bonnieb23-blog

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The Decline of Manners: Are We Losing Politeness?

Manners seem to be a thing of the past: Who remembers Emily Post? She was once the arbiter of all things “polite.” Now, most people would not recognize the name. Someone who was once so well-known and familiar has nearly disappeared from polite conversation. Of course, the other thing that has disappeared is polite conversation. People no longer know how to have a conversation. They text or…

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Help! I Am Drowning in Photos

For two years, I have been trying to get organized. Help!!! Is the constant refrain in my brain. I know it is beyond my powers to do this alone. Prayer helps because: Helen Dow Hale holding my mother Ruth Actually, I got help. A miracle occurred, and someone told me about a family who might have a member who could help me as an assistant.So we got together; I interviewed this young person and…

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Have You Driven A Tesla?

It happened organically. My 11-year-old grandson and I had been shopping for Legos when we drove past the brand-new Tesla Dealership at Stonefield in Charlottesville, VA. It is in the same shopping center and shares the same parking lot as Trader Joe’s, where I often shop for groceries. A very familiar place to me, except for this new store. They only opened up last Friday, eight days before…

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Engagement Parties are Fun!

The day before Easter, we had a beautiful engagement party at my house for my granddaughter, Isabelle, and her fiancé, Grayson. Andrea and Isabelle  About 75 guests gathered for drinks and charcuterie, pizzas, and dancing from 5:00 p.m., on into the evening. A tent over the back terrace doubled the space for entertaining. A disc jockey situated at one end of the terrace provided cheerful,…

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Birthing Babies, Do You Know How?

Childbirth is magical. The power of it, the mystical quality, along with the raw animal instinct, is never forgotten. My births taught me more than anything else ever has about my body and my ability to do whatever I needed to. Try to keep birth out of the hospital, where they take control of you and your body. Women know how to give birth to a baby instinctively. But it has almost been “trained…

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Be a Trad Wife; it is a lot of fun.

All I ever wanted was to get married and have children. Somehow, this idea has become discredited. Why? Is this a conspiracy? How did the thing that has been the most important in the survival of the human race become “unfashionable”? Where would the world be without the family unit?No one ever told me when I was young that there was anything I could not do as a woman. When speaking with my…

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Rethinking Vaccine Schedules: What Parents Should Know

My entire family is vaxxed according to the rules of the time we were born. I have fewer than my children. They have fewer than their children ( my grandchildren). Have you ever questioned the large number of immunizations the pediatrician assumes you will allow him to give your child? Aren’t you curious to discover why there are so many more on the schedule? Do you know what diseases they are…

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Spring is Here, Are You?

Spring explodes early this year, with flowering trees and pops with color from the many types of spring bulbs. The daffodils and narcissus expand the size of their groups yearly; while the sun adjusts itself in the heavens at a different angle, the sky appears bluer than last month. All around me, people exclaim, “This is my favorite time of year!” New beginnings seem reasonable. Hope is in the…

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Winnie, My Wonder Horse

“There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.” This quote variously attributed to Henry Ward Beecher, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Lord Palmerston, and even Winston Churchill. Me riding Gypsy My father bought me a pony when I was two and a half. When I was nine, he bought me a large pony and I began riding out through the countryside with other children my age and a…

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Our Mighty Oak Tree is Fallen

Underoak is no more. The Oak Tree fell over last Friday. There was not much left of it. We cut all the branches off of it years ago, even before my mother died, so this final fall was just the last small step in its demise. The oak tree in the early 1940s. I grew up under that tree. My parents bought the house in 1941. It was named “Underoak” because of the tree. My father was from Texas, and…

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A Relaxing Birthday Retreat at Jefferson Baths

My daughter decided to celebrate her birthday on February 24th by taking a group of nine women to Bath County to enjoy the Jefferson Baths at Warm Springs and then to The Homestead for lunch.  What fun we had! Six of us met at a parking lot for a local club here in Charlottesville and got into a large Jeep belonging to one of my granddaughters. She was our chauffeur down to  Warm Springs and…

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Does anyone actually doubt there is fraud?

Elan Musk has been asked by the President of the United States to find where the missing money has gone. He has been asked to trim the amount of money spent by the government. He has been given the authority to do this. He was not elected; he was appointed.The “talking heads” on the political Left keep asking for proof of what the DOGE group finds. Why are they asking for this? Do they think that…

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Anti-vax! Are you one, too?

Do you know why you believe that you are correct? Whatever you believe, how much research have you done? Do you realize that as early as 1986, they knew there were claims about vaccines causing Autism? They also knew a whole bunch of other sicknesses caused by vaccines. There is a site called LearntheRisks.org, which will educate you about the difference between what actually happened with…

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The New Normal

I am excited (cautiously) that all the things that President Trump was elected to change and “fix” are actually changing and getting fixed. It is extraordinary. And the fact that Democrats and RINOs are crying foul when all this corruption is being uncovered at USAID, for example, really bothers me. It is not a good look for them. Complaining about Elon Musk accessing our social security…

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Did You Speak to Your Tech Guy?

An earlier version of this article was published first on Substack. The other day, just by chance, I looked at old blog posts, going back week by week. There was a specific one that needed to be corrected. When I got to September 2023, I suddenly saw a post I had not put up. It was some gaming site. Then I realized there were 49 separate posts with the same date. I had been hacked! When…

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Friendships, Have You Kept Up?

Friendships become so much more important as we age. Next to dogs, our friends provide the most fun and affection for us. If we have children, they are now older people themselves. Our children have families of their own. They have full lives. If we have siblings we should be thankful since no one else knows us as they do. It thrills me to realize my girls (daughters) are best friends with each…

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Recap of the Year 2024.

Some years are more exciting and uplifting than others. This was a great one! So many positive things happened, and so many people became more aware of the things happening in the world. It has been a year of celebrations, and there are so many good things to mention that it is hard to distill them into a blog post. My youngest child, Murdoch, turned 50 years old. Winter was mild in 2024, and I…