“I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan.  I am  woman, hear me ROAR,” sings Helen Ready in a song.  Before women learned to roar, they stayed home to take care of the kids and the house.  When mothers felt the need for adult conversation, they invited the  neighbors over for coffee and dessert. The dessert had to be homemade and fabulous. This was showing off … [Read more...]

I headed to the grocery store to stock up on Easter supplies.  Maybe your Easter menu is like mine?  Ham, baked potatoes, asparagus, fresh fruit salad and cake make up my Easter dinner.  The most important items on my list included malted milk Easter eggs and Brach’s maple cream eggs.   I buy at least five bags of the malted milk eggs because this  is the only time they are … [Read more...]

The mail is usually the same: bills, catalogs, money requests, and assorted junk mail.  How boring.  Then one day a while ago, the mail was exciting!  I had received an actual greeting card from an old teaching colleague.  It had a stamp and had been sent through “snail mail.”  I love cards and greetings that come through “snail mail.”  An e-invite, an e-thank you note or an … [Read more...]

In movies, books and even in real life, opposites attract.  You understand the science behind magnets, right?  Enough said.  My question is does this attraction of opposites last when the novelty wears off?  This is the true story of two ordinary high school students growing up in tiny towns in the Midwest.  Let’s call them J. and K.  They are both juniors in high school and … [Read more...]

“Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live. The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on a table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on... Alas, because of COVID many families will not all be able to gather around the Thanksgiving table.  The year 2020 has been a difficult year … [Read more...]

An apple a day keeps the doctor away is an old saying.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that were really true!  Sadly during this virus before a vaccine is discovered, all we can do is: wear a mask, social distance and wash our hands often.  I used to love going places.  Now I only go to the grocery store and the pharmacy.  Staying home was NEVER my idea of a good time.  Now at … [Read more...]

CONFESSION:  I am a wimp when it comes to vegetable gardening.  I fought the weather, rabbits, weeds and blight; they won.  So imagine my delight when my good friend, Gwen Nelson, dropped off a basket of fresh produce on my back steps.  It contained broccoli, green beans, eggplant, cabbage, and my favorite TOMATOES!  I grudgingly shared the tomatoes with my husband.  My family … [Read more...]

Preston was not racially diverse in the 1960s when I was growing up.  My sisters and I stood out because we had red hair!  The entire community applauded when the Norwegian Lutheran Church and the German Lutheran Church joined together and built a new church.  Anything different was suspect, like the way Elvis moved his pelvis and the Beatles’ long hair.  I didn’t know that … [Read more...]