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By Lisa Batten Kunkleman I’ll not make you wait like those infomercials that repeatedly say, “In just a minute, you’ll learn the secret to live forever, have an obedient dog, a perpetually happy toddler, and be the world’s best person. Nope. The secret is…drum roll…have your big shindig, feast, or family reunion on a different […]
If anyone had told me my new best friends would be a bedside potty and a knee scooter, I would’ve said, “No way. My best friends are electricity and running hot and cold water.” I learned to treasure those essential buddies from too many hurricanes and their aftermaths. Now I must add to my list […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Do you ever have one of those days when you finally get the free time and quiet you’ve been craving, only to find you spend so much time deciding what to do first, that nothing gets done? That’s me. Today, I’m in my mother’s lake house, looking out at the glassy […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman I could write all day about our menagerie and explain that Hubs and I usually have three dogs, one cat, and two horses. That number changed when our college kids flew back into our empty nest bearing two more critters. A puppy named Tucker and a kitty named Zor. Let’s just […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Tending a puppy is a reminder of what life is like with toddlers around. Exhausting. Time consuming. Frustrating. Impossible. I’ll try to remember that most dogs do end up house-broken and finish teething. I made it through the toddler-years-times-four, and my kids are all potty trained and no longer bite. […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Families all over the place are experiencing reverse-empty-nest-syndrome. The birdies are flying back in from college with either big plans for work, internships, and trips or perhaps big plans for lying on the couch and playing video games. A summer of recuperation from the rigors of college life, they might […]
What do you call millions of mayflies swooping in and covering your house, boat, cars and ground? Annoying? Ridiculous? I call it a plague. When these two-inch long cousins of the dragonfly swarm in, there’s nothing to do but watch in amazement. They covered our family lake retreat in eastern North Carolina with the speed […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Eureka! Sadie Hound finally went. All day I’d been begging her to go outside and do her business. Her eyeballs had to be floating. Every time the torrential rain slowed down a tad, I tried again. Of course I’m the one who got wet, standing out in the rain trying to […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman I’ve always wanted to be a professional student. If time and money allowed, I’d be signing up to audit all kinds of classes. No tests or projects for grades, thank you. Now that we have an empty nest, how fun it would be to sneak, unseen, into the back of […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Why do women get to experience so much change in life? I’m referring to “The Change.” I’ve long passed the age where I find change fun and exciting. I may have some spontaneity left in this old girl but never knowing when my insides will boil and my face will turn […]
