Greetings from Minnesota to all of you Orange Marmalade friends! This past week has been one of greening up here! Still just shy glimpses of leaves budding on our trees, but frogs madly chorusing, turtles sun-basking, eager shoots pushing up …
Category: musings

a golden opportunity to celebrate a golden anniversary
Spring is arriving here in the Northland, despite the blasts of snow we had last week. Our yard hosted a large flock of robins one day — we counted almost 30 hopping about and feasting on their journey north. And …
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five lovely things…april 19
Another week has rolled around and I hope it has been largely uneventful for you and those you love. That may sound like a funny thing to wish for, but we all understand that uneventful = good in the current …

five lovely things…april 12
Warm greetings to you all and a Joyous Easter or Happy Passover to those of you celebrating today or in the coming week. I hope today finds you and those you love well, and safe, and that wherever you are …

Stories and a Little Something
A boatload of disappointments, vexations, and inconveniences has landed on adults and children alike over the past weeks. Really bitter pills have had to be swallowed, stressors have mounted, and ironically in a world of social distancing, a squish of …

five lovely things…april 5
Hello once again, dear friends. I wonder what this week has brought you, and hope it was monotony at worst, and preferably some simple pleasures and glimpses of beauty. Here are my five lovely things for this week: 1. Humor. …

reading while the libraries are closed…ideas and resources
A warm April hello to all my fellow readers out there from Minneapolis, where our libraries have been closed for a couple of weeks. Woe and alas! I’m guessing that many of you, likewise, are operating without access to a …
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peel yourself off the ceiling…encouragement after that first week of school-at-home
Hello again, all of you who have been a-sailing on the choppy seas of social isolation and school-at-home! I’m imagining a variety of responses to the first week of homeschooling for many of you, from, “that actually went way better …
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five lovely things…march 29
Hands up if this feels like the longest March on record. How have we lived so many days in just one week? Here’s my collection of five lovely things for this week: 1. Neighborliness showing up all over the world …

the kids will be fine…encouragement for parents with kids home from school
A calming hello to all of you, especially those with children schooling at home for the first time. I hope this finds your households well and at least moderately sane! Today I want to offer some words of encouragement as …
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