Tag: Louisiana
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Scent
What makes you feel nostalgic? I wrote this essay a while back. It just happens to answer this prompt perfectly! Thanks to winter storm Jonas, a/k/a #Blizzard2016, I had an unexpected “winter break” from teaching, and I must say I have really enjoyed my #snowcation. Sandwiched nicely between my Christmas break and my Easter break,…
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Making Paradise Out of the Desert
I just returned from morning Mass. It is quite cold today, 33 degrees F as I write this, but with the wind chill factor it feels like 16 degrees F. Snow flurries greeted us when we began our short drive home from church. The sun is shining brightly into my writing space as I ponder…
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A Cajun, an Italian, and a Belgian walk into a bar…
What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals? The title of this essay is a take on the age old joke, “A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar…” But, these three cuisines really define three meals my family loves time and time again. I grew up in southeast Louisiana, on a…
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Not An Anniversary To Look Forward To
How are you feeling right now? Sad. Nostalgic. Brokenhearted. That’s how I feel right now. Today is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall near my hometown of Port Sulphur, Louisiana. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina lifted my parents’ home off of its foundation and deposited it, broken in half, across the back…
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The Scent of Home
https://open.substack.com/pub/michardillo/p/the-scent-of-home?r=etmuf&utm_medium=ios
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Book Review: Buzz! Boom! Bang! By Benjamin Gottwald
This delightful children’s picture book has no words, just beautiful and colorful illustrations. It is a master class in the literary device onomatopoeia. If I were still teaching middle school language arts, I would bring this book into my 7th and 8th grade literature classroom and have students sit in small groups to “read” it…
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Book Review: Through an Open Window by Pamela Terry
First, thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Terry, through her publisher Penguin Random House, for the ARC of this new novel, to be published on August 19, 2025. This is Pamela Terry’s third novel, and I feel that her work becomes stronger and stronger with each new book. She is a true Southerner, and her…
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Friends, Family, Food, But No Funeral!
My husband and I just recently returned home from a nine-day trip to our home state, Louisiana, where we had the time of our lives. This trip was planned around my nephew’s engagement party, bookended by family time and some really great food. When my husband and I married, we were both living in Maryland,…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 