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Wednesday's Woman

  • Life or Something Like It: Garden goodies bring wildlife antics

    A groundhog, what some call a woodchuck or whistle pig, has been wreaking havoc in our yard and life this summer.

    I was first alerted to his presence when Mom pointed out something had been chewing on pots of parsley and dill by her door. Our son, Joel, had brought her and me the herbal gifts for Mother’s Day.

    Rabbits already had gotten into the garden and nibbled the tops of the first planting of green beans, as they did every summer, so I supposed they had become a little bolder.

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  • Got To Be Real: Kids back to school, parents broke

    It’s that time of year again. Back to school for the kiddos and to the local bank for a loan for parents who buy all these school supplies.

    I looked at a list for a couple fourth-graders and a sixth-grader. Can you say ridiculous? I know it has been more than 20 years since my oldest child started school, but today’s cost to get a child back to school is too high.

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  • Faith-based leadership program provides teens European setting

    Paris, London, Oxford and Normandy became extensions of the classroom for four girls who attend Valley Creek Baptist Church in Elizabethtown.

    For the third year, the girls participated in Student Leadership University, a faith-based leadership program that offers experiences around the globe at four levels. The girls participated in SLU 101, for which they travelled to Orlando, Fla., and SLU 201, which took them to Washington, D.C.

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  • Charitable cause has an ally in Allie

    When 23-year-old Allie Porter was a senior at Elizabethtown High School, she was in a wreck that left her with two broken hips and a broken tailbone.

    But that barely slowed her down. After recuperating for a few months, she resumed her active lifestyle.

    And she just keeps going.

    “Every aspect of my life I want to move forward,” Porter said.

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  • Speakers with Spark: Turn an enemy into a friend

    By Susan Rider

    Unfortunately, in life you might encounter enemies. Many times it’s of no fault of your own that someone doesn’t like you or someone tries to hurt you. It might be a disagreement of choices or envy. 

    Recently, a television series highlighted infamous enemies the Hatfields and the McCoys. A hatred and dislike that went on for years over a seemingly trivial reason caused many hurts and even deaths.

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  • Motherhood & More: Life gets in the way of summer plans

    I had lots of plans for the summer.

    I was going to take the kids to every amusement-type place we could find that was close and not outrageously expensive. We were going to play at the park multiple times a week. We were going to be creative every day, with lots of coloring and gluing and cutting. The TV was going to be a once-in-a-while concept, not an everyday, multiple-times-a-day thing.

    After being in this parenting gig for four years, and a stay-at-home mom for almost two, you’d think I wouldn’t still be as delusional as I am.

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  • Carolyn Ritchie scales back

    After many years of public and community service, Carolyn Ritchie is ready for a break.

    Those who work with her say it’s deserved.

    Ritchie retires from her position as county treasurer July 31, her 64th birthday. She started working for Hardin County government in 1996 and became treasurer in 2000.

    As treasurer, she oversees grants, payroll, investments, bills and revenue for the county.

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  • Johnson finds self through fitness

    As a single mother of four boys, 34-year-old Angela Johnson finds strength through teaching and fitness.

    A second-grade teacher at Lakewood Elementary School, she earned a teaching degree, graduating with honors, while going through a divorce.

    Her inspiration to become a teacher was two-fold. Her own children inspired her and she wanted to change the lives of other children. That goal is more difficult to achieve than she imagined, but so far it’s been a rewarding career, she said.

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  • Crafting a new chapter in life

    Barbara Goodin Hunt holds a flat strand of reed under the stream of tap water, making sure to soak the entire length, which is maybe a bit more than a foot long.

    “You start with wet reed,” Hunt, 75, said, explaining the water makes the reed more pliable and prohibits breakage.

    Taking her place at a table in D.J.’s Antiques & More, Hunt deftly weaves the strand of reed over and under the framework of a basket.

    “When I first started, I was probably averaging one a week,” she said.

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  • We like our road trips

    My husband, Chuck, and I pack our suitcases, hop in the Town and Country, and plug in the GPS even when we know where we’re going to visit friends in Tennessee or family in Georgia, Virginia and now South Carolina.

    Now that there’s just two of us, we no longer have to do the hyper-planning we once did to make sure we had enough non-perishable, non-messy snacks and things to do to keep small boys occupied. Those were the days before every vehicle with children on board was equipped with twin DVD players showing SpongeBob or favorite Disney movies.

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