BRAVE (adjective): “having or showing courage, especially when facing difficulty, danger, or pain”
Bubby is a brave boy. I need to remember that and not worry so much.
I admit that the fact that he still cries easily at eleven years old and is very sensitive emotionally sometimes makes me worry that he is wimpy. I shudder [...]
Filed under: children, family, fear, health, parenting, women | 3 Comments »
When I had skin cancer, I thought a lot about what would happen to my family if I died. I also thought a lot about what I would change immediately about the way I was living my life. How would my teaching alter? Would I even be able to continue teaching? [...]
Filed under: creative non-fiction, family, fear, health, women | 8 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 »
The hubster and boy have been wicked sick with some nausea virus for the last few days. So far I’ve avoided it. I am just far too busy to get sick. My defenses are up and my armies of antibodies are on high alert. After all, next week I go back to the classroom! [...]
Filed under: children, education, family, food, health, marriage, parenting, women | 6 Comments »
We arrived in Newcastle, in the northeast of England, on Monday morning and disembarked from our ship, The Queen of Scandinavia. What we didn’t know was that we were not actually in Newcastle and had to catch one of the DFDS Seaways buses to the city. Having waited until the majority of people left the [...]
Filed under: Scandinavia, creative non-fiction, family, food, immigration, memoir writing, research, travel, women, writing | Leave a Comment »
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 »
Yesterday the neighborhood decided that summer had arrived. For the neighbor kids, who all go to public schools, yesterday was the day after the last day of school. They were running around the block like a pack of wild animals, joyous, leaping, laughing critters.
I went out to get the mail in our box [...]
Filed under: children, creative non-fiction, education, family, holidays, parenting, women, writing | 5 Comments »
Praying to Darwin tagged me (well, anyone who was reading her, actually!) and I promised a response. Here goes:
What I Was Doing 10 Years Ago
June 1998: Living in Palouse, WA, a town of 1,000 people located about 17 miles from Pullman, WA, a city of 35,000 and the metropolis of the region. I was on [...]
Filed under: American West, children, education, family, fiction, good books, meme response, politics, travel writing, women, writing | 4 Comments »
This weekend my friend gave me some advice. Breathe. She said breathe in and then out and then in again and out, and just do that on and on for five minutes. Hmm. Breathing is easy, right?
Turns out there are different ways to do this…
(1) While you breathe in, say in your [...]
Filed under: fear, health, women | 2 Comments »
The weekend before last, my superstar husband painted the laundry room. Does this seem frivolous to you? I guess in the scheme of things, it isn’t exactly at the top of the list of the world’s most important things to do, but it has made my life brighter.
You see, I do the laundry in our [...]
Filed under: family, grandma, homesteading, marriage, women | 4 Comments »
