A Surprise, Starting Thirty-Six Years Ago Today
I remember many details about February 12, 1982, thirty-six years ago today. It was my last day of work before I was scheduled to begin my maternity leave. I was due to have a baby about ten days later. I finished a couple of projects that day, and late in the afternoon I cleaned off […]
A Pox on Chickenpox (Part 2)
I wrote recently about my son’s bout with chickenpox in January 1986. Well, as I feared, a couple of weeks after he recovered, his little sister broke out in spots. She was not quite nine months old at the time—just a baby. But a baby with a forceful personality. As the second child in the […]
FOREVER MINE is now available!
As I announced last week to subscribers to my newsletter, Forever Mine is now available—just in time for Valentine’s Day! If you have a Valentine who likes to read love stories, family sagas, or American history, I encourage you to send them a copy. You can find Forever Mine at the following sites: Amazon: Paperback […]
Happy 90th Birthday To My Mother-in-Law
Even before I met my mother-in-law-to-be, I wrote her. It was shortly before Mother’s Day in 1977. I’d been dating her son for a couple of months. When I bought the Mother’s Day cards for my mother and grandmothers in early May, I picked up a “To Someone Special” Mother’s Day card, wrote her a […]
Six Years of Blogging: A Measure of Time and an Assessment of Life
I launched my blog “Story & History: One writer’s journey through life and time” in January 2012, publishing only three short posts that month. It took awhile to find my rhythm (stepped up to publishing twice a week) and my voice. For five years, I published on WordPress.com, and last year I moved here to […]
Updates to LEAD ME HOME: The Fremont Expeditions and Pheasants
In addition to putting the finishing touches on Forever Mine this month, I have also made a few updates in Lead Me Home, the first novel I wrote about travel along the Oregon Trail. These two novels both involve characters traveling in the same wagon company in 1847, so part of my challenge was making […]
A Pox on Chickenpox (Part 1)
My kids were born several years before the chickenpox vaccine was available. The measles/mumps/rubella vaccine existed, and I dutifully had them inoculated with the MMR shot at the appropriate age. But all we could do was wait to see if they got exposed to the chickenpox. I remembered the chickenpox from my own childhood. When […]
Darkest Hour: Reflections on Leadership and Words
I love going to the movies, but I don’t do it much these days. I feel like I should spend the time with the characters in my head, rather than with someone else’s characters on a screen. But this past weekend, friends and I went to see Darkest Hour about Winston Churchill’s early weeks as […]
Why I Don’t Wish Friends Happy Birthday on Facebook
Another year has begun, and with it another round of birthdays. And another round of deciding which birthdays will I acknowledge, and which will I ignore. Kids get recognized—that’s a given. (Or it should be.) My younger nieces and nephews will get a card and a gift. The recognition may come late, but until they’re […]
Random Photos: Ironing
Despite an early exposure to ironing (Santa left me an ironing board when I was just a toddler), I have never liked it. In fact, I’ve done whatever I could to avoid it. I’ve owned an iron since I was married, but I didn’t buy an ironing board until sometime after I had two kids. […]