About EmmaLeigh



Hi and welcome to my blog! Thanks for stopping by.

I was born and raised in Upper Michigan, and it's where I'm raising my family now. Here in this blog I'm sharing some of our moments from The Copper Country, Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Yooper culture as it's being lived in real life.

I look forward to sharing our stories and images with you.

Welcome to Copper Country Living. I'm glad you're here.

-EmmaLeigh

Popular posts from this blog

Why I Write Letters to my Stepchildren

I write letters to my stepchildren. My stepchildren live with their mother, 3.5 hours away from us, during the school year. There's not much we can do about that since they need to attend school, but keeping in touch with their day to day can be hard. Last year I started writing them 'snail mail' letters, complete with self-addressed, stamped envelopes. While I've never gotten a reply from either child, I know they are at least getting my letters and they know that their dad and I are thinking about them. It's my own little way of showering them with love from a distance. Phone calls with kids are awkward. I don't know if you've ever tried to talk to a kid on the phone but they're easily distracted and it's not always possible to follow their train of thought. Talking on the phone with our kids has the added 'fun' of their mother hovering in the background, listening to every word and interjecting into the conversation when she's
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Christmas Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

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Yesterday was the winter solstice, the darkest and coldest time of year. Well, it isn't really the coldest. Earlier in the week would have been the coldest. Wednesday's windchill was a balmy -25°F. We've been having a warm snap rolling in to the weekend (it's currently 42°F). Heck the sun is even out right now. But the days have been undeniably short. Hubby and I both are shocked when we want to crawl in to bed but the clock only says 6pm. We've also been up to our eyeballs in snowfall and are measuring in at a little over 110 inches already this year. #winterproblems Christmas is right around the corner. In preparation, Christmas cookies are on the to-do list. I'll likely make others yet before the week is up (the step kids will be here soon and I have to find something to keep them away from screens for the next 7 days) but the Peanut Butter Blossoms from the back of the Hershey's Kisses bag- they are my to-die-for cookie. As a kid, ever
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Loving Through the Mess- Painting

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Hubby and I have almost finished painting at the new ho use.  We've been living here a few weeks now, but it's starting to finally feel like ours and not just someone else's place we are squatting in. As I mentioned in my previous post about moving while pregnant , we bought our new family home from smokers- who were gross enough to smoke indoors. Which meant there was no removing the smoke from some things. After lots of cleaning (hello vinegar), throwing away of window treatments (they were ugly anyway), odor sealing primer, and fresh paint you can't tell there were once smokers here. And damn was I shocked at how much the smoke residue was stressing me out. I haven't always been such a neat freak. I used to spend a lot of time in places that reeked of cigarette smoke in college, and didn't think twice about it. But when I got pregnant, the reading material about foods I couldn't eat sent me into a spiral about all the poisons out there that we can
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Not Just Living for the Sun | Facing Depression with Human Connections

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Yesterday was the first warm sunny day we've had here in the Keweenaw in awhile. Most of us took a moment to bask in the glow of sunlight (I went to the beach to listen to the waves), but we can't live only for the sunny days. We need to know how to cope with the gloomy days too- because there's not a single person who doesn't have them. It's going to rain and snow sometimes. This time of year, the cabin fever blues (aka seasonal depression from lack of sunlight) is common around here. One of my friends made a comment recently that last winter she was depressed and really only enjoyed the handful of days she spent on vacation in the south. This winter she's been trying to get out and enjoy the snow, embrace the simple joys like a good cup of coffee, and live for each day- not just the sunny ones. She's right, we can't only deal with our feelings on good days. We have to process bad emotions too. The idea of feeling our emotions fully is rarely talked abo
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