Ellie@Home by Nicole Kapise-Perkins

    Summer is inching to a close; my classes at UMass open on September 3. Like Liam, I'm beginning to have a case of the back-to-school blues. Puttering around on Goodreads doesn't help: my 'Want to Read' list on Goodreads is 52 pages long. 52! (That's 1038 books, in case you're wondering.) I doubt it will ever get much smaller. For every book I read I add at least two more to my TBR. And now I'm running out of homework-free time! In fact, because I'm an online student, my classes may actually open this Saturday. Boo. (We're usually given a ten day window so that we can access our classes and turn our first homework assignment in on the first official day of class. How does that make sense??) Actually, I can't complain too much. My classes for this fall are Creative Writing and Creative Writing Nonfiction, and I'm almost done with school altogether. One winter intersession class should do it. But let's not count our degree until it's

   My husband and our boy have Taekwondo classes twice a week, and once school starts up again next week our son will also have his after-school program to attend. Evenings are about to get crazy. This is the time of year where I start doing single-pan dinners, as they are fast, easy, and filling. I don't dare ask what they want for dinner, because the inevitable answer will either be pizza or barbecue kielbasa. Ordinarily I would say barbecue kielbasa is fine, because who doesn't love barbecue, right? Well, this particular barbecue doesn't refer to the act of barbecuing, but to kielbasa pan-seared and then drowned in BBQ sauce and served with baked pierogis. It is probably the unhealthiest dinner I have ever put in front of my family and they LOVE IT. Ew.    Taste of Home presented me with a solution to this issue, by showing me that I can oven-roast kielbasa. Why I needed a magazine to tell me that I have no idea. Apparently I am not as bright as I like to think I am. Pe

   Summer is inching to a close--my youngest goes back to school on the 29th this year. We didn't go away for a vacation but instead took some day trips here and there, one of which we are cancelling as Liam will be at school on the day that the Worcester EcoTarium is hosting their Free Fun Friday. We did get to take advantage of the open admission day for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (stunning!) and I took Liam into Boston for a day at the New England Aquarium and sightseeing.  Sunday we are headed back into our capital city for a Red Sox game (Liam's first ever--I am so excited!)    Summer somehow got away from me. We had our trips away and visited the beach a few times, but most of it was spent working as adults are wont to do. I also had a 6-week class from May to the beginning of July that drove me crazy. It is amusing to me that the most difficult writing course I have taken is the one in which I had to write about myself . My imaginings are far more appealing to

I've been lax about posting this summer, but I am back on the boards! Stop by the SageWoman Magazine Blog to read a bit about the festival of Lughnasadh, the first of the three harvest festivals. And while you're at it, remember to offer thanks where it is due: to the farmers. Praise to the Farmers : Walking out of my office is like opening an oven. The heat is a wall, strong, searing; there is a scent similar to baking bread rising from the grass that is toasting under the sun's unrelenting rays. My drive home takes me past farms along Route 5 in Deerfield: potatoes, tobacco, and corn growing strong and green despite the heat. We are not exper...