TRAVEL

Durango, Colorado
Some people prefer large soirees with friends and food and gifts to celebrate monumental birthdays, and we have hosted a couple of those fun events over the years. Yet as Mark’s fortieth birthday loomed, I wanted something quieter and
packing light | family travel with economy
Deciding what is essential to pack for each family trip can feel like simplifying a complex math equation, one that includes a limited travel budget, growing children, and shifting weather. Roughly nine years ago, when
a letter to my children | summer portraits weeks 26 – 35
Dearest children, We are now several weeks into our school year and have been reading oodles of fables together lately, samples from the more familiar Aesop’s Fables to India’s Jataka Tales to West African Folklore, and while the characters and
TAOS, NEW MEXICO
Take me someplace where we can be silent together. ― Elizabeth Gilbert, The Signature of All Things We left for New Mexico before the sun, my one hand in his, the other holding coffee. I’ve always struggled
The Frio river
Last weekend our family traveled several hours west to spend a few days with friends near the Frio River.  I always love visiting that place. Tucked away from cell phone service and internet access, it
on packing a minimal weekend bag
In so many sweet ways, motherhood has been a journey in simple living for me, one I’ve always craved and not always known quite how to live. It may seem insignificant to some, but learning to
I AM COYOTE | an interview
When I first began writing in this space in 2007, I was influenced by and quoted Thoreau’s Walden. Like so many before me, I treasured his imperative to suck the marrow out of life, to
a summer afternoon
Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. — Henry James Last weekend we traveled south to a sweet family wedding near the South Texas
enchanted rock
This weekend we camped next to a 450 foot pink granite rock with birds to wake us and the stars to tuck us in. On Saturday, Burke’s birthday, the kids and I climbed a large boulder