragrance that left me and the bathroom smelling great! Today, I’m adding more varieties to the mix.

Melatonin Sleep Soak – a relaxing fragrance, and the benefits of this kind of aromatherapy are for real. I did feel far more relaxed as I soaked and smelled the calming bouquet of this mixture. I felt the tide turning a bit on my bathtub outlook when I stepped out of the soak, dried off, put on a soft, clean nightgown and headed bedward to drift off into a peaceful night’s sleep – maybe I could grow to enjoy a bath from time to time, I thought, diehard shower girl that I am.

Relax & Relief with Spearmint and Eucalyptus – in addition to the relaxing component, its fragrance wasn’t overwhelming but was fresh and clean and stayed with me through lunchtime the next day. I kept catching wafts of the scent and thinking that somehow, the soaks stayed with me longer than my soap from the typical morning shower.

Calm & Serenity – this one has rose essential oil and is made with milk protein to help soften and nourish skin. The rose scent is not overpowering but is pleasant and more subtle than some of the other fragrances of the bath salts. For bedtime, this fragrance welcomes relaxation and peaceful sleep. As a child, I used to have a white cotton nightgown with little pink roses embroidered on it, and this reminded me of that nightgown that was my very favorite in the summertime heat.

Glow and Radiance – one of my favorite fragrances in the entire world is fresh orange. It reminds me of winter and summer sunshine all at once. This variety has Vitamin C and Citrus Essential oils and is designed to uplift the mood. As much as I love this bath salt variety, I would recommend this to morning bathtime soakers, which won’t be an option for me until retirement at the earliest. It does tend to awaken, and not to relax.

Cannabis Sativa Hemp Seed Oil with Essential Oil Blend – this one is made from Hemp Seed Oil for intense moisture and white thyme and bergamot “to quiet the mind.” Let me tell you – – the aromatherapy benefit from this blend of scents alone was over the moon stress relieving. It’s completely legal, and while it may carry a Kerouacian connotation, I can assure you that I endorse it only for soaking – – not for smoking! It doesn’t contain any ingredients that would compromise the body or mind or call one’s character into question. What it does do is loosen the worries and stresses; it washes them down the drain, leaving only pleasant scents and a relaxed mind, ready to sleep.

Clarify & Smooth with Witch Hazel, Aloe Vera, & Essential Oils – this one contains aloe vera and Vitamin E to nourish skin. It has a fresh, light scent – – much lighter than many of the other varieties. Since smell is the sense most closely associated with memory, I understand why I like the scent so much. If you’ve ever been five or six years old and opened a new doll with shoes and clothes sewn onto the card in the container and smelled the new plastic, really just inhaled it and inhaled it to smell all the new freshness and excitement of a new toy in the back seat all the way home from the store, this may take you back to that time once you have stepped out of the tub and dried off. That’s the scent that lingers. It brings back great memories of the plastic that wrapped the toys of my childhood.

Today’s favorite in these reviews is the Cannabis Sativa Hemp Seed Oil variety. Maybe it’s because I feel a twinge of preacher’s kid rulebreaking reputation when I soak in it, but it truly did relax me in a way that none of the others did.

Tune in tomorrow for my final 2 reviews and overall favorite epsom salt aromatherapy variety of all the ones I have reviewed, and please share your own epsom salt preferences as well. I’m learning new things about the benefits of epsom salts and welcome all the knowledge and expertise that you care to share!

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for giving writers space and voice
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Slice of Life Challenge – March 11 – What’s in a Name?

I was shopping in Senoia, Georgia (home of The Walking Dead) when I noticed all of the plants in one of the stores had names. I took photographs of the name tags and noticed a pattern – – they were all named for famous black women. I struck up a conversation with the owner behind the counter and learned that this shop was a local black-owned business. I enjoyed an added dimension of discovery as I thought of all the women who were being celebrated. It’s reassuring to see how far we have come as women over the past century, and I cheer minority women who have overcome obstacles and stayed the course all the way to success and smiles behind the counters of the businesses that they own today.

I’m taking this innovative idea of naming my fairy garden succulents, which will be the last picture in the lineup – with a fascinating history of the names that were selected for these tiny front porch gardens. First, here are 6 of the 17 pictures I took in the Greenhouse Mercantile, with links underneath to the women for whom each plant is named:

Harriet Tubman

Oprah Winfrey

Madam C.J. Walker

Condoleezza Rice

Coretta Scott King

Cicely Tyson

Earlier in the week, I shared my succulent garden and asked for help naming my new fairy gardens. Fellow blogger Fran Haley responded:

I would give one of these fairies a name from a baby’s gravestone I first saw when I was a child visiting my grandmother deep in the country (along the old dirt road, you know-). The name: Leafy Jean. I might name the other fairy Lacey Jane. 

I loved the unique sounds of these sweet names with matching long vowels. I named the fairies Leafy Jean and Lacey Jane.

I wondered if I could find out a little bit of information about Leafy Jean, and so I looked on the Findagrave website and found the photo of this headstone for this baby girl “Gone Home”:

I’m betting this is the grave that Fran saw when she was with her grandmother. It’s located in Beaufort County, North Carolina in the Mixon Cemetery. Leafy Jean Wilson was born on a Sunday – Christmas Eve in 1916, two years after the Christmas Truce called between German and British Soldiers during World War II, when they set aside their differences and came together to play a game of soccer, wish each other Merry Christmas in their native tongues, and sing Christmas carols. The Christmas Truce came five months after the war began……and little Leafy Jean was five months old when she died on a Friday – June 22. I wondered at first if Leafy referenced an olive branch, a symbol of peace and goodwill, but looked it up and found that Leafy means “Relief.” In Hebrew baby names, the meaning of Jean is “Gift from God.” It’s a name of French origin, meaning “God is Gracious.” Leafy Jean had a brother named Leon Russell Wilson, who died when he was 1, one day shy of a full month after his sister, and less than a year prior to the outbreak of the Spanish Flu that started in February 1918.

My heart ached for these parents and these precious children.

I knew what I had to do.

I ran upstairs to the toy chest and fished out a few miniature figures. I explained to Lacey Jane that she would be moving to a different container, so we packed her fairy wands, her wishing well, and her other belongings for a journey to a new magical land.

We had to make room for Leon Russell to remain near Leafy Jean.

Thank you, Fran, for the creative names for these gardens. I will think of you as I water them and care for them! I’ll give an update on how they’re thriving on a Slice of Life Tuesday sometime this summer! Perhaps by then I will learn more history about these babies who now have a special place in my heart – and on my porch.

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for giving writers voice and space
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Slice of Life Challenge – March 10 – Our Chicks Have Hatched!

A couple of years ago, we had a full-fledged farm – goats, hens, roosters, dogs, cat, pig. Our pig ran off one day, and we sold our goats when I took a different position that would require more of my evenings for a time. When a developer broke ground about a mile down the road and began a dreaded subdivision waaaaaay out here in the country, we experienced an influx of displaced animals – food-freeloading foxes, cunning coyotes, and hungry hawks. One by one, our chickens started disappearing.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that a hawk will not go into an enclosed space. That’s a myth. Even with chicken wire across the top of the coop, a determined hawk got in our coop and killed some of our birds. We ended up giving the last few away as an act of mercy until the wildlife on the move finished their great migration through here.

Now that the dust has settled, we aren’t seeing nearly as many predators as we did before. We do have two Great Horned Owls who have taken up residence in our trees and hoot back and forth at each other in the early mornings, but those are the only threats we have observed lately, other than the red-tailed hawks who swoop through to check in from time to time.

“Do you think we could spruce up the coop and try again?” I asked my husband a few weekends ago.

We got attached to our chickens in a way that didn’t happen with our goats or our pig, and we’d found ourselves sitting outside just watching the entertainment unfold every afternoon when we got home from work and would let them out for a few hours. Chickens are funny, and they have definite personalities. Pecking order is no joke.

My husband is a man who loves farm-fresh eggs, Smithfield original bacon, rustic potato bread toasted with butter and elderberry jam, and Eight O’Clock coffee two or three nights a week for supper. So when I’d asked about getting more chickens, I wasn’t surprised by his answer.

“Absolutely,” he replied, without hesitation.

“I’ll call my friend Laura with the Zoom-famous rooster and see if she has any chicks. We can build back from scratch.”

I wanted highly socialized chickens, and I was hoping she’d have some young chicks or some eggs ready to hatch soon. One of Laura’s extra-friendly roosters likes to come into the house and sit on the back of her chair as she is having Zoom meetings, and he is greeted just like he’s a voting executive who has read all of his minutes from the previous meeting and is ready to entertain a motion.

Turns out, Laura had eleven eggs in a brooder, ready to hatch within the week when I called her. She and her husband were going to be candling that weekend to see which eggs would produce. Nine of them hatched on my late mother’s birthday, February 19th. The other two never did.

There are seven hens and two roosters in this group of nine, and Laura texts me weekly updates on them. We can’t wait to bring them home later this month to introduce them to their new coop. For now, they are staying on Laura’s farm while they get a little size on them and we move into warmer days.

Meet our new babies! We can’t wait to bring them home to the Johnson Funny Farm! Get ready for picture overload and naming them once they come home to roost.

The first day I met the chicks at Laura’s house
Laura sends me updates on the chicks from time to time, with pictures to show how much they are growing.
!

We’ll post plenty of pictures on homecoming day in about a week and a half, so stay tuned!

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Slice of Life Challenge – March 8 – Mother Nature’s Healing Powers: The Benefits of Ecotherapy

Throughout February, I worked on a plan to involve others in my blogging experiences this month. Today, my sister-in-law, Dr. Bethany Johnson, is my guest blogger on the benefits of Ecotherapy.

Dr. Bethany Johnson

Dr. Bethany Johnson is a professor of Sociology and Cultural Anthropology. She is a writing contributor for several online magazines, including Prime Women and Honey Good. Last summer , when working with @beginningisnow with actress Brooke Shields, she was selected as one of the 40 Most Influential Women Over 40. Currently, she is in the beginning stages of writing a book about losing unnecessary social expectations and rediscovering oneself. Please welcome Bethany today!

Mother Nature’s Healing Ability – The Benefits of Ecotherapy


Have you ever been feeling down, stressed, or just overall not feeling good and then gone outside for a bit only to begin to feel better? It isn’t a coincidence that being outside made you feel better. The answer to many of our physical, emotional, and mental lows can be found right beyond your door.


Ecotherapy is known as the practice of therapy that focuses on being outdoors and in nature. It is also known as nature therapy or green therapy. The term ecotherapy arose in 1992 when Professor Theodor Roszark used it in his book The Voice of the Earth. Many doctors (mostly functional physicians) are now using the connection with nature as part of protocol for getting healthier. Multiple studies have shown the benefits of being in nature. Many may say there is not enough research to validate this theory, however, there are enough examples of it working to make a reasonable connection.


A Dose of Nature a Day:
ï‚· Helps lower blood pressure
ï‚· Helps control diabetes
ï‚· Lowers stress and anxiety
ï‚· Rises energy levels, fights fatigue, and increases the quality of sleep
ï‚· Reduces depression
ï‚· Reduces the levels of ADD and ADHD
ï‚· Increases mental focus


Since I began studying the practice of ecotherapy, my experiences outside are so different. Each trip outside brings something different – even when I am in the same place. I now am very purposeful in slowing down and connecting with what is around me. Today, for example, on my walk I saw the bright white dogwood trees, I felt the sun warm my skin, especially my toes (which must have been cold from being inside and I hadn’t noticed until my walk), and off in the distance I heard a woodpecker. While walking, I first smelled something burning … wood. However, the wind shifted and then I smelled fresh cut grass. This is one of my favorite smells in the world and immediately took me back to my childhood living on the farm in Illinois! My walk tomorrow will be a whole new experience, and I can’t wait!


Gaining the benefits from ecotherapy is not difficult. You simply need to make time to get outside! The important aspect of ecotherapy is simply being outdoors and connecting to the natural elements. No matter what you are doing outside, be conscious of the fresh air you are breathing in, the wind or breeze blowing across your skin, the sounds that surround you (this is better if it is sounds of nature and not of human life). Make certain to acknowledge the colors that surround you. Look at the greens of the trees and grass, the vibrant colors of the flowers, the different textures such as the roughness of tree bark but the smoothness of a flower petal. Make certain to engage all four senses: touch, taste, smell and hearing. So, get up and get out!! Enjoy nature and heal your tired body, mind, and soul. Love to all of you!

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for giving writers space and voice!
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Slice of Life Challenge – March 7 – All the Magic of Leopold’s Ice Cream in Savannah, Georgia

There is always a (fast-moving) line at this iconic ice cream shop in Savannah, Georgia! It’s worth the wait!

If you’ve ever been to Savannah, Georgia and looked at a list of the top 10 things to do in the historic Georgia city with Spanish Moss draping the Live Oak trees and horse-carriage tours going on from morning until night, then you know that visiting Leopold’s Ice Cream is at the top of the list! Or perhaps you have walked past not already knowing its fame and magic and noticed the perpetual line stretching down East Broughton Street across from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Leopold’s has a unique history, dating back to 1919, when 3 brothers from Greece opened the shop. The place is still an iconic ice cream parlor today, the kind with the classic round tables that make you want to share a banana split or an ice cream float with your sweetheart. The kind of place that brings back memories to every generation alive today and promises continuing traditions for the youngest children.

Saylor holds onto her hat, thinking of what flavor she wants to try!

Every time we travel to Savannah, we make a visit to Leopold’s a priority. When I was recently in Savannah for a Literacy conference, I had the privilege of introducing four of my five grandchildren to all the delights of Leopold’s!

So many choices! Just ordering the ice cream is a unique experience!

When you first enter the shop, you see the servers in their white caps and burgundy aprons, ready to serve you what you probably already know you want – or, to give you a taste of what you think you might like to try before deciding for sure. When I saw the Rose Petal flavor, I decided to be adventurous and check its bloom factor. It tasted exactly like a rose smells, so I ordered a kids’ cup and savored the flavor of this refreshing treat made from actual edible roses.

River enjoys his honey and almond ice cream!

There’s a working old-time Jukebox over in the corner (see it behind River’s head in the picture?) that still plays songs for a mere quarter, and we listened to Chantilly Lace and The Bunny Hop as we ate our ice cream. The songs were made famous by locals or people who visited Georgia (the Johnny Mercer orchestra popularized The Bunny Hop, and the Johnny Mercer Theater is in downtown Savannah at the Civic Center).

Beckham shares his ice cream with his dad
My daughter-in-law Selena chose Strawberry Sorbet
Saylor waits on her peppermint crunch ice cream at the counter
I chose Rose Petal, and it was a unique taste explosion – – made from the essence of rose, it tasted exactly like a rose smells but oddly did not smell like a rose.
Wearing our Leopold’s shirts

Since I always bring home a surprise for my husband when he isn’t able to travel with me, I brought home matching Leopold’s t-shirts to help us remember one of our favorite places to sit and share one creamy confection with two spoons!

And we couldn’t leave out our grandchild who wasn’t able to go to Savannah for ice cream. We celebrated Aidan’s 13th birthday (belated by a week), and he chose Dairy Queen – – another classic ice cream joint!

Cheers for living life to the fullest ~ my hope is that no matter where you eat ice cream or drink coffee or amble along the path, you experience the magic in the moments!

Aidan enjoys a Hot Fudge Blizzard as a birthday dessert! He’s a teenager now!
From Left: Selena, Sawyer, Saylor, River, me, Marshall, and Beckham by the Shrimp Factory on Savannah’s River Street, February 27, 2023
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Slice of Life Challenge – March 5 – A Godiva Chocolate Review

In February, I started thinking about all the interesting ways I might involve others in my blog posts in March for the Slice of Life Challenge. Product reviews were one of the ideas I had, and so I sent products to several of my friends and family members asking them to dive into a fun experience and to share some feedback.

My brother came to mind right away, and since it was Valentine’s Day, I sent him a text:

I considered several brands of chocolate, but landed squarely on the one with a little bit of spicy history in its name. I ordered two boxes of Godiva – one for my brother and one for the woman he loves – and had them shipped to his front door.

No one ever says no to reviewing chocolate.

In February, I introduced my brother and his girlfriend on the blog when he shared a great strategy for deepening their relationship through a game called Let’s Get Deep. I promised in that post that they’d be back in March with a big announcement about their tastes. So here is the announcement: they love Godiva chocolate, and there is a clear winner on the exact piece that they both think is the best.

Their overall winner is the Dark Chocolate Lava Cake Truffle.

They shared their review: “The lava cake’s consistency is good, with a dual filling of a fusion of molten chocolate and decadent dark chocolate, which is representative of our love. It’s our favorite flavor, but also a metaphor of how filled we are with love for each other. Although the name of the candy is over-complicated, it’s a lot like our relationship – an easy, simple, and flavorful experience.”

Long live love…..and chocolate!

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers
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Slice of Life Challenge – March 3 – The Art of Charcuterie

I started savoring Saturdays in January, making sure that weekends offer something relaxing and fun – coffee, books, short day trips, reading, writing, and creating. So when my husband and I were having coffee in Senoia, Georgia (filming location of The Walking Dead) and I walked by a charcuterie board artist hard at work on a catered board, a post came rushing back to mind. Earlier in the week, I’d seen this:

This is a story idea, I thought. I ambled over and asked the food artist a few questions – namely if she could give me some pointers about creating a charcuterie board and whether I could make some photos of her work.

The first charcuterie board I’d ever actually eaten had been a disposable one from an outdoor camping and survival store in downtown Blue Ridge, Georgia when my husband and I were staying at the top of a mountain that took a 4-wheel drive to navigate. It was too much effort to go back out for dinner, so we took home a simple board, pre-made, with some cheeses, meats, and crackers on it. Nothing fancy like chocolate, nothing colorful or fresh and sweet like fruit, nothing exciting like nuts and pickles. We were not impressed. But it had been good for binge-watching Virgin River and not starving at cloud-level elevation.

Charcuterie board artist at work in Senoia, Georgia

This particular food designer, though, showed me the art of charcuterie creation with her XO and heart cookie cutters that she was using for the cheeses, and offered me a rule of thumb or two:

“Use three meats and three cheeses – play with combinations of food, and be creative with savory and sweet foods ranging from pickles and olives to chocolates. Your board should offer a hard cheese and a soft cheese. Use cutouts on the soft cheese and pipe in some preserves. Be festive with the cookie cutters and food colors to customize your board for the occasion.”

I decided to create a board for the Super Bowl, so I found a tray and shopped for the foods. What I discovered is that you can make these boards in under an hour, and they can be as healthy or as unhealthy as you want to make them. I shopped at a Dollar General that has a fresh food section, and the cost was about $40-45 – the price of what it costs for the two of us to go out for a nice meal.

I rolled ham and cheese and secured the bites with toothpicks.

I put on an apron to try to look the part and began chopping meats and dicing cheese and arranging the foods on the tray in designated areas. I started feeling a little bit like a food artist myself!

I arranged fruits next to meats and cheeses and kept the pickles, olives, and chocolates in their own containers on the tray. Soon, my board had a look of completeness to it, and while I’m no good at making little roses out of hard salami slices like the expert, I’m confident enough to create a charcuterie board for the next social gathering where I have to sign up to bring food.

My finished charcuterie board

So I realized that the daily 1,000 story walk is true! I’d walked past a story idea, stopped to ask questions, and learned something new!

Ta-daaaaa!

Humbleswede inspired my post today when he shared First,  if I know I’m in need of an idea, I spend the day with my antennae up.  Thanks, my fellow writers, for all the sparks of ideas!

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers
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Slice of Life Challenge – March 1 :The Slicer Meet-Up

When I was in California last November for the NCTE Convention, I programmed my phone’s navigation to take me to McCormick and Schmick’s at the Anaheim Garden Walk for the Slice of Life Meet-Up at 5:00. I couldn’t wait to meet everyone, to put faces with the names of the bloggers whose posts I read every Tuesday throughout the year and everyday during the month of March for the Slice of Life Writing Challenge. We were each bringing a gift for a writer for a gift exchange, but I knew that the best gift of all would be the personal connections I would make with my fellow writers.

I planned to arrive right on time so that I could be back at the Anaheim Hilton at 6:30 for the Open Write Meet-up in the MIX Restaurant for dinner with my group giving a presentation at the conference. Even though I was still in a boot as my broken right ankle healed, I figured this walk would be quick and easy.

I was wrong.

I’m not sure why, but whenever I’m walking in a major city along with hundreds of thousands of other people, I imagine that everyone is going to the same place I’m going – or at least that they know where everywhere is and can help me if I get lost. At the first intersection, my arrow was still wonky, changing directions like a compass that couldn’t locate magnetic north, so I took a chance and stayed in the stream with the masses.

I started scanning the throng of people for anyone who looked like a writer who might be headed to the table for the dozen or so of us who would be attending, and my eyes fell on two women about my age who appeared to have had the characteristic writer’s callus on the last knuckle of their middle fingers. I was convinced I’d successfully used my detective skills and found them.

At the next traffic light, I eased my way closer to them so that I could tag along and listen for a moment. They’d stopped talking, so I made a bold move and decided to ask.

“Are you going to the Slicer meet-up?”

No sooner had I gotten the words out of my mouth, I realized I had asked the wrong people the right question the wrong way, given the state of our world.

I found myself looking into two completely horrified faces. Horrified.

The walking light turned white, and they turned and took off in another direction, looking back over their shoulders at me as if I’d been sporting a knife in my boot. Me. A murderous slicer. I was glad I had saved a chain of emails in case the cops came and I had been taken in for questioning.

Next time, I’ll know to inconspicuously whisper, “Would you happen to be headed to the Slice of Life invitational dinner for celebrity writers?”

I walked on another block, and then I saw a familiar female face standing at a traffic light, waiting to cross. At least I was pretty sure it was her. I decided on a safer tactic.

“Fran?”

“Yes,” she replied, looking at me curiously.

“I’m Kim. I recognize your picture from your blog. Are you going to the meet-up?”

We walked the rest of the way together, and we managed to find our fellow writers.

A huge thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing the Slice of Life Writing Challenge now and throughout the year, and to Melanie Meehan for arranging such a lovely gathering, full of fun, laughter, writers’ gifts, and stories! I’m hoping that we will be able to enjoy time together again at this year’s NCTE Convention. I’ll plan to Uber and would love to share a ride with you to the Citrus Society Celebrity Writer’s Red Carpet Invitational Gala!

2022 Slicer Meet-Up in Anaheim, California
A street somewhere in Anaheim where I got lost and somehow avoided being arrested.
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Savoring Saturdays – 1828 Coffee Company Breakfast and Hanging Out at Home

Boo Radley, napping on the back of my chair

Since January, we’ve made an intentional plan to savor our Saturdays by starting with coffee and dialing back the pace of life. Boo Radley and his brothers helped us do that today. All three dogs were in different chairs, in different sleeping positions, strewn across the furniture like cozy throw blankets on this cloudy, cold afternoon – inspiring us to kick back and take it easy.

We started the day at 1828 Coffee Company with a cinnamon roll, a slice of breakfast casserole, cheese grits, lemon biscotti, coffee, and lavender latte. What a feast! What a treasure! The gifts of time, togetherness, and relaxation without pressing deadlines are on my list of gratitudes for today.

And life is far too short not to be counting.

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Savoring Saturday – Coffee, Vacation Conversation, and Baby Goats

From Childcraft Volume 1: Poems and Rhymes, my beloved childhood classic that I still treasure today

Saturdays are for savoring – for making time for coffee, conversation, and time to enjoy life without all the demands of work and deadlines. So on Friday night when my sister-in-law called to see if I wanted to ride with her to pick up some farm fresh eggs, I asked if we could make it a post-coffee date. We’ve been chickenless on our farm for over a year now, and my husband and I have been missing the fresh eggs that we prefer when we have breakfast for supper a couple of times each week. My sister-in-law found a neighbor with plenty to spare.

1838 Coffee Company on the Zebulon Square is one of our local coffee hangouts.
My sister-in-law ordered a latte and a chocolate croissant.
My husband ordered his usual cinnamon roll
….and cheese grits, a Southern staple

After lingering over breakfast and coffee in 1828 Coffee Company for an hour, dreaming of planning a summer vacation to Glacier National Park, we made our way down the road to one of several dozen mini-farms in our rural Georgia county, where homesteaders live on self-sustaining tracts of land filled with fresh vegetable gardens, herbs, and livestock of all kinds. They make their own butters and jams, breads, dry herbs for year-round cooking, and aim to live more than 90% off their own land, right down to the soap they make themselves.

Many of the homesteaders here don’t believe in doctors, choosing instead the ways of functional medicine and homeopathic remedies, along with a diet without preservatives and chemical additives. The free-range eggs and chickens without hormone injections are part of a healthier diet. Their commitment to the land is second only to their commitment to God and church.

My basket of farm-fresh eggs that do not have to be refrigerated until washed

As we were picking up several dozen chicken and duck eggs, we also got to hold the new little kids that are 6 weeks old! Baby goats have a way of lifting your spirits instantly as you hold them or watch them scamper about, doing little spinning sidekicks as they jump off of stumps, filling your heart with joy. Their sheer energy and happiness to be alive is contagious!

My Sister-in-Law with a baby goat
Me with a baby goat
A smiling nanny goat

As we left the farm with eggs and hearts full of baby goat joy, I was uplifted with so many signs of spring – not only baby farm animals, but also daffodils in full bloom and the warmth of sunshine.

Welcome, early spring! I hope the southern groundhog was right.