Some evenings I sit down at my computer with every intention of getting something done, and then a song comes on.

I listen. Then I play another one. Before long, I’ve spent an entire evening following the music wherever it wants to go. Sometimes that takes me straight to Bear and Becky. Sometimes it brings back a memory I haven’t thought about in years. And sometimes I just really need to hear that guitar again.

There are worse ways to spend an evening.

Life has been full lately. Teaching takes up a considerable portion of my days, and Midway Saints has a habit of occupying my brain well beyond the hours I actually spend working on it. There are quilts waiting to be made, places I want to explore, books stacked up to read, and usually something happening in my kitchen.

If you’ve wandered around this website, you’ve probably noticed that all of those things have found their way here. You might arrive looking for a novel and end up with a recipe, a photograph from Colorado, or a song I’ve been playing on repeat.

That feels about right.

When I think about what I want this space to be, I want it to feel like spending a little time with me. Books are a big part of that. So are the mountains, the music, the fabric piled up while I decide what belongs in a quilt, and whatever I’ve decided to cook. This website is the outward expression of a life that has quite a few things going on at once.

The kitchen deserves a fair amount of space in that picture. I cook a lot, and I’m good at it. I enjoy feeding people, making something worth sitting down to eat, and seeing what I can do with what I have on hand.

Sometimes that means a tried-and-true recipe I know will turn out well. There’s comfort in making something familiar, especially at the end of a busy day. Other times, I’m looking through an old family recipe, thinking about the person who made it and remembering when I’ve eaten it before. Those recipes can bring people and places back to me in a very immediate way.

And then there are the days I want to explore. A recipe catches my attention, an ingredient gives me an idea, or I decide to try something I haven’t made before.

Following a recipe exactly is another matter.

I tend to read it, consider its suggestions, and then make a few decisions of my own. I might change the seasoning, substitute something, or decide it needs a little more of this and a little less of that. Sometimes I’m working from experience. Sometimes I’m curious. By the time dinner is ready, the recipe and I may have taken slightly different routes to the table.

I also have a husband who starts cleaning as soon as the meal is done. Len keeps the dishes handled, which is a pretty wonderful arrangement for someone who enjoys making a mess in the kitchen as much as I do.

That curiosity follows me out the door, too. I love exploring—taking a road I haven’t traveled, getting out on a trail, or seeing what’s around the next bend. Give me mountains, an interesting stretch of highway, and time to stop, and I can keep myself entertained for quite a while.

Photography lets me bring some of those adventures home. Looking through my pictures takes me back to where I was standing, what caught my attention, and what was happening around me. A photograph of a road or a mountain can bring back an entire day: the detour, the weather, the people I visited, or the reason I pulled over in the first place.

Sharing those photographs here gives me a chance to revisit the places I’ve been—and bring you along for a little of the trip.

Some of my exploring happens through history. I have a master’s degree in history, and my curiosity about the past has given me plenty to pursue long after finishing the degree. There is always another place, another question, or another account I want to spend time with.

Right now, I’m getting ready for a deep dive into the Silk Road. On the surface, this is for my students. There will be lessons involved, and they will certainly benefit from the research.

But I’m also doing it because I’m fascinated by that part of the world and the idea of traveling through it. I want to spend time imagining those journeys: the distances, the landscapes, the places people stopped, and the encounters along the way. What would it have felt like to arrive somewhere so far from home? What would you notice? What would you carry back with you?

This is one of the advantages of teaching history and geography. Sometimes I get to call following my own curiosity lesson planning.

My reading habits wander just as much. I can go from a history book to a romance, pick up a thriller, and then follow someone else across unfamiliar country in an adventure travel story. There are too many interesting things to read for me to stay in one section of the bookstore.

Sometimes I want to learn. Sometimes I want suspense. Sometimes I want to fall in love with a couple of fictional people or see a part of the world through someone else’s eyes. Whatever I’m reading, I want something that keeps me turning pages.

And I’m very good at telling myself I’ll stop at the end of the chapter.

Morning-teacher me has some opinions about how well evening-reader me honors that agreement.

Then there’s the music.

Anyone who has spent much time here knows how much it matters to me. I can hear a song and immediately know where it belongs in a character’s life. Other times, I have to sit with it a while before I understand why it caught my attention. A line, a voice, or an acoustic version of a song I already love can keep me listening long after I meant to move on to something else.

I’ve spent plenty of nights doing exactly that. Sitting here, listening, letting my mind wander. Sometimes I share a song because I want someone else to hear what I hear in it. Sometimes I’m still trying to figure that out myself.

And somewhere in all of this, there’s usually a quilt in progress—or fabric waiting for me to decide what it’s going to become. I love choosing the colors and watching the pieces come together. Finishing one takes time, especially with everything else competing for my attention, but there’s a lot of satisfaction in making something someone can wrap up in.

There are jigsaw puzzles, too, with their own ability to turn “just a few minutes” into a much longer commitment. Apparently, one more piece and one more chapter work on the same part of my brain.

I also enjoy drawing and painting when I can persuade some of my creativity to wander away from the book for a while. Lately, the characters have been fairly possessive of it. Still, I like having other ways to make something, and I’m always glad when I give myself time to pick up a pencil or a paintbrush.

I also have a hard time resisting a good estate sale or thrift store. I love wandering through and seeing what catches my eye—fabric, something for the kitchen, an interesting piece for the house, or something I had no idea I needed until I found it. There’s a little exploring involved in that, too, and I enjoy imagining the history of the things people have kept. Even the wrap I’m wearing in the photograph with this post was a thrift-store find.

Through all of this, there’s time with my family. With four children and thirteen grandchildren, there are plenty of people to love and plenty of reasons to put a project down. A football game, a visit, a meal together—those are things I want room for, too. The quilt can wait a little longer. So can the chapter.

I make room for all of it as best I can. Some projects wait longer than I’d like. Some evenings turn out very differently from what I planned. I’m learning to appreciate the ones where I finish a chapter, make a good meal, find a song, or simply enjoy the company of the people I love.

There’s a particular happiness, too, in knowing that while I’m here reading someone else’s book, someone somewhere might be reading mine. A paperback heading to a new home or a few hundred pages read is a welcome reminder that the stories are out there having lives beyond my desk.

So if you’ve wondered how the books and recipes and quilts and music all ended up in the same place, this is how. They’re the things I keep coming back to, and the things I want to share.

I hope you’ll wander around a little. Find a story, try a recipe, revisit an adventure with me, or listen to a song. I’ll probably be here debating whether I have time for one more chapter.

Or changing something in a recipe.

Or playing that guitar part again.