I never thought I’d be happy living in a place with little or no winter. I’ve always liked the cold. Or rather, liked that I could hole up in my warm house in front of a fire with a warm drink while the cold raged outside. Not that Dallas has bad winters. But it has […]
The first time I saw the Thomas Jefferson quote, “I cannot live without books,” it was on a t-shirt in the Library of Congress gift shop. It resonated so strongly with me that I plunked down the money and bought the shirt. That was around 20 years ago. I still have (and wear!) that shirt, […]
Way back at the beginning of this year, I knew this summer would be chaos. I just didn’t realize until March how chaotic it would truly be! I don’t even want to know how many boxes I’ve packed and moved. How many miles I’ve driven. (I’m talking actually driven, not been the passenger!) How much […]
When I fantasized about life with kids in their 20s, I imagined my days would move along through the summer months at pretty much the same pace as the school year. After all, my family would no longer be ruled by the school calendar. At least until there were grandchildren of school age. But that […]
My daughter is settled in Philly, looking for a job, ready to start grad school. My older son is couch-surfing in his college town, the suburban full of furniture and all his stuff, meeting with the classroom teacher he’ll student teach with in the spring and waiting until he can move into his apartment on […]
Come August, we’ll move our daughter to Philadelphia to pursue her master’s degree. Come next May, our son will graduate from college and be on to either a job or more schooling. And while our “baby” will be around some for a couple of summers after that, it is not lost on me that this […]
Years ago, when we moved from our tiny starter home into our big, newly constructed home, my husband gave me a wonderful gift–my own chair. I picked out a comfy seat with wide arms and a matching ottoman. It sat in our formal-living-room-turned-library, opposite my husband’s leather recliner, an end table and window between. We […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
