On Blue Herons and Mothers: In Memoriam
Every year on this date, through some bizarre miracle (or coincidence, depending on your attitude toward the unexplained), I seem to spot a great blue heron—that is, every year since…
On Groundhogs, Seasons, and the Power of Change
It’s Groundhog Day, and though I don’t necessarily trust the meteorological forecast of a large rodent, I imagine it can’t be much worse than the never-accurate predictions I get from…
Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
It’s the end of the first month of this “New Year” (which is no longer all that new) and I can’t help but wonder: Where DID the time go? I…
Yeah, I’m Bitter—So What?
People are always saying to let things go, to forgive (for yourself, if not for person who did something wrong). But there are some hurts that just can’t be forgiven.…
On Comfort Foods
I may be a little bit weird. I get that. I seem to be the only person in the world (except for people who love snow—yuck!) who actually likes this…
Hooray for Winter!
I love this time of year. I know, I know. Most people think I’m crazy. What’s to love about subzero temperatures, icy roads, and darkness setting in at 5:00 p.m.?…
My New Year’s Resolutions
I am a planner. Always have been. The only thing I enjoy more than getting stuff done is making extensive lists of things I PLAN to get done. For a…
And So This Is Christmas…
It’s almost Christmas and I’ve been thinking a lot about Christmases past and how much emphasis I always seem to put on this one day to be the anchor for…
Christmas Cards
I’m mailing out my Christmas cards today. That means I spent hours last night, painstakingly choosing the perfect card from the five different styles I purchased so each and every…
Christmas Shopping (Or, Why I’m Being Selfish This Year)
It’s Christmas shopping time, for normal people, at least. And the more I see those “Buy your wife a car” or “Your kids NEED this toy” commercials on TV, the…
The End of NaNoWriMo
Every year, by the end of November, I find myself sitting on a mountain of words—more than 50,000 of them, thanks to the magic of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).…
Another Thanksgiving, Another Memory
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m getting old, maybe I’m just feeling sappy and nostalgic, or maybe I just have some free time on my hands because I don’t have to…
Downtime (Or, When Not to Fight the Laziness)
Some days? I just get lazy. Take last Tuesday, for example. I woke up at my usual time, around 4:00 a.m. (although I should say that the phrase “waking up”…
Making Art (Or, How NaNoWriMo Is Going So Far)
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m deep in the midst of National Novel Writing Month, working hard to crank out 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. I’m well on…
Feeling Like a Writer, or: My Journey to Little House on the Prairie
It’s Election Day and while everybody else is ranting about politics and violence and the terrible state of affairs here in America, I thought I’d take a step back and…