The roses

She rounded the corner to Louise’s house. The roses around the corner house were stunning. She stopped the car, even though she was already late picking up Louise.

She rolled down the window in hopes of smelling the array of roses stretching from one side of the large yard to another. Red, yellow, pink, a melony orange, white: the colors spread like a rainbow across her view.

She took a deep breath and suddenly felt calmer and . . .

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Cookie Dough

Somehow cookie dough had become a test of her motherhood. She looked at the chocolate chip cookie dough, rife with uncooked eggs, and then at her 4 year old twins. Kelly, the bolder of the two, asked, “Can we have a bite?” and both sets of innocent brown eyes turned up to her, waiting.

She had to decide now, no deliberating. She hated decisions like that. Was she the kind of mom who let her kids eat raw eggs? Or was she the kind of mom who made them wait until the cookies came out of the oven, safely cooked to a germ-free perfection?

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I never dreamed

I never dreamed I’d be a teacher. I didn’t want to do it, didn’t know anything about kids, and wasn’t sure I could even figure out things like which direction the Columbia River flowed for the basic geography lessons. But I started teaching anyway. I found I loved the kids, loved the teaching. Sometimes, I was even good at it. So I . . .

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Wildfire

I heard on the radio that wild fires have caused damage in the small Colorado town of Ordway. I can’t hear the word “Ordway” without thinking of meadowlarks.

Years ago, my dad took me fishing at a lake near Ordway. A tiny puddle of a lake, with a shore built of large rocks. The fields around the lake were crowded with meadowlarks. I sat on a rock enchanted, hypnotized, by the songs of the birds coming at me from all sides: meadowlark surround sound. It was one of those amazing, awe inspiring moments in life that never leave . . .

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Pooh Bear

That plate of fudge reminds me of Pooh Bear discovering waaaay too many pots of honey down the rabbit hole. After he slurped it all, he couldn’t get out the door. The kitchen is a rabbit hole, the fudge is waiting to trap me inside and turn me into a roly poly mama bear who can’t fit through the exit.

There’s only one solution. I take a deep breath, storm the kitchen, bravely grab the plate and . . .

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I Don’t Remember

I don’t remember why I started giving in to other people’s wishes instead of insisting on my own. It couldn’t have been any sort of coercion from my parents. They never treated me that way. Maybe it was my status and an only child. I never had any need to stand up for myself. When I finally reached that stage in life, it was too late to learn . . .

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Let’s Play

“Let’s play!” Martin streaked across the grass, scattering square hunks of plywood swiped from his dad’s lumber pile to serve as bases.

There were only four of them, Martin and his three sisters, but that was enough for a pitcher and a fielder for two teams. They often played for hours this way. Martin wanted Elana on his team, always, because she was the best catcher. That meant he could pitch. He . . .

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Home

Sometimes home is just your own bed and the place where you store your stuff. Sometimes home is the place where family waits. Sometimes home is a place where you don’t live at all, but feel comfortable.

I feel at home in the mountains. They look, feel, smell, and sound like home. Give me a four-wheeling vehicle, a few cords of wood and a mountain cabin and . . .
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Daylight savings

Everybody has an opinion on daylight savings time. Like many ideas that seem bright and enlightened when they first are tried, the brilliance of this one has grown dim over time. It’s a little like the electoral college or the delegate system. Stupid way to run things, but we’re not about to change anything, despite the cries for reform. Reform time? Quit turning the lights off and on at some arbitrary moment? Why, sure, we . . .

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How’s the weather?

Between Eric and his father there were two safe topics. Eric started with the first one. “How’s the weather, pop?” he asked.

He relaxed against the couch, channel surfing with the remote. He knew he didn’t have to pay much attention to the weather report, and he know about how long it would take to run down.

When his dad paused, Eric said, “Hey, pop. Did you see the Sox last Friday? That was some double play in the top of the third. Did you see that?”

He listened more carefully to . . .

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