Written by Cheryl Spieth Gardiner “Connection: the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength…

May 13, 2013 I love social media. Being a person who sees connectivity in everything, social media is like a superweb of being connected, with thin, but strong strands stretching from me to an…

Written May 9, 2013 Delving into grief is a brave thing to do. Sometimes it engulfs us and we have no choice but to sit in the middle of it for however long it…

Written by Jane Valentine I just returned from a memorial service for a friend.   I knew Andy through friends.  I did not know him well personally, but I had a sense of his soul. …

Written May 6, 2013 I was blindsided by grief. I knew it was going to be rough. I just didn’t anticipate the enormity of the loss for me. I know…it’s just a dog, it…

Written April 19, 2013 We often make the mistake of calling the third floor the ‘apartment’. If we don’t catch it ourselves, Joel is quick to do so for us, saying “It’s the attic,…

Written April 18, 2013 This little bedroom looks nice now (pictured above), but it and the adjacent half bath started out life a little rough. Vision came in handy once again. Here’s one before…

Written April 18, 2013 This room and the garage below it was added about 50 years after the house was built. I’m totally making that time frame up. Joel isn’t home and he’s the…

Written April 18, 2013 The Reader’s Digest version is this: two closets became one laundry room. Yep. Here’s one of them. Here’s the other one. (Not the whole room…just that closet with the desk…

Written April 17, 2013 This was the bathroom that we were going to leave alone. Not too bad. Save this project for another day and another budget, right? Then we found out that the…