November 6, 2013. That was the day I got some new brothers. Sort of. You see, they’d always been my brothers, I just didn’t know that they were. In order for this to make sense, I need to take you back in time with me…we’re traveling to the late 1960’s, so put on your bell-bottoms and your tie-dyed t-shirts because things are about to get groovy, man. It wasn’t until 1978 that the first in vitro fertilization baby was born. Prior to that, if you wanted children but were unable to conceive, you adopted. During the 1960s, my parents wanted children but couldn’t have them, so they adopted my older…

2019 is two days away. Once again, gym memberships will soar and members will have to wait their turn to use the machines. That will last a couple of months until New Year’s Resolutionists (yes, I think I made that word up) revert back to their 2018 habit of sitting on the couch, watching Netflix. Diets will start and end. People will stop gossiping until February when they hear a rumor that’s too juicy to not repeat. The intentions are there and they’re good, but New Year’s resolutions last about as long as the one little pig’s house of sticks. We try for a little while and then we go…

During the last couple of days, the internet has been trying to give me a topic for this week. It handed me two gifts, both wrapped in the newspaper funnies section, having neither bows nor ribbons. Both times, I thought, “Oh, that’s nice,” and absentmindedly put them off to the side while I continued to search my brain for something to write about. Little did I know that my topic sat waiting inside those packages that were right there beside me all along. The first gift the internet gave me was a video. Someone had wrapped a banana up in a box as a Christmas present for a little boy…

I’ve said before that I get a lot of my ideas from things I see on Facebook; this week’s blog idea is a shining example of that.  The other day, I saw a meme on Facebook that said, “Real queens fix each other’s crowns,” and it got me to thinkin’.  The gist of the message is that women should build each other up, not tear each other down.  I agree with that, but with one minor exception:  I think it applies to women and men–“real queens and kings”.   When I posted my very first blog, I was really nervous about it because I (like most of the population) am my own worst…

A Christmas Carol…what a wonderful story.  I can’t speak for anyone else, but out of all of the Christmas specials and stories, that one makes me feel the Christmas-iest.  Written by Charles Dickens and published in 1843, it is so Christmas-y, that it wasn’t until after its publication that people began to commonly celebrate Christmas as a festive holiday. We all know the story, I think.  But just in case: It’s about a nasty, stingy, old geezer named Ebenezer Scrooge who has disdain for every human being on the planet.  He treats his only employee, Bob Cratchit, like dirt and refuses to have anything to do with his only remaining…

I have to admit that a lot of the topics I end up writing about come from the posts that I see on Facebook.  Sometimes I see a post and I think, “Hmmm, that’s a good topic to write about,” but I want to think on it more, so I put it in my brain’s filing cabinet and let it sit there until I’ve got more to add to it.  This week’s topic has been filed away for almost a month.   I recently came across two separate posts from two different people and both of them were of this nature:  This year, my main goal is to believe that I’m…

November…it’s “no-shave” month (for men only, please) and also a month to express gratitude for all of the wonderful things we have been blessed with.  In previous years, I’ve seen daily posts on Facebook during the month of November, in which my friends posted about what they were thankful for.  The most common posts have always involved family, friends, and pets, of course; I agree 100% that it’s our loved ones that make life grand.  What I’ve never seen though, is thanks for blessings in disguise, so I decided I’d write about being thankful for the things we wish for but never get…you know, put a little spin on the…

There are three reasons I’m writing today.  One is because I just created a separate Facebook page for my writing and it’s pretty empty, so I need to put something on it.  The second reason is because I’m off today, so I can.  The third is because I’m super-duper excited about a phone call I just had and I want to talk about it. Let me back up, though, and start at the beginning: This whole blog thing began because I wrote a book.  I started the book in December and finished it in January.  It went through a whole bunch of edits and is (hopefully) in the last, or…

“Smooth seas never made a skilled mariner.”  I went on the internet to find out who gets credit for that saying, but I couldn’t find a definitive answer.  One article said it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, while another said it was an English proverb, so who knows?  But hats off to FDR, the English-proverb-maker, or whoever else really said it, because it’s a good one. One of my favorites, actually.   When my father was diagnosed with cancer, my sister convinced him to come to her house and stay in her spare bedroom.  She, my brother-in-law, and I would take shifts caring for him. When someone is terminally ill, it’s not…