Becoming a parent turns the topics of burps and messy diapers into everyday conversation. It also makes you a connoisseur of baby products. Don’t get Merritt and me started on collapsible baby gyms, one-piece potty chairs, or folding baby swings. Things have changed a lot since our youngest siblings were born 10 and 16 years…
I guess I’m a real farm girl now. I have baby chicks in my kitchen. Their adorable little peeps fill up our house. Ruthie loves to watch them. (Just wait until next year…!) But they get a little worried when she cries. We went to the feed store yesterday morning to see about ordering the…
“I need say nothing of household economy, in which the mothers of our country are generally skilled, and generally careful to instruct their daughters. We all know its value, and that diligence and dexterity in all its processes are inestimable treasures. The order and economy of a house are as honorable to the mistress as…
(a letter from Ruth Wiechmann in response to Sourdough, Laundry, and Tea…) Dear Gretchen, We have had a few days of spring weather here in south-western South Dakota, and yesterday I heard the first robins singing in the cottonwoods by the creek. It’s a Sunday morning, and I suppose we should be in Church, but–guess…
One of the wonderful things about owning an antique store is it gives you an excuse to go book shopping–and an outlet to sell books to make more room on your bookshelves. Often I’ll pick up a book at a sale because it looks interesting, but after reading it decide it’s not one I want…
We have something I wish more young married couples had–a fast internet connection. And by “fast” I don’t mean the lightning speed of satellite, DSL, or cable. I mean, fast on, fast off. Pull into the empty library parking lot after church, click “Send and Receive”, and check our list of websites for the week…
When Merritt brought home a flier about our library’s summer reading program, neither he nor I thought I would have any problem reading five books over the summer. I had been a veritable bookworm during the slow spring days at the store. But then summer came–and there was never a spare moment for reading at…
My state and rain. The two are synonymous. I was born and raised here so I love it, though I’m accused of having webbed feet. But there’s nothing like the first rain of fall to remind me anew why I love the rain. It is so cleansing, so refreshing. The rain makes me think of…
Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton This is one of the few stories for which I am glad I saw the movie first. For then, as I read this short little book, I could picture the grey-whiskered little man of the 1939 movie. And the scenes that had touched me so in the movie, gripped…
Sometimes, one has to get reacquainted with old friends. And if you are not privileged to know Bill, Poetry, Dragonfly, Circus, Big Jim, and Little Jim, may I recommend that you spend a pleasant hour getting to know The Sugar Creek Gang. The last few evenings have found me too tired to do much housework…
Sitting here looking out the window on this rainy June morning in Washington, it is hard to believe that it was more than a year ago now, on another rainy morning in another state, that I became his wife. And what a year it has been! Finishing our little home, riding in the tractor together…
Uncle Bill must have every single book Louis L’amour ever wrote. He loves to tell me the plots of the latest cowboy book he’s been reading. But usually cowboy books aren’t the first thing I pick up when I want a relaxing bit of fiction. When Uncle Bill loaned Merritt the Fortunes of the Black…
The End.
The End.
