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Out of my League
If you know anything about life in a small town in Texas, you know about the central importance of high school football. Maybe you’ve seen the amazing TV series (which I miss desperately), or read the...
View ArticleRanging Free Fridays
I was inspired to start this site in part because of all of the beautiful and thought-provoking content created by others. The Internet, for all its flaws, has certainly spawned a revolution of...
View ArticleShipping Container Living
Fascinating story about a woman who’s leading a drastically simplified life — in a modified shipping container house that she’s customized herself — so she can spend more time with her daughter. Gets...
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Day By Day
Image courtesy Shutterstock M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is a surreal place. Walking in the main entrance, it’s not unusual to see two patients chatting in their lobby, each with their own...
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Scenes From a Terminal Illness
At 3:30 a.m., there’s no problem getting an elevator quickly at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I walked through the empty hallways with a Celsius thermometer in my pocket, not knowing anything at all about...
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Difficult Ends, Fresh Beginnings
It’s now been a little over two weeks since my father passed away. The little things are the most heartbreaking. I pulled out an onion to make dinner the other night, and recalled that I’d bought the...
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Always A Parent
I lay by the side of the road, deep gash in my knee and bike on top of me. My first thought is of my 3-year-old son, who has been riding with me. I remember at one point trying to get myself upright,...
View ArticleThey Grow Up So Fast
Dutch filmmaker and photographer Frans Hofmeester documented the growth of his daughter, Lotte (12), and his son, Vince (9), from baby-hood to present day via the touching time-lapse videos below....
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Emails From September 2001
Following, emails and photos I sent to family members in the days and weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001. From pparker@reporters.net Tue Sep 11 09:00:43 2001 Importance: High X-eGroups-From:...
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Homegrown Potatoes
The last week or so, I’ve been scouring the Internet for information about potato diseases and pests. What, I wondered, could be causing my potato plants to wilt with leaves eventually turning yellow...
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Recipe: Kid-Friendly Pressure Cooker Picadillo
A few years ago, my cousin turned me on to the pleasures of pressure cooking. If you’re going to make soups, stocks, stews, legumes, or even risotto, it’s a huge time-saver. It makes it possible to...
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Living Simply: Being Happy With Less
Behind all this back-to-nature, recycling, renovated-school-bus, simple living philosophizing that I do on this blog is a simple desire: to focus on the right things, to be happy. And, of course, to...
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If I Had A Dog….
Beautiful song and video released this week by Nat Johnson, on a subject that’s near and dear to my heart, and that of all dog lovers. The post If I Had A Dog…. appeared first on Free Range.
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Recipe: Making Daily Whole Wheat Bread
You’ll notice this post is titled “Making Daily Bread” and not “Making Bread Daily.” I’m a do-it-yourselfer, but I’m not a martyr. Some pioneers in the organic/local/sustainable food movement note...
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The Growing Sanctuary Population
How could one resist this face? Well, we didn’t. This is Cocoa, our eldest son’s dog, who joined the family after our softhearted child saw one of those awful tear-jerking sad-animal commercials on TV,...
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Better To Have Loved And Lost?
It’s a bit more lonely in my home office than in recent days. I didn’t even know I was missing anything, but after my husband found a lost Chihuahua just before Christmas, I found — and my whole family...
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The Swedish Pancakes Of My Childhood [Recipe]
The best recipes often come with a story behind them. This week, looking for a nice basic red sauce, I came across the much-lauded recipe by Marcella Hazan that’s incredibly simple — so simple it’s...
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The Bluebonnets In Our Front Yard
Taken while the boys were hunting for Easter eggs this rainy morning. Posted by Free Range on Sunday, April 5, 2015 The post The Bluebonnets In Our Front Yard appeared first on Free Range.
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The Littlest Canine
You may recall me writing sentimentally about a little lost Chihuahua that stayed with our family through Christmas last year. Well, we grew so fond of “Cookie” that it didn’t take us too long to head...
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Recipe: Cinnamon Coffee Cake Chocolate Chip Muffins
It’s been a busy time at the homestead, with preparations for Christmas, ongoing volunteer work, kids’ activities and much much more (including my full-time job), but I always love an excuse to bake....
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