Author: Lindsey P. Brackett

When I'm not wrangling four kids and a middle school classroom, I sit on my back porch in the mountains and write southern fiction that's short and long. I believe in Jesus, library fines, supper at the table, the Edislow life, and strong coffee. Pretty much in that order.
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Best of October Camping {31 Days: Day 12}

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

If you’re looking for a place to raise your tent or park your camper or just sit by a fire and listen to some Dylan, may I recommend….

….but unfortunately the government shutdown has closed some of these parks temporarily.  Clearly none of our politicians have ever experienced the joy of a fresh mountain morning on a clear day in October when the leaves are just about to peak and the tea is sweet but the air is sweeter.

So may I recommend some of the amazing state parks that are just moments from my home but will make you feel worlds away from the stress that comes with realizing that somehow your children have rearranged all the icons on your ipad? Not that I would know anything about that….

Vogel State Park  near Blairsville
Unicoi State Park outside of Helen
Black Rock Mountain  in Mountain City
Tallulah Gorge State Park right at the Habersham/Rabun line
Amicalola State Park moments from Dahlonega

Happy Camping!  Where are some of your favorite places close to home?

For all my posts in this 31 Days series on Living Local click here.

31 Days of Living Local · Friday Five

The Local Ordinary {Five Minute Friday}

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

Because even though it’s October and I’m writing about Living Local for 31 days straight, it’s also Friday, and I’m learning to find my place in a local online community of gifted writers who let it all fly free for Five Minute Friday.  We’re linking up over at Lisa Jo’s where she makes the ordinary crush of goldfish crackers on the floorboards seem like magic.


The other day I missed my turn into the hospital in downtown Atlanta where my niece was born and found myself winding back into tree lined streets with craftsman houses from the 1930s and 40s whose yards have shrunk but whose hearts have remained the pulse of this city.

Right there barely 300 yards beyond the shrubbery were chain restaurants and bus terminals and a major metropolitan hospital, but back here was just an ordinary neighborhood. Pumpkins on porches, wreaths on doors, cars at the curb.  Runners and strollers and jogging mamas and at the end of the street a park protecting the last of the green space from development.

I love where I live.  But sometimes that pulse catches me a bit.  That idea that I could have an ordinary life in an extraordinary place and expose my children to more museums and cultures and life than I do right now.

But my ordinary heart beats in rhythm right here.  Its pulse is mountain majesty and fewer choices.  Its culture is quilters and potters and painters and tradesmen.

It’s the life I’m giving my children so that someday they can choose which ordinary is theirs.

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31 Days of Living Local · thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday {31 Days: Day 10}

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

I used to do a lot more Thankful Thursday posts, and then, I don’t know, I got busy and though I wasn’t ungrateful for anything, sometimes I act like it. So today, all I’ve got is this.

That’s last fall.  New pictures are being taken tomorrow.  He’s bigger, their hair is shorter (well, not Amelia’s), and time is marching past me way too fast. I’m thankful for my incredible photographer friend and that she’ll spare a few moments tomorrow to capture just a bit of what really is my local these days.  {and guess what?  Keep reading, you might even want to subscribe!, because at the end of the month, she’s part of a giveaway right here.}

When I was being more intentional about counting my blessings, I often linked up with Julia.  She’s a local friend who moved to Louisville for her husband to finish seminary, and now it’s their home and ministry.  She and Lance are incredible people who are bringing home a baby girl from Ethiopia very soon!  If you’d like to read about their adoption journey or support them by making a purchase in her Etsy shop do so here.

Embracing my blessings today. What are you thankful for?

For all my posts in this 31 Days series on Living Local click here.

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How to Really Camp in the Rain {31 Days: Day 9}

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment
Pictures circa 2009 when we were still a family of just four. This is an old post from my Facebook Notes (remember those?) and back when this blog was barely getting twelve hits. Hoping for more than that today 🙂


Well, we weren’t singing in the rain, that’s for sure.

 We’d been planning a fall break camping trip for weeks and the plan was to get some chores done at home over the weekend and wait to begin our trip until Monday. That way we could camp on Monday and Tuesday, play in the mountains, visit the pumpkin patch, do some hiking, roast some marshmallows….it was going to be fun. Just the four of us communing with nature (and every public toilet and latrine around since preschoolers and pregnant women have no concept of “hold it”).
On Sunday, after a consultation with weather.com (really, how did people plan before?), Joshua made the suggestion that we head on out since the weather was so nice, but rain was moving in tomorrow. Didn’t look too bad. We figured if we set up in the dry, we could weather the drizzle.
Except a drizzle wasn’t the forecast.
Camp was set up, all was good at Andrew’s Cove, just north of Helen, a picturesque USFS campground with a rushing creek, awful push-pedal potties, and plenty of sites to choose from because apparently others were wiser than we. We trekked over the mountain to Hiawassee for firewood and a forgotten can opener, decided to treat ourselves to The Deer Lodge since the hamburger meat was still frozen in the cooler, and then spent the evening roasting marshmallows, drinking hot chocolate, and listening to James Taylor, thanks to the only other brave souls in the campground. We all went to bed by ten, the girls actually went to sleep (I read them the only book I brought, Anne of Windy Poplars), and we rested pretty well on our new air bed, only waking once to venture outside for reasons I have mentioned before.
Then, 6 a.m. came. At first it was a pitter-patter. Kind of pleasant. Then a steady sprinkle. Not too concerned. By seven, it was a deluge and no longer were we high and dry. The tent had begun to leak. The girls had woken up antsy for pop-tarts. And I couldn’t figure out how to cook canned biscuits on a camp stove.
We gave it up. Ran for the van and came home. By 8:30 we were having hot showers and the coffee was perking in our own cozy kitchen. Ahh…now this is a vacation.
Except that it’s now 5:57 in the evening and Joshua has had to go back and break camp in the rain. Oh, well.

For all my posts in this 31 Days series on Living Local click here.

Come back the rest of the week for links to our favorite North Georgia (and a little further but maybe local to you) camping spots and a post on the 10 Things you shouldn’t miss if you’re ever in a certain Alpine Village that’s up this way.