My grandpa went home to be with Jesus on September 11. I shared the following tribute at his memorial service on September 21. There are two smells that I will always associate with my grandpa: fiberglass and butterscotch. Grandma and I never could understand why he didn’t like chocolate, but I loved making him butterscotch…
Kefir soda is a probiotic beverage filled with all sorts of good bacteria. It’s like getting all the benefits of eating healthy yogurt while drinking something as flavorful as your favorite carbonated drink. It’s a great replacement for a soda pop addiction, and a healthy alternative to sugary fruit juice. Kefir soda is made by culturing…
They called me over in the hotel breakfast room. “Excuse me, how old are your children?” she asked. “Five, three and a half, and almost two.” Even my reply sounded tired as I stopped to calculate. “We’ve been watching them and trying to guess,” they explained. “They are so well-behaved!” I didn’t know whether to laugh…
Dear Grama, It was from you I inherited my love of the written word. Some of my earliest memories of you are watching you at your typewriter. I was fascinated to watch the letters appear on the paper, and even more intrigued at the way the correction tape could erase them when I distracted you…
Dear Papa, I knew something was wrong that morning. I woke up at your house and you weren’t sitting there at your table by the fire. You were always there. Every morning and every evening. At night you were making notes on your veterinary clients of the day. At daybreak you were taking notes on…
I’m not an auditory learner (I’m a writer; I’m a visual learner). And I don’t like having extra noise turned on in the background (there is usually more than enough noise in a house full of little people). I never thought I’d be someone who listens to podcasts (I don’t even listen the radio very…
I didn’t expect to be surprised by motherhood. My little sister was born when I was almost 12. My baby brother followed 3 years later. I was an old pro at changing diapers and cooking dinner with a baby on my hip by the time the baby I was juggling was my own. I knew…
Dear Grandpa, There are two smells that are forever intertwined with my memories of you: fiberglass and butterscotch. You never have liked chocolate, a fact which Grandma and I were always unable to understand. But you loved your Butterscotch cookies and candies. And you were my most faithful “Cookies Express” customer, paying for dozens of…
Dear Grandma, Every spring a few weeks before your birthday, your wooded lawn starts filling with little blossoms we’ve always called “spring beauties”. When we were children, we’d gather the blooms with wild abandon. You’d help us wrap their delicate stems in a moistened paper towel covered with saran wrap to keep them fresh as…
The girls had been looking forward to it for weeks. And that’s only because I hadn’t told them sooner. With such exciting plans as these, I tried to keep it from them as long as possible. Because I knew the moment they found out all I’d hear was, “How many days until Anja’s wedding?” Not,…
Farmers wives are privy to a lot of little-known secrets of the agricultural industry. We could tell you how much of a man’s self worth is wrapped up in the state of his fields and the color of his tractors (ours are green, except for the Ford that was my husband’s great grandfather’s). We could…
I think every woman should schedule a photoshoot once in a while. It’s too easy for us to believe the lies we tell ourselves about how we look. We take for granted that others are as critical as we are when we look in the mirror. We’ve forgotten how to see ourselves through the mirror…
The End.
The End.