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Jewels From The Word
November 18, 2019
I only have one section of a cross-stitch project left to do that I started about 15 years ago, a 2-inch square window. The design is a country scene: a black iron pot-belly stove with a blue coffee pot, a wooden chair with a gray cat sleeping in it, braided ...
Jewels From The Word
November 11, 2019
“Does it feel like you are stuck in a rut? Break out of that rut and come to this restaurant, or go to that vacation place. Or buy this. Or try this.” Advertisers know that we want to change, but then we don’t want to change. The rut f...
Jewels From The Word
November 4, 2019
Some jobs just never seem to get done--like cleaning the top of the refrigerator or the top of the range vent hood. Nearly every time I cook, I stand looking at the dust and grime on top of the range hood and think, Next time I do the dishes, and wipe down th...
Jewels From The Word
October 28, 2019
I sat at the dining table, gazing out the window, lost in thought. When I came to myself, I saw 3 squirrels chasing each other around the yard, up and down the crabapple tree. Suddenly all three went up the tree and out of sight. A very large blue jay sat on ...
Jewels From The Word
October 21, 2019
I learned to drive in Drivers Ed in 10th grade in high school, but my Uncle Cecil trained me in many skills. He had me practicing my parallel parking skills in downtown Vinita in front of the Center Theatre at 9 o’clock on Saturday night when one sho...
Jewels From The Word
October 14, 2019
When we were kids in the 1950s, Mama had lots of ideas to keep us busy. We loved to make popcorn, shaking the popcorn in a heavy club aluminum saucepan with real butter. In that same saucepan, we made old-fashioned cocoa fudge, and divinit...
Jewels From The Word
October 7, 2019
Are you ready for some football?” When I was in Camp Fire Girls Horizon Club during high school, we invited the football coach to come speak to our club about football. He explained the rules of the game and how it was played, and I can truthfully say, i...
Jewels From The Word
September 30, 2019
Because of a procedure I had done in July, I was on voice rest for 6 weeks. I was released after that to talk, but I still can’t sing. It will take a little longer, with exercises and therapies to recover my singing voice. I’ve been singing since ...
Jewels From The Word
September 23, 2019
I recently held a letter in my own hands written by my great grandmother Mary May (Slankard) Hightower in 1929 to her son and daughter-in-law, my grandparents. It was in a box of papers that looked as though they would disintegrate and fly away if I breathed h...
Jewels From The Word
September 16, 2019
I was hungry for fish. Money was tight, so I had tried begging my fisherman neighbor but he told me that he'd given away his last catch and his freezer was empty. I remember praying a simple prayer, like "Jesus, I'd sure like to have some fish to eat." About ...
Jewels From The Word
September 9, 2019
My mother gave me my Uncle Otis’ crank wall phone recently. It’s a wooden box just like the one you see in the movies, that hangs on the wall with a handle you turn, a earpiece, and a mouthpiece. I remember being fascinated with it when I saw it han...
Jewels From The Word
September 2, 2019
It's Rodeo week in Vinita, Oklahoma. I hardly ever miss the rodeo parade, but I missed this one. I always mentally compare the current rodeo parade to the one in some distant yesteryear, when there were so many more horses and riders that they began to blur t...
