Blog | Holiday Adventures for Kids

19 Oct

Television Troubles

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

I’m not sure it’s called a picture tube anymore but whatever that apparatus is on our television that produces the video it just up and died a couple weeks ago. There was no warning. No smoke arose from the back of the T.V. nor was there a smell of melting plastic. The picture just disappeared and we were left with a huge black screen. It turned into a giant radio as the sound was functioning perfectly. But that became really…..

07 Oct

The Sibling’s Reunion

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

In the early years there were four of us siblings. Tom arrived first followed by me one year later. Then Jerry arrived the following year. Our poor mother must have been exhausted. But there was that desire to complete the family with a daughter so two years later little Patsy arrived. I have a memory of that blessed event even though my siblings question my ability to remember that far back. It is very vivid in my memory however. Jerry…..

14 Sep

Forgetting the Day of Rest

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

For many years Kathie and I have been members of the Chautauqua Concert Association. It consists of people from our area that love musical entertainment. Throughout the year five groups come to share their musical talents with us. They come from near and far so not only do they share their music with us but often their cultures as well. The music varies from vocal soloist, honkytonk piano music, brass groups, woodwinds, stringed instruments or a combination of all of…..

26 Aug

The Dirt Road

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

I’ve enjoyed a sweaty week as I tackled the grass strip running down the middle of our driveway. After several years of driving in the same track the middle of the driveway is never disturbed and a variety of weeds assume that they have the right to grow there. There’s something unbecoming when a driveway has a six inch tall strip of grass marring its appearance. I would classify it a “bush league” appearing driveway and passerby’s probably smile and…..

12 Aug

Garden Crime

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

I have always loved animals. Even my own children have made fun of me for the extremes I go to protect animals. They laugh as I shoo boxelder bugs out the front door or transport a giant spider to a safer place. When I was a coordinator at the Bonanza Education Center I experienced animal cruelty that haunts me to this day. A third grade student screamed, “Mr. Mike!” and pointed to a huge, and I mean huge, spider resting…..

28 Jul

The Death of a Grain Elevator

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

It was a Sunday and we had decided to take a road trip. My wife Kathie and I both love small towns so we decided to explore some towns we had never visited before. But as we began our journey I just wasn’t feeling it. Exploring small towns just didn’t seem to be the thing to do on this particular Sunday. Looking back I realize that feeling was a premonition of what was about to take place. We were traveling…..

13 Jul

The Piano Legacy

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

It was fifty-seven years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. We were gathered around our family’s kitchen table visiting with Mr. Findlay. He was in the process of negotiating with my Dad for the purchase of our family home. Dad had been forced to sell the farm and it had become the property of the Federal Wetlands. That required that all the farm buildings had to be removed and the farm relinquished back to nature. I was…..

22 Jun

Hummingbird Farming

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

I have always admired one of nature’s amazing creatures the hummingbird. Nature’s ‘helicopter’ describes this delicate little bird that hovers, flies in reverse seemingly as easily as it flies forward and does it all with astonishing speed. Around our yard they are very rare and when one is spotted our whole family crowds to the windows, noses pressed against the glass watching the little bird’s acrobatics as it searches the flowers for nectar. I have been feeding birds for many…..

04 Jun

Ego Repair

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

Seven years ago I received a blow to my ego but as the years have passed my bruised ego has fortunately begun to heal. The moment the injury occurred I realized it had been my ego that had taken the hit. But just to be sure I grabbed my iPad and asked it for a definition of the word ego. I have never been able to stump my iPad and it quickly responded, “a person’s sense of self-esteem or self…..

21 May

Spring Time Is Exhausting!

Michael J. Larson Blog 0 0

Spring is one of my four favorite seasons of the year. Yep, there’s something to love about all four seasons. But spring can be the most frustrating. As I’m sitting down to write this blog I am exhausted. I’m not sure if it’s because I just finished planting the garden this morning or because I’m still recovering from the eighteen holes of golf I played yesterday afternoon. Actually it might be a combination of the two. There is also the…..

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Television Troubles

The Sibling’s Reunion

Forgetting the Day of Rest

The Dirt Road

Garden Crime

The Death of a Grain Elevator

The Piano Legacy

Hummingbird Farming

Ego Repair

Spring Time Is Exhausting!

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