Home-Schooling with Historical Fiction
I’ve learned most of my history through historical fiction. Not all, but most of it. Even back in grade-school days, I read a lot of historical fiction—the Little House series, Caddie Woodlawn, What Katy Did, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Anne of Green Gables. All evoked by-gone times […]
A Childhood Epizootic
In these days of the coronavirus, every cough and every ache or pain makes us fearful. At least, that’s how I’m feeling these days. Spring is coming regardless of the pandemic, and I try to take solace in the warmer days, the brilliant sunshine, the greening of trees and lawns. But sometimes my thoughts take darker […]
Recipe: Rice with Raisins and Cinnamon
In our house, we use EVERYTHING. Including chicken and turkey carcasses. When we get a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, we save the carcass, and my husband makes chicken stock from it. But he doesn’t make the stock as often as we buy rotisserie chickens. So when the pandemic hit, we had four carcasses […]
How Long Did the California Gold Rush Last?
Much like the current pandemic, the California Gold Rush started at a specific epicenter and spread across the world. We’re all familiar with the term “Forty-Niners” which originated with the hordes of people flocking to California in 1849 to seek their fortunes in the gold fields. I’ve described in previous posts that the Gold Rush […]
A Random List of Things That Are Going Well
The world is a crazy place in this era of the pandemic. “Social distancing” remains the phrase of the day, in many places accompanied by “shelter in place” or a variation thereof. Since Saturday, March 14, I have taken a few walks in our neighborhood, but otherwise I have barely left the house. On my […]
COVID-19: What A Difference A Week Makes
Today is Wednesday, March 18. As of last Wednesday, March 11, my children and their cousins were all scheduled to fly to Kansas City this week for a meeting this coming weekend about family farmland. As of Thursday, March 12, we cancelled their trip. Why the change in plans? Coronavirus. COVID-19. Whatever you want to […]
“Where’s That Baby?” and Other Memories
As readers of this blog know, I was very close to my maternal grandmother, my Nannie Winnie. I always believed she thought I was pretty special as well—after all, I was her oldest grandchild. I knew she loved all my siblings, and I didn’t think I was any higher in her estimation than they were, […]
Why I Became an Economics Major in College
I went to Middlebury College expecting to become a Political Science major. I had law school as a possibility in my mind even as I started college. Or maybe I would be a French major and teach French—I had already concluded already that I would never speak French well enough to be a United Nations […]
Selling Cookies and Other Fun Fundraisers
The Kansas City Star has a column called “Snarky in the Suburbs” by Sherry Kuehl, which I enjoy. Last week, her piece was titled “Sure they’re nondescript, but the Thin Mint has a mighty allure”. She described her decades-long addiction to Girl Scout Thin Mints. That reminded me of my own relationship with Thin Mints […]
My Mother’s Hands
I wrote a poem several years back about my mother’s hands. Here it is: Heredity Stubby fingers, Split nails, Swollen knuckles, . . . And now age spots. My mother’s hands At the end of my wrists. How did this happen? At the time, my critique group didn’t get it. How can my mother’s hands […]