What have you or your older loved one wanted to do before summer is over for another year? Oh, those bucket lists. Some of them can be daring but many of us just want simple pleasures. Our small town’s Chamber of Commerce hosted a Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was glorious! Huge balloons went up […]

“When you get into your 80s, it’s a whole new ball game,” my mama has told me so many times in the past few years. She’s 82 and daddy’s 85 and the past few years have been a struggle of one type or another. It doesn’t look like there’s an end in sight. Mama’s the […]

Daddy has been feeling well enough to work outside with mama and fix a few sprinklers. That was until all the fires began to rage. Now he’s not feeling so good! If you live in California you may find out the quality of the air in your area by visiting the EPA Air Now website. […]

The older I get, the more I look back into my family tree and realize that the people I came from were or are amazing and yes — inspirational. From my granny who raised fourteen children on her own to my Choctaw great-great-great grandfather who could have gotten land from the government for free but […]

Corn on the cob, blackberry cobbler, fried okra and tomatoes warm from the garden — these are the foods that take me back to my childhood. What summer foods take you back to your first taste of summer? It’s been a strange gardening year here in the Sacramento Valley. First the weather was totally wacko […]

If you have a chance to catch the special on PBS called Fading Away – Alzheimer’s, it’s worth the watch. It follows families who are dealing with the disease and how it affects their lives going through the stages of this devastating dementia. Every 67 seconds someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. There is so much […]

For over 50 years, my parents have had the same bank. My parents are people who are extremely good with money. They worked hard for it and spend it very frugally. Regardless, their money is now causing them headaches. They grew up in the Great Depression, so being wise with money is something my parents […]

Growing up, it was a rarity when we actually ate at a restaurant or even fast food. Come to think of it, there weren’t many fast food places around when I was growing up. So that left the meals and cooking up to mama. Well, she’s 82 and she’s about ready to throw in the […]

Nurture and nature — both make us the people that we are. When I started taking a little time to really think about the people I come from, more things in my life make a lot more sense! I know where I get my love of sports, my passion for good food and digging in […]

I’m writing this blog today on the Fourth of July and I can’t dare think about an Independence Day without remembering the summers of my childhood. Almost every July was spent at my two grannies’ houses back in Oklahoma. They lived in little bitty towns but that didn’t matter. My cousins also descended on both […]