I considered it a great compliment when my friend, Anne, said, “Your house is always so tidy.” And most of it is. But I have some “dirty little secret” areas (like my desk when I’m on deadline) that become cluttered and messy. Time to declutter. It happens on my kitchen table, too. I bring in the mail, but I’ve got to do something else, so I leave it on the table. For a few days. Where it piles up. This decluttering is ongoing. And our basement shelves. When we moved to West Michigan, those shelves were organized, things were in Read More
Category: Lifestyle
What Was Your Favorite Halloween Memory?
I know Halloween is over and judging by my quick trip to the thrift store, Thanksgiving is just a bump in the road to Christmas, but a childhood memory is stuck in my brain. I want to share it with you. When I was about twelve years old, I was Trick or Treating with my best friend, Mary D. The only times I got in trouble were when I was with Mary D. We didn’t get into trouble this Halloween night, but what we did could never be done today. We were walking along Magee Ave., and not many other Read More
A Day in the Life of The Beatles
Often in my Finger Lakes Mysteries series, Jesse Graham listens to music as she drives along in “Bert,” her 1968 yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Usually, she is listening to The Beatles. That’s who my best friend Bernadette and I listened to on WBBF as we drove around in her yellow Volkswagen Beetle all those years ago. Rich and I just got back from a cruise to the United Kingdom and Ireland. One of the stops was Liverpool—home of The Beatles. In 1963, the British press coined the term “Beatlemania,” and I confess to suffering from that. Imagine my delight when we Read More
5 Ordinary Things That Brought Me Joy
My “One Little Word” for 2023 is “Ordinary.” I have been intentional in listening and watching for the sacred and beautiful in everyday, ordinary life. These five encounters really touched me recently. A Simple Flower The Stargazer Lily above suddenly appeared in our backyard this year. We’d purchased its great-great grandmother pre-Covid at a small farmer’s market and a bunny made a quick snack of it. It never sprang up again until this year. Now she sits directly in my line of sight when I sit at our kitchen table, and she always makes me smile. A Different Flower On Read More
I’m the Master of My Procrastination
Scarlett O’Hara is famous for saying, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.” Can procrastination be a good thing? Dr. Diana Stout thinks it can be. Welcome to my blog, Dr. D. Thank you, so much Elizabeth, for inviting me to share what I’ve learned and am practicing. So, without any further procrastination let me proclaim that I’m the Master of My Procrastination! Once upon a time… as all the best stories begin, I was a solid procrastinator. But on this day, I was practicing procrastination purposefully. It was January 6, 2014, with two feet of snow outside and artic temperatures that Read More