This past weekend, I tackled a garden project that I’ve been putting off for years. I dug up all the irises in front of our house, and moved them to an entirely new area, which I’m hoping will now become “The Iris Bed.” When we first moved into this house, I admit I went a little crazy with my flowers. I have always loved English cottage gardens, and I wanted a garden surrounding my house that was all flowers, full of blooms at all times of the...

Why should sugar cookies only be made at Christmas? Sure, these melt-in-your mouth delights are associated with the holiday season, probably in part due to their colorful sprinkles or icing. But when I was a kid, we had sugar cookies for all sorts of seasons and holidays. Shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day, leaves in the fall, bunnies at Easter, not to mention the host of fun cookie cutter shapes that weren’t holiday related that my mom would use...

Every family has its own Christmas traditions, and I love that we enjoy so many of them. In our family making sugar cookies decorated with sprinkles is one thing I do with the kids every year at Christmas, and Bill and the kids make buckeyes, or peanut butter balls with the peanut butter showing through the chocolate at the top. These are just two of many, including decorating the tree, watching Elf, and looking at other people’s...

There’s something in the air that has me seeking out conversation. Maybe it’s my more intense than usual interest in the presidential primaries, maybe it’s a little bit of early spring fever (since we did have a big snow storm and now sort of a thaw here in the foothills of North Carolina), or maybe it’s just that time of year in my work cycle, where I’m home more days, and longer periods during the day, than during that busy time between...

My kids are in the first and fourth grade. Which goes without saying, I’ve been on my share of field trips over the past few years. We’ve gone to farms, Grandfather Mountain, the North Carolina Zoo, Catawba Science Center, and the Winston-Salem Children’s Museum, just to name a few. For all of them, I was glad I had been sometime before in my life, because when you go with a bunch of kids, all but one that aren’t yours, you spend most of your...

“It was so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited and so thrilled, all together. Some didn’t like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.” Grandma, played by Helen Shaw, Parenthood, 1989. Parenthood is one of my favorite movies. I love it all, but I really love the roller coaster scene with Grandma. Ever since...