Michelle Martin

April 10, 2025

Stuff and nonsense

Every time I leave a place, I take a moment to look around. It’s a habit I first developed when my children were small. We’d go out to breakfast, and when we got up to leave the table, I’d let my husband go ahead with the kids and I’d look over the table, searching among the empty plates and crumpled napkins for stray sippy cups, left-behind coloring books, baby blankets, mittens and hats. You name it, it got left behind.

March 19, 2025

Going back in time

I did something today I hadn’t done for maybe 20 years. I donated blood.

March 06, 2025

Giving thanks for what?

Our youngest daughter was a little disconcerted a couple of weeks ago when her high school musical finished its four-day run.

February 19, 2025

Coat closet

Like most Midwesterners I know, I have multiple winter coats. A wardrobe of coats, even.

February 05, 2025

Take your temperature

Water is life. So says Scripture, and so say scientists who are working to make sure there is enough clean water to support human life on Earth.

January 22, 2025

Telephone

I know I’m dating myself here, but when I was a very young aspiring reporter, one of the lessons mentors and teachers tried to impart was how to make sure you could find a pay phone if you were out covering a breaking story.

January 08, 2025

Make room for something new

I spent a good chunk of an afternoon recently replacing the flapper and fill valve on the toilet in our bathroom.

December 11, 2024

Wait for it

I can’t believe I’m feeling nostalgic for TV. I mean the TV of the past, when shows aired on a schedule. A schedule that you could look up each day in a newspaper, or in the little booklet that came in the Sunday paper, or, if you didn’t read a newspaper or just wanted a lot of information about television, the TV Guide, a separate weekly magazine.

November 26, 2024

On fire with hope

What are your best Advent memories? You’ve got some, right? Maybe it was that time your family lit the candles on the Advent wreath at Mass. Or the time you put up a Jesse tree. No, not a Christmas tree. Not during Advent.

November 13, 2024

There and back again

I think it’s time for me to reread “The Lord of the Rings.” Colder weather and darker days always seem to fit with Tolkien, and the books take me back to a simpler time, when my brother and I would try to one-up each other with Middle Earth lore (read: trivia) in the back seat.
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