Resolutions never work for me.  I either forget them or fail to resolve them in a short matter of time. Then, I feel like a failure and have resolution guilt until summer. I don’t know what it is, exactly, about resolutions that stress me out, but maybe it has to do with the idea that [...]

On Christmas day, after gifts had been opened, my family loved to sit together in the family room and enjoy a nice fire roaring in the rock fireplace my dad built. One such Christmas day, in 1981, we were enjoying the fire when we noticed smoke covering the ceiling of the room. And….we panicked. My [...]

One of my acquaintances once said to me, “You’re lucky. You have such easy children. Mine are so much harder to deal with than yours.”   I wanted to leap across the table and deck her one. But I didn’t. I am respectful of the experiences of others. For whatever reason, she believes her experience is much [...]

  There is a story in my family that has reached legend status. It’s a tale of eager Christmas anticipation, door locks, the folly of youth, and accidental prowess.   Let me give you a little background information. I grew up in a ranch-style house, and my parents converted our garage into a family room. Because [...]

  When my daughter was shopping for dorm room “furnishings,” she fell in love with a waterfall-ruffled duvet that she couldn’t afford from a popular “urban” store. (there is beauty all around, when they use their own money) She considered buying it for about a second, but read the reviews on the product and decided [...]

I drop my daughter off at the university in four days. Today, in a panicked voice, she exclaimed, “I don’t even know how to cook a roast! How do I cook a roast?!” That started my panicked thinking. What else have I forgotten to teach her? What did I miss? Then I remembered that I [...]

For the better part of my marriage, my husband has been successfully self-employed and I have worked full-time, part-time, and full-time at home. Over the years, our income has been across the board and often unpredictable, from enjoying the security of a nice savings to having no income for nearly a year with baby #3 on the [...]