Recent Blog Articles
My publisher and I had the honor of attending the Saint Mary's Foundation Ga*La this Saturday. I was very excited to experience this black tie affair, a thrill that increased exponentially when on my lunch break one day last week, I tried on a prom dress from my...
My spring break was a vacation from phrases I hear all too often and don’t really want to hear again. The phrases are spoken by my daughter, aka, The Teenager, whom I love dearly, but sometimes when she speaks, it affects me like nails on a chalkboard. That grinding,...
A couple days ago, I was attending the National AfterSchool Association’s national conference and heard the best keynote speaker I’ve heard in a long time. While his presentation was a geared toward the afterschool professional, his message resonated with me in...
Our house hunting fun began about five years ago while my husband and I were living over on the East side of the state. Every house we looked at, the price was either in our "jaw dropping" category or it was a full HGTV/DIY special in and of itself. Frustration set in...
This weekend I gave an alumni talk for an organization with which I was heavily involved with in college. The talk was part of a weekend retreat where I myself retreated every semester while at MSU. I've given talks on those retreats before, some in the exact spot I...
Why does a woman living alone need a gallon-sized jar of pickle spears, you may wonder. How could this purchase merit any sort of sense? To these questions I say first, I love pickles, second, buying in bulk allows me to practice time-tested frugality, and third, when...
Yes. That would be me. Let me explain. I don’t live in a college town. I don’t live downtown. I live in suburbia, actually country suburbia. We are definitely in a neighborhood–a typical suburban neighborhood. Saturday night, my husband and I hit bed around 11...
I am not one to research teams to the extent of, well, men, but I do get into March Madness for the sake of camaraderie and solidarity. I started filling out brackets as a college freshman at Loyola. Now, while Loyola hasn't won a tournament since 1963, I still get...
I’ll preface this story with a statement. This story isn’t about me but it could be. This story is about a close relative of mine so we do share the same blood, background, and boldness. (Details of this incident have been changed to protect the...
“Hi, my name is Courtney and I am a Pinterest-aholic.” Have you reached that stage as well? If so, Welcome! If not, don’t worry, you will! Pinterest.com. That’s where it all started. I joined Pinterest more than a year ago. At first glance I had NO idea what it was. I...