Life Out Loud

Breaking up with the big box stores

Why is it that the so-called “big box” home improvement warehouses (named after the merchandise or their resemblance to big boxes, no one knows for sure) seem to rely solely on advertising their array of goods and services sold by experienced, industry professionals when, in reality, they are likely to offer neither in any great [...]

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Focusing on the positives of your loved one is best

Having been laid out like a limp rag with a stomach bug has given me plenty of time to think. First, I think the term “stomach bug” is a misnomer. This is more a Godzilla-esque stomach slayer armed with sticks and sharp knives and bent on killing me from the inside out. There may also [...]

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The great goat escape

Regular readers will recall that I recently stalked, er, assisted, a woman in finding a home for her wayward goat. Eavesdropping in a local salon led me to a woman who had a goat that needed a home and there we were — a home in need of a goat. Can you can say “kismet?” [...]

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Confessions of an ‘early’ rummage junkie

If I’d had any sense I would have started writing for this paper years ago. I could really have used the free subscription. When I tell people my home is furnished in Early Auction, they generally laugh and consider me quite the punster. In reality, that is very nearly true. Nearly every stick of real [...]

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What’s so great about Ohio? Let me tell you

Most women go to the beautician for highlights, lowlights, maybe a deep condition. Me, I go for livestock. There are numerous charming reasons why I know I live in a truly small town, but going in for a quick trim of the split ends and coming home with a goat surely ranks at the top. [...]

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Parenting or grandparenting loud and proud? Keep at it

As a veteran sports mom, I have logged more than my fair share of time on the sidelines of various youth sporting events. I love to cheer for the kids — mine and anyone else’s. Game time will generally find me clapping sedately as the action unfolds. I find that “nice hustle!” is an all-purpose [...]

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Infidelity is not an oops

Upon ironclad confirmation that superstar golfer Tiger Woods had engaged in a pattern of marital infidelity of such scope, breadth and sheer numbers that one wonders how he ever found time to tee off, Tiger’s mother (and later Tiger himself) would say only that he “made one mistake.” Award winning Hollywood actress Sandra Bullock’s husband, [...]

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You are (not) here

“Wherever you go, there you are.” First, let me state for the record that I fully realize that you have only petty, first world problems if the extent of your trouble is the fact that the fancy navigational system in your automobile won’t allow you to find swanky ocean-front locations with quite the speed you’d [...]

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Packin’ it in

If I should ever have to evacuate in one of those horrible “you have 10 minutes to take anything of value and get out” scenarios, you will find me out in the car. I’m going to let my husband handle it all. I’d get out with one toothbrush and vase. Mr. Wonderful could probably fit [...]

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Give me that merit badge, give me that badge

If I have learned anything from my years as a Scout Parent — first with Cub Scouts (cute) and then Boy Scouts (cute, but gangly and sometimes smell funny) — it is that all the wrong people are earning badges around here. If you are a scout parent you soon learn that the boys earn [...]

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Family vacation: Sunny days or bust

As if Andrew and Rita didn’t do enough damage, pity the great state of Florida which now has the Seabolts to contend with. When the unexpected but delightfully generous offer of a beach-front condo dangled in front of us, we jumped on it. Granted, with the spate of midwestern blizzards that have beleaguered us lately, [...]

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Renovation mood blows hot and cold

Exactly one day after agreeing to purchase our ancient wreck of a house, we discovered, as do many young marrieds, that the good Lord had a much bigger project in plan for us: our first baby. This sped up our original “five year plan” of home renovation considerably. Indeed, we spent the next six months [...]

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When Food Snobs Ruled – and Ruined – the World

Eating used to be so much fun before food snobs ruled – and ruined – the world. For generations, down home cooking like pies and gravy (or pies WITH gravy) vied for buffet space next to burgers, fries, and an ice cold shake. Sure you always had your fancy types with their steamed salmon and [...]

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Parenting? We’re just having a ball

I am probably the only parent in history who has requested a parent/teacher conference with the playground monitor. Rules Generally, I teach my children that their teachers make The Rules and that, just as in all walks of life, we don’t necessarily have to agree with them to abide by them. I call this the [...]

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What’s the recipe for a good family dinner?

Leave it to those same fine souls who brought us “cocoa powder” that tastes nothing like actual chocolate, in any form, to be up to their old hijinks when it comes to “fixing dinner.” Food giant Nestle is now linking healthy families with gathering around the table at dinnertime in a new advertising campaign for [...]

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An ordinary life

His was, by all accounts, an ordinary life. I first met him when he was nearly 70, and I was not yet 30. He was a quiet, Mennonite man who enjoyed reading — and writing — poetry in his spare time. I was an newlywed expecting my first baby. I wrote nothing remotely close to [...]

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Words can be deadly: Bullies can go digital, beyond the classroom

“Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you.” I have always hated that fable. Words do hurt. Words can kill. Fifteen-year-old Phoebe Prince chose to take her own life rather than deal with what has been characterized as “relentless physical and cyber bullying.” Prince was besieged in school, via text [...]

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Embracing my inner grouch

You hear all the time about embracing your inner child, but what if what you have is less an inner 8-year-old and more an inner 80-year-old? So to speak I was kind of mature even as a kid, downright stodgy even. Take grammar for instance. There is an attempt by “kids these days” to embrace [...]

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Armed and maybe dangerous

It was the men with guns at the door that convinced me more than anything else that I wasn’t living in the suburbs anymore. Thirteen years ago, I faced my first morning alone in my “new” old house by way of crouching low by the door, peering up over the windowsill, as three strange men [...]

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Still hot stuff after all these years

Though not as young as she once was, she still prepares up to three meals a day (and snacks!) without complaint. She manages mountains of holiday cooking as well, rising early to make cinnamon rolls before moving effortlessly to roast turkey and ham. Year-round she is always up for a quick batch of cookies, and [...]

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