Eighteen students from Lake Stevens, Granite Falls, and Marysville, traveled to Colorado Springs, CO to join other youth from across the US to help restore land devastated by a couple of recent major…

Are you interested in a new career that pays well? You might consider becoming a professional hugger. It’s a new trend that is gaining steam. For instance Portland’s Samantha Hess charges $60.00 for hour long snuggles. Keeping her therapy purely…

Once upon a time, the animal kingdom decided it must do something to help humanity face the challenges of the world. So the animals organized a school. They adopted a systematic curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. All…

Within the confines of our blissful domicile, an ongoing controversy has all but come to an end. I like it when things are solved and I happen to be right. This time I was right. After all, if it is on TV it must be right! Controversies are not…

Herbert “Bud” Schwarzmiller died March 25, 2014 in Everett. Bud was born on the Schwarzmiller Farm in Lake Stevens, Washingtion in March of 1923. He attended Lake Stevens High School, graduating in 19…

One of my kindergarten students had misplaced his sports jacket. Another teacher located it and returned it to him. The youngster was thrilled, showed his appreciation, and started heading for the door. When I asked where he was going he answered,…

We’re deep in the season of Lent, the time of preparation leading up to Easter, and there was something that struck me about this season this year that I had never considered before.  It’s the old phrase, “In like a Lion and out like a…

The Crossroads @ Lake Stevens, a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church of America, is excited to announce its new Pastor, Doug Kothe. Kothe was raised in New York. He was a high school athlete and played soccer and volleyball in college….

Quite a few, if not most put a whole lot of credence into a kiss. Much can be argued in favor of this philosophy, but not from me. I grew up in a generation that never kissed on the first date. Sad to say, that idea went out with Noah and his ark…

If somebody gave out an award for grouchiness and downright cantankerousness, I am sure I would take top honors. Of course, according to the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, there is no honor in being grouchy or cantankerous nor is there room for…

Some people have what they call their “bucket list.” I am not too sure what this is all about but it seems to me it is a list of things people would like to do before they “kick the bucket.” Me, I do not plan to kick any bucket as long as I…

Seattle Seahawk fans have had one of their greatest seasons ever watching their team perform exceptionally well on their road to the Super Bowl! The Pacific Northwest has exploded with pride, donning…

Before and during the US Civil War, tens of thousands of slaves made their way out of slavery on what was nicknamed the Underground Railroad. It wasn’t a railroad. It was a secret escape route that took slaves from the Deep South across the Mason-D…

The Father’s House In the HGTV series Jonathan and Drew Scott help couples buy fixer-upper houses and transform them into dream homes. The drama begins with much destruction, hammers flying as they tear down walls and demolish the inside. When it is…

I was sitting on the back porch sipping an ice-cold tea with a splash of lemon when I received a text from a relative up north. I was enjoying a pleasant afternoon basking in the winter sun of Florida. I am not sure what God was thinking of when He c…

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage does not allow any pets in our domicile. Something about cleaning up their mess and fleas and other things that I cannot recall. When our last child moved out of the house so did all pets. They are now just…

Last year the Old South Congregational Church in Boston began to unravel itself from a quandary. They had been the longtime owners of an exceptional church hymnal, one of the first books produced in North America, printed in 1640. After years of deli…

Memory is a very wonderful thing, at times. It seems the older I get the more I remember things that never happened. I do not know how that takes place, but I guess it is just old age creeping up on me. With me, old age has ceased creeping and has…

I enjoy being cheerful and Christmas time is a special time to be cheerful and I try my best to live up to it. Occasionally, the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage will suggest I am going a little too far. During the rest of the year I stay out of…

An elderly couple was spending the night alone at home. The gentleman glanced up from his newspaper, looked over at his wife, who had become a Christian several months prior and saw her sitting across from him, reading her bible. He asked,…

“On earth peace, goodwill toward men,” sang the angels on the first Christmas morning. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. In Judaism shalom is a living concept, not a word; a vision for how life could be, should be, and the life God is pulling…

Rev. Howard Shade published a true story in Reader’s Digest many years ago that bears repeating. A young pastor was ministering in a very old church that had become dilapidated. A late December windstorm blew out a large piece of plaster behind…

While many people are out on a shopping spree to liquidate any cash reserves they might have left, I am taking this time to do a little bit of reflection. Shopping is not my favorite thing to do. I forgot about it last week and Thursday evening I…

This is the time of the year holidays get into full steam. It begins with Halloween when people put on a scary face and ends with New Year’s day when people put on a new face. I could never figure out if the Halloween face was the New Year’s Day…

Growing up back in “the day,” most people put a lot of credence on promises and lived by the motto, “A man is as good as his word.” Most agreements were sealed with a handshake. If you said you were going to do something, you did it. Period….