Traditional – Typical – Expected

My family pattern has been to have one set of local grandparents and one set of distant grandparents. My local grandparents had a powerful impact on my life, as did my dad’s live-in grandfather and my children’s Nampa grandparents. Relationships with our remote grandparents developed through letters, gift parcels in the mail, and rare visits – important but less robust. Having deep relationships with those I love most is a priority to me. I did not want to be a remote grandparent! I…

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A Place for Everything

There are so many things I love about this time of year – the weather, the trees, the crisp days and scarves. I just love it all. One of the things I have been embracing this fall is my deep-rooted desire to organize. This organizing, structured side to myself is always around, but I don’t think I usually let it step up as much as it has lately. I am sure one big reason for this is that I realize it is a…

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How it Was: a short memoir

I pretty much had an ideal upbringing in the 50’s here in Nampa. Not unlike “the Beav” shall we say—you know, as in “Leave it to Beaver.” My mom was a typical homemaker, my dad a family practice medical doctor, and there were four of us kids. Other than the usual drama, I know I was blessed to have grown up without any real childhood trauma. At the time, Nampa’s population was roughly 25,000 and was largely lily white. Mexican migrant workers and…

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