Sherry | May 31, 2010
Sometimes being born 50 percent German comes in handy. My stubborn streak hasn’t always been considered an attractive trait, but for the past six months—especially those recent 12 days of travel—I’ve put it to good use. On November 30, 2009, I decided for health reasons to abide by some strict dietary prohibitions: No gluten, dairy, [...]
Sherry | May 28, 2010
Who says you can’t go home again? My Midwest road trip took me back to my hometown, Wheaton, Illinois, where I lived from infancy through young married. The only thing that looked familiar as I drove down the main drag was our old standby date hangout… Even the mural painted on the wall is the [...]
Sherry | May 25, 2010
“Hi, Bentley!” Ben, Quinn, and I had just walked in the door of 25 Kitchen, a restaurant in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Obviously, the hostess was acquainted with our Ben (originally named Bentley by Paul and me). She led us to our table. “Hi, Bentley!” The waitress knows him too! What can I say? Ben has [...]
Sherry | May 22, 2010
You met cousin Jim in my last post. I concluded my story about him at his house, but my time with him actually continued, overlapping with my next visit—with cousin Mona (from my dad‘s side of the family). In my earlier posts, I didn’t take the opportunity to brag about my cousin Dave (the oldest [...]
Sherry | May 20, 2010
During the visiting time prior to Aunt Kay’s funeral, I struck up a conversation with Caleb, first cousin once removed—in other words, my cousins Jim and Lisa’s kid. (Jim is AK’s youngest, and I remember when he was born.) I knew Caleb well as a little kid, much better than I know him now, which [...]
Sherry | May 17, 2010
Aunt Esther, Aunt Helen, Aunt Bee, and Aunt Kay—four, that’s all I had. Aunt Kay lived 91 years, leaving behind four children and a passel of grands and great-grands. And me! I was one of the lucky ones born to parents who valued family connections. On holidays we either went to the homes of relatives [...]
Sherry | May 9, 2010
I’ve read a lot, a lot, of status updates on Facebook today, most expressing the same sentiment— “My mom is the best mom in the whole world.” I understand this, since mine is/was. Of course the name “mom” is relative. Some of our mothers gave birth to us but gave us up for adoption to [...]
Sherry | May 7, 2010
It’s the first Friday of the month, which means downtown Newberg comes to life for First Friday Art Walk. Even though downtown is walking distance from our home, we rarely go. But tonight we had a good reason to head that way. Pitter Patter Children’s Consignment Shop featured photography by our own John and Erin [...]
Sherry | May 5, 2010
All this time I thought an atlas was what you pulled off the shelf to see where some unknown country is. But today, in my ongoing quest for relief from sciatica-related issues, I visited a chiropractor (third appointment, since x-rays are required) and learned about atlas adjustments. If I were a little smarter, I would [...]
Sherry | May 1, 2010
I’m not really proud of my mistakes. I just figure confession is good for the soul. At my last confession I showed you my month-long typo. This time: The small stack on the top is what I meant to print—thumbnails of the lyric slides for Sunday’s morning worship gathering. The tall stack, nearly a ream [...]