We are all aware of the wines and wine history of France, Spain, Germany and Italy, which extended back as far back as the first century AD. However, in the history of the world, they are newcomers. Don’t believe that? May I suggest that we turn to the Bible? After the “great flood,” Noah planted vines at the foot of Mount Ararat, which is at the border of today's Armenia and Turkey, so he could make wine (Genesis 9:20). more

My kids have been crazy lately. And not just regular crazy. more

In our nation today, there is a longing for the greener pastures of yesterday or the promises of a glorious future tomorrow. Many people my age look at the generation today and wonder what happened. How did things get so bad? Rascal Flatts describes this in their 2002 hit song, “I Miss Mayberry.” We all long for how life used to be because we think it was exponentially better. more

For as long as I’ve lived in Sedalia, there have been three key parts to the summer season: Memorial Day and the end of school signals that summer has arrived, our annual Fourth of July vacation in Michigan indicates we’re halfway through, and the Missouri State Fair and sorority recruitment means the season is coming to an end (even if the summer heat isn’t). Well, we’ve made it through Memorial Day, and somehow opening day of the Missouri State Fair was yesterday, but my normal midpoint marker shifted a little later this year. more

Wow! It doesn’t seem possible that this column, my last, is my 42nd; this means that I have been penning this column for three and a half years. more

When you woke up on Aug. 1, did you have any idea that it was the beginning of National Rosé Month? Since it is rosé month and I do write about wines, I guess I have to fall in line, but I believe that it would have been better if they had declared the auspicious event at the beginning of spring as an announcement and declaration that is the end of winter. more

Long ago and far away: In 1975, I was struggling to decide what to do with my future. I had no idea what I wanted “to be,” and so I lived at home, worked part-time for the Blue Springs Bank, and took additional music hours at Jewell. more

Be careful what you wish for and hope that your good deeds of the day do not come back to torment you in the night. Both of these sayings reflect what recently happened to me. more

Editor's note: OK, so I know last week I said I'd get back to regular column writing, but I'm going to take one more week-long hiatus. In my defense, I had been out of office for a few days to enjoy a family lake vacation, and I just ran out of time. But, here is a rerun of a light-hearted column I wrote last summer that apparently resonated with many of you. Although the destination is different, my boyfriend and I battled lake traffic again this week and we had all the same complaints, so this seems like a fitting fill-in column.  more

We live in a broken world made of broken systems filled with broken people. Since we have all sinned and come short of God’s glory, we all bring a certain amount of brokenness to the table. Broken people make broken marriages and broken families. Broken families make for broken communities and broken cultures. It wasn’t always this way. God’s original design was a world of peace and harmony without sin. Of course, to be perfect God had to give us a choice: to sin or not to sin. We all know the choice made. more

Meeting people where they are has its challenges. Each of us has different experiences in life that create a pattern of how we receive, process and react to certain situations. more

Hi! I’m back! Did you miss me? (Don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical.) more

For more than a century, wine aficionados around the world have argued, debated and pondered the question of whether the cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir wines were better before or after the “great wine blight.” more

I have often mentioned the “Great Wine Blight” of the late 1800s in my columns and I feel that some knowledge about the subject could enlighten the reader of a catastrophe, born in the state of Missouri, that might have resulted in the total demise of wine and wine grape growing as we know it today. more

This year is proving to be quite a challenge for gardening. Little rain, strong winds, and hot weather have all contributed to those challenges. Gardeners need a break or at least a few free plants. Free plants are possible if you choose wisely and welcome the volunteers. more

I like to think of myself as pretty eloquent, in print. I can write a good poem or a witty turn of phrase. I easily switch between humorous and charming, or stern and strident, or filled with pathos. God seems to have given me some small talent for the written word. more

Hello friends! How are you this week? Here in Warrensburg, it has been so dry! This relentless heat is hard on the plants. It is hard on us too. This week I pray for rain, and I look forward to time in my garden. I know where each thing is planted, and I am always eager to watch them grow. I enjoy tending my garden and so this season of dry heat has been a challenge. more

I hope you are all taking precautions concerning your health in this hot, dry weather. It’s hard to think that the upper Midwest is a likely area for fires, but that is the latest info about burning “hot spots” in the U.S. — northern Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. more

As many in the Christian community are and have been praying for revival and in places have been seeing revival take place, I think this is great, but is it enough? The title of the column here is not about a conflict between “Revival and Revolution,” but about how we should be praying for them as both rather than either or scenarios. I say this because they are not the same, or at least how it seems. What is the difference, one might ask? more

For decades, the most forgettable red wine grape in France was the malbec. It was sparsely grown, mostly in the Bordeaux region, where its only claim to fame was that it was an excellent additive to “beef up” lightly colored or weak cabernet sauvignon and merlot wines. When made into a wine, the French-grown malbec produced one that was super tannic (astringent), black as ink and could take as long as 25 years of aging before it was drinkable. more