Little Miss Fired-Up
So, when will your reflection show who you are inside? It’s up to you. I remember when the movie Mulan was popular. There was a song the main character sang that made my heart sing too. When will my reflection show who I am inside? I was so taken with the lyrics that I made my children listen to that song repeatedly. Many times it takes years before your inside catches up with your outside. Now, here is why this was so important to me. My parents placed me in the “C” section when I was in the first grade. There are sayings that might possibly describe their decision: the […]
Six Steps to Simple Home Cooking
The closure of restaurants and the stay-at-home orders that were enacted during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis have magnified the fact that many households are not cooking for themselves. Many families were eating takeout and convenience meals for the most part. In some cases they didn’t know how to cook, but in other cases it was because of excessive busy-ness. Some people have used this forced time at home as an opportunity to do more cooking from scratch. I was a typical full-time working mother until twelve years ago. Breakfast was usually boxed cereal with milk. My normal lunch was a frozen Lean Cuisine meal with a Diet Coke. I sometimes […]
I’ll Die When I’m Done: Until Then I Live!
Around Father’s Day each year, I take some time to reflect deeply. It was in the early morning hours of Father’s Day thirteen years ago that I stood by as my father took his last breath and passed away. And while it still makes me have a quiet cry when I think deeply about it, it is not a cry of sadness. It is the cry of deep gratitude. I tell many “dad stories” these days, not because he was a model father or the perfect daddy. I tell them because of a gift he gave me, a gift so overflowing that I can share it deeply and freely with […]
Raising Bunnies
Happy Bunny Breeding! “By working with the rabbits we raise on campus, the students learn responsibility and the skills required to care for animals,” says Glenn Stevens, Agricultural Education teacher at Belton Middle School in Belton, South Carolina. Stevens and his students welcomed two new litters of adorable bunnies to the school 7 weeks ago and again 3 weeks ago. So far this year, Stevens and his students have raised around 60 young rabbits. Stevens teaches Agricultural Education to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Subjects range from animal science, basic horticulture, and agricultural tool identification to wildlife management, forestry, and hunter safety. There is also a school greenhouse where the […]
To Tell the Truth
When I decide which subject I will write about, the decision is made usually after talking to a client. At that point, I sit down and talk to my computer as if you were sitting across from me. Welcome to my office. Horse owners have been led to believe that there is a magical feed or supplement out there that can work wonders on its own. There are some that can perform solely due to the “quality” of the ingredients. As I have always said, we can eat mac and cheese three times a day and still get through the day, but we will tire more quickly, our skin and […]
Beyond the Barricade | SRS Ties That Shaped Our Community | Part 7
When Tambra Wilkerson graduated with a degree in electronic engineering, she never imagined she would start a nonprofit and don boxing gloves on a regular basis in Aiken, South Carolina. It is plain and simple — Tambra Wilkerson is a fighter. Although she came to the area to support an important Savannah River Site (SRS) mission, she realized a calling in her heart to help others in a unique way. Now, she spends her days fighting to improve the lives of individuals who have a debilitating disease such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or multiple sclerosis, and the results of her program have garnered attention. Individuals who are living with these diseases, […]
