Sometimes I think about a little one-room school my brother and I attended in northern Oklahoma– wheat, alfalfa, and cattle country. The school’s name was Valley Center. The teacher was an unmarried woman, Miss Virginia. The school was her life and she lavished time, thought, and attention on it and her thirteen pupils, grades one […]

Mother’s Day
·On Mother’s Day, Mom always wore a corsage of white roses to church. Used to be that was the custom–if your mother was no longer with you, you wore white flowers; if she was still here, you wore red flowers. That tradition has probably flown, like so many. I was singularly blessed to have […]

In My Mother’s Bible
·In uncertain times, we need an anchor, something unchangeable that we can cling to. It helps to have reminders that people have gone through hard times before now and survived. My granddaughter, as well as some nieces and nephews, are interested in genealogy. In trying to answer their questions, I turn to the place where […]

The Joy of Music
·“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” Victor Hugo. Music is a universal language, joining people of all nationalities who cannot speak or understand any language but their own. Music, we all understand and respond to. As the seven junior and high school choirs presented their annual […]

Under the Quilting Frame
·Under the quilting frame, hidden away, Hemmed in by big ladies’ feet, The fireplace crackling and blazing near-by With welcome and comfortable heat, Big ears had I, in my snug little cave With biscuits and bacon to munch, With the quilt for my ceiling, I listened real hard To this busy and talkative bunch. What […]

The Value of a Child
·Today is Palm Sunday, the day Christians around the world commemorate Jesus triumphantly entering Jerusalem (Matthew 21). People welcomed him, waving branches, spreading their cloaks down in the road, shouting, “Praise to David’s Son. God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord. Praise be to God!” The religious leaders in the temple […]