I’ve been journaling most of my life–even when I didn’t know there was a name for what I was doing. It was my way of making myself relevant in a household where children did as they were told without discussion.…

In my 40’s, tired of the routine of the gym, I discovered yoga. I practiced an average of three to four times a week. Attracted by the sheer movement, the sweaty workout, and the social aspect, I paid no mind…

I attended a Christmas luncheon yesterday. A choir of older women sang traditional holiday carols flawlessly. Yet, the highlight for me was not the mesmerizing music and their jovial red vests and joyful smiles but instead the performance of a little…

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas,” I say hopefully each December when the temperature drops down in the 30s. I say, “feels like Christmas,” not “looks like Christmas,” because we Okies know that a white Christmas is as rare…

It was the year of the Cabbage Patch Kids, and I was making my bi-weekly visit to the Zayre’s toy department to peruse the aisles, hoping for a surprise shipment of the hottest doll of the year. The toy was…

Standing back to admire and enjoy the lovely decorations I’d put up in our home for Christmas 2020, I noticed that the table runner on the long table in our family room was extremely uneven. One side dangled nearly to…

I love all kinds of Christmas music–carols, secular songs, children’s songs–provided it is not played before Thanksgiving. That being said, there are a number of songs associated with Christmas time that really don’t seem to have anything to do with…

“I’m never allowing an elf on my shelf – or anywhere else in my house for that matter,” I proclaimed at my firstborn’s baby shower. I was a new mom and full of ideals, philosophies, and many other “I’ll never”…

“No! I won’t! And you can’t make me!” She hurled the words at me with all the fury in her small nine-year-old body. “You’re so mean to me! I hate you!” Taking a deep breath, then another, I told myself:…

It was a brilliantly blue-skied Thanksgiving Day, perfect for a celebration. But there was mischief afoot. Little did we know that a criminal was lurking in the neighborhood looking for an opportunity to strike. A neighbor had placed her cooked…