Body
Build a strong and vibrant body from the inside out. Your body is your foundation, the starting point of all your adventures. By honoring your body and making deliberate choices about exercise and nutrition you pave the way for greatness.
Body
Take a Hike! with Kids!
Before having children, my husband, Mike, and I enjoyed hiking, backpacking, camping, paddling, and skiing. We swore we would not stop doing these activities simply because we were adding a little person to our family. I know some families who are successful at sticking to this goal, my best friend among them, but a couple [...]
The Empowering Practice of Yoga
I used to be a spazz. I was not an athlete in high school. I was a baton twirler. I didn’t wear sneakers; I wore high boots with tassles. My uniform was covered in sequins. During football season I accompanied the marching band during the half-time show, which was the closest contact I had with [...]
Eco-Friendly Summer Solstice BBQ at the Beach
Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year…it’s when kids are sticky from drippy popsicles, have sandy toes from long days at the beach, enjoy carnival rides and popcorn, pick strawberries in big baskets, dance in creeks, and sleep under the stars. It’s a time when mother-nature welcomes us to dine on her land [...]
Eat Your Weeds
My friend on Facebook lamented one Saturday that she had hours of weeding ahead of her and feared for her poor back. “Eat your weeds,” I wrote back, “don’t kill them!” I got a “lol” in return. But I was serious. Here’s the thing: a weed is merely a plant that grows where it is [...]
Roller Coaster of Sugar: Let me off!
What would your life look like if you never ate sugar again? By sugar, I mean the refined white sugar found in your coffee, muffins, and lots of packaged foods, not natural sugars found in whole grains, fruit, or natural sweeteners. Ending the daily ride on the roller coaster of sugar dependency lowers the [...]
Budget Gourmet: Clean Eating on a Dirty Budget
In the last issue of Sparrow I wrote about my journey embracing the Clean Food Challenge. My return to deliberate eating brought discoveries of new recipes, moments of deep nostalgia while re-creating old staple dishes from early in my mama days, and, dare I say, the best complexion I’ve sported since I was pre-pubescent. This [...]
Mind
Sacred Pregnancy; A Loving Guide and Journal for Expectant Moms, by Anni Daulter. A book review.
It has been over three years since my youngest child was born. My life as a pregnant woman, which often seems incredibly far away from where I am now, can come right back to me in swells of emotions, memories, and sensations. Pregnancy, my journey into motherhood and the births of my children — the [...]
Summer Reading: Book recommendations for everyone
Books from a few years back that you don’t want to miss. Recommendations by Carol Farthing A Strong West Wind – a memoir by Gail Caldwell – Gail Caldwell is probably best known for her more recent book, Let’s Take the Long Way Home, but A Strong West Wind is equally laudable. She captures the [...]
Using Natural Light to Your Advantage — 6 Tips to Improve Your Photos
These days, almost everyone has a camera, whether it be a DSLR or an iPhone. And that’s awesome. I love the fact that we have such easy ways to document our day to day lives with the people we care about, and I’m sure you’ll cherish these photos in the years to come. Since these [...]
Me, You, and “i”
I’d like to introduce you to my faithful pal, “i”; he’s very good at keeping me connected. I rely on him tremendously and find it hard to believe there was ever life without him. I spend more time with him than anyone else. When I ask my husband, “Where is ‘i’”?, he knows I am [...]
Healing Yourself from the Tsunami of Anxiety
Life Can Change In An Instant One normal day at home, while I was getting ready for work, I felt the strangest sensations come over my body. These sensations came on so fast and out of nowhere. I walked through the doorway from the kitchen to the living room in the apartment I was living [...]
A Bride’s Frame of Mind; How one bride uses journaling to stay sane
Now, nearly three years into my second marriage, I can calmly look back at the events leading up to my wedding and answer the three billion questions that my 12-year-old daughter asks about how I felt before getting married. The most amazing thing is that I kept a journal and captured my thoughts and feelings. [...]
Nest
Inhale: Creating a Peaceful Home Environment with Essential Oils
In today’s harried world, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and stressed. Unfortunately, emotional well-being is directly tied to physical well-being, and stress is one of the major contributors to illness and disease. Our homes should be a respite from all that outside stress, but sometimes home can be just as stressful as everything we try [...]
Lessons from the Kitchen Table
My grandmother Merdie had a large table that sat squarely against the long window in her kitchen. She kept it covered with a yellow and orange vinyl tablecloth that had little tears along the edges. The inner lining poked out in little white tufts and I pulled them out like little puffs of cotton candy. [...]
Keeping a Mindful Garden Journal
I’m enchanted by my garden. I step into my backyard and into another world – a world beyond the chaos of managing a young family, a household, and a career. In the bright summer sunshine, I dig into my little plot of land and my mind clears. My senses engage in the smell of tomato [...]
Canning 101: How to Preserve Your Summer Fruits and Vegetables and Enjoy Them Year Round
Do you love your farm share or your vegetable garden, but don’t know what to do with your extra vegetables? Do you have three extra quarts of strawberries from the U-Pick farm down the road? Are you looking for that perfect homemade gift? Canning may be your solution. Canning is an excellent way to preserve [...]
Connections
Sweet Summer: Sparrow Readers Share Their Best Childhood Summer Memories.
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” ― Henry James Reading through the summer memories submitted by Sparrow Readers, I can practically smell the fresh air and hear the screen doors slamming on the porch. These snippets made me realize how sensory our experience [...]
Get Your Jam On! Musings on the Beauty of Making your Own
photo by abbybatchelder “What are you making this year?” I ask my sister. “I’m out of cherry and strawberry. And I thought I might try cherry rhubarb like that pie.” “Ooooooh, fancy,” I tease. “Mark is making grape.” “Mark is always making grape. If I hear about his grape one more time…” “Yeah, but it [...]
Are we There Yet? How to stay sane and have fun in the car with your kids.
Kids and cars can sometimes be a challenging mix. Particularly when the ride is long, and the median age of the backseat is somewhere around 5 years old. When the ride is long or the kids are restless, my family will begin to play some Car Games. Whether it’s a Car Game based on counting, [...]
Live Like a Tourist in your Own Home
Have you ever considered taking a year off, selling your home renting an RV and traveling? I brought this idea up to my husband last week. I love to travel. I love to see new places and learn their history. Most of all, I want my three children to experience as much as possible while [...]
The Homemade Baby Food Experiment
As nanny extraordinaire to two amazing babes, food justice activist, yoga teacher, and general cooking and health enthusiast, I was psyched when one of my moms asked me to start making food for her five month old. Our goal: no prepackaged jars, no plastic, as much local food as possible. Three new foods each week [...]
Flight
Lessons from Boston
Mile five. It was only mile five of the 26.2 miles that stretched out from Hopkinton to Boylston street and every part of me knew that this day was going to be a fight to the end. I knew I would have to dig deeper within myself than ever before and test limits that I [...]
Plow to the End of the Row; One Woman’s Perseverance in the Writing and Publishing World
It was 2004. While driving to meet my writing group, I happened to catch an interview on the radio with Adrienne Young, a folksinger just starting out. She talked about her first album, inspired by some advice she’d gotten while struggling to make it as a musician: “If you want to do this with your [...]
Giving Birth at Home
When I found out that I was expecting my first child, I was overjoyed. I knew that being a mother was my calling in life. And like any new mother-to-be, I immersed myself in the world of birthing information readily available to us information-age mothers. After spending countless hours doing research and talking with other [...]
Giving Your Time Reaps the Greatest Rewards
“We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give.” –Winston Churchill When I got my first professional job out of college, I remember feeling a pang as I realized I was about to enter the corporate world. My college years had formed me into quite an idealist, [...]
What are people talking about?