Iris in my front flower bed! It’s Iris time in Tennessee again! I get pretty ridiculously excited every year as it gets closer to time for my irises to start blooming. Late March to early April usually finds me on my knees in the flower bed studying to see if any bloom stalks are starting... Continue Reading →
Carter G. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History” was the son of slaves who became the second black man to earn a Ph.D from Harvard University. He was a noted author and historian. As Black History Month is coming to a close, I have been reading many stories of people that I have... Continue Reading →
Here in middle Tennessee, we find ourselves pretty well buried in the snow that has covered much of the country these last few days as winter storms have moved through. Early this morning my husband saw several deer coming up the street and cutting through our driveway. I was able to capture a picture of... Continue Reading →
Two years ago, I wrote a blog post entitled Stepping off the midnight train on New Year’s Day about Corrie Ten Boom’s release from the concentration camp Ravensbruck just in time to ring in New Year’s Day a free woman as her sister Betsie had foreseen. Backing up a few days before this new found freedom,... Continue Reading →
In high school, my group of friends went through a period of being slightly obsessed with quoting the holiday classic Christmas Vacation. It’s one of those movies to me that if I had just watched it on my own and moved on with life, it probably wouldn’t have been one of my favorites, but since... Continue Reading →
Last month I took a small road trip to check out another Tennessee State Park that I had never had the opportunity to visit before: Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park in Manchester, Tennessee. It was a dreary, rainy fall day, but it still made for a beautiful, refreshing hike in the rain through the... Continue Reading →
This fall I have decided to try and visit a few of Tennessee's beautiful state parks to enjoy my favorite season and watch the leaves of Tennessee change colors. As much as I love travel and have many places around the world I would love to explore, I have to think that middle Tennessee where... Continue Reading →
“I can’t imagine a man enjoying a book and only reading it once.” CS Lewis “It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” CS Lewis “Clearly, one must read every good book at least once every 10... Continue Reading →
In May of 2015, my husband and I traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to attend the 141th annual Kentucky Derby. Though we had been to Churchill Downs many times before and many times since, it was the first and so far only time we have ever seen the “run for the roses” in person and by... Continue Reading →
In her TED talk, Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses her skewed view of literature as a child due to reading a limited representation of human stories. Growing up in Nigeria, she read British books, and when she began to write, she told stories of British characters who drank ginger beer because “the characters in the... Continue Reading →
Rachel F. Jean 