Why Grandparents Raise Grandchildren 

 This is my first post on Huffington Post's Huff Post 50 sight where I will be a regular Blogger.  Please visit me there! 

Grandparents having to step in to raise their grandchildren is an issue that has become a sweeping epidemic.  Caught in a tsunami of parents who are:  alcoholic, drug addicted, violent, incarcerated, too young, too irresponsible, to ill, abusive, crushed by the recession, made homeless, or just…

Last weeks blog has stirred something up in me that is kin to a burning desire to find those who have vanished into the days, weeks, and years since their passing. I want to clip down the over grown foliage, mend the broken markers and fence out the cows. I have only begun my journey.

Thank you to all who sent me messages and especially to my friend Janie who emailed me some interesting links. I have barely skimmed the surface of those lives that are six feet under the sod on…

(I know this is a bit long for a blog post, but if you are married, or have been,  you just might enjoy the ride :) )

Valentine’s Day

I placed a hesitant hand on the smooth metal door handle of the Hallmark store and pulled it open to the sound of tinkling bells. Ruby hearts hanging from the door jamb brushed the top of my head as I stepped…

Twice a year, in July and December, we have 'Grandparents Sleepover' at the Tolleys.

 …

Once again I have said goodbye to my mother. She lives in New Mexico and each November I travel from California to visit her. Last year she broke her hip and so I was there twice.

 Each time I visit my mother someone accompanies me, a sister or my partner, though once I did go alone and it wasn’t easy driving across the desert wondering what might happen to me if the car broke down. About forty-five minutes from my destination I had to take a comfort break, and reluctantly I…

I usually get something done during the week with my writing. I'll finish a chapter, edit a chapter or post to my blog. I also hang out on Facebook and Twitter and She Writes at least once a day.

Then school started again and the house went nuts! We'd discussed our new alarm settings and the revised timeline was placed on the fridge. Things we didn't count on - missing the bus, a sick dog, the baby pouring a gallon of milk on the floor, meetings that lasted until seven....and the list…

Jillian Medoff’s novel I Couldn’t Love You More was released in mid-May, had its fifth printing less than two months later and was just featured by Jennifer Weiner as a…

The day you came into my life, I honestly didn't know what to think; we had waited patiently for your arrival for months, well let's be honest, I was a tad impatient in the end. 

I had planned for this day for most of my life, but now that it was here, and in the days and months that followed, I was gripped by fear at every turn, not the fairy tale happiness that I had always imagined you'd bring when you finally came.

I know I missed some of your important moments while I…

Have you ever felt like the whole world is crashing in around you all at once? That’s what this week has been like for me. One thing after another has gone wrong. The weather was wretched, the animals were loud, even in the dead of the night, things kept breaking, ect.

Remember that no matter how bad things get, there is always a silver lining.

Mine for the past week are that:

A: I have made a lot of progress on my current…

My Husby has four brothers.

All of which look/sound a lot alike.

Our oldest son, Mark was a daddy's boy.

He adored his father.

They spent a lot of time together.

A lot.

In the early years of our marriage, all of my Husby's family lived in close proximity to each other.

Getting together was easy.

And frequent.

Looking back, it was a fleeting, wonderful time.

One day, the entire family had been invited over for…

What’s Your One Word?

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

I was getting one of those blinking neon sign messages. You know the kind—the same message over and over, everywhere you turn. Eventually, you realize you have to pay attention.

That’s the way it was for me with this idea: Choose just One Word for the New Year. I read through a number of emails and…

This blog is dedicated to my Father who passed away just five short months ago of cancer.  I love and miss you Daddy!

My Father, a…

“Homing… is the instinct to return, to go to the place we remember. It is the ability to find, whether in dark or in daylight, one’s home place… Home is an internal place, a place somewhere in time rather than space, where a woman feels of one piece.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Two weeks ago, I stood in the summer cottage that has been in our family for four generations and stared at a photograph hanging on the wall. It was taken during my grandmother’s birthday – a…

Because of her, thoughts of ending this haunt me.

It would be so easy to not feel any pain anymore.

To stop disappointing people.

To stop adding to the ragged red lines on my legs and arms.

To be at peace.

To take a gun to my head.

Or maybe to my chest.

To jump off of my dresser with a noose around my neck.

To walk in front of oncoming…