Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all who participated in the 2025 Holiday Wishes Christmas Quilt! A BIG shout of Congratulations to Mary Jean McCarthy for winning this special quilt for her and her family! Here are the facts: We had 631 names (chances) on the Wheel of Names - Wooohooo! We collectively raised $2200, with Bill and me matching the first $500 - YAY!!! We will donate the money to these organizations: Just Tryan It , which provides financial assistance to fami

Hello! I am psyched about this year's raffle quilt and collectively helping a few families like mine during this festive season. However, as I wrote in The Focused Fight: A Childhood Cancer Journey: From Mayhem to Miracles , this time of year was pure mayhem on several occasions. A lot of it had to do with Santa finding Olivia and Ryan while we were hospitalized. I'm hoping that with the funds collected, we will be able to help with outstanding medical bills, a car note or re

Today's birthday with twins Bill and Don Tomoff is that "funny" one in today's vernacular: 67. They are both doing their things in different states, but I'm sure they will be on the horn a few times today, laughing and sharing the usual stuff they talk about daily (they are right now as I type this post). For us here, we celebrated a week ago by going to one of our favorite restaurants in WDC, Founding Farmers, for their delicious brunch. The celebrations included Ryan's Bon

Is it me, or has 2025 rolled by faster then the end of a toilet paper roll? With all the thankfulness this past week, I hope the holiday was spent with loved ones and friends and everyone got to, and home, from their destinations. Hosting 15 people (2 babies) for 48 hours was fast, furious, and super fun 🤩. Not a minute wasted while playing pickleball, being touristy at the Baltimore Aquarium, sipping a beer at the Guinness Brewery, and playing fierce competition in cards an

If you are reading this today, THANK YOU! I’m so grateful to you, my readers, who have stuck around through the good, crazy, and wild musings throughout the year. Here’s wishing you all, a wonderful holiday season staring now. (But wasn’t Halloween the start of it? Or was that the start of the sweets?). To those traveling this weekend and into to December, please be safe on the roads. Give grace and agency to the faster drivers, let them “all” cut in if they want to, you will

My hope for all my readers is to have a fun and safe Thanksgiving holiday weekend! We are hosting 15 loved ones who are traveling to Crofton on Friday. We have an ambitious agenda that involves food, pickleball, sightseeing, and more. Thankfully, I'm thrilled we are hosting, as we've done for almost 29 years. Since we are living away from our families in Ohio, it is always grand to have our gang under our roof, even when Ryan was hospitalized for several years all those years

Today is not only the reveal of the Christmas Raffle Quilt 2025, but the start of selling chances for the next TWO WEEKS! Based on last year's feedback, extending it by an earlier start date and another week to extend the chances sounded good to me, so here we go! So, as the year winds down, my heart fills up. NeedleOnFull has been in full swing with T-shirt Quilts and, of course, a holiday-themed quilt to raffle off for families facing financial strain due to a newly diagnos

My friend, Diane, an economist and author of Your Shopping Superpower , has released a guide on how to choose gifts that are people and planet-friendly. This may not be for everyone, but her research is too compelling not to share her findings. She writes: Hello friend! I put together this holiday shopping guide to help you keep the holidays more joyful and less stressful. When it’s time to choose holiday gifts that are good for people and the planet, this guide will save you

One Week at 64 and I’m All Nostalgic..Ha! When hubby Bill shared an article titled “Be Mentally Attractive” by Dr. Chandrasekhar Bode , a 90-year-old physician, teacher, and lifelong student of humanity, I knew I had to share it with my daily writing group in Purple Space and on my blog. I already made a copy to accompany Chris Larson’s Optimist Creed pinned up by my sink, so I can read it while brushing my teeth each morning. It’s a good reminder of who, what, and why we

As Bill and I headed to Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, for the Special Love Parents Getaway Weekend this past Friday, we were filled with anticipation about how this program has vastly grown (awestruck may be more like it!). We’re proud to be among the founding members of this essential and highly needed program, which dates back to the late 1990s. What began as a small, parent-led idea—because shouldn’t parents get to run away to camp too (but in a nice hotel?)—has blossomed into