Welcome to the inside of my head, virtually speaking. This is the place to find links to buy my book, to look up my speaking engagements, to connect with my other social media, to read my occasional blog posts, and to otherwise connect with me. Just follow the links at the top of the page to get to just the information you are looking for today.
Who am I? I am a child of God first and then a wife and then a mother. I am married to an Orthodox priest and we have eleven children. I write and speak on food, nutrition, Orthodox Christian fasting, and family issues.
Yeah, but who am I? I am a farmwife on my husband's family's nineteenth-century homestead almost a mile from the closest neighbors. We raise our own beef and dairy as well as mutton, poultry, and duck eggs and are (slowly) expanding into fiber. I knit like it is my job and am learning to spin and process my own fiber. I also make artisanal cheese, dye yarn, and practice photography. If there is an older, harder, and messier way of doing a thing, I am all about it. I am not afraid of hard work. I am from Colorado and had no idea how much that shaped my identity until I left it. I may live in the upper north woods but my heart is in the Rockies.
Things that might be interesting about me:
- I don't own a single pair of high heels or a cocktail dress. That's okay. The cows and sheep seem unconcerned about those things.
- I also don't own a single lipstick. I do have a tinted chapstick in my purse, though, 'cause I am extra like that.
- I don't own a hairbrush of my own. I have curly hair and it can't handle being brushed. My fellow curly girls get it; the rest of you are a little concerned right now.
- My best friend and I once founded a bookclub dedicated to tea, homemade French pastries, and books but specifically banned Russian novels and all things G.K. Chesterton because who even has that many hours to read? It was admittedly small but the best book club ever and its like may never be seen again.
- Every winter, we process entire beef steer, beginning to end, starting in the yard and finishing up on my kitchen table.
- My father (of blessed memory) was a disco dance teacher in the early seventies and I can do the Hustle and the Electric Slide and always end up teaching it to people at weddings.
- I am learning to be fearless. Until then, I am gonna fake it 'til I make it.
- I am an amateur water-er of sticks. If you don't know what that means, you need to meet St. John the Short.
