Are Cell Phones Listening?

Are Cell Phones Listening?

Are we ever really alone anymore? Our cell phones are with us more than a newborn baby. Seriously, the cell phone sleeps next to us, goes to the gym, grocery store, doctor appointments, walks, work, and probably the bathroom (we would never take our babies in there.)...
College Kitchen Essentials

College Kitchen Essentials

College kitchen essentials are not the same for everyone. The list of qualifiers grows while shopping; lots of items seem essential. In our case, my essentials list was longer, not the student. Launching the second son into college apartment life I thought would be a...
Enchilada Emergency

Enchilada Emergency

I sure was having a leisurely afternoon on a Wednesday. Hubby had a late meeting. Plenty of leftovers in the refrigerator, I was off the hook for cooking dinner. At five o’clock, I thought, “Hey, there won’t be any lines at the car wash, I’m taking my latest InStyle...
Eight Tips for Writing College Essays

Eight Tips for Writing College Essays

With two boys having gone through the college essay process, I know at one week into the school year, the blinking cursor on that WORD document is the only thing on the page. Or maybe it’s full of sentences like, “I don’t know what I’m good at,...
College Essay Help

College Essay Help

It’s college essay season and if you have a senior, the stress of finishing up essays is skyrocketing. Or maybe worse, because the senior hasn’t cracked the essay, at all. Summer was too fun, as it should be. And now, ugh, is there an easier way to go? Yes, an essay...
Old Fashioned 4th of July

Old Fashioned 4th of July

I’m going back to my roots for July 4th, 2019. The 70s stick in my mind best about celebrating America’s birthday. I want to commemorate the date by eating simple burgers with Heinz ketchup and French’s mustard and a side of chips, no fuss. I want to relive a happy...
Power Outage Lessons And Tales

Power Outage Lessons And Tales

Summer heat is kicking in around our area, triple digits. It’s slightly unusual for the temps to be so high so early in the summer months. However, “unusual” seems to be the “usual” any more.  An unseasonably warm June or an unseasonably cool May, makes for an...
Alive And Fixable: The Cover Story

Alive And Fixable: The Cover Story

My book cover has a story, two stories really. The first is about finding an illustrator suited to my tastes. Fortunately, a friend introduced me to a website for self-publishing authors called Reedsy, where I could plug in my filters: memoir, inspirational; then sort...
Stone Soup Returns

Stone Soup Returns

Blustery cold weather keeps hitting the Bay Area like a boom-a-rang, cold, warm and cold again. Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend when a BBQ dinner was the norm, seemed weird. Who has a BBQ in the rain? Our go to rainy-day dinner is soup. We’ve had so many rainy...
Podcast Interview: The Next Frontier

Podcast Interview: The Next Frontier

In the early days of announcing my book, friends shared a flood of ideas with me. Blogging and facebook used to be pretty advanced forms of building awareness.  There is more, a lot more. I. Am. Behind. “Podcasts. That’s where it’s at!” What?!? How does that work? I...