Goodness, I get asked that a lot. People are defined by their employment, how they earn money. I have had a number of jobs, and they worked out well but things “came up” and I moved on to other things. Some were projects with finite time frames. In other situations, I moved or had familial responsibilities and had to quit. For a while, health issues kept me from working. I started my own business fixing computers, specializing in seniors. Then the laws and tax consequences made it virtually impossible. And I am a lousy business person because I hate to charge people.

Fortunately, I am very frugal and can live on the allowance my husband allocates to me.

I have a BS in Chemistry from William and Mary, most of the Masters in Economics from SUNY at Buffalo (I was transferred and never finished), and speak French, German, Flemish (awkwardly) as well as Signed English. I have lived in eight states and two countries. I have been to over 40 states, spending at least two nights in each. I also have about a dozen foreign countries in my count.

So now I am a professional volunteer. I still help people with computers. I am on the board of a food pantry. I just gave up presidency of a civic organization. I was just elected President of another civic organization. I maintain 13 webpages, mostly for nonprofits. I am active in a small musical group. I am taking piano and ukulele lessons. I teach music to children at church. I have four children spread from Florida to Alaska. I have two grandchildren, also far away. I have about 20 seniors that I check on regularly and try to help out as needed.

Now for fun, I have a few hobbies: music (mostly recorder), photography, embroidery, genealogy, homeopathy, herbs, other natural healing techniques (traditional medicine has not worked out very well for me), greeting cards, politics, stained glass, and well, I love being a Latter-day Saint.

I collect smiles.

So there you have it.

He who takes offense when no offense was intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense WAS intended, is also most probably a fool. -Confucious et al.

Those who can’t make a point without lying or exaggerating, don’t really have a point.

Any virtue, when taken to an extreme, becomes a vice.

“How many observe Christ’s birthday; how few His precepts! Oh, ’tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.”
–from “Poor Richard’s Almanack”

Once you complain enough about little things, others will ignore all of your complaints, even the big things. So save your complaining points for things that really matter. It takes at least seven compliments to gain one complaining point. Get to work on compliments!

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking. – A. A. Milne

Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. ~Albert Einstein

In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 to assist some French refugees, James Madison, the father of our Constitution, stood on the floor of the House to object, saying, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that “all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.” To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, not longer susceptible of any definition. – Thomas Jefferson

The only way for Congress to give one American one dollar is to first, through the tax code, take that dollar from some other American. It must forcibly use one American to serve another American. Forcibly using one person to serve another is one way to describe slavery. – Walter E Williams

If we could get the corrupt and incompetent people out of positions of power, be they in politics or business, unions or religion, the rest of the people could make headway in solving problems. – Debbie Fordham

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive. – Howard Thurman

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faith have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worshippers.” Patrick Henry – 1736-1799

You’re offended? You’re a Fool! – David R. Fordham

Any problem that you can throw money at to solve really isn’t a problem. So live you life within your means so that you have the money to throw at potential problems before they become problems. — Arline Bliss

‘When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.’
— Jacob Riis (1849 – 1914)

You’d better want the consequences of what you want — Neil A Maxwell

From Thomas Sowell:
1. People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.

2. If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

3. Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.

4. Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

5. The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

6. The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

7. The biggest and most deadly ‘tax’ rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits – food stamps, housing subsidies and the like – if their income goes up.

8. The real minimum wage is zero.

9. What ‘multiculturalism’ boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

10. In liberal logic, if life is unfair then the answer is to turn more tax money over to politicians, to spend in ways that will increase their chances of getting reelected.