Category: Family

  • Today is the first ever Mindful Writing Day, and I almost missed it. Small Stones is a term used by Fiona Robyn, from Writing Our Way Home, to describe a moment when you stop, focus and really pay attention to one thing and write it down, using words that evoke the senses. I began gathering…

  • I might see some trick-or-treaters this evening. I'm excited about that. When you live a mile down a dirt road in a Hollow of few houses and no small children, Halloween is like any other night. Quiet. No one ever comes to your door. Even when my kids were actively hustling for candy, I had…

  • This is the way I remember it: Tom and I were driving down the highway, headed to Houston's Methodist Hospital for the first time, because Daddy was about to have surgery for an abdominal aneurism. I was pregnant with my first baby and worried about Daddy.  I was praying, praying, praying… …and then I was…

  •     Ping-pong season has arrived! Afternoon temperatures are still flirting with the 90's, but cool fronts have pushed the mosquitos and most of the humidity off of the front porch, so Tom set up the table Saturday afternoon and we played for the first time in months, listening to music and talking about random…

  • The key to a successful marriage is having at least a few things in common. For Tom and me, the list includes visiting Civil War battlegrounds, watching 'Breaking Bad', hiking… and eating. Especially desserts. Especially Cyclops Cookies. It's his mom's fault. And I thank her profusely.     I remember that first Christmas, before we…

  • Images of my oldest brother Buster have hovered in my mind today. Today is his birthday. He would have been 65.  I wonder what he would have been like at 65? Would he have mellowed any at all? Probably not. He was too passionate, too creative, too energetic.  I try to imagine his curly black…

  • I woke in darkness yesterday morning. A thunderstorm paid us a surprise visit in the middle of the night, giving us the whole shebang… lightning, wind, huge thunder booms and buckets of rain. Great snuggling weather.  But a power outage, when you need to get ready for church and work, makes you realize how much…

  • …I met my son Daniel for the first time. Of course, it was love at first sight. With each passing year, I fell deeper and deeper in love with that creative, funny, compassionate, wise old soul. How could I resist? Look at that smile! And that hair!     But, dang it (and thank God!) kids…

  • For two mornings in a row, sunlight has found me snuggled under the covers in my grandmother's room, waking in the warm embrace of so many memories. But for the first time that I can remember, Daddy hasn't been already up and sitting at the kitchen table, sipping coffee, newspaper spread before him.  This morning,…

  •   As she has for more than ten years, my sister joined me and my girlfriends at the beach this past weekend. From my earliest memory, Brenda has been my closest friend, and, along with my mother, my role model and inspiration.  Despite the eight years between us and my bratty personality, when I was…