Bounce Back Blog
My Journey From Darkness to Light
September is Suicide Prevention Month. If you are struggling, please reach out for help immediately. Here is just a little of my story about how I finally emerged from the darkness back into the light. Maybe it will encourage you if you are facing troubled times too....
Typhoid Tessie
If it’s true we often hurt the ones we love most, then my four-year-old granddaughter Tess is absolutely wild about me. This adorable little imp recently tried to love me to death with some killer kiddie germs and the calamitous chain of events they set in motion. It...
Simple Pleasures
Spring doesn't officially begin for me until Panera offers the Strawberry-Poppyseed Chicken Salad on their seasonal menu, and I snagged my first one of 2022 today. In honor of that momentous, and yummy, occasion, I'm bringing back a post I wrote a few years ago when I...
My Funny Valentine
You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs stories—but here’s one more, a Valentine’s tale from my book My Pineapples Went to Houston. I hope it gives you a smile....
Irresolute Resolutions, the Pandemic Edition
It’s that time of year again, time to make resolutions, swear off bad habits, and promise to form good ones. Since the pandemic has laughed in the face of all my good intentions for the past two years, I’m trying to outsmart my Covid-weary brain this year by making...
Grandkids Provide Food for Thought
If you have children or regularly spend time with them, you’ve likely realized that kids teach us adults as much if not more than we teach them. That was my experience as a mother and now that I’m a grandmother, I can tell you class is still in session. My two...
Things Didn’t Van Gogh As Planned
On our way to the stunning Van Gogh Immersive Experience last week, I cracked a lame joke to my husband about fearing I’d lose an ear there. As it turned out, I kept both ears . . . but lost my sole. No kidding. In the middle of the exhibit, I took a step forward, but...
A Magical Mystery Tour
I'm not Stanley Tucci, but I found exactly what I needed on this particular trip to Italy in 2016. Do you believe in magic? For as long as I can remember, my answer has been a resounding, “Yes!” From the first time my older sister made a penny magically disappear...
My 2020 Brain Has Gone to the Dogs
As this monstrous year draws to a close, I am enormously grateful for two things. 1) My husband has recovered from a rough bout of Covid and 2) I have so far escaped its heinous clutches. That is not to say, however, that I have come through this god-awful time...