This week, the Ben’s Day Wednesday team cited creative differences in their nearly irreconcilable meal plan. Ben wanted shrimp teriyaki tacos. Definitively. Mom thought shrimp teriyaki tacos sounded shrimp teri-yucky. (I love shrimp! Why would I try to jam it in a taco with teriyaki sauce?) Ben’s position: I love shrimp! Tacos and sauces are…
Category: Life With Ben
Spectator Sport
This week, Ben has been under the weather. I will follow that with the obligatory, “But he tested negative,” because that is the phrase we all wait for these days. Still, I didn’t want him near food prep, so he was a spectator this time. Like any good fan, he had many opinions, but he…
Freundschaft
Unlike many of my first cousins, I don’t speak Pennsylvania Dutch, but I know enough to know that we spent the weekend with freundschaft (relatives). Ben and I didn’t get a chance to cook together, but reconnecting with cousins I haven’t seen for ages gave me the opportunity to reflect on family and identity. One…
All the Feelings are Making Me Worn Out
We were in Kansas for Grandpa’s funeral over the weekend, and though the trip was hard, it was also wonderful to be with family, remembering Keith together. Grief came in waves to Ben and to us all. The visitation and burial seemed hardest. At a certain point, Ben flopped down on Grandma’s couch and summed…
Spanning Millennia – Remembering Grandpa Sprunger
On Sunday, we lost Ben’s grandfather, Keith Sprunger. What he was, to all of us in our own ways, cannot actually be summed up with mere words, but Keith was a man of words, a true scholar, so we will try. Before he was my father-in-law, Keith was my history professor at Bethel College, where…
Don’t You Carrot All For Cake?
For Easter, Ben and I planned to make carrot cake. To be more specific, I’ve been craving carrot cake for about 20 years, and Ben agreed to assist me. For some reason, I just couldn’t face making it Saturday, so I got up early Sunday morning and took on the task alone. Ben conveniently woke…
Clark Mast, Wide Open!!!
My mother grew up as the youngest of ten children in an Old Order Amish household. Though my maternal grandparents lived well into their nineties, I, being nearly the youngest of my zillion first cousins, and living a distance away, never developed a very close relationship with my grandparents, and mostly know them through my…
Big Week
These days, we have a million things going on. We’ve been laying low restaurant-wise, and that does not go down without a fight from my young valentine. Translation? Porterhouse steak at home. Of course, the Super Bowl comes with certain expectations on Ben’s part. He was all excited about some wings we had in the…
Work in Progress
We knew the snow was coming, and it was great that this was a scheduled day off for me. Ben and I got up early, as is our custom, and by 8:00, we went out to take it on. Phil messed up his back, probably taking all of the patio furniture into the shed by…
A Love Letter to Williamsport Restaurants
Today, we planned to have brunch out. We had reservations, Sophia was going to join us. It was a whole thing. Ben shaved. He put on a sweater. Then there was sleet, and of course, the backdrop to every story of the last two years, Covid. The restaurant was closed. All the restaurants were closed….