I come from a long line of letter writers. One folder in my filing cabinets is full of notes that my mom sent me in college. Through the years, my dad has been the Christmas letter composer  Almost always the envelopes include a picture. I have continued this tradition in my family. But I must confess that the older my kids have gotten, the shorter my letters have gotten. Now that we have also had graduates in our family, sometimes an announcement is as good as it gets. I want to keep in touch with those that I care about. But sometimes the process feels overwhelming. Enter Basic Invite ..read more

Back in 1998, we went on a family vacation to Europe to celebrate my brother’s graduation from high school. Buying meaningful souvenirs was important to me. One of the favorite things that I brought home was a pair of blue suede Doc Martens. I loved how those shoes looked with jeans and even wore them with a skirt or two. Sadly, after having four babies, they no longer fit the same. When I passed them along, they still looked as good as new. I trust the brand which is why I am happy to share this sponsored guest post by ShopBop with you. Hopefully you can buy a pair of these quality shoes for ..read more

Knee high by the 4th of July. According to farming folklore, that is the height that corn is supposed to be by now. Considering that our sweet corn is almost as tall as I am, perhaps it is ahead of schedule. Or maybe not. Possibly the saying only applies to field corn. What I do know is that only several miles from our house, corn appears to not have even be planted at all. Hail was not kind to the farmers in our area. But as one my friend’s told me, farmers know that this might happen. Growth does not always go as expected. When I started this blog, nine years ago, I did not know what to exp ..read more

For several years, our family helped out with America’s Great Stories. What I appreciate about this local storytelling ministry is the fact that they bring true stories of history to life through first person portrayals. This year, they created a new video about the Pilgrims.  Below is information directly from their website – it is presented to you with permission.   It’s the 400th Anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims! Celebrate this Historic Occasion (1620-2020) with a Thanksgiving Film PILGRIM WILLIAM BRADFORD’S AMAZING JOUR ..read more

This post about portrait taking is sponsored by Responsival. Portrait Dilemmas My oldest is a senior in high school this year. This reality seems to have crept up on me. Besides all of the scholarship and financial applications that are involved in this year, one other part of being a senior mom seemed rather overwhelming too. Senior pictures. While I was not planning on being on either side of the camera. I did anticipate being involved in picking out locations and the photographer. Plus my husband and I concluded that since we were already hiring someone to take one set of pictures, we may a ..read more

Honoring the military is important. In fact, a week from today, our nation specifically remembers those who served on Veterans Day. But to sculptor, Ellis Luis Burman, he wanted to celebrate the soldier and not war itself. So he took a different approach in designing his Soldiers Memorial. On Sunday April 26th, 1936, in The Nebraska State Journal featured an article entitled “Soldiers’ Memorial Stresses Peace Theme: Artist Burman is Holding Open House Today.” The journalist, John Wintersteen, interviewed Burman on his perspective on the statue. I was getting tired of seeing statues ..read more

I had a great idea. What if I posted a mystery Instagram picture every day then wrote a correlating blog post? If my book had come out during June, this might have worked. But everything (taxes, graduations, detassling, etc.) was pushed into July. I managed to keep up on Instagram, but writing new historical excerpts was certainly much more challenging. I still have several posts to get up, and I have several more that are unfinished. But, hey at least it is a start. I did promise to tell all of you the locations featured in my Instgram.     Mural in the Nebraska Capitol. Former Ne ..read more

1401 “O” Street was once the spot of Luke Lavender’s Cabin. He was one of the early settlers in this town once known as Lancaster. This was before there were really streets. Digging your own well was required.  Luke Lavender was an early judge. His land became a critical part of the new Capital City. But as you will discover if you read A History Lover’s Guide to Lincoln, he may not have been very well liked for awhile. For me, I remember this location as McDonalds. Why this sticks out in my memory so much I am not sure. This was not a place we frequented when I was a child, and I am ..read more

One of Lincoln’s early mayors, Andrew Sawyer, owned one of Lincoln’s first nurseries. As mayor, he and his wife hosted the entire town for their New Year Eve’s parties. Possibly they attended First Presbyterian?  After he passed away, his wife sold their property to that church.  Then the Floral Park ceased to exist. Now it is hard to imagine what this corner looked like when there was a lot of green space. First Presbyterian Church started nearby. But they sold their building and land to build the Cornhusker Hotel. Because their current building was built in the 1920’s, they in ..read more

Starting a Lincoln Library was not an easy task. Collecting books from people who hardly had any to begin with was challenging. And there was a fire or two. They started over multiple times. Mrs. William Jennings Bryan contacted Andrew Carnegie three times to make sure that Lincoln received enough funds to build a Carnegie library befitting its rise as a modern midwestern town. He donated $77,000 toward the project. This would be one of the largest amounts that his foundation contributed toward a library. Eventually Lincoln literally outgrew the beautiful Carnegie library. So they raised funds ..read more