“Clark’s” first semester of school has come to an end. Seems like just yesterday that he started school and now it is report card and teacher conference time. Come this Thursday, I will have to walk into his first grade classroom and face the “older” woman that “Clark” has had a crush on and been making google eyes at for the past few months. How does a mother handle a situation like this?

I don’t think there is a woman in the world, who doesn’t sit up and take notice when she opens a newspaper or watches an ad on television that says…“GRAND OPENING, new shopping center.” And when this information is accompanied by the word “SALE,” it has a very strange affect on women. Whether she needs something new or not, just the fact that it is on sale, makes buying something new a necessity.

In the past few months. I have written a couple of columns telling you about the perils of this city girl who moved to the quiet solitude of the country. This week is another chapter dealing with my on-going perils of trying to tame the wild. Now having no expertise in taming the wild. I do believe that sooner or later these critters are going to tame me. The wooley critters still manage to find a way out- of the pasture and into the garden.

Have you ever had the “blahs”? More specifically, the “winter blahs”. I have the “winter blahs”. I think someone should declare, “blah week”. It could be any cold, snowy week in the winter, like the one we are experiencing right now. During this week everyone could sit around in front of the fireplace and argue about who has to carry the wood in the house for the fire. Also during this week, they could ban the TV Weatherman from predicting the weather and giving the temperature and the State Patrol could close all the streets and roads, so we wouldn’t have to risk our fenders.

The wonderful world of supermarkets. This week I am going to bore you with some of my favorite pet peeves. While going through my mind for material, I have discovered that 98% of my pet peeves are directed at one place: the supermarkets. Seems every week when I go to the store. I hit the day of the mating ritual of the grocery carts. There are always at least 40 carts, all stuck together, and I still haven’t figured out if you are supposed to take the first cart or the last cart in the row.

They call it procrastination. I have been guilty of procrastination on many occasions, but never quite so severely than in the past couple of weeks. We are all aware that school is about to begin. The beginning of school means shop- ping for school clothes. I have been dreading taking “Clark” shopping for school clothes for the past few weeks, therefore I have been procrastinating. It has been past experiences that have made me gun shy.

I don’t think there is a woman in the world, who doesn’t sit up and take notice when she opens a newspaper or watches an ad on television that says…“GRAND OPENING, new shopping center.” And when this information is ac- companied by the word “SALE,” it has a very strange affect on women. Whether she needs something new or not, just the fact that it is on sale, makes buying something new a necessity.

Have you ever heard of Murphy’s Law? A simple explanation of Murphy’s Law is….what possibly can go wrong - will go wrong. I have had the distinction of being chosen to live by Murphy’s Law in the past couple of weeks. It all started on a cold morning in the latter part of January, when I innocently went into the garage to start my car, to warm it before I drove “Clark” to school.

Finally! The time of the year that we have all been waiting for has arrived….springtime. Ah springtime, the time of year when the grass turns green, the trees begin to bud and a housewife’s thoughts turn to that great American tradition…spring house cleaning. Just two short months ago. I wrote a column about the winter blahs. Now it is time to write another column about the blahs, only this time it is the spring house cleaning blahs.

This week. I thought I would start this column with a quiz. Kind of a short version of poor man’s Trivial Pursuit. What common five word phrase is seen more often in the holiday season than any other time of the year? Merry Christmas-Happy New Year, you say…wrong! Have a Happy Holiday Season…wrong again! Give up? The common five word sentence is…pay to the order of. Just think how many times in the last month or so that you have followed up these common little words printed on a piece of paper, with someone’s name.