This will be the fifth summer since my youngest flew the coop and I proclaimed myself an empty nester but last week I had the realization my empty nest hasn’t really been empty these past four years. A few weeks after moving my youngest out of our home, other young girls moved to town and sort of settled in my nest. They became my “other” girls. I hugged one of the girls good-bye and I cried. As I watched her walk away and into her life in the real world, it hit me that my nest really was Keep Reading...
Our Own Queen
This is a post from last year but in honor of Mother's Day, I decided to post it again because it seems even more fitting on this special day. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Last week was full of “Royal Talk” due to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. News channels, tabloids and social media were full of “Royal Talk.” Like so many others around the world, I watched the Queen of England make her entrance clad in her lime green outfit and take her place for the Keep Reading...
Sailing 2.0
“Sailing. Takes me away. To where I’ve always heard it could be. Just a dream and the wind to carry me. And soon I will be free.” When I heard Christopher Cross sing those lyrics as a young teen, I envisioned myself smoothly sailing with nothing but peace, sunshine and a cool breeze tickling my senses. During my last semester at Texas A&M University, I decided I would learn to sail. I needed six credit hours in order to graduate so I was enrolled in the first summer session. Keep Reading...
Is God Really Good?
Is God really good? Last week our family said good-bye to my sister-in-love and friend. Since my husband’s mother died when he was just two years old, his sisters became mother figures to him so he lost his sister, mother and friend. My sister-in-love was an aunt and a grandparent to my three girls. She will be greatly missed and I don’t have adequate words to convey the depths of the sorrowful hole she leaves in our hearts and family. At her funeral service, there was a message touching Keep Reading...
Digging Up Roots
I love trees. I really love big shade trees. Living in the South has given me a love for shade and the trees that produce shade. Shade is life in the south during the summer. Well, it’s pretty important from about April through October. When my husband decided to cut down the ONE tree in the backyard offering us any escape from the scorching rays of the sun, I was not happy. Not happy at all. The tree also shaded several rooms in the house from the glaring rays and limited the heat trying Keep Reading...
What Houseguests Taught Me
My houseguest is gone. She came for two weeks and I asked her to stay for six months. And another six months. One year. My houseguest was more than just a houseguest. She was my friend, my daughter, my playmate and often my confidant. She had to return to The Netherlands. We are both sad. And though I am sad she is gone – and gone so far away – I am grateful my husband and I were able to have her here for a year. She wasn’t our first long-term houseguest. We also invited a young man into our Keep Reading...
Snow Biking – Really, that is a “Thing”
Okay, just the title, Snow Biking, tells you this will be a ridiculous story (with a good ending so keep reading.) Snow and biking should never be in the same sentence. Seriously. But I learned that the hard way. Yes, I went snow biking. For my fellow Southerners, let me explain what the heck snow biking is. Snow biking is when you get on what southerners would call a mountain bike except it has super fat tires with super thick tread – for the snow! I was at a resort somewhere in Keep Reading...
The Day I Rescued A Turtle – I Mean – A College Boy
My three girls were used to me slamming on my brakes, backing up, jumping out of the car, dashing into the road, snatching up a turtle and carrying it to the safety of the nearby ditch. They weren’t always happy about my turtle rescues (especially as teenagers) but they were not surprised when it happened. Last weekend, I was hurrying to meet one of my daughters two hours away for a grandbaby handoff. I passed a sign saying something about a road closed ahead. I kept driving because who Keep Reading...
It’s Never Too Late
Do you remember the “Highlights” magazine? When I was a kid, I wanted to be the first one to get the magazine when it came to my house so I could beat my siblings to the hidden pictures puzzle. Highlight magazine was full of puzzles, riddles, games and other pages created to make learning fun. I believe pediatrician waiting rooms are still scattered with Highlight magazines. I wouldn’t actually know since it’s been, ahem, years since I’ve visited one. I also had a subscription to another Keep Reading...
The Day of “And then…”
As I sipped my coffee one morning this week, I contemplated all the tasks I needed to complete. And then... My houseguest from The Netherlands came out from her bedroom on the other side of the house and gently let me know that it was really hot and the heat wouldn’t stop blowing. A few weeks ago, the thermostat - that is now part of our “smart home” package - malfunctioned and it was freezing in her room. Now we had the opposite problem. I walked toward her room and about threw up because it Keep Reading...
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