Browsing: Lifestyle
In Topeka, Indiana, a few miles from the Teaberry workshop, Elaine Jones smooths experienced hands over a blue-and-white field of patchwork stretched taut in a quilt frame. Jones, 62, hit on the idea of starting an endless quilting bee, where visitors can gather for an hour of stitching alongside Amish women who grew up with the craft. Visitors come for the chance to stitch (and for the homemade lunch) and soon realize they have much in common with the famously plain-living Amish, Jones said.
Dear Upset: These adults are your son’s children. Evidently your son didn’t get the family memo about how important it is to appropriately express gratitude for a gift. You obviously lay the blame for this rudeness on your daughter-in-law, but you should share your frustration with your son. He’s their parent, too.
Picture a precious log cabin, almost dollhouse-like in its proportions. A campfire sits outside, with a pile of wood on the small porch, next to a comfy wicker love seat. Inside, a little wood stove and snowshoes are tempting draws for a return visit come winter, when guests can read the Nordic literature at the little wood table, pages lit by the cabin’s twinkling string lights.
Dear Amy: In a response to the “Testy Traveler,” the traveler who was bothered by her chatty seatmate on an airplane, my response to talkative seatmates is, “I hope you don’t mind pausing our conversation, but I must rest my mind, now.” I then close my eyes and relax.
Dear “You’re My Mom”: Your son says this to you because it is true. Furthermore, you have obviously raised him very well because you have encouraged him to find his biological family members, and, having done so, he recognizes how challenging this is for you. He sounds sensitive and kind.
The beetle on your flower is called an Oriental beetle (Anomala orientalis). It has a similar biology to the Japanese beetle, and the grubs are almost impossible to discern between the two. It is attracted to many different ornamental flowers, but is usually a very minor pest, so it does not need to be controlled.
This is what happens when the entire neighborhood shows up (virtually) for what people might think is a block party, but which quickly devolves into a snip-fest. Reading comments posted there can be like overhearing the conversation at the “mean girls” table in the middle school cafeteria, only to realize that they’re talking about you!
Do get to know your equipment. A wide variety of sprinklers, hand nozzles, soaker hoses and other devices are available, delivering water in many patterns and at different rates. “Use a sprinkler or a nozzle often enough so you are familiar with how it delivers water,” Yiesla said. For example, water with a hand nozzle for what feels like an appropriate time, and then dig down a few inches. “You may be surprised to see the soil beneath the surface is still dry,” she said. “Experience will teach you how long you really need to water to have an effect.”
If the children request something that you don’t have on hand, you can say, “Oh, we don’t normally eat Malted Chocolate Power Puffs for breakfast so I don’t have any in the house, but I can toast a mini-bagel for you.” If this becomes more of an issue, the parents and grandmother are on hand, and you can readily defer to them.
People are navigating different cultures, seeing things in person, like the Parthenon, they’ve only seen in pictures. “They’re learning a lot about themselves,” she said. “By the end of that trip, the next indicator that an impact was made, they will ask me, ‘When’s the next trip?’”