Taylor Cothern - July 24, 2022 Learn Fresh Ideas Through Reading “Summer Reading” - you may think back to your childhood and the fun summer reading programs offered by your local library. Let’s be honest, the best part is picking a prize out of the treasure box! Maybe summer reading makes you think of sitting by the beach with a 300 page romance novel. Or maybe summer reading makes you think - “Wait, what? That’s a thing?”Maybe sitting down and reading a book isn’t your thing. That’s totally okay!  The reason “summer reading” is so popular is because of the...

Natalie Misner - July 17, 2022 Market Fresh Recipe One of my favorite things about summer is all the fresh food! Whether you grow the food yourself, find it at your local farmers market, or have some extras given to you from a friend, there are fresh fruits and vegetables everywhere in the summertime! Eating fresh is a very seasonal thing. The availability of each fruit or vegetable has a relatively narrow window of time in which you can really enjoy that item. Now, of course you can go to the grocery store and find most fruits and veg any...

Lindy Bridgman - July 10, 2022 Top 3 Favorite Flowers to Grow for Creating FRESH Flower Arrangements Hi friends, it's Lindy from Two Blooms Flower Farm + Small Town Garden Life. I've spent years growing flowers + today I wanted to share with you my top 3 must grow flowers for fresh arrangements. 1. Zinnias! These beauties are the powerhouse of the garden. They grow best in full sun + can be planted after danger of frost has passed (typically early May in Central IL) the more you cut them the more they bloom! They come in a variety of...

Taylor Cothern - July 3, 2022 A Fresh Look at Summer The beginning of a new year often brings fresh starts for people. It’s a time when people set goals, make New Year’s Resolutions, and create a plan for what they hope to accomplish in the upcoming year. But, I am sure we have all known someone, or have been that someone, that didn’t exactly see our plan or goal through.  That’s why I don’t set a goal for the whole year. I break my year up into smaller sections. Sometimes I set multiple small goals to achieve a big...

Adventures in Scavenger Hunting – a blog post for the entire family   By: Kelly Damery   May is truly a magical month. It could be snowing, raining, windy or sunny, and it could happen all in the same day if you live in the Midwest. But what’s extraordinary about the month of May is that it really is the unofficial start to summer. School is almost over, you’ve probably had to do your first mow of the year, you can practically smell charcoal grills everywhere and best of all swimming pools are opening. Spring break vacations are behind us,...