Author Archives: Author Julie Seedorf

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About Author Julie Seedorf

As human beings, we are always a work in progress. From birth to death we live, hurt, laugh, cry, feel, and with all of those emotions we grow as people, as family members, and as friends. I'm a dreamer and feel blessed to have the opportunity in my writing to pass those dreams on to others. I believe you are never too old to dream and to turn those dreams into a creative endeavor.” I live in rural Minnesota and am a wife, mother, and grandmother. Throughout my life I have had many careers or should I say opportunities at jobs where I have learned different skills such as working as a waitress, nursing home activities person, office manager, and finally a computer repair person eventually owning her own computer sales and repair business. Add my volunteer activities such as Sunday School Teacher and SADD advisor and more and it's been a full life. I never forgot my love of writing and quit my computer business in 2012 after signing a contract with Cozy Cat Press for Granny Hooks A Crook, the first book in my Fuchsia, Minnesota Series. I currentlyntly have written nine cozy mysteries, three children’s books, participated in three group anthologies or mysteries, and write three blogs about various subjects.

Texting While Driving – Almost

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A year or so ago I made a pledge not to text and drive. It wasn’t a problem because at that time my texting was limited to my children. Now most of my friends use the text method to get in touch. I, who had protested learning to text, love to hear from my friends.  We keep in touch more often. It might be a line or two or a word throughout the day but it is enough to keep us in the loop.

I get why some people have a problem remembering to not text and drive. That thought was brought home to me yesterday.

I was driving home from another community when I heard the ding go off on my cell phone alerting me that I had a text message. I glanced over to the phone and saw my husband’s name on the id. I started to pick up the phone to read it while I was driving down the freeway. It was a non- thought about gesture. Your phone dings, you pick it up to see who has something to say.

Immediately my pledge and my rantings at my children came to mind. I almost broke my pledge without thinking. It was so easy. I found a place where it was legal to pull over my vehicle. I then picked up my phone to read the message and text back. I could have waited until I reached my destination but I knew for my husband to send me a text it was an important item. He never texts me.

I pulled away and back onto the road. Many thoughts zoomed through my mind. It had been so easy to pick up that phone and ignore the road. It was a reflex action. It was easy to convince myself that I would not be in any danger or put anyone else in any danger by my actions. It wouldn’t distract me enough.

Had I not taken Oprah’s Pledge and remembered it I might have ignored safety for convenience.

Would the outcome of my answering my text message been the same?

Another Clumsy Cook In The House!

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Water is often used to cook foods such as noodles.

Water is often used to cook foods such as noodles. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am so happy I am giggling with glee. I am not the only clumsy cook in my house. Bible Study is tonight at my home. Usually we start with a potluck meal. I did some scrubbing and polishing to make our guests think I cleaned the house. The floor was shining, after all I wasn’t cooking. My husband is the chef for tonight and usually he is the clean cook in the house. He harasses me all the time about my messy droppings while I am cooking and the burnt vegetables.

I am at my desk working and I hear a loud bang. All of a sudden I hear a help hollered out. I run into the kitchen and there is a large glass of water spattered on the floor. When I say spattered I don’t mean in a small puddle I mean spattered into the dining room, almost to the bathroom and all over the kitchen. I guess I could have waited to mop the floor until after the meal was made.

I grabbed a towel and started wiping. As I started wiping I noticed the dried noodles all over the floor. We are having a spaghetti hot dish. I commented on the debris on the floor. Husband claims I didn’t get it when I swept. When was the last time we used spaghetti? I gently wiped up the dried spaghetti crumbs. I finished wiping the water in the dining room and noticed some onion peels. I started laughing. I am not the only messy cook in the household.

For some reason that fact brought joy to my heart. It must mean that we both get so excited about cooking that we like to spread our joy around in the form of food. Ha.

Shop Til You Drop-Save Brick and Mortar Stores- Something About Nothing Column

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Column: Something About Nothing

I am so sad. Well, I am not that sad but I am sad. I am sad about the way our shopping habits are affecting the stores I love to visit.

I haven’t done a lot of shopping this past year in brick and mortar stores. Part of the reason was illness, part of the reason was laziness and part of the reason around the holidays was avoidance of crowds.

It was easy during cold weather to do my shopping with the click of a mouse. I didn’t have to battle the cold, the crowds or the heat this summer. All I had to do was to click my mouse and I could shop in my PJs.

I had a light-bulb moment while visiting a shopping mall this week. My grandkids had stayed with me and reluctantly we had to return them to their parents. Our meeting place was the River Hills Mall in Mankato. I have spent a few minutes in the mall a couple of months ago but it was to attend a movie and I didn’t pay much attention to the stores.

My granddaughter’s favorite pastime is shopping. She gets the fact at 9 years old that women like to shop. We strolled the mall. Maybe we were shopping at the wrong season. Our first stop was Bath and Body Works. I remember being in a wheelchair during one of my broken bone days and not being able to shop Bath and Body Works because it was so full of goodies. This time it would have been an easy trip in a wheel chair which is good for the handicapped.  It struck me that they do not seem to be carrying as much merchandise.

We strolled the mall a little further and there were stores closing. To be fair there were some stores opening, but I wondered how long they would last. As we browsed in the stores many of them seemed to me to have less merchandise than they did a year or so again. Their aisles seemed wider and less cluttered.

We of course had to visit my favorite store of Barnes and Noble and touch and smell the books. Their aisles too were emptier I am sure because of ebooks. I wondered if some day I would visit malls and the book stores would be entirely gone.

We made our way to the food court to meet the parents. I was excited about the many choices of food they used to have. The choices of food have narrowed. There was no Orange Julius, no Kentucky Fried Chicken. The food court had turned into half a food court.

This was my light-bulb moment. I contribute to the demise of malls and brick and mortar stores. I contribute because I let my mouse do the walking instead of my feet. I can blame the government for the jobless rate. However I feel somewhere in my mind that I too have contributed to the loss of jobs because of the way I shop. The jobs in malls and brick and mortar stores support many people. These jobs also help college and high school students earn some money to support their needs. These jobs are dying.

We are making a push to buy American-made, and I support that but we also need to make a push to support our local and area stores before they disappear and the only way we can get an item in on the Internet. When we do that, we not only lose our stores we lose a means of communicating and socializing that is important to keep us from being hermits.

We can meet and greet and communicate via computer and phone but face-to-face interaction can’t be replaced.

I would like to say that I am going to do all my shopping via the walking method rather than the mouse method, but I would be lying. I like to shop, but in my paring down phase I haven’t done much of it. I suspect other people too are cutting back.

We women used to shop till we dropped. There were a lot of wise cracks made about this subject. Woman got together with other friends and shopped. We had fun, we laughed and it was a social event. Today’s women have stopped socializing through shopping. Many have stopped spending time with friends because they have no time. It is good for the soul to take time to spend with friends.

Maybe it is up to the women to save the economy. We need to ignore the wise cracks and get back to our slogan “Shop till you drop.” Make it a social event. Women are stressed so they have stopped shopping. It is time to take back the shopping. If you like to shop it will help you de-stress. If aren’t a shopper, help out a friend that does. Watch their kids, take over a task and let them shop for you. Save the economy. Men, if you like to shop you can join us in our “Shop Till you drop;” we won’t hit you with any wise cracks.

Just thinking about a rally to shop to save our brick and mortar stores makes me less sad. When women set their minds to something they accomplish great things. You go girls!

“Shopping is a woman thing. It’s a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death and the ecstasy of the purchase.” — Erma Bombeck

by Julie Seedorf © August 2012