When I was a young bride, that first Christmas was a challenge. I didn’t feel poor. I was happy and healthy and looking forward to my new life. But financially it was tough. Maybe that’s why I took it on as a challenge to decorate our first Christmas Tree with what I...
How to Make an Emergency Candle from a Can of Crisco You’ve probably all seen this. It’s one of the most popular Hacks being shared around on the Internet and Pinterest. So does it work? Yes, it does. You can stick a wick down into the center of a tub of Crisco and...
What does Made From Scratch Mean? When I was learning to cook, we used fresh ingredients and combined them to make the dishes we were going to serve. Pre-packaged meals and mixes were just becoming popular as time-savers, but were still expensive. You may remember the...
There are lots of ways to heat food or boil water in a power outage. But if the emergency is caused by a hurricane, blizzard or dangerous thunderstorm the last place you want to be is outside trying to cook something on the grill. And most gas grills and camp stoves...
I’ve written three complete novels— but ask me to write a short story or a poem and I freeze in fear. Even my letters to friends (when we used to all write letters) were so long people called them novels. There is a comfort level for me in having the time to spin out...
Being outside in nature is the most basic part of who I am. Besides gaining knowledge about wildlife, I learn lessons about who I am, and surprise myself about what I am capable of achieving. Nature continually inspires me. It is a part of all my writings, no matter the genre or subject matter.