When someone asks who you are, what do you say? Maybe just your first name. Or perhaps your first and last name. Or you may even add your job description depending on where you are when the question is asked. God in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible identified Himself to Moses with a … Continue reading Who Is Jesus? The Bread of Life
I don't know if the monetary value or the number of your Christmas, Hanukkah, or other Winter Holiday presents was different this year than in years past. Perhaps your financial situation has been insecure due to the ramifications of the spread of Coronavirus-19 and its variants. Maybe you are feeling down that you could not … Continue reading The Best Presents: Family and Friends
As I was recently going through some old family documents, I came across a United States Postal Service first class stamp with the denomination of six cents. “Wow!” I thought. “When I sent a Christmas card this year, the cost was fifty-eight.” The stamp had never been used to send a piece of mail, but … Continue reading In the Beginning…
The seasons of Christmas and Easter are intimately related. Below you will find a video of my song of praise for all seasons, "Sing Hallelujah, Give Him Your Heart." It tells the story of the birth and life of Jesus in a way that is understandable to children as well as adults. Along with the … Continue reading A Song for All Seasons: Sing Hallelujah, Give Him Your Heart
Last week I met via Zoom with two educators—Ms. Kari and Ms. Jasmine—plus student/family participants in a 4-H Sweet Potato Pie Making Project in Sitka, Alaska. My daughter and tech support Eve Carlisle Polley joined me. It proved to be a delightful, fast-paced hour and fifteen-minute get-together joining Sitka and Louisville (over 2,500 miles). Eve … Continue reading Nonny says Hello to Sitka, Alaska Families! (Zoom Meeting for Cooking, Chatting, and Having Fun)
Some of you may be thinking, “What in the world is a house for Toddler Jesus?” Let me give you some background information before I jump into telling you how my two school age granddaughters and I recently made a little cardboard and popsicle stick house. We are going to use it at Christmastime alongside … Continue reading A House for Toddler Jesus
Dear Nonny's Blog Readers, I'm excited to share with you the news that the Sitka School District in Alaska will be using my book Sweet Potato Pie, Oh My! as a part of a sweet potato pie kit giveaway. The school district is distributing to fifty Sitka students and their families a kit with all … Continue reading Nonny’s Books are headed to Alaska! (New Project with Sitka School District)
English—“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1 NIV (The Holy Bible, New International Version 2011) Français—<<Dites merci au SEIGNEUR, car il est bon, et son amour est pour toujours!>> Psaume 107:1 PDV (La Sainte Bible, Parole de Vie 2017) Español—<<Den gracias al Señor, porque él es bueno, … Continue reading Give Thanks!
Spot The Turkeys is an outdoor game my family has played while celebrating the Thanksgiving season. You could easily adapt it to other times of the year as Spot The Santas, Spot The Easter Bunnies, etc. Use your imagination to come up with other variations and have fun! Can you spot the post-holiday-meal napper? Not everyone … Continue reading Enjoy a Holiday Game
One of my climbing red rose bushes last year developed a really thick stem with huge prickly thorns for practically its entire length of about four feet. That started me to think about the thorns we are enduring in our daily lives which have been turned topsy-turvy in 2020 and 2021 as we react to … Continue reading Enduring Thorns
Hello Nonny's Blog Readers! This year I've been pleased to share good times with you as we published the third book in the Nonny Day Series. All three are available for purchase through Amazon, and Volume 2 is on sale right now for under ten dollars.** VOL 1. Sweet Potato Pie, Oh My! VOL. 2 … Continue reading Nonny’s Children’s Books for the Holidays
There are times when life can become overwhelming. The sense of not being able to shoulder alone what is being thrown at you is very real for all of us at one time or another. It may be the loss of a loved one. Or losing one’s job. Struggling with health issues. Betrayal of a … Continue reading Carrying Each Other’s Burdens
A few years ago my younger daughter and I were fortunate enough to be able to travel to Spain and Portugal and have in our itinerary an added excursion by ferry to Morocco. To this day I can still envision the café in Tangier where we sat at a low table sipping hot sweet mint … Continue reading Try Moroccan-Style Mint Tea (Recipe) plus Photos from our trip to Tangier!
Fairy tales would lead us to believe concerning love relationships that everyone lives "happily ever after." Sometimes those relationships entered into during youth do last a lifetime. Other times, death or difficulties intervene and unions and marriages are cut short. Today I'm sharing with you a poem I wrote for my brother as he found love again … Continue reading Love Found Again (poem)
This may be the season when you find yourself with extra green tomatoes on the vine in your garden, or you see them at your farmer’s market or at your grocer’s. If so, here is an easy recipe for Sizzling Southern Fried Green Tomatoes, just the way I made them for my children when they … Continue reading Sizzling Southern Fried Green Tomatoes: Tingle Your Taste Buds (Recipe with Photos)
During the fall and winter months—or anytime, for that matter—taking a little extra time to prepare a special treat to eat can help take our minds off things that may be challenging in our lives. Here is a favorite recipe of mine for Sweet Potato Pie. Sweet Potato Preparation: 2 cups cooked sweet potatoes drained … Continue reading Maybe It’s Time for Sweet Potato Pie (Recipe)
Most everyone loves chocolate. If that includes you, you are in for a surprise at how easy and delicious today’s Magic Chocolate Cake is. It has a texture somewhere between chocolate cake and chocolate brownie. The recipe comes from a vegetarian cookbook called The Peaceful Palate by Jennifer Raymond. She says it is magic because … Continue reading The Magic Is in the Mix (Recipe with Photos)
Today’s blog post will wrap up our story of the Flat Stanley who came to visit me in Louisville, Kentucky from my great nephew Ben’s house in Glenn Dale, Maryland. If you have not read STAN VIEWS SELF-PUBLISHING UP CLOSE (Part One) or STAN VIEWS SELF-PUBLISHING UP CLOSE (Part Two), you might want to click … Continue reading Stan Views Self-Publishing Up Close (Part Three)
Our Flat Stanley of last week’s blog post is continuing his visit with Nonny in Louisville, Kentucky all the way from Glenn Dale, Maryland. It is the Christmas season which means days and evenings are full of activities. What follows is a continuation of Stan’s journal. If you read last week’s blog post, you are … Continue reading Stan Views Self-Publishing Up Close (Part Two)
Many of you, my blog readers, are aware that I am currently self-publishing my third children’s early reader through Amazon.com. However, there’s a little guy named Stan who witnessed one of my self-publishing endeavors first-hand and up close in my home office many years ago. Actually it was on Christmas Eve in 2008. This Stan … Continue reading Stan Views Self-Publishing Up Close (Part One)
Happy to let you know the Alphabet Excursion & Higgledy-Piggledy E-book is now available. Share? If you have family or friends who are Kindle readers, would you consider sharing this message with them? At no cost they can access the full book, and perhaps it will be a good match for them and the kids … Continue reading Alphabet Excursion & Higgledy-Piggledy for Kindle
If you followed my recent snippet blog post series called Lighthouse Lamps, you know that I presented the Ten commandments from the Holy Bible’s Old Testament as variously translated into English, Spanish, French, and German, primarily in modern versions. I gave a brief foreword to each with the desire to let the translated words speak … Continue reading The Lighthouse that Doesn’t Need a Lamp
Below you'll find a fun version of the new interactive song that's a part of my latest children's book. In this video my sweet grandgals perform the song, with the hand signs (and some giggles!) along with one of my daughters, their mom, accompanying on piano. "Higgledy-Piggledy" is a word you can find in your … Continue reading Fun Times Singing Higgledy-Piggledy (video)
Published! 😃 Dear Nonny's Blog Readers, I am happy to announce that the third book in my Nonny Day Series is now published! The book is called Alphabet Excursion and Higgledy-Piggledy. With its highly unusual and sophisticated rhymes, games, and songs, it is designed to delight pre- and early readers. It is perfect for the … Continue reading My 3rd Children’s Book is Here!
For two and a half weeks in the early nineteen nineties my husband, the Dad Driver, our Pre-Teen Daughter and Daughter’s Best Friend travelled in our over-sized family van to California and back home. Their tent-camping odyssey stretched west from one state or national park to another, beginning in Kentucky. Their second day found them … Continue reading Life is Just a Bowl Full of Cherries
From time to time I’ve watched a few of the PBS episodes called “Storage Wars.” These are about abandoned rental storage units all over the U.S.A. opened up for on-site auction sales of the contents. Whether the unit contains junk or ‘jewels,’ it may represent our desire to acquire more and more. Along with that … Continue reading How Much Stuff Is Enough?
Sir Walter Scott was a Scottish author of novels, plays, and poems. In 1808 he wrote the poem “Marmion: A tale of Flodden Field.” In it he cleverly and skillfully pointed out the risk of telling falsehoods with the couplet: “Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive.” Just as with … Continue reading The Tangled Web We Weave
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