Category: Family

I’ve been struggling with developing a new idea for a Christmas blog this year.  While I do have a new one to post on Christmas Eve, here’s a series of excerpts from Christmas blogs since I started writing.  It’s a long read so get a new cup of coffee and settle in. 2017 My earliest …

I came across a quotation the other day that caused me to ponder a bit: Always is a habit. Forever is a hope. Never is a boundary. Those words carried me back to when our kids were growing up. Ruth and I leaned on them often. Never was the one we used most. One of …

When I was a kid, I remember having three pets over a series of approximately six years.  About the time I was six – twelve we had two dogs and a parakeet. One of my aunts gave us Spot and a few years later I brought home Beauty from the neighbor down the street.  I …

My first story about my granddaughter, Eva, was posted on December 20, 2017. It was one month after I started my blog. I introduced her as my “granddaughter” with an emphasis on “grand”. That’s what I thought back then, and my opinion hasn’t changed. She’s grander than ever. If you look up “beautiful” in the …

David and Lindsay’s twenty-first wedding anniversary was August 6th.  I forgot all about it and wouldn’t have remembered at all if I hadn’t spoken with Lindsay that day.  Shame on me. Years ago, Ruth and I divided the bill paying process between the two of us.  She paid for some things, and I paid for …

I started writing my blog in November of 2017. The following June I wrote a story called My Three Wise Men. I posted it on Father’s Day. It was about the three men that had the greatest impact on me. I wrote first about my father. In 1995 I gave a journal to each of …

I visited Michael, Kate, and young Jackson James in California to celebrate Jackson’s second birthday.  Mike and I were having an adult beverage and Jackson knocked my glass over. It wasn’t a deliberate act. He simply bumped the side table where the drink sat, and his blow tipped it over. Jackson was oblivious to his …

If you’ve ever had teenagers in your life, you may be able to relate to this tale.  The event took place about thirty years ago, but I remember the key components like they occurred yesterday. One of the perks of being a school superintendent was attending conferences in Traverse City each fall.  Ruth enjoyed going …

My daughter-in-law, Kate, is the California Dairy Queen.  She never had a formal coronation, but since she started working with the California Milk Advisory Board that’s what I call her. The California dairy industry is a significant part of California’s agricultural community.  Milk has the highest farm revenue among California agricultural commodities. California ranks first …

I had a mini revelation on Christmas Eve. Michael, Kate, Jackson and I were getting in the car to join Elizabeth and Sutton on the beach at Dana Point for the second year in a row when I flashed back to Michael’s first Christmas. Ruth and my David was almost the same age as young …