Hello Friend!

March 23, 2026 Hello Friend! A year and a half ago Jon and I sold our house of many years in order to downsize and eliminate the stairs. In a crazy real estate market we felt fortunate to find a small ranch fixer upper, and we spent the next eight months gutting and redoing the bathrooms, painting kitchen cabinets, replacing floors and countertops, and painting (so many) walls. After all that DIY we were ready to take a break. But after resting for several months I decided it was time to tackle the final project - updating the laundry room....

March 16, 2026 Hello Friend! So I finally had to do it. After many years of getting along, I finally had to break up with my Fitbit. Just to provide a little context, my Fitbit was pretty much ancient, given to me by my oldest daughter more than ten years ago when she upgraded to a better version. She thought I might like to try this new craze of counting steps. Fun! And I did love it, for a long time. I worked hard to get my 10,000 steps a day, and occasionally I managed it. And yeah, I admit...

March 9, 2026 Hello Friend! Picture this. I'm on the floor under a large blanket that's been draped over my bed and a bedroom chair. Frankly it isn't a very well done setup because I'm having to use my head as a tent pole and it's getting pretty warm under all that bedding. But my four year old grandson thinks it's just fine, and he's running this adventure. Logan is sitting across from me with a serious expression on his little face, looking at me and saying with great urgency, "Grammy, what's our plan? We need a plan!". He occasionally...

February 23, 2026 Hello Friend! For as long as I can remember, my mom has kept a hatbox full of family photos. When my girls were little, they always had permission to pull off the lid and look through the photos inside the box, any time. Usually it involved lots of giggling at how strange mom looked when she was a little girl, or those funny shoes grandma wore way back then. Many of the photos are faded now and the edges are yellowing, but they still tell a story. These days we're able to capture every moment of life...

February 16, 2026 Hello Friend! I'm not a believer in astrology or horoscopes, although I admit to reading a bit just for fun. There are many cultures, however, that lean heavily on the Zodiac for guidance. For more than twenty years I worked for a gal who was second generation Chinese American. Her parents ran a Chinese restaurant in Detroit for decades, but my boss made her living in IT and stayed there until retirement. During my time on her staff I discovered her celebration of the Lunar New Year and in February I always tried to wish her a...

February 9, 2026 Hello Friend! Anyone who has ever lived in a northern state all winter can tell you that by February, you are so done with snow and cold. Way back in November when those first flakes start to fall it's kind of wonderful, giving you the perfect excuse to pull out all your favorite cozy sweaters and stock up on hot chocolate. But after weeks and weeks of relentless cold, pulling out the shovel for the umpteenth time, and shivering in your car for those long minutes it takes for the engine to (finally) warm up, you're definitely...