by emilyneal | Jan 21, 2020 | Uncategorized
Last Thursday, my college freshman and I gathered in the dining commons of the university he attends to have breakfast with 35 people who were mostly strangers to us. We were asked to grab a marker and a piece of posterboard and write in large letters a word that...
by emilyneal | Jan 10, 2020 | Uncategorized
Last night, we took our four-month-old Goldendoodle, Cooper, to his first Puppy Kindergarten class My 15-year-old daughter and I were fairly confident as we got Cooper ready to go off for this big adventure. For the past month, we have been working hard on training...
by emilyneal | Jan 4, 2020 | Uncategorized
What do you think of when you picture the word “free”? Are you running through a field of flowers on a warm summer day? Are you walking barefoot along the beach, listening to the sound of the waves? Or do you imagine removing chains that have held you...
by emilyneal | Jan 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
I read 38 books in 2019, which is probably the most books I’ve ever read in a year. I typically read about 12 to 20 books a year, and most of them have been nonfiction. This year, I jumped back into fiction, which greatly increased my penchant for reading. I read most...
by emilyneal | Dec 23, 2019 | Uncategorized
A few weeks ago, I was blessed to be able to share a very short snippet of my life from this past year with a room full of people. As I listened to the words coming out of my own mouth, it hit me how much has happened from January to December during this year that I...
by emilyneal | Dec 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
We’re in the last month of 2019, and I have come close to documenting the books, movies, TV shows, podcasts and other forms of entertainment I have loved, month by month. The end of November slipped by me as we enjoyed family gatherings for Thanksgiving and then...
by emilyneal | Nov 24, 2019 | Uncategorized
Every morning, I get an e-mail in my inbox with a “word of the day.” This morning’s word was “copacetic.” I had a vague understanding of what it meant, but I laughed when I read the actual definition. It’s such a fancy way to...
by emilyneal | Nov 22, 2019 | Uncategorized
I’ve been pondering this story for many weeks, trying to decide how I can tell it on my blog. Now that our kids are older, I know that their stories are no longer mine to tell. While this is a story that mostly involved our college-age son, it impacted me in...
by emilyneal | Nov 16, 2019 | Uncategorized
For the past few weeks, a blanket of white snow has been covering the ground where we live. Typically, during the first snowfall of the year, I would go out with my camera and take some photos to mark the occasion. When you live in the Midwest, snow is just part of...
by emilyneal | Nov 1, 2019 | Uncategorized
I was walking on the trail behind my house in mid-October listening to the last few chapters of my favorite book of the month on audio book, and I was crying. With my headphones in my ears and sunglasses masking my face, I felt like I was in my own little world. But I...
