To Kill a Mockingbird

An unlikely star has risen out of a village in Scotland. Her name is Susan Boyle, and she is a forty-seven year old, unemployed woman who lived with and cared for her ailing mother until the woman’s death, a couple of years ago. She’s never been married. Never been kissed.
She recently walked onto a stage [...]

Love Letters

My family is into racing. No, not the Nascar kind of racing. Actual running. Every single day.
Well, except for Sundays.
Aren’t you impressed? I’ll bet you had no idea we were such a fit family.
We would probably be more fit if the race were a little longer. But our racetrack is only the [...]

Pick Me!

Do you remember that feeling, in third grade, when the teacher lined everyone up against the wall, appointed two team captains, and told them to choose teams? Man, I hated those times. My palms would get all sweaty, and I could barely breathe. Pick me, pick me, please pick me. If the teams were athletic, [...]

April Fools!

I (drum roll please . . .) am the reigning April Fool’s Champion! Perhaps I shouldn’t be quite so proud of this accomplishment, but I am. It is a title I wear proudly, along with my crown, scepter and cape. I’ve even been known to hum, “We are the Champions” every year on April 1. [...]

Graduation

Mark and I have officially graduated. And to be perfectly honest, we feel a little cheated. We didn’t get a ceremony. We didn’t get the cap and gown, or even the little rolled up piece of paper with the ribbon tied around it.

There [...]

Standardized Tests

My children – and about a zillion others – are preparing to take their yearly standardized tests. Call me strange, but I used to love those test days when I was a kid. After all, on those days, the teachers were extra nice to us. They didn’t want us to be stressed out. And on [...]

Mercy Me

I looked in the rearview mirror at the police car pulling into the street behind me. Oh, please God, don’t let him be coming after me.
I turned.
He turned.
I pulled into the parking lot.
He pulled into the parking lot.
I parked.
He pulled up behind me and turned on his lights.

Oh, dear God, what have I done [...]

Getting Laid Off

My dear husband is doing what a lot of people are doing these days. He’s praying he doesn’t lose his job. Over the past several weeks, he has watched many of his dear friends and colleagues become victims of a poor economy. Our hearts break for them, even as we pray it doesn’t happen to [...]

Bubbling Over

Have you ever done something really dumb, even though you knew it was dumb when you did it? Well, I did.

Last week, I had a dishwasher full of dirty dishes and an empty dish cabinet. The reason? I was out of my little [...]

Sick Days

During the last few weeks, we’ve had a lot of sick days around our house. As a matter of fact, we’ve had more sick days than well days. And because we are a loving family, and we like to share with each other, we just keep passing things back and forth.
We’ve had it all. We’ve [...]