An Annual Lifelong Commitment

We’d been married about two months when I looked in the newspaper for Free-to-Good-Home cats and found Butler, a grey and white tuxedo boy about nine months old, and the best friend a young, often-to-be-alone, far-from-home gal could have hoped for. I needed a pet. I’d always had one. The year we lived in Australia, […]

The Usual Suspects

I’ve reached a complicated age regarding my ability to see. I started wearing glasses in my sophomore year of high school and eventually moved primarily to contact lenses in my mid-20s. As I entered my 40s, I realized that I was having a harder time with reading up close. As a teenager, I remember being […]

I Love a Parade

My alma mater, Moore High School, organized a homecoming parade every fall. Much like any other high school parade you might encounter it included: the homecoming court in convertibles, the band, school clubs, athletic teams, and livestock. Yes, livestock. I was in the parade as part of the gymnastics team. We wore our leotards, oh […]

There’s No I In Team

I’ve always been more of an individual sports gal. I started gymnastics when I was 6, maybe 7. As a middle schooler, I ran track. Does cheerleading count as a team sport? Or bowling? I bowled in a league as a 6th grader. 100 Things To Do Before You Grow Up encourages kids to think […]

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

This week we are EXPERIENCING PUBLIC HUMILIATION. That’s not actually in the book and I’m not about to relive any public humiliation I experienced as a kid, but I do want to write about the crushing humiliation I experienced last week when I published a blog post with a glaring grammatical error in the title! […]

Only You Can Make Me Do it

It’s been a minute, as they say. I embarked on this journey almost 10 years ago and my original idea was to tackle the 100 things you should do before you grow up, by the time (or at least soon after), I turned fifty. Well, I’ve crested the top of the 50s roller coaster and […]

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

I like lists. On my desk at work I keep a list of things I need to do and another list of things I want to do. I use a grocery list at the store, made from the list of dinners planned for the week. I make and request lists for birthdays and Christmas. I […]

2020 Hindsight

“Times of sadness and stress make fun and laughter even more important.”

The Ghosts of Dinners Past

I’ll admit when I chose this challenge I was concerned I wouldn’t have much to say about such a simple topic: HOW TO PROPERLY SET THE TABLE. Crafting a relevant essay about proper table setting that anyone might find interesting seemed beyond my abilities. What I found was that parental guidance, in regard to manners, […]

We Ate Things We Didn’t Recognize

Game plan: order some kind of identifiable meat and be comforted by the idea of bread.