This October has been one of ups and downs.  Not only in the temperatures (one day true fall and the next it feels like spring!) but also in my mood and my motivation.  Including my motivation for posting.  Sigh.  No need for specifics, but October has been a struggle…and the struggle has been real!  This… Read More Fall Comfort Food: Chowder and Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Well, hello Fall!  You’ve been teasing us for days not but now it’s official.  The first day of fall 🙂 And, apparently, time to think about your fall bucket list.  Assuming, of course, you have a fall bucket list.  I typically do not.  I think it is this empty-nest season and the bucket list items… Read More A Bucket List: Fall 2020

Something a little different for today.  Just for fun – and to acknowledge this first day of school for this (no doubt) unusual and interesting school year!  The public schools in Virginia (at least, this northern part of the state) have just about always started on Tuesday after Labor Day.  They certainly did when I… Read More Ten of the Tenth: The School Edition

Here in America, we just celebrated a birthday:)  Independence Day…or the Fourth of July!!  I have always enjoyed the Fourth.  Not only does it take place in summer and we celebrate outdoors, but it does not seem to cause the stress that most of the other holidays do for me.  I confess – most holidays… Read More Ten on The Tenth: Patriotism

Summer has arrived in Virginia.  It actually seems to have settled in….and I say, “Welcome.  Please, stay awhile!”  I enjoy summer.  And while this one will, no doubt, be different in many ways, there is much to anticipate, enjoy and savor about summer.  This post is a few of my favorite things about summer.  Five… Read More Some Things About Summer

Just a few weeks ago (or has it already been months!), we were all eagerly seeking for truth.  We were drowning in facts, reports, opinions, and predictions.  Trying to sift through it all in order to find what seemed logical or perhaps the truth quickly became an overwhelming process.  But, somehow, that seems to have… Read More Three Ways to Be a Better Encourager

The winds are changing.  Shifting.  And so are opinions – which is not new.  Opinions. Attitudes. What is socially acceptable – and what is not.  It all seems to change regularly.  Perhaps it is living here in the backyard of our nation’s capital, but the “winds” never seem to calm.  Opinions are regularly expressed, are… Read More Rest If You Must…but Don’t Quit

One of my richest blessings is the friendship I share with a senior friend.  The afternoons I spend with her are some of my favorites. We love to share conversation over some Panera soup and half a sandwich and then wander the aisles at a local department store – looking for a new top that… Read More The Simplest Hospitality

How quickly we forget.  Or so it has been said and, sadly, it seems to be true with my own brain.  I used to be rather proud of my memory – seemingly never needing a list, a reminder or any sort of prompt to remember anything.  These days, I have to write down my middle… Read More Resisting Discontentment