Susan's Pendulum

On NPR today, the reporter was interviewing someone who does fact-checking.  The topic?  Obamacare.  The distress?  People's health plan...

Pictures taken by our friend Rachel .  (By the way, if anybody around here needs high school graduation pictures, Rachel is superb...

Our reverse-osmosis filter had not been working.  For eight weeks, I was buying jugs of water every time I had reason to be in town.  The ...

Turning into this driveway. Sometimes after work, I head to church instead of heading home.  Maybe there's class.  Maybe there's...

While doing kitchen work today, I was listening to Issues Etc on the topic of infant communion.  The guest said some good stuff.  But one b...

How do you know if you're too old? If you're old enough to buy your own candy (that is, if you could be babysitting, shoveling sno...

Reading to children. Picture books. Chapter books. Old books.  Sometimes new books too. There's something marvelous about readin...

My mother-in-law's measuring cups. Reason #1: For 30+ years, I only had one set.  Boy, it's nice to have a spare so that cups do...

I keep running across these recipes that say, "Pat the chicken dry with paper towels," and then the instructions go on to tell abo...

Pretty dishes. Not only are they cheery, but they drip-dry super-fast in the dish-drainer.  I can let them air-dry and put them away 30-...

After the Flood, God promised that He would never again destroy the earth with water (Genesis 9) .  Interestingly, the promise was not made ...

Going out for a beer after choir.  Now and then, several of us go to a nearby bar/restaurant and talk and laugh.  Last night, instead of...

Mitford. I love these books.  This woman is a fabulous author.  Nothing hard and ugly.  But neither is it unrealistic.  Just nice storie...

This weekend a fantastic idea came to me about a few Christmas gifts.  So yesterday Maggie and I went to the mall to buy them.  It felt we...

A visit from a friend I see, oh, about once a year or less since we moved. I squealed and bounced up and down when her email arrived, as...

This is the bestest crucifix in the whole wide world. It used to be by the pulpit.  I wish it were still there.  But it remains in the r...

I've had one massage in my life, and I left more stressed and tense from it than I went in.  (I won't ever go back to that place -- ...

Tomatoes on a sandwich. GARDEN tomatoes, not store ones. A specialty usually confined to August and September. Only three small tomato...

As I've been thinking about "things that make me happy," I'm pondering the distinction between happy/contentment, or happy...

Is it really that hard to understand that reading a story where the setting includes magic and witches is not the same thing as practicing ...