I am sure that most of us have heard the phrase “When God closes a door, he often opens a window.” In some ways I feel like that is what happening as I write my final Miss Mom column for the Spartanburg Spark. Steve Shanafelt found my little blog just under two years ago, and [...]
Last weekend Spartanburg Herald Journal ran an editorial by writer Lane Filler entitled Abortion eliminated, my way. In it he listed his ideas for what he figured would be good solutions to making abortions a part of America’s past, not it’s present. I was actually astounded that Mr. Filler was allowed to have such a [...]
There is nothing that shrinks your world and your priorities as sitting in a doctor’s office with a child and hearing the unexpected words, “We need to admit her.” In an instant you are scrambling to arrange to be off of work, cancel any pending plans, figure out what you will need to grab as [...]
Once upon a time there was a little 5 year old girl standing in the wings of a stage eagerly awaiting her first performance of her very first dance recital. All year she had attended class, learning basic steps in ballet and tap, and had practiced her dance steps in the living room of her [...]
I freely admit that poetry is not my strong suit, yet I am going to give you a poem anyway. I will warn you, it is full of heart felt mush, inspired by spending the day babysitting my two favorite very small people. Despite it’s lack of perfect rhythm and barely adequate rhyme, I’m subjecting [...]
When I was a child, we had a dog named Sam. Sam was a poodle mixed with I think Cocker Spaniel, and he came to our family when my Dad married My Step mom. Sam was pretty well behaved and his only vices revolved around food. Sam was a first rate food thief and snack [...]
When I was young, the church I attended had the interesting habit of excommunicating people. These were usually members who had decided to change denominations. To my church, their change was abandoning the one true church and they now stood outside the will of God. We were then instructed to not have anything more to [...]
As I wrote recently my daughter Ashley has quite a lot on her plate. Now that her husband has left and has arrived safely in Afghanistan, she now begins the task of putting her new house into order. There is a lot to do and having two children under the age of three means that [...]
When you hear the word tenacity, you get the picture of something or someone who just doesn’t quit or give up. People with tenacity, face obstacles with aplomb, knowing that there is an end to that obstacle just a little way ahead. They may get discouraged or feel overwhelmed at times, but it is in [...]
As a writer, sometimes the right topic is barely out of reach. You can feel it, you can almost touch it, but it remains just beyond the grasp of your mind where you can then grab it and bring life to it. In the past year and a half, I’ve often found myself with a [...]
One of the things I have wanted to do since I discovered its existence has been to walk the Rail Trail here in Spartanburg. For those of you who don’t know what the Rail Trail is, it is a paved trail made from an old railroad bed. The one in Spartanburg begins at Henry Street [...]
One of my memories as a child was of my father’s vegetable garden. Every year he would till up a small section of the backyard and plant green beans, tomatoes, peppers and squash. Being way ahead of the times, at least from a modern perspective, my father would also mix in compost in with the [...]
Yes you read the title correctly. I am venturing into the world of academia. Well, actually this is a return to the hallowed halls of learning for me, but more on that later. Of course, the big question is why would I choose this time in my life to begin the quest towards a Bachelor’s [...]
I walk into my backdoor loaded down as usual. Car keys are dangling from the doorknob still as I struggle to wedge three bags of groceries and a poster board for the youngest’s upcoming project. Why that child has to tell me this morning that she needs a poster display on Parquay instead of three [...]
Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Every year Mom’s all over the country find themselves on the receiving end of gifts from their children. Often the Mom’s spouse or significant other will help with the gifting part, buying something for the younger children to give to their mother. The list of things Mom’s get [...]
