Right in the middle of me talking with my patient a few weeks ago, her phone rang. "I have to take this," she said, "it's my daughter!" I listened as she gave detailed instructions on how to re-create the stuffing for the turkey she grew up loving so much. My patient smiled at me as I waited. It was a sweet moment for me. She didn't seem bothered at all, either, when her daughter called several more times during her chemotherapy treatment to ask several other questions about her favorite recipes she'd grown up enjoying. Apparently, this daughter was taking over hosting the Thanksgiving holiday this year since her mom was going through cancer treatment and really didn't feel quite up to preparing a meal for the entire family. My patient asked if I was hosting, and what the plans ... View Post
Closing Out 2024
As 2024 comes to a close, and Christmas cards flood the mailbox, I find myself looking forward to new beginnings, just like everyone else. For several years when Rory & Ian were young, I would type up a New Year letter, print it on festive paper, stuff it into envelopes and spend a small fortune sending them out to family and friends. I wish I'd have kept copies for myself to look back it, but it never crossed my mind. Oh well, live and learn, right? One year, someone wrote me and said that she no longer wished to receive my letters because they were boastful and phony and she was tired of hearing about my perfect life. My life was far from perfect, but that was the last year I sent out a holiday letter. Ever. Year after year since then, I've enjoyed getting updates stuffed ... View Post
Reach Up High, Lean Way In, & Find Yourself A Mentor
Years ago, someone gave me a book called "Future Grace," by John Piper. For those of you who've read it, you know - it's no small book. I tried to get through it, but it was way too much for me. So I put it up high on my shelf behind all of the other books waiting to be read. It was probably about a year later when volunteering at the Passion Conference in Atlanta when John Piper was going to be one of the key note speakers, and I thought... Oh, this will be when all the college students take a break, run back to their rooms, or grab lunch. They won't want to hear John Piper. Boy, was I ever wrong. That's not at all what happened. In fact, they couldn't get into the building fast enough. They scrambled to get as up close as they could. They waited, literally on the edge ... View Post
Looking Forward – 2025
I love the anticipation of holidays - the fall colors and smells, and yes, I am a pumpkin-everything gal. In fact, even as we speak my fall pumpkin candle is burning away in the dining room. Yum. Raking leaves and earning a couple of bucks, the Christmas parties at school, sleeping in, Christmas caroling, family parties at Aunt Norma's on Christmas Eve, sneaking upstairs during the basement parties just to sit quietly in her cozy little living room on the couch admiring her always, very wide Christmas tree, the ornaments that were so different than ours at home, and heading to church at midnight before driving home. There was something really mysteriously sweet about the stillness of night on our way home, and all of us cousins would discuss whether or not it was true that at ... View Post
End Domestic Violence
A friend of mine reminded me today that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Since I have 7 girlfriends who have experienced this first-hand, one whose husband committed suicide when he realized he was about to get arrested.... and the other 6 who are still trying to put the pieces of their lives back together, dealing with some pretty serious PTSD... Likely for the rest of their lives... I thought it was only fitting that I mention October being DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS Month. For their sake. And maybe even for your sake. Also... All of them were too afraid to say anything, and three of them - when they did, were never taken seriously... Even by other women. They didn't just FEEL alone. They truly WERE alone. If you are living in a domestic abuse ... View Post
How To Be An Influencer
Watching my grandchildren growing up at breakneck speed before my very eyes is mind boggling. As their personalities develop more and more, it's fun to see their likes and dislikes. Maci who isn't 3 yet wants to put a tutu on over every outfit, because there's not much she wants more than to be a ballerina. Yesterday I watched her run around a basement full of 8-year-old girls for Lyla's birthday party, so excited to be with the big girls, to look like them, and to do the things they do. To my almost 3-year-old Maci, these little 2nd graders are her influencers! Now, don't laugh, but I just heard that term "social media influencer" a couple of years ago when a friend pointed out that someone we knew was one... an "influencer," and said it as though this individual were a ... View Post
Leaving My Chimes Up A Little Longer
I'm not really sure what it is about my front porch chimes that make me want to just sit here, listen, and think stuff. I also had a couple of rather lengthy drives today, and since neither of them involved M59, I94, or I75, that also provided me an opportunity to just think quietly all by myself. I love my chimes, and I love days like today. I've got a box sitting on my kitchen table filled with all sorts of things for a new baby - diapers, rattles, bibs, and infant clothing for our sweet little baby that the entire family has fallen head over heals in love with. He is beautiful, and sweet, and squishy, and he has stolen every one of our hearts. No one in my family has ever been a foster parent, so this is all pretty foreign to me, but it sure hasn't taken very long to learn ... View Post
Keep the Botox
Ten years. That's how long I've been an empty-nesting, former single Mum of two sons. They are only a couple of months away from turning 31 and 33; thus, the reason I call myself a "former" single Mum. Now I'm an empty-nesting single "Gummy." I've blogged often about the journey - more so in the years immediately following - certainly not because my empty nesting life has become routine; it has definitely not! I write for a local newspaper, as well as for an online digital magazine, and remain employed full time as an RN - so that does take up a lot of my time! Also I spend evenings with my almost 88-year-old Mum, and try my hardest to get one day a week to spend with my son, daughter-in-law, and grands - in between necessary appointments and life in general. It doesn't always ... View Post