In 1997 we arrived in Rockford, Illinois with baby Maggie after flying for what felt like forty days and forty nights from China. Hellos to her were constant--from neighbors, friends, relatives. Cliff's teachers threw a huge shower. Everyone wanted to hold her, to welcome her after the nail-biting adventure of her international adoption. Maggie was…

The Milan Melon Festival has celebrated local cantaloupe and watermelon harvests for sixty years. During three days, food trucks fill the town square, and carnival rides pack the streets. Events jam the daily schedule: Kiddie Tractor Pull. 5K Melon Run. Firefighter's Chicken BBQ. Antique Car Show. Beautiful Baby Contest.... And the annual scooping of who-knows-how-many…

My mother's gardens were bountiful and beautiful. She could grow anything from radishes to roses. Given the chance, she'd work in them all day long. Me? Hardly. Nevertheless, I keep trying to grow flowers. My success has been limited, mostly because we've moved to houses with too much shade. The bright floral expanses I dream of have…

No one turns a college degree on a dime, so to speak. In May I watched Maggie graduate and wondered how so much time had passed. Of course every parent thinks the same thing. What were the markers? Where did her confidence come from? How did she become an academic success? One by one, they…

Because I graduated in 1969, my 50th high school reunion is on the horizon. I've seen Facebook "Calling All Classmates" announcements. Honestly, I'm only distantly connected. I spent high school not talking to most people. I recently happened onto a friend's video, based on yearbook photos, for the Class of 1968 reunion. I bailed halfway through. My…

Every time I turn around, another teachers' strike begins. The issues never change--higher wages, better benefits, smaller class sizes, expanded book and supply budgets. People in charge never get the message, do they? Yet dollars can't fix everything. The profession is plagued by a pervasive negative attitude. While usually unspoken, I heard it loud and…

Yes, this is really about fringe. And a mistake I made about tangled fringe. Keep in mind I was a late-in-life mother. So when we adopted Maggie, I was over-the-moon ready. Okay, some people would call it overzealous. Looking back, I see I turned my perfectionist's dial to 11 because 10 simply wasn't sufficient for…

After living in big cities, Cliff and I deliberately retired to a one-stoplight town. Fighting traffic, standing in long lines, budgeting rising taxes, and deciphering endless signs took a toll. Not to mention always being anonymous. After a few months in residence here, I was greeted by name three times on an afternoon walk. People…

By this point in life, I understand that small things consume us with frustration or delight. As Cliff says, "It's all about choices." We decide how our focus lands. So in our house built in 1859, we face more decisions than we can shake a stick at. Tuckpointing, landscaping, painting, shutter hanging, and finding more…

Overwhelmed yet? It's now or never as far as Christmas goes. If you're anything like me, the holiday crash course begins around Halloween with a parallel list of orange/brown decor beside the green/red one. If you're clever, with a few additions and deletions, the Trick or Treat decorations morph into Autumnal Pilgrims, easy peasy. But…

What happened to vacuum cleaners? I'm sure you've kept up with the times better than I have, but they now look like you could use them to fight dragons. With a charging unit and fleet of attachments, they require a room of their own. Cliff and I have been through several over 40 years of…

People complain about television. They always have their reasons, but mostly parents worry about its impact on children. Anyone can see how that might be true. But let me tell you about an astonishing connection Maggie made through television when she was a toddler. This begins with my mother who became a widow at forty-six,…

You already know this, but you've probably forgotten. If you're my age, in first grade you were handed a wooden ruler stamped with The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Bulletin boards brandished the slogan. Teachers recited it to unruly children who had to be separated at recess.…

Everyone hates Monday. It's a flashing signal warning us to get back on the school bus or to grab the broom or to log on at the office. There are chores to complete and deadlines to meet. Fun finished for now. So imagine my shock when I answered the phone at 11 am this past…

Fair warning: Nancy and I have been friends for 35 years, give or take. If you think that will influence my remarks about George & Lizzie, you’re right. Without a doubt. In the late 1980s, I worked with Nancy in a Tulsa bookstore. She was the impressive manager who knew each book right down to…

Well, there was all that about my kindergarten experience, if you read my previous post. I left out the part about being swatted when I left my chair once. I'd never been grabbed and shaken in my life. I was incredulous and scared. I did not leave kindergarten with a high opinion of that teacher…

I entered kindergarten in Carmi, Illinois. My mother used to say I was a happy child until then. When she said it after I married Cliff, a kindergarten teacher himself, he asked me what I remembered about my first year of school. My earliest recollection with the teacher happened when she sent us to the…

Because I'm an only child, I spent most of my early years creating story lines by myself. Sometimes I served as narrator of a tale. Other times I played a character in the action. One of my favorite stories involved the daffodil fields in my grandparents' chicken lot. I assume my grandmother planted the bulbs…

When Cliff and I first got together, he loved recounting his teenaged summers with friends, traveling across America to hear Janis Joplin, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, Jefferson Airplane...The whole suede fringe set. He'd often ask: "Do you know who that is?" I listened politely. Every time. One day he told me again…

Easter happened one week ago with particularly cold, blustery weather. Our next-door neighbors rallied, nevertheless. Three generations shared games outdoors. Bundled up in coats, little girls ran with a big neon egg. Their pastel dress hems flapped in the wind. Indoors, candy-filled baskets delivered by the Easter Bunny undoubtedly lined the hearth. Easter, beyond the…