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By Lisa Batten Kunkleman I remember finding the tiny manila envelope, tucked under a blanket in the trunk of your Oldsmobile eighty-eight. When I discovered the black and white military photos inside, I was both shocked and thrilled. Seeing you and your army buddies with a couple of tiny-waisted ladies sporting floral summery dresses, I […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman I saw my shoes by the front door when I left the house for writing class. I thought to myself, Tucker, our sweet grand dog seems to have outgrown his chewing phase. I won’t be gone long. Surely they’ll be fine. Yeah right. I am such a sucker for some big […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman This week, after losing our floppy-eared hound, Single Stare Sadie, our empty nest became extra quiet. Sadie was the life of the party. She could howl like a master coon dog, chase squirrels in complete glee, and pose royally like the queen of our menagerie. I’ll speed through this so I […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman I’m delighted to say, I have neglected my blog lately. Yep, happy because I’ve been busy spending time with those kiddos who fluttered out of the nest. We’ve either visited them or they’ve visited us. It’s been so fantabulous. We’ve gotten our baby bird fix and even learned a few things. […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Following Hurricane Matthew, I wrote about reusing our bathtub filled with emergency, hurricane water to wash our hound dog, Sadie.A Bathtub of Hurricane Prep Water? This year, we filled pots and pitchers with water in preparation for the very devastating Hurricane Florence that hit the Carolinas and Virginia. Not wanting to […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman After seeing our empty-nester treehouse come down last week, many people from all around shared how they felt the pull of childhood fun coming to an end. End? Never! Transform, yes. We live by rules such as Waste not, want not and all kinds of cliches like that. As we will one […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman There comes a time, when the nest is empty, we push back the tears and make room for other things; like hammocks and memories. Today’s the day. Once a sturdy sight for kid’s eyes. Barn red siding, climbing pegs, and a yellow slide, you were a group project and a […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman As a writer and parent, I know the importance of inspiration for new ideas. For me, nature and especially the beach are where my five senses heighten like hair standing up in gooseflesh. Thoughts flow in faster than I can put them into long-term memory. Taking photos helps me […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman An imperfect circle of dead fish littered the beach near the water’s edge. How sad. I asked another morning walker, “Do you think they were discarded by a surf-fisherman who was using them as bait?” He lifted his brows while widening his eyes and said, “Either that or some sharks […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Distracted as usual from my to do list, I spend far too much time on line reading other people’s blogs and enjoying chats with some of those bloggers. Those conversations, often spur me on to write more blog posts, which is a good thing. I figure I should do so […]
