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? The turning points? Where did her confidence come from? How did she become an academic success? One…
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 mostly 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…
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…
