Enjoy saving and making money at home!
A Joy After Loss This past Christmas was a lovely time of rejoicing, but it also brought a painfully sad reminder. The Christmas before, my younger daughter’s beloved puppy began a fast painful slide into leaving us. She was a beagle-lab mix, a beautiful black and white charmer, who suddenly developed pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is a horrible disease which can only be stopped if diagnosed in time. Somehow it didn’t show in the first tests and… Read More
Our household consists of three more-or-less adult people and two bratty dogs. I’ve mentioned the Bratty Puppy (B.P.) before, but I want to introduce you to the Head Brat (H.B.). Head Brat is a labradoodle that also came from the Humane Society up north. We brought him home when he was approximately one year old. He had the charming habits of climbing on the nearest table to survey his surroundings, eating complete loaves of bread… Read More
31 May 2016 Bitter Apple When B.P. (Bratty Puppy, that is) came to live with us, we soon purchased a bottle of bitter apple flavoring spray for the wooden furniture. Soon afterwards, all of us humans started gasping with indignation, because things became flavored with, you guessed it, bitter apple flavor. Things like our hands. And pencils. And keyboards! Gah! Meanwhile, B.P. chewed happily away on everything that looked good to him. Bitter apple? Not… Read More
When I was in the fifth grade, my parents took me to a school meeting one night. My siblings were left with a neighbor. All of this was so unusual. My Dad often worked fourteen hour days, and my Mom didn’t drive. As for using a babysitter, that was unheard of. But there we were, with a large (for our small country school) crowd. We gathered in the lunchroom, where folding chairs were set up… Read More
Oh wow! It’s ninety-nine degrees in the Mile-High City today and I have a rare hankering to go up in the mountains, just to keep cool. I won’t, though, because of allergies and because of a horrible discomfort with mountain driving. Not just my mountain driving, mind you, but the mountain driving of others who are not practiced at it and who are unaware of the laws and practices that make mountain driving safer. It’s… Read More
Blood Sugar Test Results About nine or ten years ago, my kitchen phone rang loudly at about 8:30 p.m. I was startled to hear my doctor’s voice on the line at that time of the night. I had just seen him the day before for a checkup. It turned out he had just gotten my blood test results. My blood sugar was at 792 mg/dl. A normal blood sugar count is between 70 and 99 mg/dl.… Read More
Kaizen is a Japanese word that simply means “change for the better” or “improvement”. It is used for the name of a productivity tool which was originally introduced to the West in a book named Kaizen, the Key to Japan’s Competitive Success, written by a man named Masaaki Imai. As described in the book, kaizen is actually the process of continual improvements, made in small steps, which eventually result in much greater productivity. The idea… Read More
Hi folks! Upon awakening this morning, I found an old enemy of mine hovering around, trying to get back into my life. I’m talking about depression. I’ve fought depression for many years. I still get to slap it around now and then. Thankfully, depression and dogs don’t go together usually. Our dogs, in fact, make depression easier to handle. Here is why. One of the biggest helps against depression is good health. If I’m eating… Read More
“I hate you! Hate you! Hate you!” The deacon’s daughter was expressing her feelings to her father with gusto and high pitched fervor just before church services one day. He glanced at her idly and continued to set up a decorative display for the upcoming Holy Week. The histrionic performance of the five-year-old girl, and her father’s determination to ignore it, gave me a grieving concern for her future. Hate the Behavior I know most… Read More
When I was born, and for many years after my birth, my paternal grandparents lived on a beautiful little farm in East Texas. This was the place where my Dad and his siblings had all been born and raised in a tiny little farmhouse without electricity or running water. To my memory, it was a magical place. Beautiful trees, chickens and various animals, and an old barn which was labelled off-limits to us children –… Read More
