I love, love, love, love, love when people share their stories with me.  You know how much I love it?  I LOVE IT.  Love it.  Love. Back in January, I received an email from a wonderful woman named Brenda Jo Gillund.  The message read, in part (and I have her permission to print this; don’t be afraid to email me because you think I’m going to immediately turn around and scatter it to the universe): “I made something for my husband on our honeymoon. My mom always called it “dump cake”: One Jiffy yellow cake mix, one 12 oz package frozen strawberries with juice, one stick ..read more

Thank you to the wonderful people who work for and watch North Dakota Today – it was a windy morning to talk about a Watford City quilting group spreading good cheer (and warmth!) around the community and a free program in the Fargo area for people seeking a bit more inner peace. To learn more about Meditation Around Town, click here. And a bit more from the First Lutheran Quilters, in their own words: Per Lutheran World Relief recommendations, the quilts are usually 60” wide and 80” long. Some ladies assemble tops at home. At the church, these tops are put together with a back and a middle, t ..read more

A stack of months ago, my little sister, Erica, texted me from her home in North Carolina, “Should we surprise Mom for her birthday?  I will fly in and you can drive up.”  I texted back, “YES,” and then immediately panic-thought, “Crapper crapstick,” because, while I have a lot of great qualities, surprise-keeping is not one of them. I have a friend named Kelly with either an eidetic memory or a photographic memory – I can’t remember which is correct – who can rattle off everything from movie quotes to specific, detailed historical facts with an instantaneous flip of the switches in ..read more

As you know, Kyle and I fell in love in a mass of people at a World Juniors hockey game when he asked me, “So, do you like stuff?”  I liked stuff then and I like stuff now.  Here are a few of my favorite stuffs from the past few days: Soup My older son played in a hockey tournament in Winnipeg this past weekend, and my eight-year-old – who had two birthday parties on Saturday in Grand Forks and was sick and tired of being a good sport at these tournaments – absolutely did not want to go.  On Tuesday, I sent my parents a sheepish email asking if they would drop everything in thei ..read more

Thank you to the wonderful people who work for and watch North Dakota Today – it was a lovely morning to talk about a great group of seniors who are inviting you to play their dice game and an update on the hard work of everyone who helped Feed My Starving Children. If you want to learn more about Burleigh County’s senior programs, click here. And if you want to donate to Feed My Starving Children for their FargoPack next year, click here. I hope you enjoy this week’s North Dakota Today segment, which you can watch by clicking the image below. Have a wonderful week! Are we newsletter friends ..read more

Let’s start off with getting everyone on the same page: Snapchat is a phone app in which a person takes a photo, called a Snap, and shares it with one or more of their friends.  What makes Snapchat attractive to its users – teenagers are 1/5 of its audience – is that Snapchat is much more private than any other social media platform.  Snaps disappear immediately after viewing, and comments are seen only by the individual or group recipient.  For my 12-year-old and his friends, this means that they only use text messaging when communicating with their Olds (the vast majority of m ..read more

Thank you to the fantastic people who work for and watch North Dakota Today – it was a beautiful morning to talk about a “baby shower” for expectant mothers in Western North Dakota and a chance for boys and girls to take a spin around the rink. If you want to learn more about Bundle Up Your Baby Bump, click here or read this: And if you want to check out Try Hockey for Free, click here or read this: I hope you enjoy this week’s North Dakota Today segment, which you can watch by clicking the image below. Have a wonderful week! Are we newsletter friends yet? Sign up for the weekly North Dako ..read more

It’s spring.  IT’SSSSSSSPRINGGGGG!!  Calendric spring and what we’d consider actual spring in North Dakota don’t often intersect because our nice weather doesn’t typically start until, uh, June – but as I type this the birds are chirping, the trees are budding, and Kyle has stopped thinking about his backyard rink and has started thinking about The Official Kyle Kosior Drink of the Summer. Somewhere around the time he started saying things like, “Yes, I just swept out the garage but it needs sweeping again” and “Check out this sweet deal on this golf cart,” Kyle also determined that ..read more

Thank you to the wonderful people who work for and watch North Dakota Today – it was a Happy Eclipse Day to talk about an adventure to all 14 North Dakota state parks and a new-ish non-profit helping survivors of violence claim their dignity. If you want to join Women Who Explore: North Dakota on one of their next excursions, click here. And if you want to help Project Dignity fulfill their Amazon Wish List, click here – or if you are interested in attending their upcoming fundraiser, click here. I hope you enjoy this week’s North Dakota Today segment, which you can watch by clicking the image ..read more

Late last year, Warner Brothers released Wonka, a reimagined prequel to the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Timothee Chalamet as a bright-eyed upstart young candy maker who dreams only of coating the world in delicious, perfect chocolate.  Earlier this month, my 8-year-old walked into the movie theater for a showing of Wonka and came out a changed man.  Specifically, he had changed from a normal (or “normal,” as Eight very much marches to the beat of his own drum) kid into the real-life human embodiment of Willy Wonka – if Willy Wonka was in the 3rd grade in Nor ..read more