Opie is the quintessential big brother. He loves to boss Calvin around and remind Calvin of his inferior status as the youngest, which -of course- drives Calvin into a blinding fury. Opie is continually telling Calvin what to do and how to do it, what not to do and why he shouldn't, and what he can't do because OPIE says so.

Opie is also a ( Read more... )

Life lesson #5001

Don't try to experience mowing the lawn for the first time when you're pushing 40 and have a double lot to mow with a non-self-propelled push mower.

I hurt in places I didn't know I had.

On the flip side, I think I've fulfilled my cardio requirement for this week AND next. ;-)

I haven't blogged in a while because frankly, I didn't have much to say. However, this week has brought me a great deal of thought- and emotion-provoking stuff.

I truly believe that God only gives us our children on an investment basis. They are His; we are simply here to tend to His principal, doing our best to ensure a good return. In my little ( Read more... )

When I think about high school and the people who most impacted my life during that time, I recognize how thin the threads that wove us all together were, and how they continue to hold even today.

My parents moved us from Beaumont to Port Neches in the summer of 1985.  I was furious.  You see, our church was in Nederland, and all my friends from ( Read more... )

Recently I read my friend M's blog about June Bug Karma.  It reminded me of my great-grandfather, Jesse Carrell McCroskey, after whom my second son is (partially) named.

As a child, I lived for the summers I spent with my grandparents in my mother's hometown.  Summers there weren't as muggy and hot as they are in Texas...bonus number one.  My ( Read more... )

There are times that I utterly HATE computers ( Read more... )

There's a difference between saying you trust someone and placing your physical well-being in their hands. It's been my experience that we often tend to place more trust in a stranger with diplomas on his or her wall than we do in those we know and love.

My husband has been in the emergency medical field for more than ten years and a paramedic for ( Read more... )

It takes courage to be a mom. Not just a stay-at-home mom, but any kind of mom. There are battles that I fight every day - some with outside forces, some within my own home, and some within myself. Those battles require courage: to stay true to my decisions and my convictions rather than surrender to the status quo. I don't mean to suggest that I'm ( Read more... )

Everything we do in life has fallout, whether it be the smallest of kindnesses done in anonymity or the largest of gaffes in a public forum.  There are reactions to every action, and effects from every cause.  It is a natural law, whether in a scientific realm or a spiritual realm.  Everything has consequences including the consequences themselves ( Read more... )

I have recently began to find it interesting how God himself seems to tell us when something is about to happen in our lives. It isn't always big things; in fact, it's often small matters - personal, spiritual "AHA" moments. When we look back from those moments we can see the footprints of God leading up to them.

Case in point: I've been reading a ( Read more... )