Valerie on April 29th, 2008

I’m not trying to say that it is necessarily wrong for children to play organized sports. My point is simply this: Being a member of an organized traveling baseball squad at age ten doesn’t add a single day to one’s life. In fact, many of these activities get in the way of much loftier pursuits. [...]

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Valerie on April 28th, 2008

I have almost as much trouble with books as I do with the Internet. Keeping to nonfiction has helped somewhat; there isn’t so much the threat of ‘escaping’ into books about herbs or aprons. Today my mom brought me a couple of books I had been waiting for from her library, and I am so [...]

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Valerie on April 24th, 2008

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a yard-sale fairy? She swoops in on her labeling gun, makes all sorts of suggestions on things you can do without, and arranges and runs the whole sale! Every weekend, I think how I would love to assemble an impromptu yard sale, but have neither the energy nor the [...]

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Valerie on April 24th, 2008

I was at the sink in Carol’s bathroom (also the laundry room), scrubbing out a stain with an old toothbrush. Big A comes up behind me and watches for a while. “Mom, Grandma Carol wouldn’t like for you to use her toothbrush like that, would she?” The way she said it, I figured it was [...]

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Valerie on April 21st, 2008

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Valerie on April 16th, 2008

Okay, faithful readers. The time has come to pick out the trim for the dress I am making. Here’s a picture: The white I would just sew on, but the greens each would need their own tutorial for me to learn how to add. I might try the knife pleat Cheytown did on the original [...]

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Valerie on April 16th, 2008

Mrs. Kelly was stout and gentle. She was like a large, anxious dove. She was different than Betsy’s mother who was slim and red-headed and gay. Betsy’s mother knew how to scold as well as laugh and sing. But Tacy’s mother never scolded. “If I tried to scold eleven [children] I’d be scolding all the [...]

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Valerie on April 15th, 2008

He requested a “bassetball cake”- way to use up some orange icing My firstborn son is five today. I snapped this picture because it shows two of the things he is wild about these days, pirates and Ohio State. Every child’s birthday evokes some memories of when they were born and how it happened, but [...]

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Valerie on April 14th, 2008

Well, not yet. But I’ve got a good start on the shirt dress I mentioned wanting to try. No, Luke was not willing to part with his nifty plaid, but I found a cute one at a rummage sale last weekend that will do nicely. The shirt had a pocket on it with a button [...]

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Valerie on April 14th, 2008

There was a tornado spotted in our area Friday night, so we headed to the basement for the duration of the storm. In the basement you could find just about every kind of toy known to children, so the kids would have no problem occupying the time. This must not be enough for Big A, [...]

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