January is the month for hunkering down and getting cozy. More time is spent inside (if you’re in the north), and it’s a great time to reflect on what the past year was or was not. A time to re-calibrate, freshen our perspective, and set new intentions. A time to plan for the year ahead. For the last several years, I’ve spent…
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Everything
Today is Christmas. Tomorrow, December 26, marks the eighteenth month of Joe’s passing. I love that it’s not today. Not Christmas. We get to have this day. Everything has changed, and yet everything remains the same. Since losing Joe, I haven’t altered or moved much of anything in the house. It’s kind of strange even to say because I’ve always…
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Belleville, IL. Friends. Family. Home.
Just one year ago, I sat outside the fence of the Belle-Claire Fairgrounds in Bellville, IL, in the Hardee’s parking lot. I sat there reflecting on all of the years that have passed since Joe and I first stepped into that building for the Country Treasures Craft Show so many years ago. Jan and Cara, the promoters, had convinced me…
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He Was Our Superman
The day before Joe died, I was sitting in the parking lot at Sams Club drafting a text to all six kids. I planned to tell them about their dad’s depression—not the cause—but the severity. I had been planning to do that earlier in the week, also. I’d taken him to the Hamilton Center to have an “intake” done so that…
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It Truly is God’s Country
“Load the car and write the note. Grab your bag and grab your coat. Tell the ones that need to know; we are headed north.“ -The Avett Brothers But there is no “we” this year, only me. I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, or so it seems. For years now, Joe and I have traveled…
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