By Shannon Williams
There are places that become special to you in that you have a special feeling when you are there. Santa Fe, New Mexico has always held a very special place in my heart. I first visited in the early 90’s. I don’t know what it was but I just felt alive in Santa Fe. The air always seems to be crisp and I would love to go in the winter when the smell of

By Shannon Williams
Sometimes, things just do not work as you have planned them to work out! We were asked to babysit our 6-year-old grandson while his parents went to Mexico for a week. We have kept him many times before, but wanted to take a little trip with him during this time period. So where do two old folks take an active young boy to have

By Shannon Williams
Friendship is such a valuable thing, but is a thing that must have energy and love placed into it. The older the friendship and the older we get, you discover just how wonderful such friendships are. This fourth of July weekend, we hosted one of my husband’s college friends/roommates, and had a get together for three of the four, although

By Shannon Williams
In the song, “The Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell, it tells of a child as he moves through the seasons of life. This past week that song came to mind many times, as we again moved my 93 year old mother to “a higher level of care”. In my work that is a term that we use in our HUD paperwork, when a resident can no longer live

By Shannon Williams
Plants are wonderful things and have been a part of my life for many years. I don’t remember my mother working in her garden until I was in high school, but at that time there were only 2 of 5 left at home, so I guess she had some time to do what she loved to do. If I needed to have a talk with her about something in my life I would go and sit next to her

By Shannon Williams
“I love places where there are crowds of trees“ Nitin Namdeo
Crowds have never really been my thing, I am not afraid of them and don’t avoid them, but I really just do not enjoy them. Twice this month of May (one of my favorite months) we have sort of sheltered in place due to the crowds, first for Jeep weekend and then sort of today, as everyone

By Shannon Williams
Thirty-one years ago, today, an angel got his wings, there were tiny wings, but wings that had been earned with all the suffering in the almost 4 short years we were blessed to have him on this earth with us. James Fletcher Mullen, was born on 6-16-1987. He was the second son born to one of my older brothers. He arrived a little early

By Shannon Williams
People, they can ruin your day or make your day and even though we should not let them affect us that way, it happens. Last week was really not so good. I had an incident on one of my sites and it was not just any site it was my home site and the staff who has been with me for years. It was not good and it was messy and it was a

By Shannon Williams
I love having a garden, now that does not mean I love working in the garden. I am a fair-weather gardener. I love going shopping and buying plants of all shapes and sizes and from any place. We went to dinner the other night in Winnie and nothing would do but I had to stop at Tractor Supply and run in and just see what they might have

By Shannon Williams
Oops! last week I put a quote from the Sound of Music, well I always go to my last column when I get ready to write my new one and just delete and move forward. Well, I did not check and left Maya Angelo as the source, as it had been for something I had quoted earlier. I guess not many really read each column as no one pointed it

By Shannon Williams
In the much-loved play and movie, there is a song about one’s favorite things. I kind of had a week of favorite things and most of them not really planned. One of my favorite things that is near and dear to my heart, is bluebonnets.
The place where Paul and I first met in 1975, was at a youth gathering each spring at

By Shannon Williams
I really am not sure if my guardian angels have been on vacation or if they (I figured, I have a team, as I am a hot mess most times) just went on a drunk, BUT…. I continue to have strange and stressful traveling incidents these days. I spent all of last week in West Texas which is where I come from and I have 4 projects out there. I am

By Shannon Williams
As promised last week, I will continue with the tale of our two vacations, I am sure you have all held your breath waiting to hear about it all. LOL. After loading up all that we had brought with us and making sure that our fish were securely frozen and ready for travel, we headed back to Lake Charles to the Golden Nugget. When the husband asked

By Shannon Williams
I recently took a little trip with my hubby! We have very different travel styles and habits so we both take our “own” vacation, he goes hunting and I cruise. Then we travel together several times per year. We try and go to places that both will enjoy, but for the past two years one of our together trips has been to go fishing in

By Shannon Williams
Well I wrote about purposely going off the grid, and my experience and need to “check out of the world of computers and cell phones,” but when we are taken off grid due to a breakdown or needed repairs, it really makes you look at just how dependent you are on those darn machines. I am using my trusty “hotspot” as I write this, due to

By Shannon Williams
“Almost everything will work again, if you unplug it for a few minutes including you.” Anne Lamott
Last week, I wrote some about a recent cruise and how cruising is the way I totally “checkout.” Checking out or “going off grid” is a needed activity in this day and age. You think as we have advanced as a society that things

By Shannon Williams
I have written several times about the lack of customer service in our world these days, well I am happy to report I have found customer service to be alive and well aboard the cruise ship industry! I had not cruised since COVID became part of our world, I have been most fortunate to be able to take a cruise at least once a year for

By Shannon Williams
For several years now, I have been a writer of Obituaries, I like to write and after years of writing social histories for a living in a psychiatric hospital, I got pretty good at telling the story of someone’s life. So, in the past years, when someone needed an obituary written I got the job and it is one of those things that once you start to do them, it

By Shannon Williams
Monday was a holiday, and I usually use these days to get some real work done, since the phones are usually quiet, but today, I needed to work on a couple of issues that I could not get resolved, so had to make plans to try and stay on hold on the phone till I got a real live person, who might be able to help me resolve these issues. So, I am

By Shannon Williams
After about a year and half, I have finally done it!!! I have an orchid that is blooming! When my mother in law passed away in 2020, one of my dear friends brought us a lovely Orchid. You know those kinds you see in the grocery store and think to yourself, I can grow that! Well it turns out I could not and killed it in only a few months. I was

By Shannon Williams
2021 was the year for weddings for me, so I ended 2021 at a lovely wedding in Napa, California. There is a lot of good reasons to get married on New Year’s Eve and a few not so good ones. This wedding had been postponed two times due to Covid, so was going to happen by the end of 2021, regardless of what was going on in

By Shannon Williams
I don’t know about you guys, but I am tired! The holidays are a very joyous time filled with many blessings of family, friends and fun! With all that fun comes lots of FOOD! And of course, Food means that someone has to shop, and cook it all and I am tired of grocery shopping and cooking! (don’t get me started on the dishes!) For me it starts

By Shannon Williams
Traditions are such a part of the holidays, but often the source of stress and conflict. We want to honor those traditions, but as families grow and blend, you have to make room for everyone’s traditions and thus some traditions just die out. As you grow older, your list of Holiday favorite dishes grows and pretty soon, it is just out of hand

By Shannon Williams
Christmas is about family and friends, it is the best part of the whole season, being with those you love. It is also, for many of us, about Tradition. I have more traditions around Christmas that anything else I do or take part in, and I have several activities or events that I have taken part in for well over 30 years, but those Christmas

By Shannon Williams
The Holidays are upon us, you may now listen to Christmas music, and decorate your homes and yards. I am a stickler about not starting Christmas till at least the Thanksgiving dinner dishes are done. I know I am a dying breed, as the stores have had Christmas stuff out since BEFORE Halloween and Hallmark started their

By Shannon Williams
This past weekend I traveled to College Station for the wedding of my niece. With all that is going on in this world, it was wonderful to spend several days just celebrating joy and happiness. My niece is a graduate of Texas A&M veterinary school, who has been working as a veterinarian on the East Coast for several years. She is a

By Shannon Williams
I used to tell people when they asked what I did for a living that I was a “change agent.” You see, as a social worker, I have always had to deal with government funding and that is an ever-changing beast! There were times that I would be training on a new program and going to training on the next new program in the same month! I thought I

By Shannon Williams
I would like to know just where did October go to?? It cannot be over already, I have way too many “fall things” to do yet. I guess, I do know where it went, I spent 10 night in hotels and only one of those nights were for work, most of it was family related. A trip out to West Texas to see my mom with my son, and then into Houston a few times for fun and