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growthesunshine

Big week for my favorite people, one of whom gradu

Big week for my favorite people, one of whom graduated high school and the other of whom turned 21. Naturally, a bunny ate all our tomato plants and then gave birth to a six babies in their place. Life cycles, man. We can’t keep them from coming. #ClassOf2023 #21stBirthday #RascallyRabbit

The ferns are winning.

The ferns are winning.

On this day, 9 years ago, I had absolutely HAD IT

On this day, 9 years ago, I had absolutely HAD IT with diet culture entering the world of my 8 year old daughter as she recovered from heart surgery. Because of a surgical complication, she had to eat a fat free diet for 6 weeks. It was terrible, and having adults ask her for diet tips was just beyond. AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD CARDIAC SURGERY SURVIVOR BEING ASKED FOR WEIGHT LOSS TIPS.

I wrote about this in Kitchen Medicine, but reading the new book by @v_solesmith (FAT TALK, buy it yesterday!) has made it even clearer to me the kind of damage it does to our children to value thinness over everything. My amazing, funny, sweet girl who should have been growing and playing and thriving was losing ground daily, and then Wendy Weightwatcher would show up and ask about the best fat free sour cream and truly, everyone was lucky I didn’t become a snarling wild animal.

And it doesn’t stop with this situation and this kid. When you’re at a party and you compare notes with someone about whether you’ll lose more weight on diet A or Diet B, you’re triggering the person behind you who struggles with eating disorders and teaching the little girl on someone’s lap that this is Important Adult Information: how to make yourself smaller.

Fuck this noise. I hate this memory. I hope you all share the heck out of it.
#DietCulture #Chylothorax #FatTalk

Oh no. Look what my high school senior just found.

Oh no. Look what my high school senior just found.

YOU GUYS I WAS HOLDING MYSELF TOGETHER BUT A MOM CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH. #ClassOf2023

An afternoon at the immense expanse of tulips at @

An afternoon at the immense expanse of tulips at @richardsonadventurefarm with my favorite females, thanks to @noranoh8 who told us about it. I am a details person, not a big-picture person, especially when it comes to stories and nature and people. I love each little stripe on each flower more than I love a whole field of them, but wow, the whole field of them was amazing. Also amazing: these two women with whom I get to share my life, powerful feminine energy holding so much for me to learn and love. The details of their faces? More fascinating to me than any flower.

Four places at the Shabbat table. We’re whole ag

Four places at the Shabbat table. We’re whole again. #HomeFromCollege #ShabbatShalom

Well would you look what just arrived in the mail?

Well would you look what just arrived in the mail? The beautiful memoir by @karendeboniswriter, GROWTH: A MOTHER, HER SON, AND THE BRAIN TUMOR THEY SURVIVED.

“What do you think of on the day of your child’s brain surgery?” she asks, finally, and I understand this question, substituting the word “heart” for brain. Caregivers who have shepherded children through frightening illness see and recognize each other, and Karen and I have a shared history, decades apart and on opposite sides of the country, in children who would never know each other and hospitals and practices that are unrelated — but we get it. We get it. If you want to see yourself reflected because you get it, too, go order this book.
#Caregivers #MedicalMom #parenting

This is one of the first films my smart, observant

This is one of the first films my smart, observant, and creative daughter made. It wasn't designed for the small screen but I'm sharing it here anyway, a "Hands and Pans" story of one of our favorite soups. Today is Decision Day for a lot of high school seniors, a day they announce their next plans. She's headed to University of Iowa to study cinema. I can't wait to see all the things she makes next. #HandsAndPans #ChickpeaSoup #KitchenMedicine

With unending thanks to @pamelaadlon and @BetterTh

With unending thanks to @pamelaadlon and @BetterThingsFX for making this song the theme music for taking out the garbage and making me see that even moms can have swagger. #DinnerTime

The last peaches from last summer’s fifty pound

The last peaches from last summer’s fifty pound haul via @thepeachtruck. My last perfect bowl of oatmeal until I get more peaches in July.

*sigh*

Sometimes a song just won’t leave me. This one,

Sometimes a song just won’t leave me.

This one, known as both “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie” or “The Dying Cowboy” is one of them. Every time I hear it, a story plays out in my imagination. Good lyrics will do that, but also, my own fascination with graveyards adds to the mystery. Who is this dying cowboy? Who are these people, buried and marked with statuaries or stones? Why am I so endlessly fascinated with them?

I can’t know, so I have to invent. It’s time to write some ghost stories.

#amwriting

This is the easiest, sultriest pasta I’ve ever m

This is the easiest, sultriest pasta I’ve ever made in under 30 minutes or maybe ever, and it’s by @natsnourishments. 7 ingredients. Go get it. Go. Why are you not getting it on with this spectacular, simple, plant-based scrumptiousness yet? #Vegan #VeganPasta

Anything that can be done outside in magical weath

Anything that can be done outside in magical weather like this, should be. Photo dump from this reprieve. #Midwest #Spring

Back with another tip especially helpful to the ma

Back with another tip especially helpful to the matzo ballers this week: bounce your uncooked matzo balls off an onion to keep them from splashing you!
#passover #MatzoBallSoup

I’ve been hitting the keys pretty hard for a whi

I’ve been hitting the keys pretty hard for a while now, especially W, E, I, O, P, A, S, D, F, G, C, V, N, and M. I hit E, D, and C so much I tore right through my keyboard cover.

It’s the little things that move me back into rhythm, like a fresh cover. Bring it, crumbs and coffee dribbles.

I often find myself drawn to children’s graves i

I often find myself drawn to children’s graves in cemeteries, probably because I worried so often that my younger daughter’s heart condition made losing her more likely. I take a moment to imagine the parents of these buried children. It’s raw and troubling to do this, but it’s instinctual and feels holy. I don’t know anything about this grave that you can’t find out from this photo, but I bet this child’s parents would have done anything possible to keep her alive nearly a hundred years ago when she died.

Do I even need to say anything about the murder of children in Tennessee today? About how my heart reaches for their parents?
About the bile rising in my throat? About how I feel when someone says “thoughts and prayers?”

Yeah. You know.

My book, KITCHEN MEDICINE, was published just over

My book, KITCHEN MEDICINE, was published just over a year ago, and what better way to celebrate than with these adorable earrings gifted to me by the vibrant, thoughtful, delightful, eloquent @llkirchner_ ?! Her book BLISSFUL THINKING comes out in September, and if you suspect you’ve been asking the wrong questions about what life’s all about, you need to get on her mailing list and get ready for preordering that book from @motina_books!

In the meantime, I’m here in my adorbs book earrings, prepping another trifle because why not? It’s Friday, the daughter who I worked so hard to feed throughout the story of KITCHEN MEDICINE is bringing her fellow hungry teens home with her, and the house will be full of powerful young women who need tasty treats. It’s my favorite thing. It really is.

Happy Friday!

When the local big box store is going out of busin

When the local big box store is going out of business and selling trifle bowls for $6, you really have no other choice.

Vanilla cake, chocolate cake, vanilla bean pastry cream, regular vanilla pastry cream, Rich Whip, strawberries, raspberries, and —of course— Oreos. All dairy free!

This song is on repeat in my little office, so her

This song is on repeat in my little office, so here’s a year’s worth of my coworkers who inspired several scenes in this book. No crows, but so many woodpeckers.

My taste just gets more eclectic as I get older, w

My taste just gets more eclectic as I get older, which I love. I just finished my dear friend Ronit Plank’s short story collection HOME IS A MADE UP PLACE, and now I’m slowly inhaling Gayle Brandeis’ DRAWING BREATH, a collection of essays. I’m pretty sure I’ll be ready for a novel after that, but just in case, I have more essays, more short stories, and a juicy study by Brene Brown. You never know.

@ronitplank @gaylebrandeis @anthonydoerrwriter @toshikazukawaguchi @ginafrangello @therealmargaretatwood @brenebrown

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