Graduation Season – and other spaces.
For many (many!) years, Memorial Day weekend was super stressful for me. It was usually the final push before high school graduation. Graduation – at least back then – was always the first week in June. And my whole job was graduation – making sure every last kid who could walk, did. There were parents […]
A little more out loud.
For some reason, this year, Easter has been a tricky season for me. I don’t hide from all of you that I am a Christian. But I also don’t put it front and center – especially in my work life. In my background in public education, it was a no-no to mix church and […]
Yellow Brick and Red Utah Sandstone.
Photo by Jacob Barlow A few Sundays ago, I sat quietly in a red sandstone tabernacle built in 1909. The pews curve in the balcony and behind the pulpit sits a huge pipe organ. The woodwork is intricate and warm. It wasn’t my first time in that building – but it was the first time […]
Frozen Hot Chocolate and a Side of Lagniappe
One of my favorite chocolate shops in the whole world (ok, I’ve only seen part of the world, but still!) serves something called frozen hot chocolate. Now, before you make the mistake of thinking that frozen hot chocolate is exactly what it sounds like, let me assure you – it is not! This frozen hot […]
Your Natural Love Language.
For being a relatively healthy person overall, I have actually had a lot of surgeries. Some of them I categorize as “let’s dig around and fix some things up” – i.e. ovarian cysts, meniscus tear, hole in my heart, etc. – and some I categorize and “let’s just get this thing out of there” – […]
Plussing it.
Did you know that Walt Disney loved making motion pictures but didn’t love his ‘pictures’ being finished? Fascinating, right? Most of us love things being finished. In his own words: “A picture is a thing that once you wrap it up and turn it over to Technicolor, you’re through. Snow White is a dead issue […]
An old tradition and a good sport.
I didn’t grow up in a house with a ton of Christmas traditions – partly because when I was young we were travelling from Minnesota to California for Christmas. Those of you following this blog have read the post about my parents’ sweat and sacrifice for those trips! I imagine the Christmas traveling took all […]
Turning Strangers into Friends.
In the 5 years before Darren and I got married, I made only a couple trips a year out of my home state. Mostly to visit family. Mostly with my sisters. Which meant I had a lot of chances on those trips to talk with a lot of people I know really, really well. In […]
Baker’s Chocolate and my DNA.
One of my favorite things to do is bake recipes from Depression or War-era America. I know it sounds kind of strange, but I love the creativity of it. Bacon fat instead of butter in a sugar cookie? Ok! Vinegar instead of milk in a chocolate cake? Sure! Mayonnaise instead of eggs in brownies? Let’s […]
My Thank YOU List.
One of the things I love so much about my years-long study of personalities is that it keeps me on the lookout for people’s gifts. I’ve been thinking a lot about those gifts lately – tis the season, I guess. So, as this year is ending, I wanted to say thank you to some of […]
