We are preparing for our westward trip back to LA. We will be leaving on Thursday and plan to arrive home on Friday night. We have been hustling around today attending to a multitude of small tasks, all of which need to be completed before we take to the road. Also, we have seen many…
Author: lenleatherwood
I am a native Texan who has lived for the past 30 years in Southern California. I am a published author of both short memoir and fiction, a two-time Pushcart nominee, a nationally award-winning writing coach, an editor, as well as a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Texas. In addition, I am the mother of three grown daughters of whom I am extremely proud, a grandmother of four darling children and the wife of a man I still love after 44 years.
A Cold Winter’s Night and an Old Fashioned Heater
I am sitting in our quiet house here in Texas. Our Scottie, Sammie, is lying in the chair opposite me and Ray is in the kitchen. Cordelia is somewhere in the house, probably curled up on the floor near Ray. It is 10:30 at night on a cold January night. The temperature outside is 36…
Brene Brown’s Talk on Critics in LIfe
Below is a great 99 U talk by Brene Brown entitled, “Why Your Critics Aren’t the Ones that Count.” I am gearing up for my 2015 writing goals. I found this talk, which is 21 minutes long, to be helpful. I hope you will, too. Here is the link. 99 U has a tagline: Insights…
Hearing Aids: A New Era
Yesterday my first cousin’s wife, Elaine, an audiologist, may have saved my marriage. She administered a hearing test after learning that my family has been complaining about my mishearing for the past year or two or three. The gist: 2 new hearing aids that Elaine described as the equivalent of reading glasses. Not a lot…
Day in Austin
Ray and I are in Austin visiting our extended family here. We had dinner tonight with lots of nieces, nephews, cousins, and sister-in-laws. We also saw our new great-niece, who is a contemporary of our grandchild, Luna. Lots of love, laughter, good food and positive energy. Hard to beat all of that. Thank you, Lee…
Results from Ancestry DNA Test – A Christmas Gift from My Kids
My kids wanted to give us information on our ancestry (and theirs) for Christmas and I just received the results. Turns out that I am 96.6% Northern European, with relatives primarily from the British Isles, a few from Germany and France and then the big surprise – I am 3.2% Sub – Saharan African, more…
Saints and Sinners New Year’s Eve Party
Lots of fun with family and friends tonight here in Sherman for the New Year’s Eve party. Here are a few pictures to commemorate the ringing in of the New Year. Happy New Year, folks. I hope we all have the best upcoming year ever. Wishing you well,…
The Platitudes I Swore I Was Going to Avoid
Here we are approaching the end of 2014 and I feel compelled to write something related to endings and new beginnings. But what? I don’t need to go back over the same old platitudes that have become so familiar that we all just skim over them. Yes, let’s savor every moment and be grateful for…
2014 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many…
Church, Catfish and Books
Today, we went to church at St. Stephen’s Episcopal church where we saw old friends and met the new priest. This was the church where we went with my mother when we lived in Sherman, and it holds many memories for our family. Ray and I had our wedding blessing there, our nieces were baptised…
20 Minutes a Day 