Family life, vacations, faith, adoption, Down syndrome awareness, and everything that makes the Longstreth family who we are. New here? Meet Jon — his story, his seasons, and what we’ve learned raising a child with Down syndrome.
Care packages for college students are one of my very favorite things to make, and every fall I fill a whole table with them for the college kids who go to church with us. This year it was about 25 little bags, each one with a couple of homemade things, something cute, and something practical,…
This pantry reset was a long time coming. What you are about to see is an area of my house I do not ever show anyone: my pantry slash utility room. It had gotten to the point where I couldn’t find anything, couldn’t get to anything, and couldn’t even open my freezer. So we cleared…
Buddy Baseball season seventeen started on Saturday, October 3, and Jon showed up to opening day having already competed in an entirely different sport that morning. At 9:30 he was at his second Special Olympics flag football skills competition of the fall. By 1:15 he was standing on the baseline in his Cyclones shirt for…
This October Costco haul did double duty. It is my regular monthly stock-up for our family of seven, and it is also the grocery run for a full Thanksgiving dinner I am cooking in October — this Sunday, for all the college kids. So there is a lot on this counter. Four turkey breasts, a…
Bakery 1908 Tampa was sitting right there in the same little plaza where one of my kids had an appointment, so Hannah and I did what any reasonable people would do. We went in, filled a bag with treats, and sat in the car trying every single one of them. Come with me, and I’ll…
Saturday morning was Jon’s first Special Olympics flag football game day of the season, and I am still smiling about it. He is on the skills team this year, which means he does not play in the five-on-five games — he competes in the individual events instead. Throwing for distance. Throwing for accuracy. Catching. Pulling…
Supporting your spouse’s dreams is something I have happily done for thirty-four years, and I never once thought of it as giving something up. For so many years I cheered my husband Jason on through his doctorate, his writing, his preaching and his teaching. Now I have a dream of my own, and that man…
This fall Costco haul is the one where the season officially showed up in my cart. My sound went cuckoo on the video and did not pick up a thing, so I narrated the whole trip afterward — but the cart is the cart, and it tells on me. Pecans for baking. Heavy cream for…
These are the school lunch ideas kids will eat — not the ones that photograph well, and not the ones that come home untouched at three o’clock. I was a lunch lady for a few years, right up until recently, and you want to know how much food gets thrown away? I have seen it…
This back to school Costco haul is the big one. My monthly stock-up and the lunchbox run rolled into a single trip, because I was not about to do that twice in one week. I feed seven people. School starts back up, which means five days of packed lunches sitting on top of dinner every…
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