Early in our marriage, we lived in married student housing on the campus of the University of South Dakota. It was an extremely small apartment with a living room/kitchen combo, bedroom, and bathroom. We had to take the door off of our bedroom so our waterbed could fit. We were very cozy as a newlywed… Read More 10 Ways to Resolve Conflict in a Marriage
Picture it. December 25, 1991. Small town South Dakota. A young, 19-year old girl was respectfully asked to be married the evening before. Many thoughts and questions were entering her mind even though she had been carefully planning for this moment in her life since she was a little girl. She and her new fiancee were talking candidly with the girl’s parents about lifelong marriage. They have an exceptionally strong marriage and have weathered every storm that has crossed their paths and are nevertheless together to this day. One of the many questions they asked that day was, “How do you stay in a marriage for the long haul?” Her brilliant mother carefully took a moment to ponder the question and said precisely, “Take care of… Read More Take Care of the Marriage First…The Kids Will Follow
Over the last 25 years of teaching, I have found that children don’t have an imagination like they used to. Instant gratification, answers given with a simple Google search, and screen addiction has taken the place of playtime with friends in person, learning from mistakes, and finding out who you are. Looking back, my upbringing… Read More Our Children are Wasting Their Imagination
It was a snowy, icy morning a couple of weeks ago as I was heading to work. I am always nervous on mornings like this in spite of living in South Dakota all my life. I usually get to school pretty early in the morning. I love having about an hour to myself before the… Read More Simple Moments
As a middle school teacher, the hardest thing I have to do is teach students to be nice to one another. For me, being nice to others is in my DNA. It is all because of my upbringing. I grew up in a very small town in South Dakota with my parents and three younger… Read More Is It So Hard To Be Nice??
When I became a mother I knew that someday I would have to let my boys leave the nest. I just didn’t know how quickly that day would come. As of this post, we are the proud parents of Andrew, a college student at Western Dakota Tech College perusing a degree in Diesel Mechanics, Carter,… Read More Letting Them Go
What’s for lunch? What’s for dinner? These 2 questions bombard me like episodes of “Chopped”. And my answer most days is “I don’t know.” So it’s time to finally attempt meal planning. My mother never planned meals unless it was for holidays. Our meals were very basic, Midwestern, “Meat & Potato” type meals. (She never… Read More 5 Meal Planning Websites When You’re Not Sure What You’re Doing
I have been extremely blessed to be a mother. It all started on June 15, 2001, when Andrew came into the world. It was such a relief to me that he came to us beautiful and healthy with all of the problems we were having. (Those stories will be coming in the days and months… Read More Blessed to be a Mother
When a mother gives birth, whether it is in a hospital or home birth, NO ONE gives you a user manual or guide on how to raise children. One thing that Micky and I decided when we had our boys was that we were going to take them on vacations outside our state. I had… Read More Losing Children
Salons across America are silent during this virus quarantine. And many Americans are wondering what to do with their growing locks. I had that question myself a couple of weeks ago. Not for me since I have been trying to grow my hair out for awhile. It was for my guys. Two of my guys,… Read More 6 Must Watch Hairstyling Videos (when salons are closed)