I wrote this piece a few weeks before my dear aunt Fran lost her battle with cancer more than two years ago. Even after all this time, I find myself stopping to call her whenever my mother is driving me a bit crazy, or my kids are doing something I know she would love. This week would have been her 76th birthday. Though my mother named me Katherine, she has always had … [Read more...]
True Love Ways
It seems as if it was just yesterday that I was anxiously awaiting Valentine’s Day because I had a strong feeling that my boyfriend was going to propose. That was 24 years ago. Now that boyfriend is my husband of almost 23 years and the father of my three children. I was thinking of how far we had come from that young couple who was planning our life together, when I … [Read more...]
3 Life Lessons My Dishwasher Taught Me
Five years ago I stepped into my kitchen to grab a cup of coffee before the kids came home from school and was greeted with a flood of almost biblical proportions. My seven-year-old dishwasher was the cause. Once it was declared officially dead a few days later, Joe and I went out and bought a new one. Little did I know that my brand new, and not inexpensive, appliance would … [Read more...]
An Unplanned Change of Direction
Some events occur and we know instantly our lives have been changed forever. Other times something will happen, and we don’t recognize until weeks or months later that the course of our lives has been completely altered. I would put the days I found out I was pregnant with each of our three children in the first category. There was also the Valentine’s Day almost 24 years ago … [Read more...]
Enjoying the Here and Now With My 17-Year-Old
About a week before Christmas, my 10-year-old came off the bus and told me he was very sad. When I asked him why, he told me that it was because it was almost Christmas, and that meant that all the things he loved about the holiday season -- the music, parties, and presents -- would soon be over. When I relayed the story back to my mother, she laughed and said, “Wow, he … [Read more...]
