That may seem like a strange question, but when you are in your nineties and have been retired as long as I have, you would understand. Retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be. Oh yes, I have Social Security and a small pension from my husband’s work. Money is not the problem. Mine is a “people” problem.

The land that is now Big Ridge State Park was once an area filled with small family farms. It is hard to picture what the landscape might have looked like a hundred years ago. The wooded forest hides most of the evidence. No structures were left standing after the TVA first acquired the land.

With maple syrup, the common assumption is that it’s a New England thing, produced in places like Vermont. But during European settlement times sugar made from maple sap was the only available sweeter besides honey.

Chicken Cordon Bleu conjures up a picture of a complicated dish. This one is not. Make it with rice. I am always looking for easy recipes that mimic complicated ones. There is more than one way to get a flavorful dish out of a chicken breast. Try this one and see what you think.

“Jesus Loves Me” is called a child’s song, but I sometimes still sing it for myself, even as a grownup. The lyrics are by Ana Bartlett Warner but they were first published in 1860 by her sister Susan Warner as a poem in a novel entitled Say and Seal. The music was later added by William Bradbury in 1862. In the novel, the words are spoken to comfort a dying child.
I especially love the beginning lines from the first stanza:
Jesus loves me this i know,
for the Bible tells me so

My poor mother. I still remember the look of frustration on her face. No, she wasn’t trying to get me take a bath, or worse, sit still. She was trying to get me to take my medicine.
As a child, I had a mental block about taking pills because I was terrified of getting of getting choked on them. Had that happened to me? Nope. Had I seen that happen to anybody else? Nope. It was a byproduct of my overactive imagination.

At some point during my high school years, I remember attending an assembly that seemed to occur on the spur of a moment. At least to my memory there was no announcement other than the one given for us to go to the auditorium.
I don’t remember if girls were present at this assembly. I do remember that Principal Joe Day introduced to us the speaker, a man with a common-sounding name. He turned out to be anything but common.
The speaker’s name was Jack Brown. He told us his life story that day.

I remember well the first time I suffered a back problem. I was a teenager, probably about sixteen, and I was at the home of Marie, my youngest sibling on my father’s side. I was playing with her son Billy, my nephew, who was a few years younger than me. Other of my nieces/nephews/Billy’s cousins might have been there, but I only recall for sure the two of us.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends that doctors avoid prescribing drugs, especially narcotics, for patients with acute or subacute low back pain. Patients should be treated first with non-pharmaceutical therapies, such as superficial heat, massage, acupuncture, or spinal manipulation.

Evergreen trees are more prominent in the winter in our area, being the only bright color seen among the bleak, bare hardwood trees. Besides their visual appeal, evergreens provide important food and shelter for many wildlife species. Common evergreen trees in our area include several species of pine, cedar, and hemlock.