Better To Have Read and Forgotten Than Never To Have Read At All

Once upon a time, a girl and her sister set out on a quest to READ AN ENTIRE BOOK SERIES. The task was arduous and irritating, and although meticulously chronicled, the quest was ultimately abandoned. A new quest was undertaken and it proved to be everything the first quest was not: mythical, entertaining, action-packed. That […]

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 […]

To the Moon and Back

It’s really hard to write about space and not rely on cliches. Whether it’s Space, the final frontier, or In space, no one can hear you scream, or To infinity and beyond!, I’m having a hard time being original, even my title has been used time and again. Go ahead, I bet you can think […]

Two Scoops, Please

I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about ice cream. No doubt, it’s popular. I’m sure ice cream dislikers exist but they probably keep it on the down-low, tired of listening to people’s shocked exclamations. I happen to be related to someone who doesn’t like chocolate and people are shocked, shocked I tell […]

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! […]

Remember to Breathe

Some of the suggestions in 100 Things to Do Before You Grow Up are puzzling. They are either too difficult for a kid to access without help, i.e. climb a mountain, or too extra, like this week: BECOME A MASTER PUBLIC SPEAKER. Let’s break this down, not only is the idea to take on a […]

Bloom Where You Are Planted

I’ve never had a garden. I try to avoid using always and never but I think it’s true. Blaming our itinerant life is tempting, and that is a factor, but many military families have gardens: on base, in rental homes, yard or no yard. We’ve moved 17 times in 35 years. I won’t bore you […]

Get A Job

It’s time to JOIN THE WORKFORCE (temporarily) which is the only kind of adult work experience I’ve had. I sat down last year and figured out that in the 35 years Lee was in the Marine Corps, I had 18 paying jobs. At some point, I’d thrown down enough blocks of sod (8 to be […]

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 […]

Every Day is Earth Day

I was in an ecology class at MiraCosta Community College in Oceanside, CA when I first realized that throwing something “away” just means getting it away from you. I’m not even sure what we were talking about but when the instructor said, “there is no such thing as away” it clicked. It was one of […]