I'm just trying to walk myself home.
Who does not love a stack of brand new school supplies? Or the smell of freshly sharpened pencils? I love to hold a new notebook in my hands, one with no creases in the cover, and to open it up to the first blank page. It is as full of possibility as the sun coming …
Friends, it’s no secret around here that I love to lace up my boots and go for a walk. I love to get outside. I do not like the word exercise. But I love to see the world on my own two feet. For most of my life, even though I love to go for …
Friends! How these first days of January have flown by! Confession: I have not left the house this week except to go to church and to walk to and from school. And I am still not caught up! But it’s time to throw off the PJ pants and head out into the world because it …
We started our New Year in Stonehaven, Scotland, which is a village by the sea about 30 miles south of Aberdeen. For Hogmanay, which is the New Year festival in Scotland, locals in Stonehaven light huge fireballs at midnight and swing them around while walking up and down the street. There were probably 50 people …
I’ve been enjoying a little down time to finalize where we are going on the blog and in the world in 2014! Looking forward to sharing more of my plans soon so stay tuned! For now, here’s a new Expat Story from Singapore! Boiling Wok (as she prefers to be called on the internet) hails …
Dear readers, I have thoroughly enjoyed these last couple of weeks of storytelling and story sharing. I hope it has been as great an exercise for you as it has been for me. I actually had a hard time choosing these stories. If you’ve ever met my daddy, you know I could write an entire …
The twelfth and final story of my Twelve Days of Stories is actually the beginning of a story. It is a draft of the first chapter of the book I have been writing. I hope that one day these words will take shape in print form that you can hold in your hands. Thank you …
A Story about Anger Three babies in five years is what it took to throw me over the edge. Mixing lack of sleep at night with defiant toddlers by day was a recipe for fraying nerves already, but then Taido often would have to leave town for work. I was exhausted at the sound of …
I told these cruise stories on my blog a few years ago as How I went from being a Cruise Skeptic to a Cruise Addict. They are still some of my best life memories.
A Story about A Long Time Goal When my husband sat me down and told me that he wanted to finish his masters’ thesis, quit his job and move our family abroad to get a PhD, I told him to go for it. “I’m all in for this adventure,” I said. But in all honesty, …
Taido and I are celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary today, so it seems like as good a time as any to tell you our love story. Since you already know the end to this story, it might be helpful to start in the middle, when it looked like maybe I would not end up with …
Here are the words I spoke to my parents upon receiving the only “F” of my university career: “I think one ‘F’ on a transcript shows character.” A Story about A Very Bad Grade I started college by majoring in psychology, but I was not one term in before I switched my major to English. …
In 2010, my husband and son, Taido and Cole, had a trip planned to go hiking in Switzerland for Cole’s 13th birthday. The night before the trip, there was a small problem. This was first published on my blog that same autumn. A Story about A Passport We were all leaving town on Friday morning, …
This story about my daddy was previously published as guest post on Sarabeth Jones’ beautiful storytelling site, The Dramatic. A Story about My Daddy Some people take trips to the beach for their family vacations. Others go to Disneyworld. But me. In exchange for the beach or for Disney, I got mountains. And even though …
This story was first published in September 2008 when my oldest son, Cole, started middle school. Actually, this story was also published in a story collection. I, of course, told no one about this because that was before I could say out loud that I Am A Writer. Tread Lightly When It Comes To Middle …
Don’t worry. This story has a happy ending. I feel like I owe you that much after yesterday’s story. And if you stay tuned through all twelve days, I also promise to redeem my father from Christmas Gambler to Mountain Hero. Deal? So like I said, a happy ending. I, myself, really enjoy happy endings, …
A Story about Christmas This is not a warm fuzzy Christmas story. Because it is Christmas, and because I myself enjoy happy tales on Christmas, I feel the need to warn you that this one ends in tears and fighting.
Welcome to the first story of Twelve Days of Stories. Since it is Christmas Eve, I have a really happy, sweet story for you. (I am trying to make up for tomorrow’s sad story by making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside today.)
Friends, I have an announcement. I am giving myself a gift this Christmas. A big one. I am opening a gift this Christmas Eve that I should have given myself a long time ago. I am giving myself the gift of being a writer.
Last week for Instagram Travel Thursday I shared Snapshots of Venice, which was the second to last city Mary Polly and I visited on our Mediterranean Cruise. Today I’m sharing… Snapshots of Sicily It was over a year ago that we visited our final port of call, the island of Sicily. Until this week, I …