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20 07, 2026

Celebrating Summer with Ice Cream

By |2026-07-17T12:53:32-05:00July 20th, 2026|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

In 1984, July was designated National Ice Cream Month in the United States.

We can thank President Reagan for the celebration. He adored ice cream, as do 90% of Americans, who consume over 20 gallons per person annually.

I’m with President Reagan. Around our house, ice cream is the dessert of choice.

Before you start with all the extra calories talk, stop and consider all the ways ice cream is the perfect way to celebrate summer or any special occasion. The rich, creamy taste has a chill that cools us down in the summer heat.

Ice cream is a memory maker, too.

I remember as a child sitting on my grandparents’ hand-cranked homemade freezer at family gatherings. Someone had to keep the canister in the ice that was sprinkled with ice cream salt so it’d thicken. I still get a chill and a big smile thinking about it.

Ice cream is great for social gatherings, which means a sure yes from guests. Even the most formal event deserves ice cream. I’ve been to formal sit-down events where ice cream was dessert.

Have a tough decision to make—like selling/buying a house, getting a car, or changing careers? An ice cream cone or dish of your favorite flavor is sure to make the decision easier.

Ice cream is my comfort food. When my mood is down or sad, a scoop of vanilla with chocolate syrup is sure to cheer me up. How about you?

There’s ice cream for everyone: regular, sugar-free, lactose-free, frozen yogurt, homemade, piled high in a cone or scooped into a bowl with toppings galore.

Flavors range from Neapolitan to chocolate chip cookie dough to Banana Pudding to Pistachio Almond. Plain old vanilla is still the top flavor according to the International Dairy Foods Association.

Our love for ice cream goes way, way back. Ancient Chinese were the first to discover that cold + sweet created a delicious treat that resembles what we enjoy today. Most famous leaders, from Roman Emperor Nero to Alexander the Great, enjoyed cold treats.

By the 1500s, ice cream had spread throughout Europe, though only wealthy aristocrats could afford the expensive treat.

No one knows for sure when ice cream made its way to the US, but at least two early presidents were fans. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first known American ice cream recipe, and George Washington reportedly spent $200 in a single summer on ice cream.

Celebrating ice cream also supports our dairy farmers. But when it comes down to it…  Do we really need a reason?

This year, National Ice Cream Day was Sunday, July 19. If you missed it, no worries. July’s not over.

Grab a dish or a cone and dig in today.

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13 07, 2026

Patriotism and The World Cup

By |2026-07-13T08:18:46-05:00July 13th, 2026|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

The American Crisis is a collection of articles and essays written by Thomas Paine during the American Revolutionary War. Those essays provided ongoing support for an independent and self-governing America through the many severe crises of that war.

I’m a military brat and an Army officer’s wife. I grew up on posts where Reveille, Retreat, and Taps played.

I vividly remember hearing Retreat sounded at the end of the day when we lived on post. If I were outside, I would get out of my car and place my hand over my heart with pride. Hearing Taps played at military funerals brings the same feelings. So does singing the national anthem.

The lack of patriotism today feels like a Thomas Paine crisis to me and makes me sad.

The World Cup coverage highlighted so many of the positive things now taken for granted. Reels and reels on social media were posted by over 1.5 million people who came to our country en masse and experienced the U.S. for the first time. They experienced our countryside, food, citizens, and freedoms up close and were amazed.

The visitors’ comments on social media were a poignant reminder of what we have that others don’t and what we take for granted.

“You have so much to see, do, and eat.”

“There are free refills here…and air conditioning!”

They were shocked to discover the United States is so different from how it’s depicted on social media.

“OMG, you’re actually nice, generous people, …”

Our international World Cup visitors held up a looking glass, showing us everything we take for granted.

Maybe it’s time to sit back and think about what our visitors saw and felt—to internalize the freedoms we earned in the Revolutionary War and be proud of our country.

Personally, watching the reaction of our visitors, I’ve regained a new appreciation for my life and all my creature comforts. Shouldn’t we all do the same?

Please, this isn’t about politics or the games themselves, so any of those comments will be removed.

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6 07, 2026

Deviled eggs and Semiquincentennial Celebrations

By |2026-07-05T10:16:12-05:00July 6th, 2026|Make Me Think Monday|2 Comments

I’m guessing many semiquincentennial July 4th cookouts included deviled eggs. Ours did.

The recipe is my mother’s. Though she never wrote it out, I watched her enough to know to mix the egg yolks, mustard, mayonnaise, and sweet relish, then fill the hollowed-out egg whites.

Sometimes I switch dill relish for sweet relish and use Miracle Whip instead of mayo. Don’t tell Mother. She’d probably spin in her grave if she knew.

Our family cookouts in the past have included other family recipes, like Aunt Bick’s baked beans, homemade ice cream, and my mother-in-law’s chocolate cake [the one with the secret coffee ingredient that my father-in-law never knew about because he didn’t like coffee].

This year, the grill baton was passed to our grandson, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. The first thing he did was buy a much-needed new grill. Our hot dogs were perfectly cooked!

All the guests bought dishes to share. We had pasta salad, chicken salad, dips, and fruit salads, plus desserts galore. I, of course, brought Mother’s deviled eggs on my sister-in-law’s special egg plate, pictured above.

As we ate, we wondered how stuffed eggs came to be called deviled. Out popped the phones, and the race for the answer began.

The answer: By 1800, deviling became the verb to describe the process of making food spicy.

We also learned:

  • Deviled eggs have been around since the first century in ancient Rome.
  • The recipe was first compiled sometime between the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.
  • By the 15th century, stuffed eggs had made their way across much of Europe.
  • The popular egg hors d’oeuvres are also called “mimosa eggs,” “stuffed eggs,” “dressed eggs” or “salad eggs”—especially when served at church functions.

Why change the name for church potlucks, you ask? I’m guessing to avoid any association with Satan.

We also learned that most published recipes since the 1940s use mayonnaise, so Mother was right again. 😉

Deviled egg recipe variations include fresh dill, bacon, crabmeat, sriracha, kimchi, wasabi, and caviar. I am so happy that some of those extras were not in my mother’s recipe!

If you had stuffed eggs at your semiquincentennial celebration, did you call them angel eggs or deviled eggs?

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4 07, 2026

Happy Birthday, U.S.A.

By |2026-06-22T13:02:36-05:00July 4th, 2026|Holidays|0 Comments

Today is the Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941.

Every year, celebrations include fireworks, parades, concerts, casual family gatherings, and barbecues.

This year, Freedom 250 events began on Memorial Day and will continue through December 2026.  Check out this list of Key 2026 Dates, Locations, Events, and Celebrations from Newsweek.

  • May 15: Virginia’s Independence 250th (Williamsburg, Virginia)
  • May-July: Sail250 Tall Ships (Gulf Coast to Boston)
  • June 14: National Flag Day (Americans nationwide encouraged to fly the U.S. flag to honor its adoption in 1777)
  • July 4: National Independence Day with parades, fireworks, and the burial of a national time capsule in the Independence Mall in Philadelphia
  • July 5: America’s Potluck—community picnics nationwide
  • Nov 11: Veterans Day Commemoration (Washington, D.C.)
  • Dec 25: Washington’s Crossing Reenactment (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)

Happy 250th Birthday, America!

Readers, be safe and enjoy your birthday celebrations today…

And as you celebrate, don’t forget to give thanks for the brave men and women in uniform who are serving on foreign soil. Pray for their safety as they do their jobs to ensure our continued freedom.

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29 06, 2026

Are We Rushing through Life?

By |2026-05-28T08:56:27-05:00June 29th, 2026|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Feels like life is always in a rush. We hustle from one thing to the next through the days.

It’s interesting to note that the first definition of the word RUSH is:

to move, act, or progress with speed, impetuosity, or violence.

I’m okay with moving with speed when needed, but impetuosity or violence, not so much.

My daddy always cautioned, “Slow down. Haste makes waste.”

Okay, I know those words weren’t original with my Daddy, but the older I get, the wiser his words become.

Of course, there are times when it is necessary to RUSH and move quickly. For instance:

Catching a plane or train.

Meeting deadlines.

Responding to medical emergencies or urgent repairs.

Arriving on time for important meetings or appointments.

Being on time for events like weddings, plays, or concerts.

Unless I’m facing one of those situations, I prefer not to rush through things. In my experience, the important things get done just as the quote says.

Do you agree?

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22 06, 2026

Summer’s Arrived

By |2026-06-21T15:30:44-05:00June 22nd, 2026|Holidays, Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Summer officially arrived yesterday.

Of course, if you judge by the ninety-degree temperatures we’ve been having, it’s been here since May.

Each day forward, we will head to bed later as dawn comes earlier, long days, late sunsets, and short nights begin.

Yesterday, the sun reached its highest point, signaling the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, south of the equator, winter begins.

The summer solstice has been around since the world began. Ancient cultures recognized that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted regularly throughout the year.

Stonehenge stands as a testament to their knowledge. The summer solstice sun rises directly above the heel stone at Stonehenge.

Psychologists have long suspected a link between our level of happiness and the amount of sunlight in the day.

Studies show that what truly mattered was not the absolute amount of daylight but the relative change in that daylight. Or was the day longer or shorter than the day that came before?

When the change in daylight was positive, as the summer solstice approached, people reported significantly greater positive effects than when the change was negative, i.e., approaching the winter solstice, when days are short and dark. No surprise there!

Not only was yesterday the longest day of the year, but it was also Father’s Day. We had the longest day of the year to celebrate the dads, grandfathers, and father figures who shape our lives with strength, love, and quiet dedication,

That won’t happen again until 2037. Father’s Day date changes because the holiday is anchored to a weekday rule, not a calendar number: the third Sunday in June, every year, without exception. Same as Mother’s Day.

Now that summer is officially here, it will last 93 long days, 15 hours, and 40 minutes and end on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at 8:05 PM EDT.

Some are happy.

Some of us, not so much.

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