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Suppertime: The family connection

In my youth, the last two weeks of August were spent on family vacation in the truck and camper, making memories. School did not start until after Labor Day then. How things have changed. Everyone is shopping for new shoes, new school clothes, and school supplies. Parents are rearranging the family routine for the next nine months. How will the family find time to sit down to supper together with all of the extracurricular activities, the jobs, and all of the stress? My mother spoke of her youth. Everyone was expected to be at her mother’s table at 6 p.m. The family discussed the ...

Victory Over Temptation Part 3

First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for the great support that I have received from these articles. Your comments have encouraged me to keep on writing. If you have missed the other two parts of this series, please contact the paper. I am sure they will help you get the other two articles. To refresh your memory about these temptations, we learned their purposes by the story of Job in the Bible. Job was a righteous man and considered blameless. The devil had one purpose and that was to get Job to curse God and quit, to give up. The devil uses the same purpose for each ...

You are what you think you are

“Jody” was taught to be a respectful person, to be kind and thoughtful. She loved to laugh, visiting with her neighbors in the classroom, much to the teachers’ displeasure, and everywhere she went. Until the bullying started. It wasn’t directed at her, but she saw the hurt in the other child’s eyes when he was bullied. She tended to stand up in defense of the bullied, drawing attention to herself because “when they pick on me, they leave everyone else alone. And I can ignore them.” When she actually experienced bullying and complained to the bully’s mother, the woman ...

What does 37 minutes have to do with it?

The grandchild, prompted to shut off the TV, came over to me. I had just begun work on a crochet project requested by a daughter. It is small. It won’t take long to make it. “Let’s play games, Memaw,” he said. I have taught him pretty well. He has mastered the strategy of winning Mancala. No, I do not let him win. He beats me fair and square. Pickup Sticks, Trouble, Monopoly, he is a formidable opponent. He is sharp. I didn’t want to set my crochet aside, but I did. We retired to the sunporch where he again defeated me soundly at Pickup Sticks. But we never did finish the ...

Dog days of summer

Here we are, in the midst of what my paternal grandmother called “the dog days of summer.” I don’t think it had much to do with dogs. Actually, the phrase refers to the hottest days of summer. My grandmother was a superstitious Irish woman so there might have been something more to it. But when I think of the dog days of summer, I think of high heat and humidity. I remember headaches when the heat was extreme, and hiding away to read my books when the headaches eased. We know so much more these days. Do you go to your weather app each day to see what you can expect that day? It ...

More older adults struggle with substance use disorder

There is an epidemic we don’t hear much about. There is just no denying that aging has its issues. But for some older adults, things become even more complicated. This issue is substance use disorder (SUD) which often is unintentional, often misdiagnosed and untreated because some of the symptoms mock signs of conditions associated with aging. We will share some information and resources for you to read further. There is a lot more information available now than a decade ago, but there are still questions that need to be answered. According to 2018 data, nearly 1 million adults age ...