Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society. We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago.

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.

Friends are "annuals" that need seasonal nurturing to bear blossoms. Family is a "perennial" that comes up year after year, enduring the droughts of absence and neglect. There's a place in the garden for both of them.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'.

I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.

There's something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she's only measured water in it.