Beautiful Little Moments

Check out my latest on Medium: Beautiful Little Moments

Apparently, Some Lessons Stick

Christmas Eve of 2014, my mother-in-law, Mary, drove up from central Illinois to celebrate with my husband, daughter, and me. She brought along her daughter, Lida, and the daughter’s new husband, Brent. We did the big meal thing, chatted over mostly coffee—I don’t drink coffee and my daughter, Amelia, was two years old—then settled into … Continue reading Apparently, Some Lessons Stick →

My Path to Freelance Writing

Before my daughter, Amelia, was born, I had been a successful IT project manager for over a decade. Project management is one of those things that sounds boring on its face, but depending on the environment and how much the PM needs to accomplish, it can be exhilarating—and exhausting. One of my favorite projects was … Continue reading My Path to Freelance Writing →

The Price of a Fresh Start

My latest from Medium The Price of a Fresh Start

Navigating Family Purchases: TV Edition

A few weeks ago, our television started randomly switching sources. We’d be watching a streaming channel when the TV would blip, and then we’d be looking at broadcast TV or the DVD player. At first we thought the remote had an issue, but after several sets of new batteries and a sternly worded conversation with … Continue reading Navigating Family Purchases: TV Edition →

Time to Give Away Some Toys

Amelia has always taken very good care of her toys. She also can’t stand parting with anything. We hit Christmas, her birthday, or any other gift-giving occasion, and our extremely generous family showers her with gifts, yet nothing ever leaves. The result: shelf upon shelf filled with items. This past year, something changed. It started … Continue reading Time to Give Away Some Toys →

Well, That Was Interesting

A couple of months ago, while I was starting to get the hang of this freelancing thing, I attended a well-respected, successful writer’s webinar. He declared that if I wanted to be taken seriously, I’d create a self-hosted WordPress site instead of keeping my site on WordPress.com. At the same time, I kept running into … Continue reading Well, That Was Interesting →

Beep…beep…beep

Hi, everyone, That beeping is me backing up the moving truck. I’m moving the site off of WordPress.com to a self-hosted environment so I can have a little more flexibility as far as customization. Do not fear—no subscriber left behind. Assuming I’m doing this all correctly, I should be able to transfer any subscribers to … Continue reading Beep…beep…beep →

Cat, Vacuum, or Child? Ten Chances to Match the Scofflaw to the Crime

I wrote something for Motherwell Magazine. Enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/motherwellmag/posts/2667098823588174

The World’s Tiniest Alpaca That is Maybe a Llama

My husband, Walt, and I struggle with anniversary gift giving. Early on, we tried the anniversary gifts by year guides, but they didn’t help. We didn’t want what we were supposed to get, we already had what the list suggested, or we contorted ourselves so much to match the list that the whole affair was … Continue reading The World’s Tiniest Alpaca That is Maybe a Llama →