Welcome 2021

I’m struggling to end 2020 on a positive note. Are you? I am so ready to welcome 2021. I shall not burden you with my challenges, as I’m sure you have plenty of your own. However, as we close the calendar on 2020, I am discouraged, disappointed, and fighting to head off depression. I’ve been there before. It’s not a place I care to revisit so I fight against it with a variety of tools. […]

#ListenLearnLove: Whose Land of the Free?

My summer 2020 blogs come from a variety of people commenting on the theme #ListenLearnLove. Today’s guest blog is from Phoebe Morad, the Executive Director of Lutherans Restoring Creation and a woman whose voice is worthy of a broad audience. Thank you, Phoebe for this blog and your important work.  As we head into a Fourth of July holiday, in the midst of a pandemic that precludes our usual celebrations, this is a good year […]

Karen Haueisen Crissinger

Moms-Who-Write – Karen Haueisen Crissinger

In honor of May and Mother’s Day, I’m posting a series of guest blogs about Moms-Who-Write. This first one is by one of my daughters, who appears to have survived being raised by a writing mama. Cowboy Boots by Karen Haueisen Crissinger My first memory of mom-as-writer was sitting in her lap while she changed the goofball to italics. That was the day I learned the value of taking a minute to set aside work and […]

plastic pollution

Avoiding Single-use Plastic for One Day

Christians around the world often give up something for Lent. This year, several folks suggested we give up plastic. Great idea! Photos of floating piles of plastic in our oceans, combined with stories of dead animals with stomachs filled with plastic debris, were huge motivators for this environmental-protection enthusiast. I decided to try a day without plastic. The first order of business – brush my teeth. My toothbrush is plastic, but I use it twice […]

Tassie Types

My Writing Story – Tassie Types

January is Share Your Writing Story Month at HowWiseThen Tassie Hewitt and I met at a critique group. I hope my laughing at her writing has been part of her inspiration. Tassie Types – The Story of My Writing Life For most of my life I’ve been a closet writer, hiding my thoughts and feelings in private notebooks.  My mother bought me my first diary when I was in elementary school, complete with a lock […]