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Walk in the Woods Wednesday
The warmth of the landscape is everywhere right now. Countryside woods, county lanes, and front yards are blanketed with orange, yellow, dark green and brown. The ground looks like it is hand stitched with irregular sized threads of maple, oak, elm and 17 other variety of trees leaves. Patterns form and then are whirled by south, east and north winds. Either the tree is on fire, or the artist is showing off the paint pallet!Zooming down the highwayThe stands of trees by the highway make me happy that I am the passenger in the car as my eyes zoom through the depths of the foliage. I love this time of…
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An Open Letter to Teenage Drivers
Dear Teenager Driver whose path I crossed yesterday, In some ways I am sorry for yelling yesterday. I know I yelled loud. Adrenaline kicked in and Mother Bear came out. I now know you were scared. You see there are three very special boys to me – VERY special. They frequently play on the sidewalk that you careened over. There are at least nine other neighborhood children who are all very dear friends. Children that we cannot replace. Children who play in our quiet street in our quiet development. A black-hole could have easily been created in our hearts that day had only one of our precious jewels from heaven been standing on the…
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Afghanistan: “Things are Good, not Great”. DoD Blogger Roundtable
He is what we would call a straight shooter! Maj. Gen. John A. Toolan, Jr., U.S. Marine Corps, met with the DoD Blogger Roundtable to discuss Afghanistan after returning from a year in command of U.S. Marines and allied forces in the Helmand and Nimroz provinces of Afghanistan. He provided a sobering but positive perspective of the situation next to the borders of Pakistan and Iran and the general was ready to share his thoughts on the current events in Afghanistan with the roundtable bloggers. Celebrating opening of new women’s centerSee Photo Credit BelowImagine a new cell phone network connecting villages, additional and improved roads laid down to make it…
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Tasty Tuesday Blackberry Scones
Blackberry Scones. Right there, I am drooling!Warm, wet and wonderful hot out of the oven; berries popping out the sides of blackberry scones. From start to finish, these are ready to eat within the hour using everyday shelf items: with the exception of those juicy berries. We have berries growing and thriving and multiplying like 60. Dale picks them, I clean them; we eat them. Simple! Today we had oatmeal with blackberries for breakfast, a 10 o’clock snack was a blackberry muffin from last night and lunch will be a garden fresh tossed salad topped with… Yep! Blackberries, plump purple and delicious. The scone idea is new. Neighbors are coming…
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Final Days of the School Year
My boys are pumped! *E* and *C*’s last day of school is Tuesday and today is their final Friday in 2nd grade and kindergarten.Soon our routine will change. We’ll spend more time outdoors. more time at the library, more time doing ‘summer jobs’. more time staying up later than we should. more time with neighbors and friends, barbecues and sparklers. I love summer vacation just about as much as my boys do! Kindergarten has had an A-Z Countdown since the beginning of May. Each day has been a letter and a theme. For example, ‘H’ was hat day; ‘P’ was pajama day; today we are at ‘X’ and it…
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Memorial Day Weekend Revisited: A Story in Pictures
Wow! What a fantastic weekend. We had dinner with neighbors, a barbecue with friends, went to another party with more neighbors and then Memorial Day we marched in a parade, visited a few cemeteries and then had lunch at the VFW. No, the garden didn’t get ’tilled as planned after the major thunderstorm on Saturday night; yes, the air-condition did get turned on Monday night after reaching 90 degrees that day; and yes, the Kocsis Crew needs to officially restock the band-aid box after my 6 year old fell multiple times on his knees. But all in all it was a weekend to be remembered. Neighbors! We are so blessed…
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A Recipe for Summer: Sun Tea
Sun Tea! My favorite drink. It is sunny skies, warm weather and the sounds of summer wrapped up and packaged in a glass jar. A few years ago I perfected my family’s favorite version of sun-tea and I thought I’d share it with you. 6 tea-bags. (I use Lipton Tea, found in an economy box of 100.)2 quarts of cold water1 two-quart glass jar. Nothing expensive required! Using your glass jar combine the ingredients and let it sit in a nice sunny-warm spot for two or three hours. My deck table is ideal. The longer you let it sit, the stronger your tea will be. So you can play with the time to see…
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Teen Time
Can you go back in time… in your head to revisit being a teen? Oh the world was not friendly. It is not that it was hard, scary or compressing or even too demanding. It was expanding, about as fast as the body does. That time before high school graduation is a time of growth. The tallest in the class… guy or girl or the shortest; the quietest person in the class, in the back of the classroom or the chattiest in the front row; allows a persona to develop all based on the physical. All out of the control of the teen.Out of control… it rather describes what is…
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Definition of Family
Family … it can have a lot of meanings. Moms, Dads, Children, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Nieces, Nephews, Cousins. All are family… and over the past couple weeks I have seen them. Hugged them. Cherished them. We spent time at my folks’ house, over the river and through the woods. (It is not a road trip of epic miles … but with a family of six it can be a few hours, a bit of “Are we there yet?”, and quite a few “MOM, I have to go to the bathroom!”s. While we were at Mom and Dad’s the grandchildren put on their own nativity scene, we ate /too/ much (always…
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Neighborhood Heroes Can Have Help – Stand Up For Heroes
The newsroom: we invite it into our homes each day and night, presumably to feel the pulse of the nation, catch a glimpse of the world and often taste a nugget of political sinew. But we stick with a particular channel because it sounds right, and looks good. ABC had the forum set with pizzazz in December 2005. Bob Woodruff stepped into America’s kitchens, bedrooms, libraries, living rooms, hotels and bars worldwide. The new co-anchor face on the evening news was our pulse point to calm and crisis in our world. Then things changed. And when change blasts in, emotions ignite. New acronyms became all too familiar: RPG, HEAT, IED…
