I remember, back in the day (way before feed readers and Facebook ruled the interwebz) when my kids were smaller (i.e. NOT able to finish stuff ordered off the children's menu) how cute it was when they'd start planning their NEXT birthdays...the day AFTER...their birthdays. Then, they got bigger, we started paying full price at the movie theaters and, well, thank goodness for Netflix. Then, all of the sudden, we were celebrating birthweeks, evidenced by my having to clean the house, more than usual and, well, thank goodness our local super, duper, shop until you drop has an awesome bakery... Read more →

My youngest daughter and I were fighting over radio stations on the way to school, this morning (I'm a little oldies and she's a little bit, you know, LOUD) when it occurred to me that we moved into our starter home, which happens to be THIS house, on Memorial Day weekend...in 1993! "Wow, that means, you've been walking the halls for 18 years!" Okay, so it's STILL a 7 room house and it's not like we have THAT many halls to begin with. Actually, only 1, on the way to the bathroom, in front of the girls' room and, well,... Read more →

Pardon me, while I tap into my Hungarian roots, here, but I love this time of year, minus the wet. Some of my favorite flowers are blooming, RIGHT NOW, most of which we adopted from my parent's garden, before selling the house they spent 30+ years, rebuilding, literally, from the ground up. It was just too much for them. After 7 years of successfully negotiating dozens of hurdles that life continues to throw at them, my parents are still making beautiful things happen, in the dirt. It's in their blood. I've read that there are over 200 varieties of Iris... Read more →

Glen is 12, going on boyteen and, being raised in a house, filled with females, he's grown used to navigating through a raging sea of hormones. Also, rooting through an endless supply of feminine products, because, well, there has GOT to be a roll of toilet paper, in there, somewhere, DAGNABIT! On the other hand, our house seems to be a breeding ground for random pieces of bar soap and I guess we could always recycle them into something fun and useful...but...EWWWW! Aaaanyway, all bathroom issues aside (you're welcome!) my son remains light-hearted about growing up in a testosterone-ly-challenged environment...mostly.... Read more →

Yesterday, we attended an art show, held at a local bank, supporting art in schools, featuring two of Holly's pieces. You can't really tell from my cell phone, however the majority of this pen and ink drawing is stippled, with tiny little dots. I remember, because I can still hear the, "...dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot..." of her tapping the pen well into the night. The same with this one,"...dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot..." which explains the permanent dent in the poor girl's right index finger. This piece, however, is... Read more →

Our oldest is a junior (I know, still not sure how THAT happened) so, my husband, Garth (not his real name) and I attended a financial aid workshop at the high school, last night. Because, you know, she's a junior, in high school and, well, this whole, "Holy Hannah Montana, I got a junior in high school," thing really didn't seem like such a big deal...when she was in kindergarten. Long story, short (as of now, anyway) and 6 hand-written pages worth of notes, later (old school, I know) our best takeaway from the night? We can now continue to... Read more →

I sat down at my desk this morning and, well, you ever have one of those days when your mental to do list is about a mile long (closer to two, even) but, you don't EVEN bother taking the time to find a pen (that works, I mean) because, well, you can't even see the top of your desk, for one thing, until you shuffle some papers around, looking for something to write on (IF you had a pen) only to expose a couple of coffee stains and maybe even a chocolate wrapper (or, twenty) speaking of which, you could... Read more →