Lifestyle

It’s funny, the way you need don’t need as much sleep the older you get. I battled insomnia for so many excruciating years. These days, sleep comes easier to me, just not as much. That’s how I find myself in the kitchen by 5:30 am most mornings. Typically, that amounts to around 7 hours of semibliss, minus the tossing and turning that comes with one arm that is prone to needles, a bad hip, and many trips to the bathroom. It’s all good. There is coffee to make and many cats to feed. On the morning in question, I start off with the OG cats, Olive & Hazel. They eat their kibble from a set of delft blue china bowls that belonged to my late mom. Momma loved delft china. The bowl bottoms have a picture of Denbigh Castle in Wales. Hazel and Olive both attack their kibble with gusto, much like the battles Denbigh endured. Our newest cats, Polly & Sully, eat from tiny Noritake china tea saucers, baby Sully eating a few bites from his and a few bites from his older half-sister’s plate. Next, eyes still mostly closed and crazy hair attempting to escape from the sleeping bun I have yet to perfect, I stumble onto the porch. Sully’s mom (Polly’s too) is a crazy feral cat we named Peach but only seem to call Momma Cat. She bounds onto the porch as soon as she hears the lock turn on the deadbolt. With her are always the two kittens from her last litter we were never able to capture and rehome, along with her beau and baby daddy, Bowser. That’s his government name. We call him Puff Daddy. With a house full of happy felines, I grab my coffee from the Keurig, fish around for the spare glasses I keep in the kitchen junk drawer, and sink into the corner of a massive black velvet sofa I proudly thrifted for next to nothing. My feet go up on an ottoman covered in discontinued Waverly black toile fabric I snatched for a song from a Goodwill store many years ago. I grab my favorite cozy blanket. And, there I sit for a good long while, breathing deeply, talking to God, and praying all the prayers I can summon while a parade of sweet cats alternate snuggles with me. It’s what I call peace seeking. It has taken me 56.5 years to get it down.

“‘Abide’ means to follow God’s instructions, be nice and polite, and don’t call anyone names,” says Garrett, age 8.

B

Fall and winter months bring shorter days and less light, making it harder for drivers to see—and safely avoid—pedestrians. October saw the highest number of pedestrian crashes in 2022. That’s why TxDOT is using National Pedestrian Safety Month to continue its “Be Safe. Drive Smart.” campaign and remind Texans that pedestrians are our most vulnerable road users.

Ask Aunt

Welcome to fall! Wait. Is it? I’m miraculously 3 weeks ahead on writing columns, so all I can tell you, people of the future, is that today is the 3rd day of October, and the temperature is a chilly 92 degrees. I call that fauxl – faux fall – an autumn imposter, if you will. The dates say otherwise, but the soccer fields still say deep summer, offering me sweaty crossed legs and heat induced headaches as I sit and swelter, the grandkids and their unaffected young bodies able to run up and down the fields at a normal pace. The cracks in my front yard are wide enough to envelop a giant wildebeest or a smart car. I find myself ever careful as I water the flowers, lest I disappear into a giant crevice. The dogs linger by the back door instead of frolicking as dogs should, their eager-tocome- inside snouts fogging the glass as the drool of a too hot day dribbles and dries on the doors with a whitish cast. These are things I probably complain about most every October, come to think of it. This is Texas, after all. We should change our state nickname from The Lone Star State to The Stubborn State. Welcome to Texas, the land that holds onto summertime like a bull rider trying to hit the buzzer. But a final summer rally is not the only thing that attacks us around this time of year. It’s the season of pink, pink washing, that is.

“Abiding in Christ is not going outside when my mom tells me not to,” says Alexandra, age 5.

We Will Return Soon!

“You kiss them if they are good,” says Savannah, age 5. “A good person likes to hug,” adds McCall, 5.

I am a big advocate of prayer. Wait! I saw you. Did you just roll your eyes at me? Now, I am no spiritual guru. If you are looking for someone who can quote the Bible, I’m not your girl. If you are wanting to sing all the songs we learned in Vacation Bible School together, good luck. I didn’t go. Contemporary Christian hits of the 80s-90s – I don’t know any of them. But if you’ve been kicked around by the world a good bit and just want an understanding shoulder to cry on, baby, pull up a chair. I will make the coffee. BYOC – bring your own creamer. I don’t use that nasty stuff. I can force you to have faith once again. See, this is a story about an introvert who is now a Bible study table leader.

I just started college. Now I am even more confused. I don’t know what I really want to study. So of course, I really don’t know what I want to do when I finish school. Where do I even start to figure out these serious questions in my life?

“Moses holded out his stick, and it splitted up,” says Jessica, age 6. “It was a miracle when Moses put the stick into the big sea,” adds Hillary, 6.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by elevated levels of blood glucose. Diabetes can cause serious damage to the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels over time. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn’t make enough insulin. The World Health Organization says about 422 million people worldwide have diabetes, and 1.5 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year. Catching diabetes at its earliest can help individuals avoid longterm damage to the body and improve their overall health. This means recognizing signs that suggest the presence of diabetes and its precursor, prediabetes.