Love and marriage require time and humor
February 14, 2013

Valentine’s Day has me thinking about love and marriage. Proposals are being made throughout the land; nervous men on bended knees, asking lovely women to take the plunge.
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Last tuition payment milestone to celebrate
February 7, 2013

Schlueterville will be full of milestones this year. It kicks off next week with celebrating the last tuition payment we will ever make to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (Insert a heartfelt, “Thank you, Jesus!” here.)
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Snowstorms call for something cold, sweet
January 31, 2013

This week’s column-writing night is bone-chilling cold, with chunks of snow falling from a winter-dark sky — a typical end-of-January Nebraska affair. My attention strays from the computer screen to the kitchen window, which stares at me like a big black eye. One thought clouds my mind.
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Inedible doughnuts are cure for winter blues
January 24, 2013

Writer’s note: I was staring into the abyss when I should have been writing, so here’s the column that ran in the Hastings Tribune Feb. 16, 2012.
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Grizzly attack disturbs ice climbing dreams
January 17, 2013

Ice climbing had a lingering effect. Last week I told you about my first attempt at scaling a frozen Colorado waterfall; of the strenuous hike to the climbing site, sucking air at 11,000 feet, and inching up a wall of ice using axes and sharp-toothed crampons on mountaineering boots. While the adventure was a solid success, the residual effect appears late at night in disheveled, slack-jawed slumber.
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Colorado ice climbing straight up fantastic
January 10, 2013

We ice climbed last weekend. That’s not a statement you make every day. It was by Alma, Colo., and I still haven’t fully processed the experience. We. ice. climbed. last. weekend. It was grotesquely cold, and one of the toughest things I’ve ever done.
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Learning to be an M.I.L. tops resolutions
January 3, 2013

Hello, 2013! You and I are about to become creative co-conspirators. As 2012 may have told you, I always draft a significant list of resolutions I intend to accomplish throughout the year. I take them pretty seriously, and do a decent job of checking them off before the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31. When it comes to personal improvement, this woman needs a plan.
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Wishing you a delicious, Dutch oven 2013
December 27, 2012

I write this on the evening of Christmas. The company’s gone, the gifts are unwrapped, Hunka Burnin’ Hubby is chatting on the phone, and the dishwasher is churning off the remnants of some pretty enchanting food. We just came back from snowshoeing with the Schlueterville setters, complete with a glimpse of sundogs dancing in the December sky. It’s a quiet, spectacularly ordinary, wind-up-the-holiday night.
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Smooching tree remedy for troubled world
December 20, 2012

I was revved up to write a holly-jolly-ho-ho Christmas column, but like you, my heart is leaden from recent senseless evil, and the horror it left in its wake. The pain is deep, like a sharp plow slicing through soft earth, leaving a gaping scar that we fear might never heal. An act of such inhumanity is beyond comprehension for the rational mind, and we struggle to right a ship that we fear is sinking fast. What is happening to our society that finds us falling so far into the primordial pit? How much lower can we go?
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Christmas hearts change worldly faces
December 13, 2012

I had the privilege of lending a tiny hand in my church’s Christmas musical last weekend. It was an elaborate affair held at the City Auditorium, with splendid decorations, assigned seating, delectable food, and a performance that’s as close to professional grade as you can possibly get. The whole shebang is put on by parishioners, and its message cuts you to the quick — beyond the commercial glitz and media hype, Christmas is about something both tiny and unfathomably large.
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