By Joe Shouse

Last week I read that Pauline Phillips died. You might be thinking, who in the world is Pauline Phillips? And no, she isn’t the girlfriend, wife or mother of last year’s American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. This Phillips, you do know, or at least you have heard her name. Pauline made her living giving advice (her opinion) to many different people on every subject under the sun. She actually went by another name, that being Abigail Van Buren. Now, if that doesn’t help, then maybe you will remember her by another name: “Dear Abby.”

She was the original Dear Abby who lived to be 94 and married to her husband for 73 years. She gave her opinion in some 1,200 newspapers that was read by 9 million readers.

By Mary Beth Weisenburger

Honorary degree

Anyone who has college-aged children knows that their education does not come cheap. Our well-intentioned idea 21 years ago to have our children close together so they could be good friends resulted in two children in college at the same time today, doubling the attack on our pocketbooks. But take heart, college moms and dads: I’m here to tell you that your investment in your child’s future will pay off not just for them, but for you too, long before graduation day. They will be able to offer you invaluable pearls of wisdom that were gained through the experience of living on their own, being immersed in a culturally diverse environment and having unfettered access to the hallowed halls of academia.

By Kylee Baumle

Holidays are over, real winter has set in and it doesn’t take long before I tire of it. I look wistfully through my pictures of the garden that were taken in warmer days, at the daffodils, the irises, the Black-eyed Susans. I remember how the sun felt on my face and how I would shut my eyes and attempt to commit that feeling to memory, so that I could conjure it up on the coldest days of the winter season yet to come.

It doesn’t work (it never does) but I will keep doing it, hoping one day I really can feel the stored memory. Hope springs eternal. Now if spring would just do the same! But, there are other winter-defying tricks I’ve got up my sleeve.

By Nancy Whitaker

A PENNY IN MY HAT

I never cease to be amazed at myself and some of the things that seem to happen to me. I am sure we all have experienced some of life’s silly and embarrassing moments, but there some that I wonder about and if they ever happen to anyone else.

Two of the latest episodes that happened to me had to do with finding a penny and finding my way.

My mama loved pennies, counted pennies, saved pennies, played with pennies and hid pennies for others to find.

By Kylee Baumle

Oh, we love our traditions, weather folklore, and old wives’ tales, don’t we? The woolly worms have predicted a cold winter (aren’t they all?) as long as you encountered the right kind of caterpillar. We’re heading into the down side of January and we just experienced the “January thaw.”

Just what is that anyway? Is it real or just another one of those folklore things? Do things really thaw out?

Yes, Virginia, there is a January thaw. And yes, some things do thaw out. Towards the end of January, the temperatures warm up enough to melt snow and the top layer of ground thaws sufficiently enough to make things a little slushy and muddy. You start thinking that maybe spring will be early this year, but then you remember how much of a tease Old Man Winter can be.

By Jim Langham

Ironically, this year, the church celebration of the Feast of Epiphany actually fell on a Sunday that represents the date, Jan. 6. For many around the world, the concept of "Epiphany" adds a depth to Christmas that many of us in the United States don't fully experience.

In many places, Christmas would have just ended on Jan. 6, following a 12-day celebration that actually began on Dec. 25, known as the, "first day of Christmas." What we have come to know as, "Christmas Day," has been celebrated in many places as the initiation of a 12-day celebration of Christmas, which culminates with the opening of gifts on Jan. 6.

By Nancy Whitaker

AM I AN ANTIQUE?

Isn’t it funny when we look back at the past and say, “Those were the best times of my life.” Without telling my age, I will say when I go back to the late ’50s and early ’60s, I think of that era as the best times of my life and they are my “good old days.”

Life seemed like it moved at a much slower pace or did it seem that way because I was younger?

I remember playing with books which had cut-out paper dolls and clothes in them. I would cut out the clothes and fold the tabs around the neck and dress the paper doll. I made doll houses out of cardboard boxes and lived in a world of “pretend.”

By Nancy Whitaker

EAT WHAT YOU WANT

I just watched a commentator on television give some of the best (or worst) advice I have ever heard. I cannot speak for anyone else, but what he said made some sense.

He gave all the reasons not to eat healthy and he said that overweight people are happier and live longer than those who are thinner.

With the new year in full swing, I wonder how many made a resolution to eat healthier, lose weight and exercise?

I am the first to admit I usually make resolutions and then find it hard to keep them. I enjoy cooking and baking and of course I just have to try out my cake or cookies when I make them. Why? Because I like cookies and they makes me happy.

Christmas is over, New Year’s too, and never mind that it’s currently 28 degrees and we’ve got a thick blanket of snow on the ground. The seed catalogs have started arriving and it’s time to garden! Yes, NOW!

It’s called winter sowing and I’ve done it for many years with good results. All you need are the right seeds, some translucent plastic gallon-sized milk jugs, seed starting soil and some duct tape.

When I say the right seeds, I mean anything that self-seeds naturally or seeds that require stratification or scarification. Those “s” words sound important and they are when it comes to seed germination. Some kinds of seeds need help in order for them to break free of their hard seed coats and start growing.

By Mary Beth Weisenberger

I just returned from a shopping trip with my husband. Let me tell you, I’d rather stick a thousand needles in my eye than go shopping, especially with my husband, and he would rather do the same. But the recent Christmas season, and our busy schedules (aka our proclivity to procrastinate) compelled us to grab our coupons and sales flyers, gas up the van, put our names on the church’s prayer list and take off together for the Great American Mall Adventure.

Let it be known that I am not the stereotypical female shopper. I do not shop recreationally. When my girlfriends and I find ourselves at a mall, I usually end up in a nearby bookstore, reading (and possibly napping) in a corner chair with a stack of potential buys in my lap.

While I do love a bargain, and I enjoy finding the perfect gift for someone, I am basically a random, drive-by shopper who puts very little planning into my efforts. Long forays in stores make me go weak in the knees and cause my patience levels to drop to nonexistent. It’s too much stimuli for someone so scatterbrained, I just can’t focus.