Recently I was helping out in the cafe at church before Adult Bible Fellowship classes and Sunday morning services.  Just like back in my waitressing days, it was quite predictable what crowd of people would show up at what time. We needed to know how to make specialty coffees nice and early for the first morning wave of folks - the teenagers. I never did quite master that skill. They show up early with their friends, get their specialty coffees, most of them a full day's worth of calories, and go hang out for a little while at the small tables that are scattered throughout the gathering space and line the hallways at church. It's very obvious that they love spending time together, and invest that extra half hour or so to catch up with one another prior to going to their ABF ... View Post

We're three days into the month of November.  The leaves have almost completely left the trees they belonged to for the past three seasons, the temperatures are slowly dropping, and Christmas stuff is on sale in the stores.  And, as much as I hate to admit this - I'm one of those people who is 90% ready for Christmas, including the gift wrapping by September.   I get excited.  It's never too soon to start playing Christmas music.  I'm already trying to find a friend to go to Frankenmuth and walk the snowy streets, watching the horse drawn sleighs go by, with those magnificent sleigh bells ringing beautifully with each of the horses' steps.  It's a wonderful time of year and change of seasons.   But I'm also no stranger to the sadness these holidays can bring for so many people - ... View Post

Each payday, I set a little chunk of money aside to save, and each time I balance my checkbook I must account for that growing chunk - why?  because I only go to the credit union where my savings is, a few times a year.  Not because it's far away or difficult to get to.  It's not.  I just don't bother to go there until...    well, basically until I feel like it.  But my bank where I do my checking and spending -  I go to that place frequently.   I know the names of the gals who wait on me because I still park my car and walk inside.  I want to know how they're doing, how their mother's surgery went, and how their grandkids who play football at the high school my sons attended years before are doing.  And, they always ask how my little grands are doing, too.  We have relationships - not ... View Post

Please forgive me if you are one of the many people I've already shared this story with.  I've told it, and re-told it, and re-told it again, and it's still hilarious to me, so I decided it was worth sharing. I was on the other side of town for an appointment on a day off last week, and Harp's Lingerie Store in Birmingham just happened to be on my way home.  Now, I don't wear lingerie because my entire life I've preferred a good old-fashioned flannel nightgown straight out of Little House on the Prairie, but that store has the best bras ever, anywhere.  Trust me.  If you really need a good bra that fits correctly, makes you feel pretty, and doesn't leave you with a stage 2 pressure ulcer at the end of eight hours or have an underwire with the potential to puncture a lung, then you need ... View Post

My Dad has been gone nearly two decades now, and yet, it feels as if he was here not long ago.  I can still hear his voice.  I can still see him clearly.   There are times when I'm driving and think I should call him, and remember I can't.  His hat hangs on the shelf in my dining room.  Reminders of him are often daily.  I quote him all. the. time. Over the weekend, I purchased a re-finished piece of old furniture.  My friends know, just about every piece of furniture I own has come from somewhere else, and if you've ever sat at my kitchen table (which came from the side of the road), you've heard the stories about my kitchen tables, its not-so-matching chairs, my buffet from the Fisher Body mansion, the coffee table with the scripture on the bottom, the bed from the Memory Care facility, ... View Post