Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is right behind! We had a houseful of company all last week and a table full on Thanksgiving Day, something for which I am very grateful. Our grandkids are teens and will all be out of high school in less than two years. Having everyone together is a blessing. We had a wonderful time preparing a turkey feast, watching KPop Demon Hunters (who knew?), and playing games.

I missed posting anything on Substack last week because my husband and I made a trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit friends and to hold a book event for my latest book, Subject to Change: Teaching and Learning from Teen Moms. I spent the days prior to the trip obsessing over what to bring and which passages to read from the book.

These are dark and uncertain times. I’m often overwhelmed by news of yet another deliberate cruelty or falsehood presented as fact by the current administration. I sometimes feel there is little I can do to effect change and a return to what I’ve always thought were basic American values: honesty, empathy, and care for each other. I’ve found an excellent way to combat my discouragement by focusing on extending kindness to other people.

A couple of months ago, I checked out two books on weaving from my local library. I was inspired by the lovely items a good friend of mine created and gifted to me over the past couple of years. I’m well-seasoned in the crafts of crochet and sewing and have boxes of fabric and yarn scraps already. It seemed weaving would not only use what I already have, but also be calming, meditative even.

Life is full of incidents that teach humility, and I’ve met quite a lot of them. Being the kind of person who charges ahead with my own agenda, led by an innate curiosity and dogged determination, I often get smacked upside the head with the facts. Sometimes things are just harder than I expect; sometimes I’m not as well-equipped as I’d like to be.

Who pays most when climate change is ignored?

We naturally rally to cries of “Save Democracy,” “Protect Our Rights,” and so on.

I once read an article advocating a minimum age requirement for getting a tattoo by comparing body art to a drunken climb up a water tower with a can of spray paint. “At seventeen, you might think it will impress your girlfriend to scrawl her name inside a heart where everyone driving by can enjoy it,” he said. It might demonstrate you’re brave enough to thwart your city’s ordinance against such shenanigans.

Today is the day! My second memoir, Subject to Change, is officially released! It’s been a frustrating, surprising, and rewarding journey. I’m both older and wiser, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. The process of creating Subject to Change wasn’t unlike the adventure it describes: changing my career direction at age 55 to become a science teacher for pregnant and parenting teen girls.

I have a love-hate relationship with PT. Many years ago, I went through two series of sessions for frozen shoulder—once in each shoulder. Those resolved completely, and I was sold on the benefits of PT. A couple of years later, I did several weeks of PT exercises for Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) pain. Let me just say, jaw exercises are weird. Once an MRI was ordered and the results were in, it became clear why the exercises hadn’t worked.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a truck ministry that provides meals to my homeless neighbors in the Austin, Texas area. But the truck ministry is not the only program ML&F administers. The neighbors who are fed from the food truck are often homeless due to temporary situations. They may suffer from mental illnesses.

Science and technology innovation in the past several decades has provided marvelous improvements to our daily lives, including medicines that cure diseases, vaccines that prevent them, and technology...

In the past few weeks, I’ve been doing deep dives into organizations that I support politically and those I support that do good in my community. This week I want to focus on the Truth Brigade (TB) and why its mission is important. I’ve already written a post about “Truth Sandwiches” where I describe TB’s strategy for correcting misinformation via truth sandwiches.

Feeding the hungry

Since 2019, my husband and I have spent several hours on most first Sundays of the month with a group of volunteers making twelve dozen sandwiches—PB&J and turkey and cheese—to serve hungry and disadvantaged folks in Austin, Texas. Once sandwiches are made and individually bagged, the Mobile Loaves & Fishes (MLF) team loads up a food truck with sandwiches, chips, cookies, fresh fruit, boiled eggs, and water, along with donated clothing and brand-new socks.

Indivisible is a grassroots organization of thousands of volunteer leaders and millions of members across the country formed to protect our democracy against authoritarianism. Members resist the current administration’s overreach of power and other actions that threaten citizens’ civil rights, while supporting progressive policies and progressive leaders. Their primary strategy is to empower ordinary people to take political action. Founded in late 2016 by former congressional staffers, the organization grew out of a simple online guide explaining how citizens could effectively influence their members of Congress.

I’m an avid reader. There’s no better way to spend an evening, in my opinion, than getting lost in a good book. I was lucky, though; I was read to as a young child. Not all children have that experience, and not all children develop a love of reading. Unfortunately, this has an impact on their future academic success. Because I recognize the importance of reading well for a child’s future, I volunteered to become a Literacy Partner—a reading buddy—with children who struggle to read, hoping to instill in them a love of books.

It was clear within weeks of the 2025 inauguration that there would be frequent and numerous attempts by the new administration to test the limits of the law and the powers of the president. The American Civil Liberties Union was prepared. When Project 2025 became public in 2022, the ACLU sprang into action. They began preparing legal actions to fight unlawful plans outlined in the document.

No one can do everything, but we can each do something

I’m not an activist. I was too young to demonstrate during the sexual revolution or civil rights and Vietnam protests of the 60s. By 1971, at the height of second-wave feminism, I was married and had a child. I applauded the women’s movement victories but had no time for protests. Frankly, I had no time for much of anything besides my job and caring for a baby and a new household.

There are three little words that everyone knows are the sweetest to hear from those we love, but last week I heard four of the most satisfying words I’ve heard in a while. In a note from my editor to the publisher at Lived Places Publishing: “this manuscript is approved.” Less than 48 hours after I submitted the complete, revised draft, and ahead of schedule!

To correct untruths

The Central Texas flooding on Friday has been devastating to dozens of families, and I have watched with horror as the death count rises. From the pictures I’ve seen of the mountains of debris that litter the banks of numerous rivers near me, I know it will be some time before the missing are accounted for. Some may never be found, as debris and bodies wash down to area lakes.