Entries by Staff Writer

When I was a young girl I came to Georgia to visit my grandmother who lived in Athens. She kept a little red watering can just for me because I loved to help her water her plants. She lived in an apartment, but it had a courtyard where she grew flowers. Red geraniums were her favorite.

I used to love walking with her to Charmar nursery where I was enchanted with the rows and rows of plants inside the long greenhouse. Once she bought a little green fern for me, and I took it home on the airplane.

When we lived in Colorado, our house had a sunroom, and my mother filled it with Scheffleras, spider plants and jades. I remember watching my father tend the garden that ran along the back fence. In my childhood memory that garden was very big, but it was probably just a modest house garden. [Full Story »] 

BY GINA BORG

Religious freedom has taken a few hard hits in recent days.

Last month, Michael L. Weinstein, Esq., founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, wrote an article for the Huffington Post which takes up arms against Christians who seek to ban open homosexuality and Islam in the military.

That is wholly his right, but there are wrong ways to exercise rights. Weinstein repeatedly employs the childish tactic of name-calling to attack fundamentalist Christians. Ten times the writer refers to such Christians as “monsters,” sometimes pairing the label with a colorful assortment of adjectives, including “bloody” and “hideous.” Other insults abound: “pitiable unconstitutional carpetbaggers” and “stuck pigs” both appear. [Full Story »] 

One day when I was pregnant with my first child, I stepped into the entryway of a neighbor’s home. She homeschooled her children, and, in fact, she’s the person I learned about homeschooling from, but at the time, I wasn’t considering homeschooling. I hadn’t even had a child yet.

While I was speaking to her, she excused the state of her household because they had been very busy, and she didn’t have time to clean that day.

I had not noticed the interior of her house, but when she said this, I glanced over into her dining room, and I could see her table was littered with toys and other stuff. You couldn’t see the top of her table. [Full Story »] 

Earlier this year on one of those warm winter days, we made the spontaneous decision to take the boys to Amicalola Falls State Park, which is less than a two-hour drive northwest from Winder.

When we got there, we weren’t quite sure where to go, and it wasn’t long before we found ourselves starting our hike at the base of the falls, going up.

If you’ve never been there before, you may not know that Amicalola Falls is the highest waterfall in the southeast. True to its name, which means “tumbling waters” in the Cherokee Indian language, it’s a beautiful series of falls tumbling down 729 feet of rock. [Full Story »] 

Winder Police responded to the stabbing of a 21-year-old male that occurred on Sunday evening at a residence located in the 200 block of Russell Road in Winder at approximately 4:30 pm.

According to information received by investigators for the Winder Police Department, a family gathering was taking place at the residence when the incident occurred. The 21-year-old victim became involved in an argument with his 16-year-old brother, which later turned physical. The dispute moved to an area within the home where other family members were not present. The 16-year-old was in possession of a knife that investigators believe was taken from the kitchen of the home, where the argument apparently began. Officers were called to the scene when the 21-year-old went outside to get his father while holding his stomach after having been stabbed.

An ambulance was called to the scene and transported the victim to a nearby hospital where he underwent surgery for the injury. The injury is not believed to be life threatening and the victim is expected to make a full recovery according to information received by police. The juvenile is being charged with aggravated assault through the juvenile court of Barrow County.

On Valentine’s Day I will take my boys to a small party where they will exchange valentines with their friends. Watching them form their very first friendships, I reflect on what I have learned about friendship these past forty years.

A wise person once told me that she would not know whom her best friend was until she became an old woman. Only at that time, she asserted, could she look back on her life and say, “You have been my best friend.” [Full Story »] 

Last October I took my boys to a birthday party, and the birthday boy received a Lego kit.

While we were there, my six-year-old sat next to the boy who built the car, helping him find the pieces. Later, when we got home, my six-year-old said, “You know, I think I could do that.”

That was music to my ears. This is a boy who as a toddler was content to watch me build with blocks and rarely took the risk to build his own tower. Later I figured it out it’s partly because he’s a visual learner and likes to watch several times before he feels comfortable doing something on his own. [Full Story »] 

It troubles me to see a surge of interest in homeschooling after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary. I love homeschooling my family, and I have to admit that after the tragedy, I was glad my children weren’t attending school that following Monday. But is this a reason to homeschool? Not if it’s the only reason you have for homeschooling.

While only 4% of U.S. children are homeschooled, this is a fast-growing movement. Of course, I am an advocate of homeschooling. I love to talk to people who are thinking about it for their own family. At the same time, I don’t think everybody has to do it. It should depend on your child’s needs and also the needs and desires of the parents.

People should understand that homeschooling isn’t just “school at home.” Homeschooling is a lifestyle. Your whole family is in it together, and you are going to be together all the time. If you have extended family or extra resources to help, that’s great, but it’s still a lot of togetherness. Even for the most patient parents, it can be tough.

Friends and family have commented that I have a lot of patience, and I often chuckle and think to myself that they don’t really know me. I suppose I am more patient than some, but I’m also introverted, and I like a lot of time to myself. I try to balance my love of my children and this lifestyle with my needs, but that’s not always possible. I accept that. [Full Story »] 

This week my mother is turning 72 years old, though if you ask her, she might say she’s 75. That’s right…her way of thinking is that if she tells you she’s older, you’ll say, “Wow! You look great for your age!”

Now that I’m a mother, I can look back on my childhood and appreciate the sacrifices and unconditional love my mother has given me. My mom loved dancing, and she taught young children how to dance before she married my father. She has never stopped loving dance, and she taught Dancercise when I was young, but mostly, she stayed home and took care of her home and children.

I don’t know if she ever had aspirations outside of family life, but I do know she doesn’t regret her choices.

If you had asked me when I was twenty if I wanted to follow in my mom’s footsteps and be a stay-at-home mom, I would have said, “No way.” There were a lot of things I wanted to do, but having children was not high on my priority list. [Full Story »]