After avoiding all grains for several years, Mommy has entered the world of home-milled Einkorn wheat and organic/non-GMO legumes and steel cut oats. Granulated cane sugar has been tossed and the learning curve for maple syrup, raw local honey, and coconut sugar has begun. The majority of the family still enjoys caffeine and dairy products, while Mommy is committed to staying caffeine and dairy-free indefinitely. Our recent culinary successes and failures are documented here.

My planner is one of those simple ring binder journals you can pick up from any stationery supplies store. White paper. No ruled lines to cage my venturesome handwriting and doodling. I’m an obsessive note-taker and fill pages to the margins with to do lists, rough sketches, and ideas for blog posts. I usually go through one planner every month.

Who me? Organized? My husband might tell you otherwise, but I do find it hard to keep track of our weekly schedule. You know: school, swimming, grocery shopping, tidying up, paying bills, remembering appointments and so on. Fortunately, in our house we all pitch in. No one person does everything. But we do have a little secret that helps our day run more smoothly.

There are millions of tips out there on how to fly with kids, what to bring on camping vacations, which suitcase to buy, where to go and what to see in just about every corner on Earth. What I want to share today is something a little different – something that we discovered last summer during a family hike in the Appalachians.