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Every Woman Needs a Hero

I remember when there was a double standard for men and women’s fashion. But women have won that battle… I grew up in an era when there was a forbidden fashion list for female students: No trousers, slacks, pants, capris or…

Starting Your First Business Tips

A wise woman once told me: You can’t put an old head on young shoulders. And while personal experience makes for the best teacher, when starting your own business, you can benefit from the wisdom of others. Take me, for…

Celebrating Ja-NO-ary

In the middle of my holiday shopping this past year I took a moment at the bookstore to grab some books and look them over while sitting in the café sipping a peppermint mocha Frappuccino with extra whipped cream. One…

Misty Elmore: Iron Sharpens Iron

As Misty Elmore and her husband, Derek, transitioned from the mountains of Virginia to the beach life along the Grand Strand, they soon after transitioned from high school teachers into a new type of teaching – nutrition, fitness, and wellness.…

Journaling a Place at the Table

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.…

Accepting my New Reality

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…

What We Want for Christmas

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…

Christmas in Our Hearts – But We Need Lights Around It

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…

The Season of Love, Joy, and Wisdom

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…

Perfectly Imperfect

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…

Songs of the Season

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…

Evan’s Elf

“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”…

fortune cookies

Our Chinese Food Christmas

In 2021, the polar vortex left millions of Texans with no electricity or water available. My niece’s family, warned about the stoppage of water, filled bathtubs and containers with the precious liquid. Other friends with no electricity left their homes…

brown wooden board

How Do You Know When You’ve Had a Good Thanksgiving?

“How do you know when you’ve had a good Thanksgiving?” my middle son, who had driven home from south Texas for the holiday, asked many years ago. “Having all the family together,” I answered instantly. I didn’t even have to…

person slicing pie beside bread

Gobble It Up

Thanksgiving. Just the mention of this holiday has me salivating for turkey and sweet potato casserole treasuring memories of cherished family traditions. One very weird tradition I have carried into my adulthood is that the turkey is always referred to…