When Cate wandered into my room early this morning I was just waking up.  Back to the door, I didn’t hear her coming or see her small frame as she crossed the room to my bedside.  It wasn’t until her tiny hand touched my shoulder that I realized she was there. “Mama, wake up,” she…

I’m not an angry person on a regular basis. In fact, I’m quite the opposite.  I have been made fun of for striking up conversations with strangers from supermarkets to restaurants. I laugh easily, find almost anything funny, and take most negative situations and people in stride. I don’t get upset easily in most circumstances…

Christmas night she hovered over my shoulder as I crushed his pills and flushed water through his feeding tube. “Grandma, you can go sit down and relax.  Jenny and I can do this.” Bouncing from one foot to the other, she hesitated before walking away.  Perching on a bar stool in my parents kitchen, she…

Me, age 11 (left)   Tay, age 10 1/2 (right) Taylor found one of my old photo albums and began flipping through the pages.  It spanned my high school years, into college, and even the beginnings of my pregnancy with her.  Like most children, she believes that my life began at the same moment that…

Taylor had her school program the other night.  She was a bundle of nerves about her solo and she practiced tirelessly to get ready.  On the night of the show, she could hardly contain the smile on her face as they sang and danced their way through the music. Her joy was infectious. Afterwards, my…

On a cold and snowy evening in Rhinelander, WI, a ten year old boy trudged through the snow on his way home his toes numb in his boots.  He had spent his day shining shoes of the businessmen in town, and he suddenly realized the quarter he had been holding, the entirety of the money…

“Running is a road to self-awareness and reliance-you can push yourself to extremes and learn the harsh reality of your physical and mental limitations or coast quietly down a solitary path watching the earth spin beneath your feet.” – Doris Brown HeritageI ran today, more the “watching the earth spin beneath your feet” kind of run….

I taught myself how to juggle my freshman year of college.  While I never got beyond beanbags and balls (there were bananas a few times), I remember seeing a far more impressive juggling demonstration when I was in the sixth grade.  Jugglers came to my school for an assembly.  They started simply with colorful scarves…

Cate comes home with a “Friday Folder” each week from school and we carefully go through it, and she shows me her work and we talk about what they did and what they are going to learn the upcoming week.  She told me about their “sight words” as they learn to read, “he” and “for.”…