Once upon a time, I was a single mother.  Living paycheck to paycheck was the norm; Ramen noodles was a gourmet meal; and thrift store clothing filled our closets. Taking care of my children’s basic necessities was my sole focus.  I didn’t have the margin to lavish them with the hottest toys, coolest snacks, or…

My website experienced a beautiful facelift recently.  With some professional polish and shine, kristen-west.com looks so much better than it formerly did!  A day after my new website published, I decided to get on Instagram.  I’ve had several nudges in that direction for a while now but it took my Gen Z daughter helping guide…

Eyewitnesses to the account say I was three.  I have no memory of it personally. In the early 70’s, my family shared a two-story house with my grandparents – grandma and grandpa lived on the ground level; dad, mom, my brother and I on the top. This particular day I had sauntered downstairs while my…

Growing up in Upper Michigan, I learned to drive on snowy roads.  Blizzards were the most nerve-racking of road conditions to navigate as they brought complete whiteout conditions in which you literally couldn’t see anything beyond the windshield.  I remember having to slow my car to a crawl of 1 mph and pray that nothing…

My 13-year old grandson is in that season of life where shoes are an issue.  Give him a new pair of shoes today and by next week it’ll look like a pair of groundhogs used them as chew toys then threw them in a wood chipper for good measure. The wear and tear inflicted on…

I love to travel.  And, with the ease of a variety of GPS options at my fingertips, travel can almost be done on auto-pilot these days.  Hop in the car, punch in an address, and voila! off I go! When it comes to lengthy road trips however, I’m still a tried and true Rand McNally…