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 […]
Project 8/40 and 5 emails that might change you.
Several years ago I read an article by Michael Thompson about 4 types of emails to send every week. The idea stuck with me – so much so that I adapted it into a personal project. During my last one hundred days of working for my school district I decided to send 100 notes, texts […]
Truly Loved and Fully Known.
For several years now, my sweet Mom and my sister Sharon have had the momentous task of gathering and meticulously going through all of the people and paper contained in the boxes of my Dad’s life in order for Sharon to write his biography. It is a labor of love which is p r […]
Pasta Mondays.
One of the things my husband remembers most about his growing up years in their small California town is Mondays. Because on Mondays, his beautiful Italian mother made pasta. It was a whole day event and included Old World recipes and hours of simmering sauces and hand cut noodles. He would be the helper […]
Convenient service.
Lately I’ve been intentionally bringing up questions or curiosities when I go spend time with my cute mom. I don’t want to waste even one conversation I get to have with her. And yesterday we got into a discussion about service. It may or may not have involved me crying. (It totally did.) I was […]
