Expressing Gratefulness

Living the Sweet Life: Lent comes each year, and I spend those weeks, as so many of us do, fasting from some things that I like coupled with reflecting on my life, contemplating what I can improve both spiritually and physically. After all of that time in a reflective state, my mind turns joyfully toward a...

Living the Sweet Life: To My Camera, I Wish to Say Deep Thanks!

Well, I’m gonna miss her. For five years, she has been a faithful companion and has delivered when asked each and every time exactly what I wanted. Through the surf in Galveston and in the heat of our most humid days in my yard, she’s even taken one for the team once or twice when a diaperless newborn...

Living the Sweet Life: #love

Who do you love? When you think about your life, do you have a clear understanding of the role that love plays for you? I know that I do. Love is the theme of this month’s issue, and my Valentine are on the cover. Inside that story is a tale of a great love for each other, for our children and of what we...

Living the Sweet Life: – Hello Again January!

Well my darlings, it’s finally here: another New Year! I don’t think I could be happier than I am right now. Last year was filled with so many things – very few good and lots of very very bad – thus leaving me anticipating 2017 for quite some time. Why is it that January always puts us into that...

Living the Sweet Life: Walking into the New Year, Wakeful and Enlightened

Looking for a really cool way to end this year and start out on the right foot so to speak?  Have you ever heard of taking a “Muir Trek?” Apparently it’s a thing. I ran across it during my usual digestion of literature and discovered that the concept was created by an American non-profit organization...

Living the Sweet Life: The Top 5 Ethereal Oils

I just planted the fall garden, and it got me thinking about just how much I use my garden in both cooking and in practical things around the house. Even with our crazy hot weather, it’s pretty easy to keep rosemary, basil, lemons, mint and rose yearlong. There are countless uses for herbs, but I wanted to...

Living the Sweet Life: Sometimes a Sweet Life is Also a Short One

Somehow, despite knowing the facts, we tend to “forget” that we are never promised tomorrow. We do not live our lives daily as it would be our last. Perhaps it is healthier to pretend . . . but I do not think so. I have seen my fair share of sweet lives being short ones. The worst kind of this is when...

Living the Sweet Life: Love Rules and Hate Drools

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Oh! This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine! Those words are words to live by, folks. In the wake of all sorts of craziness that should not even be happening in our civilized society, I have one thing...

Coming Home

Living the Sweet Life: Many of you are packing up your teenagers and heading to universities this month. This will be their new home as students embark on adventures, beginning a new chapter both for their lives but also for those of us as parents. I remember such an occasion on a crisp fall day in August...

Lazy Days of Summertime

Living the Sweet Life: July is possibly the laziest month of the entire year, and for great reason. It’s the only month that none of us has to really do anything – except of course work. Children are out for the summer, and unlike June, where it’s a scramble to finish strong with their classes or...

Lost and Found: Finding Father’s Day Treasures in Nana’s Pocketbook

Some time ago, I was digging around in my closet, and for some reason, I glanced up and saw my Nana’s black pocketbook. I grabbed it and opened it up knowing there would be something inside. Nana used to always keep things in her purses and drawers, and I remember as a child enjoying “plundering” as...

Ants and Grasshoppers for Lunch Anyone?

Living the Sweet Life: When I think of a picnic, I think of that iconic image of a red, checkered blanket and at some point a trail of ants trying to invade and haul off any crumbs they can. Never in my wildest dreams did that vision include making ants the main entrée! What am I talking about, you ask?...

Mindful of the Greatness

It’s that time of the year when we all are ready for the cold to dissipate and for the flowers to bloom. It’s “greatness” time too. If you are like me, you found yourself last year reflecting and wondering, “Where did the year go?” Sometimes when life starts to happen, we let ourselves just go...

March Is National Reading Month

What’s on your nightside table? I always have several books I am working on. Right now, it’s Eve by WM. Paul Young, Euphoria by Lily King and Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. I have always loved books and reading because it is fun, but the bottom line is it makes us smarter! March is National Reading...

Time For Some Turmeric

As far as spices go, my favorite is garlic, closely followed by onion. I rarely cook without both, and it’s funny because my late father-in-law swore off garlic for 83 years whilst applauding me for my dishes and their secret ingredients. As I generously sprinkle them in, it appears that I should be adding...