Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living
If you have a cold or a sore throat, this is the soup for you. It’s been a sick staple in our household since 2017. Ginger is a soup-er star [pun intended] for gut-healing, immune-supporting meal, as ginger helps open sinuses, loosens congestion, soothes a sore throat, and relaxes tight chest muscles.
The week between Christmas and New Year is always a black hole of time, space, and energy. The rules don’t apply, and I’m typing this up 12 minutes before posting. This week, in the spirit of stretchy pants, no gym, and a glass of wine at 3pm on a Wednesday, I tried baking a chocolate pavlova, with homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit. I couldn’t get my egg whites and sugar to give me the stiff peaks I was supposed to get, but decided to bake anyway. It came out way better than I imagined for something that demanded stiff peaks. The chunk missing at the top… well, I have four children that also demanded they try it, before serving it after dinner. Anyway, our Joseph family drama continues!
I’ve read (or rather, listened to) a lot of books, but The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert landed in that rare category: the kind of story that makes you want to slow down and savor it – because it’s rich and thoughtful. It’s a beautiful story that fills you up with the sheer fascination of nature, the history of science, country, and God. It’s a story that’s heavily character driven and has a lot of unpredictable wonder. In addition to lots of unpredictable wonder, there were many times where I had no idea where this book was going… which added to the fun.
Welcome back to another Soup Day! One of my favorite things about winter? A weekly soup + sour dough night. Give me a hearty soup any day of the week. This week we went with a hearty and flavorful lentil soup, slow cooked all day in my beloved slow cooker. The pay off for peeling and dicing in the morning is well worth the pay-off 8 hours later. I hope you enjoy this soup as much as I do!
This weeks parsha speaks powerfully to life inside a home. So much of motherhood and marriage is lived in the tension between planning and surrender—doing what we can to prepare, while knowing we cannot control outcomes. Joseph models foresight without fear; Jacob models the pain of letting go; Judah models what it looks like to step forward and take responsibility when it matters most. We are not asked to be perfect parents or spouses, only to become more honest, more restrained, and more willing to carry responsibility with courage when those we love are at stake.
Winter slows everything down — whether we want it to or not. The walks are shorter, the days are darker, and even the simplest errands feel heavier when you’re buckling car seats with numb fingers, navigating icy parking lots, and wrestling winter coats + gloves onto small bodies, small hands. December, January, and February ask a lot of us, especially when we’re caring for little kids and still trying to keep everyone fed, warm, and steady.
During seasons like this, I’ve learned to lean into rituals that make the weeks feel gentler instead of harder. One of those is soup night — one dependable evening each week where dinner is warm, nourishing, and uncomplicated. Five years ago, during another especially hard winter, my best friend challenged me to plan one new soup recipe a week. It gave the season shape. So here we are again, returning to what works.