Perhaps you’ve heard of the great thermostat wars…the battle each household must fight over who controls the temperature of the house. We fight that one in our house, but we have an additional battle– the Christmas lights fight. I love Christmas decorations. I go all out. I have lights all over our house, and not…
(This is an update to a devotional I wrote two years ago.) I can’t believe it’s been two years since I watched the demolition of my grandparents’ house. It still doesn’t seem real sometimes. My family has lived in Kentucky since the days of Daniel Boone. In fact, as some of the first settlers, our…
“Tell me a story! Tell me a story!” When I was a little girl visiting my Granny, I often asked her to tell me a story, particularly at night after I climbed into bed. Granny told the best stories, and they were usually silly ones she made up, as opposed to just telling me true…
Recently I was asked to pray with a nursing home resident who was nearing the end of her life. Other than her name, the only thing that I knew about her before I arrived was that she was in her fifties though she looked like a much older woman, and that she had had a…
I’m convinced that most people today conflate the concept of manners and respect, and I do not believe that the two are the same. The Oxford online dictionary defines manners as “a person’s outward bearing or way of behaving toward others.” Think of it like saying “please” and “thank you,” “yes ma’am” or “no sir,”…
My grandfather and his brother Nathan were musicians in a band that toured. Well, actually, it was just the two of them, and by “toured” I mean they played the fiddle and guitar at parties and barn dances. This was rural Kentucky pre-World War II. They wore their best suits and provided the entertainment for…
For Mother’s Day my husband took me to my grandparents’ farm. And when I say “farm,” I mean 110 acres that includes fields for growing crops, an old barn that used to house tobacco, woods where you can still see the old wagon trail if you look closely enough, and a creek that cuts through…
When I was a little girl, there was no question that my family would spend Easter weekend with my grandparents and attend Sunday church services with them. This also meant that my sister and I would wear frilly spring dresses and our patent leather white shoes. Some years I had dainty little gloves, a hat,…
I had coffee with a friend the morning after Christmas. “It just didn’t feel like Christmas this year,” she said. Many of her family members had been sick, and she was exhausted from working her new job and trying to take care of everyone. On my drive home, I started thinking, “What does Christmas feel…
My daughter is in the process of applying to vet schools. It’s a highly competitive field, and though there is currently a national shortage of veterinarians, there are only so many slots in each university’s program. Maybe because I was Riley’s teacher for so many years, I feel extremely responsible for her performance in college,…
It’s back to school time! I don’t care how old I get, I’m always going to love the excitement that this season brings–the prospect of all the new things… learning new and fascinating ideas, making new friends, and relishing in the joy of new lunch boxes, freshly sharpened pencils, and colorful new folders. (I love…
“What about having Christmas in July?” That was a recent text I received from a nursing home volunteer. She had been crocheting teddy bears as Christmas gifts for the care home residents that attend our weekly Sunday afternoon gatherings, and she had completed them much earlier than expected. As someone who will gladly use any…