life
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The Power of the Pencil: Embracing Your Inner Writer at Christmas
This is the first year I can remember not sending Christmas cards to everyone by the day after Thanksgiving. In past years, I designed many Christmas cards and had them ready to mail by the time the Advent season began. Not this year. This has become my year of wandering in the desert, waiting for Continue reading
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The Beauty of Hanging Laundry Outdoors Year-Round
Wow, 47-degrees. How could one not take advantage of a day in December with weather warm enough to hang the laundry on the line. Why would anyone do that? There’s something about the smell of nature that cannot be manufactured in a laboratory. You know the smell of the earth warming in the spring, the Continue reading
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Two months to get rid of Wilbur T. Fred
INDY Children began as a way for me to play Jeopardy with my children. I would supply the answers via blog posts, recipes, old photos and stories. You know, categories. When I am gone and they can’t call their mom and ask, “How do you do that?” The answers would be available digitally. Or at Continue reading
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Cherishing Small Town Memories: A Grandmother’s Reflection
APOLOGY: I am so sorry this is late. This is a busy time of year, and I am preparing to do one more market before the freeze, when my attention will turn to cleaning out the gardens. And, I’m so disappointed I cannot find that photo of me as a cheerleader.) Maybe not all of Continue reading
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The Joy of Fall: Homecoming Memories with Cheerleaders
PS: Next week I will post a photo of me as a cheerleader. I don’t have access to it at the moment. I hope I can find it. What wonderful weather comes with the autumnal equinox. Warm sunny afternoons and chill evenings, just right for bonfires. With the changing season comes school. With school, there Continue reading
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Harvesting Memories: A Journey of Resilience
It has been quite a year. Here we are approaching fall, speculating on whether winter will be mild or cold and snowy. The gardens are nearly done producing, and the root cellar has been restocked as the pile of empty jars goes down to nearly nothing. An awesome trade-off. Speaking of trade-offs, I have accomplished Continue reading
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Empowered by Faith
Sometimes I think people don’t understand. Doing things, even those that are outside of my comfort zone, is what keeps me going. It normalizes my life between those dreaded CT scans and brain MRIs. I am not immobilized by my disease; I am empowered by it. Which, on a side note, my next CT scan Continue reading
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The Joy of Watching Grandchildren Grow
There is no greater joy than grandchildren. Somehow, while raising my children, I missed out on observing how a child progresses from non-communication to endless questions and observations. My friend Shelley maintains we are too busy as moms making sure they are fed and cared for to notice the nuances of the toddler stage. Being Continue reading
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The Joy of Watching Grandchildren Grow
The very first personal column I penned for the Mandan News so many years ago was titled “Cleaning up the Little Girl.” My daughter was in middle school. One day, after work, I went to her bedroom and caught her furiously cleaning. She earned some extra cash cleaning houses and seemed to enjoy cleaning our Continue reading
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Small victories and big heartaches
It’s June. I’m celebrating in a small way today. The month of May has passed, and I did not have a single lab, scan, MRI, or doctor’s visit for the first time since December of 2022. In years past, hospitals, clinics, and labs were minor annual blips on the radar of life. Doctor’s visits were Continue reading
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Celebrating Small Victories
Again, with Tom Petty (he’s a heartbreaker) and the lyrics to another song he produced —Sure as night will follow dayMost things I worry ‘boutNever happen anyway The song “Crawling Back To You,” was probably not written about crawling back to Jesus, but somehow the lyrics could easily mean whomever you trust to be there Continue reading
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Finding Sunshine
It seems winter has returned to our area bringing colder weather and the potential for snow. We sure could use the moisture. The cold, I am not so certain, has agreed with me this winter. I asked JC never to go south in the winter and play cards on picnic tables while golf carts buzz Continue reading
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A Year of Healing: Birthday Reflections After Cancer
March is a month of birthdays in our family. Growing up, my dad did not acknowledge birthdays. When the subject was broached, his answer was, “It’s just another day.” There were no huge birthday parties growing up. No mountains of gifts, and no grandparents in attendance, but we did get birthday cake, I think. When Continue reading
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A time of German-Russian purgatory
When man plans, God laughs. It’s been eight days since my hospital stay. Eight days of German-Russian purgatory. For anyone joining me on this cancer journey, I recently posted my long list of commitments for the year, trusting I would be well enough to follow through. I was feeling so normal I filled my calendar Continue reading
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Finding Peace in the Cold: A Personal Health Journey
Creeeaaaaaccccckkkk. My heart skipped a beat at the sound of an unfamiliar crack. A very loud noise. The house at last surrendered to the weight of the cold that blew in overnight. It settled over the area like a weighted blanket. Below zero kind of cold creates a hush. It was quiet, as if Continue reading
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Christmas: Past, Presence, the Future
Christmas Past Two years have passed since December 2022 and the cough that changed my life. Forever. My darling granddaughter, Audenia, was born on December 30. I went to see her, came back, saw my doctor, and by January 2023 began a journey that I didn’t expect to last this long. Yet, here I am, living in three-month increments with lung cancer. Continue reading
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A Kaseman Carol: A Family Christmas Reflection
A few years back instead of sending a regular Christmas card to my family, I wrote a short story and created a Christmas Card booklet. I think it was before the advent of Shutterfly and Blurb because I printed, folded, and stapled a cover on it myself. It’s not a New York Times bestseller, but Continue reading
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Cancer changes everything. No. Cancer changes me
My mother’s health began to fail at the age of 80. I began to spend as much time as possible with my parents by stopping at their home in Jamestown while taking road trips for my job. My brother lived in the same community and this gave us the opportunity to connect weekly, if not Continue reading
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Overcoming Cancer Doubts: A Journey of Faith and Reminders
Some days I feel so normal, whatever that means. Some days there are moments I can forget I have cancer. My body seems to be working just fine. I can make it through the day without napping every hour. I can weed for hours on my hands and knees on a beautiful August morning. I Continue reading
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50th Class Reunion: Rediscovering Memories
As a journalist, I had the privilege of interviewing many people for newspaper articles and the two books I wrote about Germans from Russia. Most interviewees begin by saying, “I have nothing to say that anyone would want to listen to.” By the end of the interview, they would say, “Thank you so much for Continue reading
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The Threadbare Bunny
I wanted to do something for Easter for my grandchildren so they would remember me when I am gone. So I gathered up the courage to cut up a quilt my grandmother made for me and stitched five bunnies. Then I wrote a story explaining the quilt turned bunny and printed a little book with Continue reading
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My new normal
When I saw my doctor last week, I said, “I know my life will never be the way it was before this all started. So I have to find a new life.” However, I didn’t expect this second round of dis-ease to feel like I was pregnant with an alien baby, or worse Rosemary’s. But, Continue reading
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Coming out
By now, you may have heard the news about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s cancer. There was quite a hullabaloo regarding the fact he hadn’t disclosed any information about his cancer before his recent hospitalization. Granted, I am not a VIP, and my cancer did not make headlines, but I know why he did what he Continue reading
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Tying up loose ends
While you might be waiting for the end of treatment post with bated breath, I’m side-tracking a bit this week. Somewhere between the end of the farmer market season in 2022 and the 2023 cancer diagnosis, I took on a project I have been meaning to attempt for some years now — collect the Kaseman Continue reading
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Week two treatment – Happy Birthday to me
The second week of treatment was pretty much the same as week one. Everyone at the cancer center was so nice. I told someone I knew why people went to the doctor as often as they did because they were treated with such tenderness. It might have felt like love.The staff also knew we were Continue reading
About Me
I love to write. My background is graphic arts and journalism. My roots are German-Russian from McIntosh County, North Dakota.
My time is spent reading, writing, gardening, cooking, blogging, fiber arts – you name it, we try it.
INDYchildrendotme 