by Marlene Bumgarner | Dec 21, 2023 | Aging, Child development, Christmas in Yorkshire, Cooking and Eating, Family, Grandparenting
Mom’s Christmas Pudding My favorite holiday tradition would have to be baking for Christmas. My mother would come home from church one Sunday and announce – “Right! it’s time to make Christmas Pudding.” I didn’t know for many years how my mother received...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Oct 20, 2022 | Aging, Child development, Community, Cooking and Eating, Family, Grandparenting
Pumpkin Patch Traditions Long-time readers know that when I lived in Santa Cruz my oldest granddaughter and I enjoyed visiting a pumpkin patch each October. As the years passed, I watched little Bean progress in her relationship with the pumpkins. At first, she just...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Sep 16, 2022 | Aging, Australia, Child development, England, Family
God Save the Queen Standing by the railway tracks in 1954, waving an Australian flag, I began a fascination with the Queen that would last my entire life. My schoolmates and I had been let off school to greet Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip as they embarked on a...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Aug 22, 2022 | Books, Child development, Good Reads, Writing
Why Should We Read Classic Books? I have recently learned why I love great literature, and why we should read more classic books. Classics are timeless. Classic fiction contains thought-provoking situations that present its characters with sociological and...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Jun 25, 2022 | Aging, Child development, Family, Grandparenting
Saying Goodbye to my Granddaughter One might ask – what is there to grieve about? No one has died. No one is even sick – this week – thank heavens. No one has abandoned me. But I’m grieving just the same. My daily care of baby Brighton, my...
by Marlene Bumgarner | Mar 27, 2022 | Aging, Child development, Community, Family, Grandparenting
A New Grandchild My first thought when my oldest daughter told me she was expecting my first grandchild was “at last!” I was sixty-four years old, with four adult children more focused on their careers than on starting families. Most of my friends were already...