Our next door neighbors are also from North Dakota, which is a terrific thing.  Their youngest child just graduated, and they are on the precipice of becoming empty nesters.  Yesterday afternoon, I looked out my kitchen window and saw the two of them relaxing on their hammock in their gorgeous…

Around here, the best part of the Fourth of July is undeniably the kid parade in the middle of the morning, a haphazard, slightly chaotic mass exodus of kids, parents and families up and down our street, cheered on by elderly neighbors in the area who don’t have kids or…