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“Is it hot enough for you?” Yes, it is. It’s hot enough to stay inside, squeeze a lemon and sip ice cold lemonade under the ceiling fan. It’s hot enough to remember being a teenager and tossing hay bales in upstate New York and be thankful I don’t have to do that anymore. Very few…

I have no need for another cookbook and yet for fifty cents at a yard sale, I could not resist buying two: “The Non-chew Cookbook” and “The Four Ingredient Cookbook.”  Non-chewing cooking tickled my funny bone. Chewing always follows cooking, right? I laughed until I read the introduction. This is a serious cookbook for folks…

The results may not be pretty, but with practice, a child’s household skills do improve.  My daughter encourages eagerness. So when Katie, 3, shoved the chair to the counter at my house saying, “I wanna help cook” I said, “you can cut up these peaches.”  “I have to wash my hands first,” she held out…

If you ask my husband his name be prepared to settle down for a long, long, long discourse of an answer. “Well, my first name was Hershberger,” he responds. They look at him a bit puzzled. “Hershberger?” “Yes, before I was born and before they knew whether I was a boy or girl, I already…

The boom of thunder and flash of lightning woke me. Rain pounded the windows, and lightning pierced the darkness. I laid there listening to the storm, added my observations about the storm to my Facebook page along with other storm comments about electrical outages and upset children. Been through a storm or two with children.…

 Two years ago my hubby declared himself too old to be a camp counselor. This year, the day our St. Louis grandchildren signed up to join their Little Rock cousins at church camp, he immediately said, “I’ll be a counselor this year.” Before going, he filled his pill box with morning and evening medicines to…

He walked alongside the road, huddled beside his mother to ward off the air whipping around him hearing the swoosh of cars passing him as they walked to school. No car and no bus meant they walked from their tiny home and hoped to be offered a ride. The daily walk ended the day their…

Last September, second grader Titus told his parents, “If I go to school every day, at the end of the month, I get a free pizza!” Titus likes pizza. September, October, November and December, Titus ate pizza. His classroom celebrated nine weeks of everyone having perfect attendance.  The flu hit. Kids in school one day…

Just when I thought it was safe to come in out of the cold and enjoy a quiet meal in a restaurant, The Jinx returned.  I prefer eating at home. I like grocery shopping, making desserts, seasoning meats and chopping fresh fruits and vegetables. I like getting what I want when I want it.  I…

Tomorrow, on Memorial Day we will remember the soldiers who fell in battle to protect our freedoms. One of those who remembers is Lester Paxton Jr. His uncles and father Lester Paxton Sr. fought in World War II. Paxton Jr. served as a gunner during the Berlin crisis. His grandchildren joined the Army Reserves. His…

Posing for their golden wedding anniversary picture they knew they could never claim to have lived in perpetual wedded bliss. Still through thick and thin they had clocked 50 years except for one year that no one ever spoke about. Meeting and marrying during the onset of the Great Depression, they labored to make a…

My eyes crossed counting tiny plastic pieces from the tattered, dirty box holding an unfinished plastic model I had rescued it from the trash. I cautioned any Ebay bidder, “looks like all the pieces but no guarantees.” One person made a bid. We worried, “What if I miscounted? The winner would be unhappy.” My husband…

The lady pushing a full grocery cart grinned at me, “Did you text for the discount?” “My daughter made me do it. I got $5.” “I got $25!” she announced triumphantly. “There’s a lady loading up on landscaping. She got $500 off! She thought it was a scam, but once in the store she tried…

One grinning husband stepped out of the silver SUV. He had found a vehicle big enough to carry everything we once had in the back of our now wrecked van. SUV looked fine to me. I wanted to load up and leave. First, he insisted, “Look! leather seats, very clean, CD player, no DVD and…