Rosie Preston

By Rosie Preston Found on ladies’ bumper stickers: * So many men, so few who can afford me! * God made us sisters, Prozac made us friends. * Princess, having had sufficient experience with princes, seeks frog. * Coffee, chocolate, men…some things are just better rich. * Don’t treat me any differently than you would

By Rosie Preston It’s been 12 years since my mother’s illness began, yet it seems just like yesterday that I could visit with her, share books, watch funny movies, and talk on the phone at least once a day. I already miss the way my mom was when she was younger. This kind of situation

By Rosie Preston The main reason I am sharing this family situation with you, my readers, it is this wonderful newspaper who gives me the opportunity to continue to do what I love to do, which is to write and to share. It was two years ago when Phil woke up as usual to go

By Rosie Preston Perched high in the cozy nest, in the limbs of a tree, the sparrow lifted its voice to sing a morning song. Quickly a thunderstorm brought wind and rain, the sparrow’s song was weak. And the beautiful bird’s song was lost. This storm shall pass, she convinced herself, and spread her wings

By Rosie Preston Love is everywhere! If you don’t have it, you want it, long for it and look for it. If you’ve got it, you want to be reminded of it, especially if you are female or a child and it is Valentine’s Day. We are reminded daily about love through different sources. One

By Rosie Preston New Year’s Day is a way to measure time to us, with the importance of a birthday. It is an exciting day for me, even though I’m embarrassed to say the last two years, I fell asleep before the midnight hour! Still, as I thought about it last night, all comfy in

By Rosie Preston Many times, I have shared stories about the many homes I cleaned for different families to make extra money. I can loudly voice, even scream it from the rooftops (of those houses) that there should be a Cleaning 101l class. The first lesson should be to have a friend to help. The

By Rosie Preston  New Year’s Day is a way to measure time to us, with the importance of a birthday. It is an exciting day for me, even though I’m embarrassed to say the last two years, I fell asleep before the midnight hour! Still, as I thought about it last night, all comfy in

By Rosie Preston This is the season to be bombarded with trying to fulfill our loved one’s Christmas wishes. It is a wonderful time of year and I love to buy gifts, especially for the children. Most kids request what they have seen or heard about and will entertain them for a while. The true

By Rosie Preston Well, it’s almost time for the Iron Bowl, the most exciting game for all football fans who live and breathe the game. I will tell you right away that my husband is an Alabama fan. I come from a long line of Alabama fans, and I am experienced with the excitement of

Dearest mother, How the time has flown, yet each year has brought joy, love, pain, and yes, even rejection. I’ve learned to live with all of it during my lifetime. But yesterday as I visited with you, I was so happy to see your sweet face. It had been almost four weeks since I’d been

By Rosie Preston Every day, I wonder if I will ever feel wise. I think I’ve reached the Golden Years, and I’m remembering the days when children listened to their elders and didn’t question a word. I’ve found my children will listen and roll their eyes. They don’t believe that my memories have any value.

By Rosie Preston During my lifetime, I’ve attended many parties, all involving friends making plans to celebrate different types of events. So you can imagine when I tell you that I’ve recently attended the two wildest parties ever! It seemed everyone was arriving at the correct time. Cars were being parked and re-parked as drivers decided

By Rosie Preston I hold many dear memories of Noccalula Falls, the first being that I grew up on Lay Springs Road in Gadsden, about two miles from the falls. When I was barely able to walk, my dad and I would follow Black Creek until we reached the falls. It was quite a walk

By Rosie Preston One wrong move on a certain morning caused a ripple effect on the rest of the day. May I explain? The alarm clock woke me at 5 a.m. and I jumped into the shower. After using my towel, I threw it over the shower rod. The towel hit the bathroom light, which

When it’s least expected… It had been a while since I had used my steam mop, but this was a day I really needed it. I filled it with water but no steam came out. With a screwdriver, I took it apart where the water was supposed to go through a little tiny tube, and

By Rosie Preston Strange title for a column, you think? Even though I looked forward to my granddaughter beginning another school year, I find myself daydreaming as I watch her enter her school. I think back to my very first day of school. There was a special kind of electrical current in the air! Carrying

How to choose a daycare, Part II A class I took in college, called “Early Childhood Education” ended with our last grade based on writing a thesis on the subject of positive aspects of owning or choosing a daycare center. I’ll never forget the end of my paper, which said, “A daycare does for money

How to choose a daycare In today’s world, it is a rare event when a parent stays home with children rather than work outside the home. The one question people ask is if daycare affects a child’s behavior and development. Well, it all depends on the quality of care. After spending 15 years either working at,

By Rosie Preston Last week I shared some tips about using Dawn dish detergent and vinegar to save money and time. Maybe you will find some of the following tips useful. The first tip is a great way to trap fruit flies. I know they seem to come to my house each summer, and I

Tips on cleaning with vinegar There has been a loss in our household income during the past two years, so I became very frugal. It hasn’t hurt at all, and I’ve discovered a few ways to save by using inexpensive products to clean my home. It is amazing how many ways we can use vinegar

Every day, breaking news updates us about one crisis after another. How do we overcome the catastrophes? This definition does not imply just what is going on in our physical world but in our emotional and spiritual worlds as well. Using the word ‘today’ is significant because it is impossible to change yesterday and we

By Rosie Preston My children are grown-up adults, and lately I wondered if they have gathered the family together and discussed all the things I am forgetting. “Mom, how could forget to mail those bills for me?” my daughter questioned. My son followed with, “She forget to make my bank deposit!” How could I explain

By Rosie Preston It occurred to me the other night that I don’t get anywhere fast, so I knew that it was time to start re-thinking my plans. I may go two steps forward and one step back, which was happening quite often lately. The ability to live as I had in the past –

Finding my friend in an unexpected situation at a nursing home where her sister-in-law resides became quite a learning experience. And because it could happen to you, I decided to share it.  Because my friend was involved in helping a patient other than her family rub a cramp out of her foot, she went through

By Rosie Preston It’s been 11 years since my daddy passed after years of suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. Afterward, my sister Mary and I brought our mother to my home to take care of her. We loved taking care of my mom, with our only heartache being that she could not remember when to take

By Rosie Preston I called a pest control company several weeks ago because in the middle of the night I’d heard a terrible noise under my bathtub, which is one of those new lightweight ones where there is a space between it and the floor underneath. I was positive that it was a raccoon, as

By Rosie Preston Dear readers, Mother’s Day will be celebrated this coming Sunday, and I have bittersweet emotions. I love my dear mother so much. Yet, as I visit her at the nursing home where she has been a resident for several years, my main heart wants more than anything to be able to care

The following piece is an example of the creative writing of my the granddaughter Breanna, who pictured with me this week. She will be 13 on April 26. I think she’s written several good poems for her class at Episcopal Day School. An Ode to Mocha “My lovely, feisty cat, Mocha, you are a loved

A short piece by Carl Sagan… What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the