Month: June 2016

My five-pound Yorkshire terrier, Sienna, made me laugh the other day when I glanced up and saw her struggling and staggering around the yard carrying a bone. The bone was meant for the large, outside dogs who weigh seventy to eighty … Read more

At my birthday party recently, I wanted to read Scripture, and looking for a verse about hope and the future, I found this one: What a wonderful birthday present from Jesus: new birth and an inheritance that can never perish! I could not … Read more

What I'm known for is as important as why I'm known for it. White was a well-known family name throughout certain portions of West Virginia, USA, and beyond. The family patriarch — and the one who initially brought the family's … Read more

Recently, I watched an interesting movie that brought back memories of a certain kind of pop art. The film portrayed the true story of "Big Eyes" artist, Margret Keane, who was famous in the 1960s and '70s. Her paintings depicted sorrowful … Read more

The summer is a great time to do things around the house or yard, but each time, it takes me a mountain of coaxing and unrelenting reasoning simply to commit to paint the deck, mow the lawn, or clean out and vacuum the car. Does the word … Read more

One morning, I decided simply to gaze at some blue jays just outside our window. I did that for a reason: I felt that I was becoming too complacent about blue jays. They're always around — plenty of them. I saw them mostly as raucous … Read more

During the early days of my working career, I was the project accountant on a big pipeline project. One day, I was talking to the instrumentation engineer, the person who designed the instruments which could remotely operate the various … Read more

Have you noticed lately a growing trend among store clerks to drop those "three little magic words": "please" and "thank you"? The cashier simply states what we owe, with no eye contact and no smile. If she were a child, we'd prompt her … Read more

Toddlers toddle forward unsteadily on chubby legs. One in diapers suddenly sits. Some wear big-boy pants, and some twirl in a skirt. All are not yet two years old. One lone toddler scurries after them, and nearing the minister, he sits … Read more

This spring, we were able to install a Toyo stove — a small oil furnace — in our home. This new addition meant that during the shoulder seasons, spring and fall, instead of trying to regulate the wood stove, as the temperatures vary so … Read more