by Robin | Oct 31, 2011 | Animals, Kids, Life with boys, Memoir, Mom stuff, Nature, Nostalgia, Personal, Teens & Tweens
"There's a snake in my boots." ~ Woody, Toy Story It didn't matter if it was 90 degrees in the shade and a thousand percent humidity, he'd paint on his Wranglers and cram his feet into miniature Tony Lama's. Cowboys don't...
by Robin | Oct 29, 2011 | Favorite things, friendship, God's Country, Nostalgia, Personal
I can taste the Fall of 1981. My freshman year in college. The stupidest of times. The best of times. A season of sowing oats and seizing days and when the prayers of my future in-laws must have been protecting me the most. It was the year I'd...
by Robin | Jul 25, 2011 | Family, Favorite things, Mothers and daughters, Nostalgia, Personal, Photos
When I close my eyes, for seconds we are Thelma and Louise rounding treacherous mountain curves but not running from anything or to anything, just two girls on the go. Sisters. Truth is, the curves are more beautiful than treacherous, and the only approximation to...
by Robin | Jul 16, 2011 | (in)courage, Encouragement, Favorite things, Nostalgia, Personal
Even with the chicken-scratchiest scrawl, there’s something treasurable in a handwritten letter. Isn’t that why we box some away, impossible to relegate them to trash? I still have letters from my Jennie Arnold Edwards Y Camp days, some likely 40 years old. And...
by Robin | May 31, 2011 | Beauty, Family, Favorite things, Kids, Mom stuff, Mothers and daughters, Nostalgia, Personal
"I was too embarrassed to tell them my answer," she said out of the blue. I think it was conversation over a pile of laundry. Her youth leader had one of those books written to break ice and force people to reveal little known facts about themselves,...
by Robin | May 23, 2011 | Animals, Beauty, Chattanooga, Favorite things, Inspiring, Kids, Life Philosophy, Nature, Nostalgia, Personal, Simplicity
I was an eight-year old fortune hunter; I knew exactly where to find buried treasure– Along the monkey grass-lined sidewalk to our apartment's playground and under every rock in my grandmother's back yard. Shelled magic. Pillbugs....