Beyond 20 Gallons of Milk

Fruits, veggies and chicken. I bought all of that to avoid the holiday excess. Then the carbs came calling.First the overly ripe bananas had me pulling out the cookbook. “It’s time to make banana bread for the holidays. I will make small loaves and freeze them for holiday gifts.” Of course, as the cook, I…

The odds and ends at the estate sale included a high school memory album, one student’s personal information, collection of signatures and final good-byes. On the cusp of adulthood, the high school senior (HSS) had one plan for her life after graduation: Her upcoming wedding. References to her marriage appear frequently in the album. For…

Every year we find a space for a short family reunion with our six children, spouses, 18 grandchildren and as many of the great-grands who are spread across five states. Doing so ensures everyone an opportunity to catch-up. This year Hubby found a beautiful mansion out in the country. It had three stories, plus a…

Books imprint me like a newly hatched duckling when it sees its mother.               For instance, I read the biography of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to earn a medical degree. Inspired to be like her, I followed her example. To keep herself awake and studying, during medical school…

Farm children in the years before World War One delighted to find an orange in their Christmas stocking. The brilliant globes of color in the midst of grey winter made the day special according to biographers Laura Ingalls Wilder and Ralph Moody.  Wilder recalled the Christmas blizzard when Alonzo trudged through a blizzard carrying holiday…

Crawling around on their knees, pushing toy cars and muttering car sounds, our boys wore holes in the knees of their pants with their constant motion.I became adept at sewing knee patches and even patches on top of patches. The boys did not mind the patches, but I sought and found sturdier pants with reinforced…

Every November in grade school music we blasted out the traditional Thanksgiving song. “Over the river and through the woods, To grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh, through the white and drifted snow!” We lived those words this Thanksgiving driving to see the grandkids. Hubby knows the way…

Conversation around the kitchen table had turned to pets. We discussed how many cats or dogs each owned. Then, hold the phone, Christy Winget said she had a bearded dragon named Drago? “I got him when my family member just had their second child. I always played with him when I visited. If I had…

Thanksgiving reminds us to consider our blessings past and present. This year I look back and recall a time, early in our marriage, when something bad happened. We dealt with the consequences and settled back into our routines at school, church and home.While my routines continued, depression crept over me. My usual enthusiasm and energy…

Somedays, I promise you, I need stretching exercises for my attitude as much as for my body. I understood perfectly when my cousin said, “Most mornings I grab the wall for a few steps after a  night of sleep,” I am there with her.  It didn’t used to be that way. At 23 I scampered…

Grandma came fussing out the door when she saw her grandsons fighting in the yard. “Make them stop,” she turned to my father helplessly. He looked at the elementary aged cousins tousling in the yard, remembered being a kid with his twin brother and said, “They’re all right. Boys will be boys.”The fight finished and…

If I kept every bit of fabric I received or found at yard sales, the sewing room would overflow, I don’t. I pass most along to sewing ministries or other seamstresses. If we kept all the Bibles and Christian literature we collected, our house would be packed to the brim. We don’t. Every few months…

So this just happened…pull off 5th St exit on my way home from work and this guy is slumped in his seat at the stop sign. I pull over and call 911 and give them all the details: vomiting, convulsing, unconscious but breathing. I’m on the phone with 911, directing traffic around this guy’s truck…

Nothing like the school of hard knocks to get an education. My son Mert nearly has his master’s degree in air travel. At 18, he flew for the first time. “I was sitting in the Little Rock Airport waiting for my flight. I did not realize you had to line-up before getting on the plane.…

My cousin Stephen Hibbard gave me a family genealogy of the Hibbards in America from the mid-1600s to 1900. There I found family stories. Nothing long, just a few lines or a page written when folks took the time to record a noteworthy event or person. For instance on page 97 Robert Hibbard, a minister…