February is here again and my itch to travel somewhere warm and sunny has appeared right on schedule.  I will be traveling to Florida the end of March but that seems a long way off.  I dream of returning to Charleston or Williamsburg or exploring Ashville or Savannah for the first time.  ...

Advent is here – the season marked on the church calendar which begins four Sundays before Christmas – the season in which Christians around the world prepare to celebrate the coming of the Messiah, the birth of Christ and the second coming of Christ Jesus.  We have a good number of books...

Next month my husband and I are flying to Denver to attend our niece’s wedding.  It will be the second family wedding we will attend in Denver in a six month period.  I have very fond memories of my other niece’s wedding in June – despite the fact that it was an outside wedding and the ...

For some reason – tradition, I suppose – my family always wants pie for the finish of our Thanksgiving dinner.  It doesn’t have to be pumpkin; it could be apple or cherry or blueberry but it does have to be pie.  Cookies or bars or even pumpkin cake with cheese cream frosting won’t...

Thanksgiving Day will soon be here.  There are many reasons for giving thanks..our freedoms, our families, friends, the food available to us (a few places in Sheboygan have free meals on Thanksgiving) and last but not least the wonderful Mead Public Library we have in Sheboygan. There are...

I have a memory of a beautiful autumn day.  It was BC (before children), when my husband and I were young and carefree.  We were walking through a nearby park that contained Native American burial mounds.  I remember the sound of shushing through the fallen leaves, the feel of the cool, ...

My brother-in-law recently completed a multi-year endeavor – he visited all of the 58 national parks, including one in American Samoa and several in Alaska that are only accessible by plane.  He finished with a splash this summer by taking his whole family to the last national park on his ...

It’s that time of year again when trees turn into brilliant works of art which rival the masterpieces in any museum.  The color of their leaves seems to blaze against the bright blue fall sky, calling everyone outside to admire their spectacular hues.  We look forward to taking leisurely ...

While browsing in the local shops we are starting to see things for Halloween.  (Yes, Christmas too.) Many families with and without children are looking forward to this scary holiday.  The Sheboygan Dominion of Terror is getting ready to open its doors for anyone brave enough to enter ...

I am not a gardener.  However, I have been in the process of landscaping my front yard over the last few years and have grown exponentially in my appreciation of beautifully landscaped yards and gardens.  I am actually learning the names of some common bushes and flowers and enjoy browsing ...