You’ll Never Guess Who Gave Me My Best Christmas Present

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: You’ll never guess who gave me the best Christmas present this year. Turns out it wasn’t my husband. He and I actually don’t do traditional gifts, choosing instead to give each other trips and travel. And no, the best gift did not come from my in-laws, though I am in love with the knee-length denim apron they gave me

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It’s Going To Be One Messy Year

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: Well, hello there, New Year you, who promises to be 12 months, 365 days, 8,766 hours, 525,948,766 of mess. It’s not that I’m starting the year as a Negative Nelly. It’s actually more about being grateful for what and who I have, which leads to reality, which in my case, and perhaps yours, means accepting life is messy. Anyone

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Conversations With My Dog

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: I learned something new about one of my favorite people in the world this week.     By favorite people, I mean my dog.     You don’t see dogs as people and think those us who do are on the wrong side of crazy?  Save your time, read no more.     But if you’re like me and know your dog

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Why Can’t My Husband & I Find Direction?

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: My husband and I are struggling to find direction. I don’t mean direction like agreeing on common values for our family, how we raise our kids, or where we will retire. No, this struggle is far more immediate and somehow more challenging than that. When I say we’re struggling to find direction, I mean just that, or rather, find

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The Three Little Words So Hard For Me To Say

This confession might shock you. There are three little words that are really hard for me to say. Sometimes even get stuck in my throat. Me, who writes each week about love, who shares how happy I am in my new marriage, how much I love being a mom. I have a hard time saying, “I love you.” It’s no big mystery to me why it’s so challenging. I didn’t grow up in a “I love you” kind of house. 

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The Issue That Almost Upended My Marriage Before It Began

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column. It is the issue that almost upended my marriage before it began. I can picture you, Dear Reader, nodding your head in understanding. “Yes, it’s tough to agree on religion, money, politics, how to raise our daughter.” Actually, for two people raised in very different backgrounds, my husband and I are remarkably compatible when it comes

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Never Enough Time When You Love Someone

A stranger took my breath away this week. What would you do if a woman you just met told you, “I’m really not a risk taker,” followed by, “I married a man who told me on our first date that he only had 18 months to live.” “How’d that work out for you?” I couldn’t help but ask. “He lived 18 more years past that first date. We were married for 15 of those,” Brenda Zimmer Gibson told me. “They

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Happy “Best Match Ever” Day!

Such a special anniversary to celebrate! Four years ago today I met a little girl who changed my life forever. There I was having a sad, lonely, woe-is-me Sunday night. Feeling sorry for myself being alone and single. After an appropriate amount of pity party time, I thought to myself, “You can feel sorry for yourself or do something about it.” That’s when I remembered one of my best friends, Cyndi, giving me a “talking to” about Big Brothers Big

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