Watching for the (honest) gifts of this new year

| January 9, 2012 | 4 Comments

 (written a couple days earlier than it’s due: that’s a victory!) On this Epiphany Sunday, it feels like everywhere I turn there are gifts, messages, wisdom-bearers. While driving to church this morning, I was again reminded of how much I love the trees in the wintertime.  They are no longer clumps of trees or groups or [...]

Paying Attention

| January 8, 2012 | 3 Comments

In how many ways do I miss the obvious? This humorous ad for vision testing made me wonder how much attention I actually pay to what I’m doing in the rat race. This is my short list of (for lack of a better phrase) my new year’s resolutions: Spend more time with my mother. She [...]

This Will Be The Year

| December 18, 2011 | 1 Comments

First let me say Happy Holidays to all! About a month ago I purchased Susan Boyle’s newest CD. I love it! There are lots of old (but good) songs and there are a few I’ve never heard before. Since between this post to the blog and the next, we’ll experience the celebration of a new [...]

Playing Full Out

| January 19, 2011 | 4 Comments

I have to admit that, from time to time, I stop short of “playing full out” (as they say) because, well, I might be told to sit on the bench. Now that is just silly (at least this is what my brain tells me).  And from my days of playing just about every sport you [...]

Risky Swimming

| January 19, 2011 | 7 Comments

Happy New Year!  I know it’s past the middle of January but it’s the first time I’ve been able to say that to you all.  I wish good things for you this year of 2011.  I hope it will be a year of good health, happiness, and finding risks to take that will open your [...]

Driver’s Ed. for all ages

| January 10, 2011 | 4 Comments

(Sometimes, to be honest, writing these pieces feels as much like a confession as it does about “taking a risk”…that said, here’s one for the New Year) Driving with your kids in the car can be a risky endeavor. Besides the obvious things about the ever-present opportunity for accidents, especially in an urban area, there [...]

Happy New Hair!

| January 7, 2011 | 3 Comments

Happy New Hair, I mean Happy New Year! Last year, one of my goals was to take better care of myself.  I planned to implement it by developing daily habits.   I hadn’t mapped out what the habits would be at the beginning of the year and sometimes it meant developing two habits per month.  [...]

A New Year, A New Attitude: Coping with Sudden Change

| January 5, 2011 | 9 Comments

A plaque by the artist Mary Engelbreit hangs above my kitchen sink. It depicts two girls looking out a window, their arms resting on the sill. The girl on the left, a blonde with a big red ribbon, has her eyes cut to the side; her mouth is in a most definite pout. The girl [...]

Holidays and Hormones

| December 13, 2010 | 5 Comments

I love the Holiday Season. Starting with Thanksgiving, all the cooking and baking, gathering round a table with too much good food, connecting and re-connecting with family and friends. Jumping into Christmas, the decorating, the shopping, the wrapping, the giving and receiving, again with the cooking and baking. Then New Year’s, saying good-bye to the past [...]

So You Don’t Wonder the Rest of Your Life If You Should Have…

| March 17, 2010 | 7 Comments

I physically gave birth to three children; they are currently 22, 16 and 10. For the last 11 years, however, I’ve counted two more in my brood – my youngest’s older sister and brother (from her father’s first marriage.) They are currently 23 and 18. Right after my youngest was born, her father finally got [...]