I want to say a big thanks to Montessori Mama, who has given me the Kreativ Blogger award!!
You know, it feels kinda good. I needed the boost — thanks again, MM. Coming from one of the most creative of all bloggers I know, this award means a lot!
Now, on to the rules:
- List six things [...]
Filed under: children, education, family, food, grandma, grief, holidays, memoir writing, writing | 13 Comments »
Dear Grandma,
I miss you. Lately these flashes of memories keep intruding on my day.
Your laugh. You looked so regal, so classy. But your laugh was down home, real folk, spilling out of you whenever the smallest opportunity for mirth arose. How much we laughed, working on your book, our book. Every Sunday night when I [...]
Filed under: Scandinavia, biography, creative non-fiction, family, grandma, grief, memoir, memoir writing, research, road trip, travel, weather, women, writing | 1 Comment »
This week my husband and I marked our 18th wedding anniversary. The hubbster gave me a thoughtful and well-written card (he’s a fabulous writer), and I gave him my annual poem written for the occasion and enclosed in a less thoughtful and well-written card. But, hey, he got a poem, so I’m off the [...]
Filed under: creative non-fiction, dream, family, grandma, grief, marriage | 5 Comments »
No doubt you’ve heard. Another shooting. This one strikes a little closer to home for me. It was a church in my denomination that was hit. What was not immediately in the news, though, is that this crime was apparently motivated by hatred. See this excerpt of a news article I [...]
Filed under: children, fear, grief, politics, religion | Leave a Comment »
Lefse That Is Not Lefse, Rommegrot That Is Not Rommegrot, and
Grandma’s Stinky Cheese
Today I learned a lot about Norwegan food, mostly how everything I
thought I knew about it was wrong. Or at least not quite right. We
had a chance to visit again with my oldest relative in Norway,
Kristianna, and I asked her a [...]
Filed under: Scandinavia, food, grandma, grief, lefse, research, travel, writing | 2 Comments »
They stood on the platform at Herrljunga, laden with their heavy luggage, surrounded by relatives who had come to see them off. A hopeful turn to the conversation at one point: ‘I hope you will find what you are looking for.’ At another moment tears: ‘I hope we will see you again some day.’ Then [...]
Filed under: Scandinavia, creative non-fiction, family, fear, grandma, grief, immigration, memoir writing, research, travel, writing | Leave a Comment »
I stood on a small hill this afternoon surrounded by the ruins of a crumbling stone foundation, crying like a baby. A blue sky, puffy clouds, light breeze, mild temperature, and daisies waving in the wind. A tree growing up crooked out of the stones. Oscar’s birthplace.
My Swedish cousins had brought me to the place where [...]
Filed under: Scandinavia, creative non-fiction, family, grandma, grief, memoir writing, research, travel, travel writing | 4 Comments »
Two years ago on this day, Grandma died. She had a massive stroke the day before and let go on July 3, 2006. She was 92.
As fate would have it, this date is important to our family for another reason. On July 3, 1879, also a Thursday like this year, my grandmother’s grandparents left [...]
Filed under: Minnesota, biography, children, creative non-fiction, family, fear, grandma, grief, homesteading, immigration, memoir, memoir writing, research, travel, women, writing | 4 Comments »
So…ours was not your typical American Memorial Day celebration. It consisted, most notably, of my son burying a snake that our neighbors killed. The “murder” of this creature was a great tragedy to my child. He could not let it go until he had a chance to bury the fallen. It [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, family, fear, grief, holidays, parenting, war | 4 Comments »
Last night Grandma’s house in California was in imminent danger of burning down. In my dream that is. I was there helping to save everything important in the house. My newish neighbor (here in Massachusetts) was sitting with Grandma, comforting her. He is a minister of the more traditional variety and [...]
Filed under: biography, creative non-fiction, dream, family, grandma, grief, religion | 6 Comments »
