Monthly Review: September 2025

Learn impermanence,

O frail immortal.

Kiss the dust from whence

you issue and return.

Made as you are of that which fades and withers, bless

the flowers; bless the dying leaves.

Know transience,

O fallen glory, little idol

of the living God who gives

your form and being.

Accept inquietude,

O dying star,

which blazes for the briefest night and is no more.

This dark enshadows that which is to come:

that far unsleeping land beyond

that everlasting summer bloom

that form enduring ever

Run unfainting as the outward earth is wasting.

Bless the coming of the light

Bless that eternal dawn.

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Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of September.

What I Read

• Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens (★★★★★)

• Tom Lake, Ann Patchett (★★★★★)

• The Hired Girl, Laura Amy Schlitz (★★★★★)

• Surviving Savannah, Patti Callahan Henry (★★)

If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.

What I Cooked

• Crockpot Hamburger Helper

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★

Keeper: No

Comments: Ugh, this should have been so much better than it was. The taste and look were rather reminiscent of dog food. I want to like it because the method was easy, but it was just not good.

• No-Peek Chicken

Difficulty: ★

Flavor: ★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I wouldn't say this wowed me, but it certainly could not have been easier, and I can see it being a great casserole to contribute to a meal train.

• Orange and Zucchini Olive Oil Cake

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I love fruity olive oil cakes and good uses for zucchini. Absolutely a win.

What I Created

• The first paragraph of a new essay

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May your days be filled with beauty, and may your heart be filled with the willingness to see and give thanks for it.

Monthly Review: August 2025

This is the last of the summer days, though the calendar says otherwise. It seems to come earlier and earlier each year, this feeling that it is all ending, and ending too soon. I feel it with the cool mornings and creeping dusks, the withering flowers and the leaves blushing like schoolgirls.

But here, today, it is all summer: seventy-five degrees, sunshine filtering hazily through clouds, butterflies sipping hibiscus nectar as we stroll through the botanical gardens. A cardinal flashes from treetop to treetop, and we can still hear his song after he disappears. We wander the gravel paths and boardwalks, pausing for you to photograph this plant or that creature. The photos will languish on a memory card for weeks before you look at them; it’s the taking of them you like, anyway.

We rest on a bench beside the golden pavilion at the garden’s edge. The water lilies in their pools have a kind of vivid unreality to them--purple, blue, pink, yellow, a shock against each green lily pad. A week from right now I will be sitting in my office, probably in some dry in-service meeting, while my mind drifts like a leaf in a stream. It will carry me back here.

Though it is too late for lunch and too early for dinner, it is always the right time for ice cream, so that’s our next stop. Something with chocolate and peanut butter in a waffle cone for you, blackberry lemon bar in a sugar cone for me. It tastes as fresh and bright as summer. With careful licks I smooth the craggy scoops into even rounds, savoring each ripple of blackberry and chunk of pound cake. When I reach the cone (too soon), I snap off pieces with my teeth, spiraling down to its pointed end. Since this cannot last forever, I have determined to enjoy every bite before it all melts away.

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Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of August.

What I Read

• Ask Again, Yes, Mary Beth Keane (★★★★)

• Forgiving What you Can't Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That's Beautiful Again, Lysa TerKeurst (★★★★)

• The Betrothed, Kiera Cass (★★★★)

• The Betrayed, Kiera Cass (★★★★)

• Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Therese Anne Fowler (★★★)

• Chosen Ones, Veronica Roth (★★)

• Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez (★★)

• The Forest of Vanishing Stars, Kristin Harmel (★★)

• When the Stars Lead to You, Ronni Davis (★)

If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.

What I Cooked

• Summer Squash Pizza

Difficulty: ★★★

Flavor: ★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I overbaked this a bit, but it was still delicious.

• Cuban Sliders

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: These do get soggy left over, but they are great fresh.

• Croque Monsieur Dutch Baby

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: Easily my favorite Dutch baby recipe I've tried. I do prefer the savory ones to the sweet, and the bechamel really took this over the top for me.

• Mango Chia Pudding

Difficulty: ★

Flavor: ★★★

Keeper: Maybe

Comments: I always think I'm going to like chia pudding more than I do. It was fine.

What I Created

• Some progress in my project

• Some more of the recipe compilation

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May your days be filled with beauty, and may your heart be filled with the willingness to see and give thanks for it.

Monthly Review: July 2025

A Waltz for Goodly Farm

Chandeliers of fireflies,

Light the purpling dusk.

Let your little lamps so shine

on this goodly night.

Banjo brash and fiddle fine,

Make your harmonies

Honeyed, sweetest of their kind

with each goodly note.

Dancers, feet and faces bare,

Waltz this song away.

Find someone beside you there;

Hold their goodly hand.

Ending to this blessed time,

Linger yet a while

as we fix now in our minds

goodly melodies.

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Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of July.

What I Read

• People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry (★★★★★)

• The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, David Grann (★★★★)

• The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon (★★★★)

• Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, David W. Blight (★★★★)

• A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles (★★★★)

• The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman (★★★★)

• The Little Liar, Mitch Albom (★★★★)

• Jackie, Dawn Tripp (★★★★)

• The Gifted School, Bruce Holsinger (★★★)

• Naomi and Her Daughters, Walter Wangerin Jr. (★★)

• The Ladies of the Secret Circus, Constance Sayers (★★)

• Wild Awake, Hilary T. Smith (★★)–reread

If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.

What I Cooked

• Baked Honey Mustard Boneless Wings

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: This recipe uses the same base honey mustard as the salmon bowls from last month and the sandwiches from the spring, and while it's not as good as her garlic parmesan wings, which use a similar method, I still enjoyed these.

• Sheet Pan Stir-Fry

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: Could not be easier.

• Chicken Broccoli Alfredo

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I don't think the sauce proportion quite matches the noodles and broccoli, but it is a great-tasting sauce for an easy and classic dish.

What I Created

• Some progress in my project

• Parts of a couple articles

• Most of a compilation eBook of recipes for beginner cooks

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May your days be filled with beauty, and may your heart be filled with the willingness to see and give thanks for it.