Wendi Stewart - Wendi with an 'eye'

I recently did a road trip with Laurie (Daughter #3) from Owen Sound, Ont. to Wolfville, N.S., covering the 2,000-plus kilometres in two days.
Although the marathon of driving was a bit tedious, sitting in that small space with my daughter took my heart and gave it a complete overhaul. I kept looking over at her and wondered if I was dreaming.

To nap is to sleep lightly, especially during the day. I looked up the definition just to be sure.
Although a nap sounds like a lovely treat, I only nap when I no longer can walk; when I am almost falling down with fatigue.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is my favourite book of all times. Although a few others have come close, none move me the way Harper Lee’s writing does.

Obedience is defined as compliance with the wishes of another; an acknowledgement of authority.
What a grand idea. I would like to be the authority and would be most pleased to have “Gracie,” canine member of my family, to be compliant.

The frogs and robins are back.
I’m not suggesting the frogs hopped their way to Florida for the winter, but suffice to say they’ve wakened and crawled out of their muddy beds.
The robins, meanwhile, bounce around on my lawn and I apologize to them for the cold weather we had in March. But robins are hardy, they tell me, and don’t mind the challenges of a fickle spring.

I knew Hinderika Sieders the way children know adults. She was Mrs. Sieders to me; I’m not sure I ever knew her first name.
I watched her from a distance, from the perspective of being a visitor in her home, a friend of her children. She was the mother of my schoolmates and someone I had an immediate and profound awe of.
Mrs. Sieders made everything nice.

Jonathan Franzen appeared on “Oprah” quite some time ago, but I taped it and watched it recently.
He was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for literature and the guy who declined Oprah’s invitation to appear on his show with his third novel, “The Corrections,” a maneuver that seemed like professional suicide.

I don’t like to drink coffee.
Actually, I’m not particularly fond of any hot drinks, so it isn’t just coffee. Tea, hot chocolate, and hot toddies all fall into the category of “I don’t like.”

Tomorrow (March 8) is International Women’s Day 2012.
This event, which has been observed around the world since the early 1900s, began in reaction to oppression and inequality as a movement to facilitate change.
At face value, it’s fair to say, “We’ve come a long way, baby.” But have we?

I was thinking about making cookies the other night.
Oh no, not for me. Certainly not. These cookies would be for my daughters away at school—a treat, a reminder that they are loved, while they are buried in the tests and assignments and uncertainty that life flings at them as they try to imagine joining this crazy game as an adult.