Memories
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Sunday Snippet: The Here’s a Fun Story Edition
This is an incident that happened several years before my beloved friend Dee passed away, and I’m sharing it with you because I’ve been thinking of her so much lately. Dee would have a lot to say about what’s happening in our country right now and we’d be commiserating for sure. I remember Dee liked nothing better than a good embarrassment story particularly if it wasn’t hers, and this silly story was hands-down her favorite about me. She loved telling it to anyone we met up with and would laugh her butt off when she recounted my humiliation. So because I need to laugh right now and if she were…
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Sunday Snippet: The Holiday Music and Joy Edition
Despite struggling financially, my mom always made the holidays a treat for me and my sibs. We always had a Christmas tree, the house was always filled with the scent of cookies baking and there was always, always music. Oh, the music of it all! Mom would go to the Firestone store or to the Marathon gas station every year and pick up their annual Christmas album to play on our old console stereo. Remember when a record player was a piece of furniture? And when holiday record albums that were like 99 cents or at most $1.99? We had them all. I can still sing every song… I loved…
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Sunday Snippet: The It’s a Mom Thing Edition
This Thanksgiving weekend, when we were all together as family, I realized something significant. It wasn’t startling, but I saw it in all the parents/grandparents who sat around my sister’s huge, but cozy table. It’s this. We never ever stop being parents—once you have a child, you’re signed up for life and beyond. We moms suffer just as much when our child struggles at age 45 as we did when they fell and broke their arm at age 5. I once heard that a mother is only as happy as their unhappiest child. I don’t know if that’s true or not because I only have one, but I do know…
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Sunday Snippet: The Note to Self Edition
Liz and I had another conversation a couple of days ago about weight and weight loss and being disgusted with our bodies. Why do we do this to ourselves? How can we possibly expect to be healthy inside our selves if we’re constantly dissing the outside of our selves? I wonder why my generation of women are so terrible about our own self-images. Today’s young women are much healthier about their body images–at least they appear to be. I think I am part of a generation of females, hopefully, the last generation, who believes that if they aren’t the ideal, then they aren’t worthy. Let’s not do that, okay? Note…
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Sunday Snippet: The Anniversary Edition
It’s our wedding anniversary. Husband and I have been married 51 years today. Last year for our 50th, we took a trip to Oregon and celebrated our day with wine and supper on a beautiful deck overlooking a gorgeous vineyard. It was heaven. Today, we’ll have another kind of heaven, celebrating with homemade flatbread pizzas and a good chianti. Maybe a walk down to the lake in the moonlight. 51 years. Wow…that sounds like a long time. Probably because it is a long damn time. Marriages in this country don’t usually last for over 50 years. We are a nation of disposable everything, including marriages. Folks seem to me to…
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Sunday Snippet: The Happy Easter Edition
Remember Easter when you were a kid? Man, I do. It was an event at our house every spring. The night before Easter, we colored hardboiled eggs with the Paas Easter egg dye kits. Remember those? After we kids went to bed, Mom, who was probably already exhausted from working at the grocery store all day and studying whatever courses she was taking for her nursing degree, hid them around the house. Then, she’d iron everyone’s Easter clothes–usually made by our Aunt Alice, who was a stellar seamstress–so we’d look spiffy the next morning. I loved my dress and hat and little umbrella purse the Easter I was seven. I…
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Sunday Snippet: The Holiday Reprise Edition
Mes, Amies, it’s been a long week and I didn’t get to writing my snippet this week, so you get a repeat. It’s one of my personal favorites, so I hope you enjoy… Despite struggling financially, my mom always made the holidays a treat for me and my sibs. We always had a Christmas tree, the house was always filled with the scent of cookies baking and there was always, always music. Oh, the music of it all! Mom would go to the Firestone store or to the Marathon gas station every year and pick up their annual Christmas album to play on our old console stereo. Remember when a…
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Sunday Snippet: The Summer’s Closing…Sorta Edition
I really can’t believe it’s Labor Day Weekend. The lake is busy, busy as it is every holiday weekend, so we went out early this morning for a boat ride to avoid the crazy. There is a sort of leaving feeling in the air here in our little lake community. Some folks will close up their cottages for the season, others (like us) hang on a bit longer. We generally start closing up closer to Halloween, but we’ll pull the boat in late September or mid-October. But fall is definitely on the way. The cottonwoods and walnut trees are turning yellow and dropping leaves. On our way up to the…
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Sunday Snippet: The Mom Edition
It’s Mother’s Day and although I sometimes have trouble with whole concept, which I once was convinced came about because a greeting card company needed sales. Turns out my cynicism button had been pushed because that’s not how it came about at all. A woman named Anna Jarvis spearheaded the celebration of Mother’s Day because she wanted to honor her mother who’d passed three years earlier. She ushered in the first Mother’s Day with a church celebration in West Virginia. And on May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson designated the second Sunday in May as national Mother’s Day and asked Americans to give a public thank you to all their…
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Sunday Snippet: The How Is It Possibly 2023? Edition
Good morning! I actually know the answer to this one–days pass, time goes on, life continues whether we are prepared for it to do that or not. I’m not going to set intentions or goals or resolutions or even find a word for the year. Neither am I going to reflect back on 2022. Y’all were there. No need to rehash what turned out to be a difficult year for me. I am, however going to name the things for which I am thankful from 2022 because gratitude is key to everything else in life. If we aren’t grateful for what we have– the ups and the downs–how can we…