Category: Reflection
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The kids went back to school, and my husband and I drove over 1000 miles and climbed a lot of stairs last weekend. We returned to a quiet house. But this week’s post is not going to be about that. Instead, it’s a time to stop and reflect on one year of FillingTime. To do…
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For the second time in six months, California wouldn’t let me leave. Both times I got stuck for an extra night because of weather on the East Coast, and last week, it meant that I did not have any time to recover before I went directly back to work. I should have been exhausted, but…
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As a child, I knew I was a bicentennial baby. It must have been a phenomenon in 1976 because I was proud of it, to have been born in a celebratory year for our nation. Perhaps the internal fascination with the term “bicentennial baby” helped me to love July 4th. More likely it was the…
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A friend invited me to attend a screening of The M Factor 2: Before the Pause – Perimenopause, a documentary about perimenopause. Of course, I said yes. Not only was it going to be a night out with a couple of women I enjoy spending time with, I figured I’d learn something about myself. I…
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I have exactly one specialty in the kitchen, and it’s homemade lemonade. My son had put in a request, so I spent part of the week making a couple different varieties. It was also strawberry and rhubarb season, and both showed up in my produce box, so I made some treats, a fresh salad, and…
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We are halfway through 2026, and it was a year ago that my babies graduated from high school. Last year at this time was consumed by prom, baseball state playoffs, graduation, the baseball banquet and alumni game, the dance recital, and college prep. This year is so different. Everyone has been asking me this week…
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Last Thursday I flew home from Walt Disney World. It was my 21st trip. My first trip to Disney was in 1988. My parents, my brother, and I took the sleeper train from the Northeast to Florida. At the time, there were only two parks open: Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Six years later, when I…
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I spent most of my childhood living in a house under some version of construction. My parents purchased a 150-year-old farmhouse when I was a toddler, and they spent the next couple of decades bringing it back to life. They did it with their own minds and hands in segments as time and money permitted…
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Last week I straddled the line between past and present in a way I wasn’t expecting. I started the week by attending the local high school’s baseball season home opener. The date had been on my radar for a while. I still follow the team’s social media, but even more than that, the change in…
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Ironically, I’m an English teacher who hates to read. Also ironically, I’m a published author that doesn’t love to write. So much to say here about what may or may not fill my time in the future, but I want to focus on the reading this week since that’s how I filled my time –…
Filling Time: TwinLife Empty-Nesting 