Empty Nexter

By Carrie Perrien Smith I love the flexibility and freedom that empty nesting provides me. We all give so much to our family during our child-rearing years that we need the break — but never […]

By Carrie Perrien Smith I’m the oldest of Generation X. We’re the first generation to know what it is like to enter the workforce and not encounter barriers just because we’re female. We didn’t have […]

By Carrie Perrien Smith Sometimes someone enters your life and weaves himself into it. That’s the way Jim was. He married my long-time friend, Kelly, eight years ago. He was a kind, cheerful, easy-going, helpful […]

By Carrie Perrien Smith The holidays present so many challenges. Probably my biggest one has been managing my daughter’s grandparents’ expectations of her appearance at their holiday meals. She is grown now and has a […]

By Carrie Perrien Smith The older I get, the more I need to know about how to make my body perform well. My peak at forty-eight isn’t what it was at twenty-eight. I am proud […]

By Carrie Perrien Smith The last thirty days have been full of milestones. We just celebrated my husband’s sixty-first birthday, the fifteenth anniversary of his proposal to me, his thirty-year service anniversary with Walmart, and […]

By Carrie Perrien Smith Each spring, my Japanese maple looks like a teenager with thick, wavy hair who is long overdue for a haircut. It can manage that extra fullness, but it looks a lot […]

By Carrie Perrien Smith Last year, KLRC, our local Christian contemporary music station put a focus on human trafficking. This complex international problem involves acquiring people for use in prostitution or pornography; forced or bonded […]