One day in June I found myself unexpectedly alone in the house. I went about my work, but it was SO quiet. We have five kids and four pets. We are always busy, running here or there, tackling this or that. Somebody is on the phone. Somebody is listening to music or to Adventures in…
Ah, chocolate. It is so delicious. Just thinking about it makes you want some right now, doesn’t it? My youngest was reading C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy when truffles came up. I admitted to making truffles once when she was less than a month old. For some reason, I was upset so while…
Whenever I tackle a task, it seems I go overboard. This was no exception. I thought that picking strawberries would be a fun activity for me and my daughters. Turns out only one thought it would be fun. Our neighbor joined me and Emily, and we set out anticipating all the fine dishes we could…
Interceding often feels like carrying the burdens of others. May was a rollercoaster month. On the evening of May 11, my mother-in-law’s birthday, my sister-in-law called to tell me that her daughter, who was then 10 weeks pregnant, was hit by a semi on her way home from work and that the jaws of life…
While my friends and children are busy learning foreign languages, such as French, Spanish, Russian, and German, I’m learning one myself. I’m learning slang from the 1800s. It’s interesting how language and communication change over the centuries. Let’s see if you can decipher the following sentences? A body druther not argie with sich widders afore…
Seven years ago in February, we brought our chocolate lab, Cocoa, home when she was six weeks old. She was so tiny, she could run under the bar stools that line our island counter in the kitchen. Now, according to the vet, she has lost her girlish figure, not that she cares. She seems just…
I like letters. I like to get them, and I like to write them. Sometimes I write on note cards or lined notebook paper, but most of the time, I email my letters. It doesn’t take me long to write a detailed letter because I just think of the person I am writing and talk…
Time travel always makes for lively discussions. What period in history would you like to visit? I’m not all that interested in time travel in a machine because I enjoy my traveling via the couch and a good book; however, listening to this generation talk about what they think are hardships gets me thinking about…
My family and I visited the Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville while visiting friends a few years ago. While we had visited other Civil War battle grounds and Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, my favorite part of the vacation was learning the history of this grand home. When I discovered Tamera Alexander’s novel, To Whisper Her…
I love reading fiction, and my interests are varied from children’s books to middle grade and YA to contemporary women’s fiction, but my absolute favorite is historical fiction. I especially love the mid-1800s. I suppose I got hooked with Gone with the Wind. While history in school was not a favorite, it seems through books,…