life, travel, stories – Join the journey, Love Raven
Dear Reader, Allow me to very meekly announce that I am now on the “socials,” namely, Twitter and Instagram (#followme). I must say that even though I have been Facebooking since 2009, my 10+ years of experience on FB do not translate well into Twitter or Instagram. Instagram At the risk of sounding like a... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, While the freedom of religion is a founding tenet of the United States, not all religious communities respect this choice. Several weeks ago, I read Educated by Tara Westover (review here) and learned about the author’s strict Mormon upbringing in rural Idaho and eventual escape from her cloistered lifestyle. More recently, I read... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, As a novice baker, I tend to bake within my comfort zone. So, instead of looking far and wide for new recipes, I take comfort in putting together sweet breads (more here), flatbread (more here), and sometimes even cakes (more here). All was well in my little kitchen, until, unexpectedly, my boyfriend put... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, We all face challenges. While sometimes it would feel so much better to just ignore our problems or give up when things get hard, we all know that this course of action seldom brings true reward. One of my biggest challenges (I say semi-jokingly) has also been one of my most rewarding, namely,... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, I am geographically repressed. Since the start of the pandemic lockdowns in Massachusetts until yesterday (aka about 115 days), I had literally only visited one establishment. In this time period, I have paced near endlessly up and down the hallways of my apartment building and have strolled outside in the open air. While... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, We’ve all seen before and after pictures of extreme weight loss. These moments in time, however, only present you with a tiny fragment of the incredible journey. I recently finished reading It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell, in which she details her struggle to lose weight and keep it off. Mitchell’s... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, There are two types of people in this world: those who think raisins ruin everything and those who don’t. I squarely fall into the latter category and frequently add raisins to yogurt, oatmeal, and even sandwiches on occasion. I’ll pause… if you feel triggered by this information, this post may not be the... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, Along with baking (more here), I seem to have picked up another kind of fun pandemic activity — mask making. I must stress the words “kind of fun,” because, half the time, sewing for me is just finding myself at the wrong end of the needle or undoing mis-strewn threads. Regardless, I am... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, Just yesterday, Mary Trump’s highly-anticipated tell-all Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man hit the shelves. The title alone is just too much to pass up and the audiobook enthusiast that I am, I just could not pass up the opportunity to listen to all six... Continue Reading →
Dear Reader, If you’ve read the news recently, you probably saw that Florida is the new coronavirus hotspot in the U.S.. Specifically, on July 12, the Florida Department of Health reported at least 15,299 new COVID-19 cases for that day — yikes! The coronavirus situation in the U.S. is atrociously bad and you don’t need... Continue Reading →
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