Author: Lisa

Lisa A. Listwa is a self-employed writer with experience in education, publishing, and the martial arts. Believing there was more to life than punching someone else’s time clock and inspired by the words of Henry David Thoreau, she traded her life as a high school educator for a life as a writer and hasn’t looked back. She is mother to one glorious handful of a daughter, wife to the nicest guy on the planet, and reluctant but devoted owner of three Rotten Cats. You can find her adventures and thoughts on living life deliberately here on the blog.

Making Good on Some Promises

Sometimes life gets away from me. It’s kind of like an unruly dog. He snaps the leash and takes off running. I chase after him, the world a blur as it whizzes by… A few weeks ago, I did a post that included quite a bit of food. In that post, I mentioned that I…

By Lisa January 3, 2013 Off

The Making of the Fruitcake

So, the fruitcake… Recall, if you will, that this bowl of festivity soaked up its Amaretto goodness in my refrigerator for about two days prior to The Making of the Fruitcake. The actual Making of the Fruitcake went well. I searched for quite some time until I found the recipe that I thought sounded most like…

By Lisa January 2, 2013 Off

Happy New Year to You!

Hello, dear readers and friends… Yes, I am still alive. I know I have been “off the grid,” here for a while. It really was unintentional. I posted two sort of gush-my-heart-out posts right after the events of Newtown, CT a couple of weeks ago and then…well, I just felt kind of off. I had…

By Lisa December 31, 2012 Off

No Answers

I just finished reading today’s news…not that I don’t already know what’s going on. The faces of the Sandy Hook victims on my screen actually startled me and brought instant tears to my eyes. But we refused to turn on the television or boot up the Internet with our daughter anywhere close enough to absorb one…

By Lisa December 17, 2012 Off

No Words

Of course, the Nation and the World’s eyes and hearts are turned to Sandy Hook, CT today. Like everyone, Fab Hub and I would like to know why…what causes something like this to happen? But there is no answer, no explanation, nor will there ever likely be – at least not one that satisfies. Zilla…

By Lisa December 15, 2012 Off

Five Friday Favorites with the Rotten Cats

Now that the Rotten Cats are blog stars, they’ve decided they would like to be featured more regularly here on the blog. They brought their demands to the table and we sat down this evening to negotiate terms. Their terms were simple: put us on the blog or we’ll claw the carpet. Too little, too…

By Lisa December 14, 2012 Off

Stay At Home In Your Pajamas Day

The Saturdays in our life are widely varied – sometimes we run errands or go grocery shopping; sometimes we go hiking or on a little day trip somewhere. But our favorite kind of Saturday is a day where we do absolutely nothing in particular. Fab Hub and I are pretty much homebodies. We aren’t huge…

By Lisa December 13, 2012 Off

The Light in Our Lives

Sunday was the second Sunday of Advent. It also happened to be the second night of Hanukkah. Ours is a two-faith home; Fab Hub/Dad is Jewish and Zilla and I are Catholic. At first glance, this is quite a disparity. But not as much as you would think.

By Lisa December 12, 2012 Off

The Food Post That Almost Wasn’t

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I did not fall off the planet and into a black hole. And despite the fact that I really hate when I hear myself say “I’ve been busy” in response to a question about what I’ve been doing or how I am, the truth is that we really have…

By Lisa December 11, 2012 Off

Your What Hurts?

When met with a strange-sounding statement or something he didn’t quite understand, the Fab Hub will often ask the speaker, “Your what hurts?” It gets a laugh – or at least a quizzical look – every time. So when I saw a headline at MSN.com the other day began with the question, “What’s a Yurt?”…

By Lisa December 4, 2012 Off