Well, as I mentioned in my last post, we had planned a big vacation in Europe for almost two years. We were traveling with some of our favorite people and spending two weeks floating down the Rhine and Moselle rivers through five countries in Europe. Such fun!

We get all packed, everything arranged to be gone and then the day ahead of when we were flying the news came in that the cruise was cancelled. The summer had been unusually hot and the rivers had...

Well, when I last chatted here, I had declared this year to be my best year ever. I was full of anticipation, hope, plans - all the good stuff. And then . . . Life started to shake rattle and roll.

My husband got sick. My sister got sick. One of my best friends was hospitalized. And worse, worse, worst of all, one of the dearest people in our lives fell lethally ill with one of the worst cancers ever and our world was really turned inside out and upside down. Topping it all off, the river...

When I was growing up, summers were pretty simple: playing with the neighbor kids; vacation bible school; time at camp; family camping vacations and walks to the Bookmobile to check out piles of books! Pretty darn ideal all in all.

I miss parts of all of that. As I bought more books over the years than I could possibly read while working and pursuing happiness , I would promise myself that when my summers were open...