One of the gifts I received this Christmas was a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of Betty Boop. I’ve always been a Betty Boop fan and collector, and I love doing jigsaw puzzles. One of my fond childhood memories is of sitting at a card table set up in the living room, working on jigsaw puzzles with my mom, dad, and sisters. I started the Betty Boop puzzle on the weekend after New Year’s Day, setting it up in our family room and working on it while [...]
Question: What do you get when you take a few dozen people who live just a bit north of the equator, and drop them off in Minnesota in the middle of January – and a January of record cold to boot? Answer: We’re about to find out. That may sound like the premise for a new reality show or the latest fish-out-of-water movie or sitcom, but it’s not. It’s what is going to happen tomorrow when around 20 members of the Uganda-based Kika Troupe visit [...]
I went to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres Saturday night. There was something ironic about going to a show set in a Russian village when the temperature right outside our own home was ten degrees below zero. Still, the story is one that warms the heart. Watching the show on Saturday night, I was fine until they got to the song, “Sunrise, Sunset.” That’s when I started to get a little choked up. I was at the theatre with my [...]
“I focus easily and naturally on what is important and rewarding to me, and let go gently and comfortably of what is not. I am accomplishing my goals and fulfilling my dreams.” Whether you would call that an affirmation, a mantra, positive thinking, or wishful thinking, it’s something I’ve been saying to myself several times a day for a few months now. And the reason I’m telling you about it is that it relates so strongly to what I wrote last week. My column last [...]
91.25 hours. Over the course of a year, that’s how much time you would spend on something if you devoted just 15 minutes a day to it. I mention this because my New Year’s Resolution last year was to spend 15 minutes a day decluttering. That might mean whittling down a stack of papers on the kitchen counter one day, cleaning out an overstuffed dresser drawer on another, and tackling an overloaded bookshelf in my office on a third. As I look back on the [...]
When I was very young, Santa Claus used to visit our house on Christmas Eve. Not in the middle of the night – leaving presents under the tree when we were nestled all snug in our beds – but early in the evening, when we were still up and wide awake. I remember one year when we needed to make a quick trip to the grocery store on Christmas Eve. We kids were distraught, afraid we might miss Santa’s visit. Although my mom assured us [...]
The snow, ice, and frigid weather we’ve had so far this year have already caused me to change my plans several times. When I hear words like “snow emergency” and “travel advisory” on the news, especially when they say we shouldn’t go out unless we absolutely have to, I reevaluate my plans and priorities. That doesn’t mean I always stay home, but it does mean that I give it some extra thought. And I’ve come to realize that this is another way in which we [...]
My dad, who just turned 86, fell in the shower not long ago. He banged up his elbow pretty badly and needed stitches. He then developed an infection, which did not respond to antibiotics, and ended up in the hospital having surgery on his arm. He’s now at a care center that provides rehab and therapy. So my husband, my sister and I decided to drive to Chicago over the Thanksgiving weekend and spend time with family there rather than celebrating the holiday here at [...]
I’m doing Thanksgiving a little differently this year. That doesn’t mean I’ll be making any changes to the traditional meal, or abandoning time-honored practices and customs that go along with the day. And it certainly doesn’t mean I won’t be thinking, talking, or writing about all of the people and things I am grateful for. What it means is that before I focus on the “thanks” part of Thanksgiving this year, I’m going to concentrate on the “giving” part. I want to spend time reflecting [...]
I had brunch last weekend with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. Our schedules aren’t very compatible these days, so when we want to get together, it often takes us a number of tries before we’re able to find a date and time that works for us both. But it’s always worth it once we do. The first thing we did after we settled in and ordered our food was to bring each other up-to-date on work, family, and other news. When we [...]