Because You Don’t Need a Special Occasion to Make an Occasion In the summer of 2004, I asked a friend a rather unusual question. I wanted to know where I could drag out my good china, silver, crystal glasses and candelabras, set an elaborate table outside, bring a wonderful dinner, and spend an evening with…
An Antique Wardrobe and the Story My Dad Left Behind
I Wasn’t Expecting to Hear His Voice I laughed first. Then I teared up. I had been working through another of my dad’s old Sunday School lessons, carefully reading the pages he gave me years ago as a Christmas gift. The lesson was dated April 28, 2002, and titled “Promise of Restoration.” Its Scripture came…
Family Fire Pit Ideas for Meaningful Gatherings
How the places we prepare for gathering hold our families through every season Affiliate disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, Chicks on the Road may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We share products and companies that meaningfully fit the stories we…
Sauce Day, Part 2: What You’ll Need Before the Tomatoes Hit the Pot
There’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about Sauce Day. The tomatoes are waiting. The jars are lined up. Someone turns on a little music, the kitchen starts getting warm, and before long, everybody has a job. But here’s something we’ve learned: a good Sauce Day actually begins before Sauce Day. A little preparation makes the whole day…
10 Romantic Ways to Make the Most of Summer’s Last Golden Days
“Some of the sweetest love stories aren’t written on exotic vacations. They’re written on front porches, country roads, quiet lakes, and beneath skies painted with the last golden sunsets of summer.” There is something bittersweet about the last weeks of summer. The calendar still says August. The afternoons are warm enough for sandals, iced tea,…
Vintage Backyard Traditions
The Backyard Memory Collection: The Ordinary Things That Made Extraordinary Summers Some of our favorite vacations never required a reservation. They happened just beyond the back door. Welcome to The Backyard Memory Collection, where ordinary objects tell extraordinary family stories. Some were passed down. Some were well worn. All of them remind us that the…
The Blue Wagon That Carried Our Childhood Memories
Remember When… The Blue Wagon Knew the Way. “Sometimes the greatest inheritance isn’t a house or a bank account. Sometimes it’s a blue station wagon full of ordinary weekdays that quietly became the story of your childhood.” When people ask me what it was like growing up in Virginia Beach, they usually expect me to…
Family Tomato Sauce Day, Part 1: Starting a New Family Tradition
The Sauce Day SeriesThis is Part 1 of our Sauce Day series. Ready to start gathering everything you’ll need? Continue to Part 2: Getting Ready for Sauce Day → There are a lot of tomatoes in my freezer right now. And I mean a lot. Our garden has been generous this summer, so lately I…
Vintage Fall Tailgating Ideas: The Blue Wagon Collection
Discover vintage fall tailgating ideas inspired by a classic blue station wagon, cozy family traditions, football weekends, and autumn picnics. Love the Look? View Our Curated Amazon Selection → There was a time when I couldn’t wait to own something—anything—other than our blue station wagon. It wasn’t sporty. It wasn’t flashy. It certainly wasn’t cool….
Grandaddy’s Fishing Pole: How Ordinary Objects Preserve Family Stories
From The Stories You Gave Me My father was not a fisherman. He made that perfectly clear to his Sunday School class one Sunday morning in August of 1999. “I am not a fisherman,” he told them, before admitting that he owned a small amount of fishing tackle that seldom got used. But that morning,…