Many might think that the Bright Cherry Red SUV Tom bought me for Valentines’ Day in 2012 would be the most memorable celebration of the Day. But that would not be so. The most memorable Valentines’ Day for me was in 2001…actually it wasn’t the exact day but rather a period of time. Let me …
It was the anniversary of when my mother-in-law came to live with us. When reminded of the fact, she said, “Do you feel as good about it as I do?” To which, of course, the answer was, “Yes.” And since happy celebrations call for a cake, and my mother-in-law likes any cake as long as …
At the beginning of the Iraq war Floyd Lee, a retired Marine Corp and Army cook, took charge of the Pegasus mess hall near the Baghdad Airport. And although the mess hall served up the regular 21-day army menu, receiving the same shipments of food as the other mess halls, soldiers were known to skip …
Years ago, my in-laws had a very unique coffee table in front of their sofa. It had been fashioned by their son who had worked construction, building custom homes in a resort town. When one of the homes was completed there were scraps leftover. A laminated beam made of fir was refashioned, stained black walnut, …
I had a same age, family acquaintance when I was growing up who always wore her worn out jeans and T-shirts. Her closet was stuffed full with clothes and in complete disarray. It turns out the clothes weren’t to her liking. While in her slovenly attire, this teenager would talk about all the dreams she …
When Tom and I were first married, our collection of furniture was very limited. We had a plaid sofa…earth tones: green, gold, orange and brown. Not something I ever would have chosen, but we had it. And Tom had a light blue rocker, recliner. He restored matching coffee and end tables that he found at …
As in all child raising activities you’ll hear lots of stuff and nonsense about what to do, what not to do, what’s right, what’s not, who’s easier to train: boys or girls, etc. You’ll do best to ignore all of the dogmatic and negative information. Approach the task from a positive mental and emotional frame …
Lessons from Second Grade It had been a long day in the second grade classroom of the underprivileged school where I had been the substitute teacher that day. As we were in a scramble to bring the day to a close, the familiar “ding-ding-ding” came across the loudspeaker followed by the voice of the principal. …
As a mom, we want to build our families so our kids, especially are successful and so we have a successful family. In this video I explain 3 principles we must have in place in order to raise a successful, functional family.
The quilt top completed, I was off to the store to pick out a fabric for its back. Almost immediately I found the perfect print… lush lime-colored leaves, fuchsia flowers, rosy rosettes and beautiful butterflies against a charming blue backdrop. Approaching the cutting counter, I spread out the quilt top to determine how much yardage …
It’s fall again. I didn’t always like the fall…which meant that summer was over, the trees would lose their leaves and the cold would set in. Six of our eight children were born in the fall, so that certainly has added some spice to the season. And over the years I’ve found ways to create …
Crazy Cake is an easy cake for a beginner to make…and it fun to make for non-beginner’s too! One reason is because you add the ingredients in ANY order you like (!), stir and bake. While the cake is in the oven, you’ll make the topping and then spread it over the top of the …
