Good to Know...

Nothing has changed for years with the production of pure maple syrup. The process is the same. Tap the trees for sap, collect it in a bucket, boil it down until it makes syrup. There's nothing better tasting than pure, fresh from the tap, just made, maple syrup from New Hampshire. Maple Sugar Weekend is one thing that many people from New England can't miss.  There is a variety of samples, including maple covered almonds, maple fudge, maple syrup on waffles or pancakes, maple cotton candy, and maple sugar candy. It's all good.   It's only one weekend a year, usually cold, snow covered and slushy. Today was cold, but not one flake of snow. Just the buttery, smokey smell of the syrup boiling in the sugar house.  (Hard to see but the steam is bellowing of out the stack. All of the forest surrounding this place smelled like syrup.) When my children were very young, I started buying pure maple syrup from a health food store in Illinois. Apparently, there was a...

Without even realizing it, my daughter has given me a very big gift. Being an avid reader, she is never without something new and exciting to read. A while ago, she told me about this author that she really loves, Jen Hatmaker. Never heard of her. Never heard of her books either. But she has a new one out called "7." She told me about another awesome book, Breaking Free by Beth Moore. (But that's another story). Anyway, I decided to download 7 when it was only $7 on the Nook. A year from now, I venture a guess that it will have been the best $7 spent this year. The basic premise is that it's an experiment that Jen underwent with her family to rid of excess. Excess of food, clothing, wasting time on electronic devices, etc. She spent an entire month, four weeks, living by a strict rule of seven, 7 food choices, 7 articles of clothing, etc. And it wasn't just about what was absent in those months, it's about what filled the space instead. Since I haven't ...