On that trip that my mother made to our home in late November or early December 1984, she brought my son a gift she had made herself—an Advent calendar in the shape of a wreath. For those who don’t know, an Advent calendar helps children count the days until Christmas […]
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Confession: I Let My Mother Potty-Train My Son
I mentioned in a post several years ago that my mother had potty-trained my son while I took a business trip. It was in November or December 1984, but I always associate the event with Thanksgiving. As I recall, this is how it came to be: We had moved into […]
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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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Random Photo: An Old IBM-XT . . . Or Maybe It’s a Clone
This random photo was taken in December 1986, when our family visited my parents for Christmas. I found an envelope of pictures taken during that trip, and, since many of the pictures had Christmas motifs, I will save them for December posts. But this picture is of an early IBM […]
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Random Photos: Our First House (and Our Son)
After thirty-four years in our current home, my husband and I have started looking for another house. The process is slow and time-consuming, and I probably won’t write much about it until we make a decision. But it is a topic that is much on my mind. Today’s random photos […]
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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 Spoon Bread Debate
My son came to visit recently, and while he was here, an old family debate surfaced in our kitchen and on Facebook. As I’ve mentioned before, my son likes to cook. As he was planning his trip home, he told me he would be happy to fix some meals for […]
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Easter Eggs: Hunting and Dyeing
I don’t remember ever going on an Easter egg hunt as a child. The Easter Bunny might have hidden some candy around our living room, but I’m not even certain of that. We had pets, plus my mother would have feared an egg getting lost behind the couch. The Easter […]
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Random Photos: Rickover, Our First Dog
Rickover was the first dog my husband and I owned together. I’ve mentioned Rickover before (see here and here), but he has never had a post devoted solely to him. I found a couple of photos recently that made me decide to rectify my oversight. As I’ve said before, he […]
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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 […]
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