WELCOME!

Some encouraging things I've seen happen during the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic make me hope our society will never return exactly to the way things were before. Specifically, I've watched churches, neighborhoods, and families reach beyond themselves to give and help others in ways that we don't normally see during prosperous, healthy times. It's been a true blessing for me to watch these sacrificial acts of giving, and a challenge for me to consider how I can do so too. In 2016 and 2017, I felt the compulsion to go on an extravagant giving adventure, and the experience changed my life. During that time period, I gave away all of my income, and I recorded the journey in a book I titled "Riskin

Today, after nearly 47 years of working at the same place, my husband, Bob, retires. When he started working, the summer after his 1973 high school graduation, the place was called Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. Today it has been renamed ConAgra Foods. It has seen so many changes over the years. We've planned for this day for years, saved for it, dreamed of what retirement will be like, and counted down the workdays throughout the entire last year. To celebrate, we were booked on a flight tonight for Amsterdam, embarking from there on a river cruise through Belgium, Holland, and the Netherlands. We had to postpone until next year. Because of the coronavirus, I cannot even take the hubby out for a steak di

I've been dreaming of beach vacations and trips up into the mountains a lot lately. No doubt, because the Coronavirus stay-at-home restrictions tell me I can't go right now, I want to go more than ever. I remember the first time I saw the Atlantic Ocean. My parents took my two brothers and me on a little vacation to Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. As we pulled into town and turned onto the correct road, we drove parallel to the ocean. When we found our motel and turned into the parking lot, all of a sudden our view to the ocean opened up. It's hard to forget the vast immensity of it, even now, decades later. I also have fond recollections of many family trips up into the mountains. As we'd leave