Squealing Pigs and Schoolhouses

I am prone to complain about the cold weather which is a silly and useless thing to do. My house is warm; I don’t have to get up early to milk cows or take care of the outdoor stock and I don’t have to build a fire in the fireplace to get the house warm. […]

A Whisper in the Wind

My dear cousin Brian sent me copies of articles he had found which first appeared in a Tahlequah newspaper in 1913. What treasures! News from county communities included quite a few items from Etta. At that time, my mother was seven years old. It was a glimpse into life a hundred years ago. A hundred […]

Just Close Your Eyes, You Are There

Imagination is a wonderful thing. It can take you any place you want to go. Sometimes, just as a sort of mini-vacation, I close my eyes and zip back a hundred years to Etta, Cherokee County, Oklahoma. The place I go is my grandparents’ farm. It is Sunday morning, July 13, 1914. Levi and Edna […]

Aromatherapy and Earthworms

Want a sure-fire, cost-free cure for the blues? Try weeding your herb garden. This spring I’ve been kept out of the garden by frequent rains (I’m thankful for them) and writing mysteries (I’m thankful for them too). Yesterday, however, I grabbed gloves, trowel, and kneeling pad and dug in the dirt. Mint, as you know, […]

The Influence of Nitzevet

The Influence of Nitzevet

Speaking of Moms and their influence, have you ever wondered about the outstanding people of the Bible and why they were so? I realize that God had His hand on them, for His purposes but I wonder in doing so, if God may have given them a particular mother. The first person I thought of […]

Caves, Chills, and Deep, Dark Caverns

Sometimes I am amazed at how our idea of entertainment has changed through the years. We depend on others to amuse us:  movies, plays, music, TV, the list goes on. What  would we do if we had to resort to our own ingenuity for diversion? It was a question that didn’t arise for my mother […]