Dad always wanted lots of light for reading in our old farmhouse. There were never enough and they were never bright enough. I remember well his hand, freckled with age spots as he settled into his old blue recliner. He reached up to the floor lamp and turned the little black switch. It flooded brightness […]
Continue Reading
It happens every year. It’s like trying to finish off the Christmas cookies, fudge and eggnog so I can start dieting in January. It’s such a burden. But perhaps none quite so marked as this New Year with its old past. How does one celebrate beginnings while dragging weights that aren’t yet ended? Can a […]
Continue Reading
I found it in the bottom of a box marked kitchen in big bold Sharpie script. Moving and packing can throw the best laid organizational plans askew. Not enough space in a box mixes with too much space and they birth miscellaneous. That might have been a deep analogy of life, but this blog isn’t […]
Continue Reading
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’” Matthew 2:1-2 (NIV) During the month of December I usually go on […]
Continue Reading
It was the usual mayhem of opened plastic totes, lids tossed aside and Christmas decor spilling onto the floor. A just decorated tree and mantel already changed the entire look of the room. Awash with color and lights, every inch announced the arrival of the season. Three little boys added intensity with high pitched squeals, […]
Continue Reading
A year ago, before the shadow of Covid darkened our skies, my daughter wrote a guest post. As we look for the light at the end of the 2020 tunnel, it relates to our lives now even more. The most powerful lessons of thanksgiving often come from the least likely of dark places. My life […]
Continue Reading
I’ve written before about my hatred for goats, but somehow this year, it seems appropriate to revisit that dislike. No Thank You I hated goats. Dorothy hated being milked. She was an ugly brown thing, clumsy and dumb, the recipient of my deepest scorn. It was still pitch dark and the ground was frozen. […]
Continue Reading
“Why?” my grandson asks. A little hand pats my leg, soft but insistent. Round blue eyes search mine as if the connection somehow might supply what he needs to know. Maybe those annoying repetitions of a child are much more than they seem. Read the Article Here on Just18summers.com
Continue Reading
Proclamation 118—Thanksgiving Day, 1864 October 20, 1864 Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to […]
Continue Reading
Our first child cried a lot. Understatement. New mom terror of that piercing cry and the absolute certainty it brought reinforced my insecurity. I had no idea what I was doing. In the rare quiet moments, I hardly dared breathe. I was afraid of breaking the spell and bringing her quivering bleat to a scream […]
Continue Reading