It’s a holiday and my teacher daughter is just starting to feel better after a whole week of being really, really sick. She’s hundreds of miles away from her wannabe primary caretakers. We’ve walked her though the fever, the nausea, the lethargy, the sleepless nights, the boredom, the tears, the emotions, the loneliness. We’ve…

There are such things as flying squirrels and I have a family of them living in my garden. They were probably born in my chimney this Spring while I was in England.  Signs of a hasty escape in my siding, when the babies were grown, add credence to my suspicions. My outlook from the office…

I’ve had some interesting reactions to my hair since I’ve been back, from “pretty colour” to “sexy” to “youthful” to “I like it!” and silence! “I thought that was Madonna walking through the door,” said a perky fellow at church on Sunday.  The first time I’d been back to my place of worship since returning…

When I read reports that exercising regularly and eating particular foods increases energy levels and reverses the aging process I usually jump  on the band wagon.  Who doesn’t want to keep going and going and look ten years younger? Up until a year ago all I ever experienced, when following these health advisories, were increased…

Coming home may not go down in my family book of life as being the most uplifting moment of my career as a selfless mother.  Not that returning into the welcoming arms of my children could be compared to anything I’d ever experienced before, except perhaps their first entrance into the world when they made…

We had been ill on our return home and grandmama in Lindale did not want any germs carted into her city and through her house. Four weeks after landing we visited the matriarch of this branch of the family. I felt young…the title isn’t mine in America! I had been growing stiff and lazy without…

We sold our cars when we left for England not really knowing when we’d be back and wanting a clean break, nothing left to lure us back into the rut. So, the consequence was that on our return we were carless, which in London was fine but here, well, even if we could get around…

My boys moved out of the house they’d been sitting for thirteen months. Their family home. I told my zoo keeper, as I foraged around to add to his meagre possessions, “Take this,” his carvings in wax. “And this,” his metal crocodile doorstop. “And don’t forget this,” his beer making paraphernalia. He sadly looked at…

It took us a few weeks to feel well enough to make an out of town visit to our school teacher daughter in Corpus. We made the drive at the beginning of the month in our brand new car, Rosabella, a red PT Cruiser in pristine condition. Our daughter was outside waiting for us having…

After being back for three weeks I am beginning to breathe better.  The amount of dust I’ve had to tame with a wet cloth was enough to create our own McNeny dust-bowl right here in the comfort of our home. Now the sun can sparkle on the freshly polished surfaces and dance across the newly…