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In Honor of Anna…Love

Her picture is still on our refrigerator, like it’s been since Anna was a little girl. Watching her grow up on our fridge. In our lives. Each year a little taller, a little slimmer, a little longer hair. The last picture on our refrigerator is from prom 2015. Anna smiling in a white dress, standing beside her older sister, Emily, in her black and white prom dress just days before Anna died. Such beautiful girls, frozen in time, smiling at me when I grab a carton of milk. How did we do a year without Anna? I remember driving to […]

By Paula May 12, 2016

Remembering What’s Important In Life

“Sometimes you just have to return to the river to remember who you are,” my dad said to me this weekend. He’d asked me to go fishing but I told him I couldn’t go. “I’m sorry, I’ve got too much work to do, Daddy,” I said, holding my new book. Don’t ever think your dreams won’t cost you something. They will cost you something. I’m not sure if I like working this hard. I know this sounds bad, but it’s the truth. Adding “author” to all the hats I wear has me dancing like a circus bear. The boys still […]

By Paula May 9, 2016

Launching A Book

It’s launch week and I woke up this morning thinking about the time my grandpa, “Pops,” as we called him, launched his boat without the plug in. We were going fishing, my grandpa, my brother Patrick, and me, and as we headed out into the river, the boat began to sink. “Grab a bucket and get that water out of the boat,” Pops yelled as he turned the boat back to shore. My brother and I bailed like crazy until we were safe on land where Pops put the plug in the boat. On another fishing trip, Pops told my […]

By Paula May 1, 2016

River of Life

These past two weeks, I’ve been editing, and re-editing my book for Amazon. So the normal things I do in our home haven’t been getting done on time and my family is reeling from mommy neglect. So yesterday, we all took a long, deep breath and drove to the river. Just a few miles from our home, the Sacramento flows like a life vein running all the way to the sea. I love this river. She’s ancient and beautiful and can transport me back in time like nothing else can. The mighty sycamore and oaks along her banks tower to […]

By Paula April 25, 2016

Writing by the Seat of Your Pants

Scott calls them my imaginary friends. I talk about my book characters like they’re real people. Doing real things. Learning, loving, sometimes dying. My characters actually make me cry. Or get mad. Or whoop with joy. I know. I’m a nut job, but novel writing is my favorite. Especially the first draft. For me it’s like watching a movie in my head, and I’m just typing along, trying to keep up with a rolling film. In the industry this is called “seat-of-your-pants” writing. I’m not a plotter. I’m a pantser. Writers actually talk this way at conferences. When a bunch […]

By Paula April 18, 2016

Dream With Me

Welcome to my new website, I can’t believe we’re really here. It’s been a long journey. One of my books is almost ready for Amazon so Scott is making me an author’s website! Please bear with us as Scott gets this website finished. This is just the beginning, and we’re learning as we go, but we are excited and wanted to give you a peek of what we’re doing. The book isn’t my memoir. That book is still brewing. And this novel may not interest you guys, but I’d love to have your prayers and thoughts and most of all, I […]

By Paula April 11, 2016

What We Throw Away

I’m embarrassed to write this post, but I’m going to anyway because I think it’s important. It’s about what we throw away. The weekend was warm and our boys wanted to go to a swimming pool. Scott and I were hard at work on the farm. “No pools are open yet,” I told the boys as I walked by pushing a wheelbarrow toward the garden I was planting. “Our pool leaks,” they said. Their pool cost $17 dollars at Walmart last season. “Sorry, you can help your dad and I work some more or you can play in the hose, […]

By Paula April 4, 2016