Next month, I’m taking the McDougal and Albrecht kids to Peoria to see their grandparents. I hope it will be an epic adventure of cousinly bonding and laughter, motoring across the heartland. In reality, it will probably be eighteen hours of unrestricted Snapchat, Youtube videos, and music in headphones. All punctuated by snarling and sleeping. [...]
Another year, another CampFIRE in the books. The CVC’s youth leadership camp is the official start of summer for us. For those of you who have real fears about the country’s youth and our collective future, I urge you to drop into Camp Roberts some year and meet these graduating eighth graders. You’ll feel much [...]
I’ve been wanting to write this column for awhile but have been waiting for the right time. I think this is it. Although it’s Mother’s Day weekend, I’m going to go a different direction. My mom has received quite a bit of ink here so I’ll introduce you to my dad instead. My dad is [...]
Perhaps you’ll remember my last column - the civility and kindness-themed one where I illustrated the lack of both these qualities in my children and our nation’s current dialogue. I’m sure you either posted it on your fridge as a cautionary tale to your own children or you added it to the scrapbook you’ve made [...]
Kindness and civility. Has anyone ever used those two terms to describe their children’s relationship with each other? I doubt it. And if they did, it would be the Chardonnay talking. It doesn’t matter how much I try to instill the importance of being kind to the boys, apparently, it does not begin at home. [...]
I’m a feline evangelist. I was a little late to the party, but now that I’m here, I think everyone should love cats as I do. Since I’ve welcomed cats into my life, I’m at a complete loss as to how I survived prior to kitties. Truly, my life was not nearly as full as [...]
Thanksgiving is almost upon us. It is a time to give thanks, gather friends and family together, watch football and, of course, eat oneself into a turkey coma. Mike and I have been hosting Turkey Day since way before we got married and it’s always been a blast. We take in all the orphans – [...]
My week was rocked by a cataclysmic event. No, not a natural disaster, although I think we’re about the only state that hasn’t been hit by one. Yet. No, this event caused instantaneous nausea, wailing, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. Would you like to guess what happened? The Chicago Bears lost? Of course, [...]
I recently returned from a road trip to my hometown in Illinois with my niece. It's about an 18-hour drive and other than western South Dakota and Nebraska, the scenery is less than breathtaking. (My apologies to crop landscape devotees. No offense intended.). Other than going west instead of north and not realizing it until [...]
I am a dude. Not a dude in the surfer sense or as a Big Lebowski reference. Specifically, a city-dweller, especially one vacationing on a ranch in the western United States (credit: dictionary.com). This is why I was fortunate enough to make Wyoming my home lo these 25 years ago. The HF Bar Ranch in Saddlestring, [...]
