I watched my first inauguration today (and almost kept my kids home to watch it with me!) and on this
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My son set up an office for himself last year. He emptied the shelves and restocked them with his favorite books. My husband found an old OFFICE sign which we lovingly stuck on the door. Drew spends hours in there with the door shut, reading and rereading, sometimes even writing and doing homework.
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Well, Christmas is finally over.

I know. For the rest of you, it's been over for at least two weeks. But here in Solvang, the season doesn't end until we've burned all the trees.

Every year the fire department encourages people to throw their Christmas trees on the acreage in front of the Old Mission Santa Ines. Then on the 2nd Friday night in ( Read more... )

This afternoon as the checker rang up my groceries, I noticed the black rubber bangles she wore on her right wrist. Studded with silver and brass bands, the bracelets were simple and lovely.

I told her I liked them and she told me the story behind them. Made by women in Africa and sold around the world, the m
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My in-laws left this morning after a two-week visit. The house is in shambles, nothing is where it should be and I feel so out of
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My husband has a glittery golden reindeer that he hangs at the top of the tree each year. It has to go up first and nothing can go higher except the tree topper. The irony is, my husband HATES glitter. But he’s had that ornament since he was a child and his father used to lift him up so he could put it near the top. For the sake of childhood ( Read more... )

There is something inherently wrong with paying perfectly good money for creatures I would normally kill with relish. And yet I seem to find myself forking over my hard earned cash every week or two simply to buy insects for the dining pleasure of a lizard or two. Okay, it’s not a lot of cash, but still!

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Part of the fun of Christmas in our house is getting to read all our holiday favorites. My husband and I have be
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A few weeks ago Mary Hershey  issued a challenge based on Cami Walker’s website, 29 Days of Giving. I accepted the challenge and promptly discovered something about myself: I have lots of good intentions, but I don’t always follow through.

Don't get me wrong. If I SAY I’m going to do something, I will go to painful lengths to make sure that I do it ( Read more... )

Don’t you love reading something so funny it makes you laugh out loud?

Two summers ago on vacation in South Carolina, my son discovered Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He
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