Freeze-Dried Dog – Part One
By Renie Stag Smith
The A-lunch teachers bustled around the rectangular table in the middle of the small, austere teacher’s lounge, jostling for their regular seats while at the same time opening lunch boxes, microwaving leftovers, plopping coins into the vending machines. In between wolfing down bites during the twenty-minute lunch, they caught up on their [...]
4.74 Degrees of Separation
By Renie Stag Smith
Did you ever wonder how obscure you truly are when you are out and about people?
When my children were young, I told them that since we lived in a small town of about 37,000, they had to be very careful about what they did in public, as it would always get back [...]
Planned Obsolescence is All Washed Up
By Renie Stag Smith
The last load of clothes that I had put into the washing machine to cycle through the numerous rotations of wash, rinse, repeat were ready to get plucked out of the drum and dumped into the dryer to finish the weekly, monotonous task of doing the laundry.
But as I reached into [...]
Made in China
By Renie Stag Smith
Made in China. Made in China. Made in China.
No matter the print type, these three words have struck a discordant chord in one of my dear friend’s body. At a recent get-together, she announced that starting January first, she was boycotting anything that she possibly could that was made in China. [...]
Pride in a Job Well Done
By Renie Stag Smith
“You must be very proud every time you see this in the stores!” said one of the smartest eight-year olds I know.
She was talking about our family’s product. We have produced a powdered enchilada sauce since way before I became part of the family and it is sold to grocery stores around [...]
When Sons Grow Up
By Renie Stag Smith
I recently experienced a rite-of-passage dream that most mothers of sons have. Or an alien abduction of epic proportions, I’m not sure which.
I went shopping with my son for his professional clothing, at his insistence!
For those of you who are mothers with sons, you can probably relate. When younger, my son, like [...]
I May Be More Sexist Than I Thought…
By Renie Stag Smith
Sometimes, you just need a man.
As a feminist, I hate to admit that. But after the last two days, I can make a clean breast of it – I needed a man a couple of times.
My eldest daughter, Jenn, and I decided that it was time to get rid of her beige, [...]
Livin’ La Vida Fruitfly
By Renie Stag Smith
I just finished reading a truly funny, yet inspirational, book by Gabe Berman, Live Like a Fruitfly: The Secret You Already Know. I’ve never met Gabe Berman, but I’d like to. I’d like to thank him for telling me what I already knew, but making me listen this time!
The premise of the [...]
New-Fangled Technology
By Renie Stag Smith
The older members of my family have leapt into technology with both feet in the last few weeks.
My mother updated her Facebook status using her new IPad while she was listening to her new Bose stereo system.
My daughter accessed her father’s YouTube account to get his Christmas playlist and they don’t [...]
When Vanity Takes You Adrift
By Renie Stag Smith
We are expecting a snow storm beginning tonight of epic proportions, at least for our area of the nation.
6 – 12 inches of snow possible in the next 24 hours.
While many areas of the country will scoff at this coming apocalypse (“My, that’s just a dusting of the white stuff!” or “Twelve [...]