Every so often, something happens in real life that makes a good story. There is plot, there is conflict, there are characters. That happened to me last week. The characters were my daughter, her brother, and me. The conflict will be revealed if you read this post. I’ve mentioned before […]
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Not So Random Photos: Spring Break 2003
Most of my photos are now packed away in boxes and would be difficult to rummage through. So I decided not to use a random photo for this post. Instead, I deliberately sought the oldest pictures we had in digital format on our PC—it’s much easier to search a PC […]
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Treasures That Might Have Been, and Those That Survive
As I’ve delved deeper into closets and drawers and boxes, I’ve found all sorts of things. And on a recent visit, I had my daughter go through her belongings to decide what we should save. She is far less sentimental about “things” than I am, and she kept very little. […]
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First Christmas Away from Home; First Christmas at Home
Christmas 1978 was the first Christmas I spent away from my parents’ home. My husband and I had been married just over a year, and it was my in-laws’ “turn” to have us. There’s an old Hallmark Cards television commercial about a young woman experiencing her first Christmas away from […]
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A Scary Vacation: Falling in the Grand Canyon
A friend recently returned from a trip to the Grand Canyon. “The ranger told us only seven people had died in the park this year,” she told me. “I thought seven was a lot!” A quick Google search showed me that an average of twelve people die in the Grand […]
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Always Go to the Funeral
I was reminded recently of something my daughter taught me. It’s nice to have children who are mature enough to teach their parents life lessons. Both my children came home for their uncle’s funeral in May. Actually, my daughter had been visiting, and merely had to extend her visit by […]
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A Treasure: My Daughter’s First Graduation Photo
I mentioned last year that I found many “treasures” when I cleaned out some cupboards. Here is one of them—my daughter’s preschool graduation photo from May 1990. Her preschool was part of a Catholic parochial school. She started at the “early childhood learning center” (as the preschool was formally called) […]
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You Know Your Children Are Grown When . . . [Part V]
I’ve written on this topic several times in the past, but in recent months I’ve had more occasions to reflect on the benefits of having grown children. You know your children are grown when 1. Both children call on your birthday, and you don’t think one reminded the other this […]
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The Great-Grandmother I Know the Most About: Cecelia Ryan Strachan
I never knew my great-grandmother Cecelia Ryan Strachan, my maternal grandmother’s mother. In fact, Cecelia died before my mother was born, so my mother never knew this grandmother either. But I can piece together some facts about Cecelia’s life, from family stories and from Sacramento newspaper articles and histories. That’s […]
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Memories of Girl Scouts on National Girl Scout Day
I don’t typically write back-to-back posts about “national days” and similar occasions, although it is interesting to note that International Women’s Day (March 8) and National Girl Scout Day (March 12) are in close proximity. The purpose of the Girl Scouting is to help build girls’ courage, confidence, and character, […]
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