Have you ever noticed how weeds come and go over the years? I recall the summer of the battle of Queen Anne’s Lace.

When my son was just a little shaver, he came home from school one day, his big blue eyes sparkling, and said, “Mom, I have a new best friend! Can I invite my friend to come and stay overnight?” Cort knew about overnight visits from his older cousins, who always had extra kids around, their homes filled with fun and games and laughter.

As summer fades to autumn, if there is time in your day to pick up a good book, I recommend Heart In The Right Place, a newly published memoir written by Carolyn Jourdan.

For those of you who have read this column for a number of years, you already know that I am a sentimental fool.

There is nothing like the start of a new school year to make a child just itch for freedom. This was my first year in a very long time to not be sending a child off to the local school in August.

The thunder roared in the middle of the night, and suddenly I was wide awake. It wasn’t the storm that brought me up out of bed, but my son’s sweet dog, Spanky.

Yesterday, as I was driving to buy groceries and fill up the gas tank on my car, I couldn’t help but notice the bumper sticker on the pick-up truck ahead of me.

My son, the country boy, is suddenly a city boy. Plucked from our farm situated near a tiny town, he is now in a city that seems to never sleep.

It’s a good thing we humans don’t get to run the weather or we would be living on one mighty, mixed-up planet.

“Until that time, he hadn’t given money much thought. They’d never had much, but neither had anyone else they knew.