Category: Uncategorized

About 18 months ago, I started blogging. There were two main reasons for this: Continue reading “The Two Main Reasons I Started Blogging”

Nearly every morning these days I wake up to the sound of little feet. I can hear them coming through the living room, scratching on the carpet, practically prancing with energy and excitement at a new day.

It’s our little Abra, and she comes into our bedroom, climbs up up up into our tall bed and plops down between the sleeping form of her mother and the barely awake lump that is her father.

“Good morning, Doodle,” I say. Continue reading “My Human Alarm Clock”

Finishing things: traditionally, this is not one of my strengths. Before I had the opportunity to write for a living, I had the luxury of starting and re-starting and erasing and starting something new.

What I realize now is that my avoidance of completing stories reflected a deeply-rooted fear: what if I finally finish something and it’s not any good? When someone hears that I’m a writer, and they ask, “What do you write?”, it’s so much easier to say, “I’m working on a book,” than it is to say, “Here – this is what I’ve written. For now, under the circumstances, this is the best that I could do.” Continue reading “One of My Biggest Weaknesses”

Hidden somewhere in the sheets and pillowcases we purchased at my grandmother’s sale, a note from her:

Kind friend – before you wash these pillow cases, please soak them in cold water to which you have added 2 or 3 tablespoons of table salt for a few hours or the color will all run together. You will be glad you did. Thank you.

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On Labor Day our extended family got together, and grandma was there. She can barely walk anymore, although she did manage to get up out of her wheeled chair/walker and take a few unsteady steps toward the dessert table. Everyone protested (the stroke has limited her ability to swallow), but later I heard that one of my aunts helped her break up a rice crispy treat into tiny pieces. Continue reading “How My Grandma Tried to Reclaim the Washer I Bought at Her Sale”

My favorite season of the year is only two weeks away: the smell of burning leaves, frost on the grass in the morning, hot chocolate, and football. Sweatshirts and boots and waiting for the heat to warm up the car.

But it was a good summer. A great summer. And this got me thinking: what were your go-to blogs this summer?

Did you discover a new blog that knocked your socks off?

Did you faithfully read an old standby blog, enjoying every minute of it?

Let us know the blog(s) that got you through the dog-days of summer.

Recently I’ve had a few people ask me what I’ve been up to since moving back to Pennsylvania. I wrote a lot about the circumstances that brought us back here, and I explained that I was going to try to write for a living, but I kind of ended it at that.

Well, here are the projects that I’m working on, in no particular order: Continue reading “These Are My Projects – What Are You Up To?”