Walking through the woods newly covered in a thick white blanket. Branches laden with layers not yet sewn Onto the forest floor. I feel cold air cut my face near my cheeks which seem permanently fixed with my smiling expression. Down a steep hill, we will have to later ascend, Out onto the lake bed…
observations
Homemade Ornaments
Ever since my boys were young, I saved all their handmade ornaments from grade school. We have quite a box of them now. Eventually, they will become theirs for their own homes and Christmas trees. Among my favorites are the simple winter hats made with yarn and pieces of toilet paper tubes. I believe these…
Do It and Don’t Tell.
Yesterday, I heard a radio announcer tell about some famous person who left a 1,000 tip for a waitress at a restaurant where he had just eaten a meal. Wow! Great, right?! Yes and no. While it’s great that he completed this generous and seemingly random act, it should have stopped there. Instead, he took…
Silent Sunday: Red
Being a Team Player: Environmental Education
Who did I work with when I managed school gardens and taught after school garden clubs consisting of second through fifth grade students? Did I work alone? No, absolutely not! There was a team of people essential to making the garden clubs work. My post today was inspired by this photo (see below) from 2014…
Poetry Friday: White Sparkly Inspiration
Today is Poetry Friday and my post was inspired by the colorful blue and white page of photographs adorning our home calendar this month. Each year I make calendars for our immediate family. They are filled with the special moments that occurred the year or sometimes, just the month, before I work on them, as…
Throwback Thursday: Snowstorms
The Davis Memorial Carillon at Alfred University stands tall in the snowy darkness on campus in November of 2018. We drove in for a visit in a ranging snowstorm! No boots, no mittens, not hats….we were not prepared! It was early for such a significant snowfall, even in the southern tier of NYS. We heard…
Slice of Life Tuesday: Chasing Packages
With only ten days left until Christmas, we are down to the wire. I finished nearly all of my shopping yesterday by picking up just a few last minute gifts for our boys. The stockings now need filling. I’m pretty much on schedule, or so I thought until things started missing their delivery dates by…
Poetry Friday: Writing Tasks
What have I worked on this week? I am a reflective thinker. Perhaps, too much so. I find that sometimes all my thinking stalls my actions and prevents forward movement. I get caught up in questions such as, what should I do now? What would be most productive? Should I stop editing and put those…
Rotary Lights Along the Mississippi River
I was going to save this post for Silent Sunday but decided not to wait. I don’t know what else to write about today, and furthermore, there is a story here besides the beauty of the lights. For 26 years Riverside Park in La Crosse Wisconsin has been lit up by millions of tiny Christmas…









