Month: March 2009
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family roots
We went back in time during last week to Galena, Ill. – a once prospering lead mining town with a population of 14,000 that now hovers around 3,000 and depends heavily on tourism dollars. Climbing the hill to tour the fully furnished mansion the city fathers gave to General Grant after the Civil War, we…
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Read the recipe
As soon as they walked in the door, I welcomed the visiting granddaughters with a challenge, “this time you have to choose and prepare all of the meals. You cannot just pour cereal for breakfast. You must fix something to eat.” I pointed them to food ingredients, measuring cups and mixing bowls. Even though I…
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child’s eye view
Three-feet high children view life differently than I do – the giant grandmother. Sometimes, I must kneel down and see life from a child’s viewpoint. For instance take cars. Except for color and general shape, I can not differentiate models. So as I walked through the church parking lot one day trying to figure out…
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christmas letter 1985
Dec. 1985 Christmas greetings to all of our friends from Mert and Doris Hibbard Yes, that is the right address. After spending 7+ years in New Mexico, it seemed that the time was right for us to come home and fix up the log house. Work had slowed down in the Four Corner’s area. We…
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man without words
As a young deaf boy in Mexico, Ildefonso, watched other children go to school and gestured to his parents that he wanted to join them. They responded in mime that because he could not hear, he was too stupid to learn. Ildefonso grew up without language – let alone the ability to read, do math…