January of 2009 marked the beginning of the ensuing chaos. We marched toward our first high school graduation. During the same time, my writing career began to go places. So between kids and work, my house started down the slippery slope of neglect. It kept rolling that direction for four and a half long years. On May 1, I turned in the first draft of what willl be...

Saturday was supposed to be the end of our bathroom remodel. I was going to take pictures, create a cool before/after collage to post and relax. But it was not to be. Right at the end, literally the very end, we had an issue with the old sink plumbing while trying to hook up the new fixtures. Thankfully, there is now tile on the bathroom floors and in the closet, for...

I hold no claims of rivaling Martha Stewart or any other crafting, decorating guru. But I do love decorating for Christmas. This is our sixth Christmas season in this house and every year some things stay the same and others change. I’m not sure I’m completely happy with the mantle yet, but the tree is good. And I always love doing lighted garland along...

Our oldest child lives at college except for a few holiday visits. Our second child lives at college except for summer (so far). So with both of them gone more than home, we decided it was time to re-appropriate some space in our house. Mainly, my office. When we moved into this house 6 1/2 years ago, we made the smallest bedroom an office space. Not just for me. It...

No, not the countdown to my book release, although that is coming. The countdown that excites me right now is the countdown to the first day of school! Three weeks from today, all three of my kids will traipse off to their first day of classes, which is quite a feat considering that they attend three different schools in three different states! Of course, only one...

So we decided this week to move our “library” (a set of floor-ceiling bookshelves crammed with books) from what had been the formal dining room into our actual living room. We like being surrounded by our books, and with our love seat now gone to reside in our daughter’s first off campus apartment, we had room. So we (read: I) unloaded all the books...