“I’m ready,” I said, as I stood in Jane’s doorway with a bag of jars. A few weeks earlier, I had given jars of homemade strawberry freezer jam to several neighbors. Jane loved the jam so much that I offered to come over to her house and show her how easy it is to make. I brought empty jars and she had the ingredients ready. “Mmmm! This is delicious!” Jane tasted the jam on her finger and gave some to her son. We had a great time together. This year I invited her over and we made gel candles together … Continue reading The Jam Session

We were very impressed by the handwritten note from a persistent Marine recruiter, Staff Sergeant G. His previous letters were ignored and now he was coming next week to our door to meet our son and try to convince him to sign up with the Marines! Well, Josh is off at college and I wanted to save this man from making an unnecessary trip, so I wrote him an e-mail. I explained that Josh would not be home and continued . . . “Thank you for your dedication and service to our great nation. We appreciate all that the armed … Continue reading Recruiting

The little mountain of coins grew slowly. I was next in line at Big Lots. (Kind of a yard sale under a roof, if you’ve never been there.) The woman in front of me was paying for her $6.57 purchase. . . all in coins. “$1.75, $2.00, . . .,” she began counting again. Both times she was two pennies short. I could see the dilemma on her face as she searched her purse for more money. What was she going to have to leave behind in her precious purchase because she did not have enough? “Here,” I said as … Continue reading It Doesn’t Cost Much