I have a confession. I’m a procrastinator by nature. I need help staying on task and organized. I recently told a neighbor that I keep daily and weekly chore lists with little boxes I check off as I complete tasks. He remarked, “You don’t strike me as a list person.”  I smiled and replied, “I’m not.”  I asked my husband to write the lists for me, to help me remember what needs doing each day to keep our home tidy. My husband recently said, “You’re not a planner, are you?”  I laughed and said, “You’re kidding me, right?  You asked me to marry you eleven days after we met, and…

This is a difficult post to write, but I cannot be silent. With the recent presidential decision to remove the United States troops from Afghanistan, the nation has collapsed into chaos and misery as the Taliban have taken control. Heartbreaking footage of Afghans running alongside a departing U.S. Air Force plane highlights their desperation to escape. Video footage from Aljazeera.com shows several people clinging to the plane after takeoff, only to plummet to their deaths when they could no longer hold on. Dear readers, when professional athletes disparage the United States, this is the video they should be forced to watch on a loop. If you have grown up amongst…

My husband is an avid fan of home renovation television programs. Today he asked me to humor him and watch a few episodes, so I did. We watched back-to-back episodes of the HGTV channel’s ‘Home Town,’ with hosts Ben and Erin Napier. Ben and Erin are natives of Laurel, Mississippi, and they have renovated over fifty homes in and around their modest hometown. Their labor of love is bringing the town back to life.   Rooms are gutted to the studs, and then the real fun begins of bringing the host’s vision to life. This is where I always get lost. I cannot see these elaborate ideas in my mind.…

Three weeks ago, my husband and our son came home from his weekly piano lesson. As they walked through the door, I caught my husband saying to our son, “You’ll have to ask Mom what she thinks about that. She remembers a lot of details that I don’t.” Hmmm. My curiosity was piqued. What could our son possibly want to know that his dad didn’t feel he could answer thoroughly? Our son turned to me and asked me, “Is my father a good man?” Our son is adopted. His birth parents are my oldest daughter and a man she had partnered with for a short while. Thankfully, I was prepared…

Does anyone else settle into a good book when they are bored?  I love escaping into another world when mine feels blah.  Last weekend I was happily ensconced in Colleen Oakley’s novel, You Were There Too.  No spoiler alerts here, but I will say it was 100% satisfying from start to finish. https://colleenoakley.com/books/you-were-there-too/    (* Link to author website, not monetized.) I was sitting in my comfy chair, reading the story of a woman with recurring dreams of a handsome stranger, when I sensed someone was watching me. My less-than-stealthy seven-year-old daughter stared at me, hoping I would abandon my book to entertain her. I was determined to read.  She was…

The Bible tells a very interesting story in the book of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet, and God told Hosea to marry a prostitute. God used Hosea as a living demonstration of His love and patience for a nation that continually turned its back on Him. Israel was God’s chosen people – his bride. Yet the people of Israel were cheating on God by constantly returning to the pleasures of the world. Hosea not only had to marry a prostitute named Gomer – but he would be called to literally buy her back when she cheated on him yet again. “The Lord said to (Hosea), ‘Go show your love to…

A friend shared a ‘magic’ card trick video with me today. On a table were six royal cards—a pair of Kings, a pair of Queens, and a pair of Jacks. The narrator said, “Focus on one of these six cards, really fix it in your mind. I will try to guess your card.” I dutifully focused on the King of Clubs and waited for the ‘magic.’ The video pans away for a moment, and when the camera returned to the cards, the King of Clubs was gone. Hmmm. Now, the video wasn’t done live, so how could the narrator guess my card and others’? My friend told me to watch…

I have always loved the story of the little boy and the starfish, but as a certified marine docent, I would be remiss if I didn’t share that starfish are now known as sea stars. In the story, a little boy is walking along a stretch of beach, and he sees all these stranded starfish. If they remain on the sand, they will dry up and die. The little boy picks one up and throws it into the ocean. An older man walks by and tells the little boy, “There are hundreds of starfish here, young man! You won’t make a difference.”  The little boy proceeds to bend down, picks…

Have you ever had a moment in your life when everything turned to complete crap?  You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. Everybody’s version of crap is different, of course. If you are reading this and your life has taken a right turn toward Crapville, let me say I am so sorry you’re going through this. It hurts, it sucks, and it’s probably not fair. I thought about this as I was reading a story in the bible. It made me pause and think carefully about those crappy moments.  This story happens when the mob has come to arrest Jesus before he is to be crucified.  A slave…