Miniature Schnauzers are alarm sounders, ball fetchers, and squirrel chasers; but my 12-and-a-half-year-old Miniature Schnauzer, Jersey, is also a nurse. Whenever I’m feeling sick or sad, she snuggles as close as she can, comforting me with frequent soulful glances. Jersey loves to make eye contact. Now that she’s older and can’t leap on and off…

Last weekend, my son was out of town for an annual ski trip with college friends; but my daughter-in-law, her mother, and one of her two sisters invited me to come with them to take my 7-month-old granddaughter for a photo shoot with the Easter Bunny. All of us, my husband and I, my son…

The dollhouse my father and grandfather built for me has been empty for many years, virtually abandoned on a storage room shelf, wedged between trick-or-treat jack-o-lanterns and a decoupaged shoebox made to hold valentines. My entire family has heard my solemn promise over the years that I was going to repair and decorate the dollhouse…

I stared, forlornly, at the dolls I had freed from the plastic wrap. My husband grimaced. We were both thinking the same thing. Would our future grandchildren be scarred by these motley characters? Forget the grandkids, were we already scarred? With their blank stares, antiquated clothes, and peeling paint, these dolls were the stuff of…

Before I could consider any decor for the dollhouse I’d salvaged from my parents’ basement, I knew I needed a family for the house. How could I possibly determine the style of the interior without a family as my reference point? Thus began a years’ long quest for the perfect miniature family. The options were…

For my eighth Christmas, my dad and grandfather surprised me with a three-story dollhouse. Made from a wooden kit they special ordered from the Sears catalog and painstakingly assembled in my grandfather’s workshop, the dollhouse was magnificent. In order to stabilize the towering house, my grandfather made a plywood table and covered it with astroturf…

Mid-month, Leigh Anne Eck invited us all to a slicing party and asked us to bring an analog bag. I’ve really enjoyed reading about all the non-tech items everyone else is turning to in order to reduce time online; and I know I need to cut back on scrolling. I’m on my way to the…

When my sons were little, they always wanted to play “storyline.” “Mommy, can we play storyline?” one or both boys would ask, tugging on my sweatshirt as I tried to whip up something reasonably healthy for dinner. “Let’s play storyline!” they’d shout enthusiastically, the moment I’d finally collapsed onto the couch after a long day…

After 31 years in a middle school language arts classroom, I taught my share of grammar lessons. I enjoyed using student work and passages from favorite novels to introduce grammar skills. Though it was sometimes a hard sell, I tried my best to create an environment where students didn’t feel intimated by all the rules….

Last night, my husband and I enjoyed a Monday night date night, dinner and a show. Several years ago, we discovered WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour, which has been producing their live show in our town for more than 25 years. They tape the show in front of an audience on Monday nights. Until this…