February is known for Valentine’s Day, heart boxes, roses, and cards proclaiming enduring love.
It is also known for something a lot more important than candy hearts and chocolate.
February 1 to March 1 is Black History Month.
Historian Carter G. Woodson, the second Black man to earn a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, launched “Negro History Week” in February 1926. He wanted to popularize Black history so ALL Americans,...
To read more on this story, pick up the February 18, 2021 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

That seems to be the question everyone is asking themselves: When is it my turn to get the COVID-19 vaccination?
I open my online health care portal almost weekly to see if I have received the message from my healthcare provider that I’m next to get the shot, poke, or jab, or whatever you want to call it.
Or maybe my vaccine instructions will come in the mailbox from the state of Minnesota?

All it took was a mouth full of expired, curdled milk.
And, my darling daughter, Ellen, learned another valuable life lesson!
Always check the expiration date.
My little redhead was simultaneously horrified by the sour, chunky experience and astonished to learn that those little, hard-to-read black letters and numbers on food containers actually mean something.
I’m astonished it has taken this long. She is going to be...
To read more on this story, pick up the February 11, 2021 print edition of the LifeEnterprise.

With all the economic uncertainty, one would understand if people were tighter with their money during these times of a worldwide pandemic, and economic crisis. But the opposite is true.
Throughout the pandemic, a new study shows that Americans have been donating to charitable causes in record numbers. According to a survey of 1,000 Americans on December 30 by TOP Data, and Kindest, a fundraising platform, a new wave of COVID has pushed up charitable donations by...
To see more on this story, pick up the January 28, 2021 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

Third grade teachers are super heroes.
Kids come into their classrooms with maybe a slight grasp on basic addition and subtraction and they somehow elevate that knowledge to the world of multiplication tables, division (short and long), fractions, measuring, and figuring out things like area and perimeter.
And don’t forget the word problems!
My Ellen—the redhead—is in third grade. This means my husband and I spend time almost every night tackling third grade homework. Sounds easy, right?
Oh. My. Goodness! It is not easy.

Does your family set a goal each year?
In 2021, my family will be focusing on basic life skills.
Throughout the past year, we, like many families, have hunkered down and spent more time at home together. And, over the course of this pandemic, my husband and I have come to realize...
To see more on this story, pick up the January 14, 2021 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

Christmas is over.
You’ve unwrapped your gifts.
Now you have to decide what to do with the things you were given. Some gifts are easy . A soft blanket or throw, clothes, books, or garage tool rack are great gifts that are easy to put to use.
However, sometimes we receive something we’re not quite sure what to do with. Yes, it was a thoughtful, generous gift, but will we ever use it?

The end of 2020 is FINALLY here! That is reason to celebrate!
When I look back on the year, many emotions and thoughts come to me. What a weird year it was, thanks to a global...
To see more on this story, pick up the December 31, 2020 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

“Mom, I really like our Christmas tree. It’s not like other people’s trees... Ours doesn’t match.” ~ Ellen, age 8
Oh, the joys of Christmas!
My little redhead is correct. Our tree does not “match.”
It will never be featured in a magazine. It’s not much to look at, until you lose closely.
Every ornament is different, the star is made of cardboard and aluminum foil, and we still wrap our tree in multi-color lights (it’s not a “fancy” pre-lit one).
It’s a glorious hodgepodge of shapes and colors.
My ornaments from childhood hang...

Ask everyone what they’re getting the senior citizen in their life, and you’ll most likely hear: “I don’t know. They have everything.”
This is true for many folks. When you reach the golden years, you’ve lived a full life and have amassed a lot of stuff. Buying Christmas presents can be difficult.
The pandemic has made our choices harder when our senior citizens have been cut off from the outside world and human contact with loved ones. A new report by Senior Care asked 10,000 seniors if they could have anything in the world this holiday season, what would it be.

This Thanksgiving, like previous years, we will all give thanks.
Unlike past years, this Thanksgiving is a time like no other.
More than 55 million people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus, and more than 1.3 million people (almost 250,000 in U.S.) have died as a result of it.
At this time of great sorrow, feeling thankful is a challenge, but I am going to try.
I am happy the tens of millions of people who have contracted the coronavirus have survived it.

The task can seem daunting. Staying positive during the COVID pandemic has felt - at times - like I am climbing Mount Everest.
How can we expect to be positive when officials tell us the pandemic rages on?
We can’t be with family during Thanksgiving.
Our kids’ sports are cancelled, then started again. They play, but then the season ends when kids get sick.
The kids are in school, then are told their distance learning because too many people are getting sick.

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve a class of problems or to perform a computation.
To put it in layman’s terms, an algorithm is what keeps us addicted to our electronic devices.

Sunday, Oct. 25 was a special day.
After long and careful instruction, Bonnie’s and my son, Mecca, along with 11 others, were confirmed in St. John Lutheran Church.
The “affirmation of baptism” is a big event. It was supposed to be witnessed by a lot of family at the church and at home. However, due to this crappy coronavirus, family groups in church were limited to little more than a half dozen invitees.
No thanks to the dumb virus, we also pared down our family party to just a few members, instead of the clan of more than 40.

Sunday, Oct. 25 was a special day.
After long and careful instruction, Bonnie’s and my son, Mecca, along with 11 others, were confirmed in St. John Lutheran Church.
The “affirmation of baptism” is a big event. It was supposed to be witnessed by a lot of family at the church and at home. However, due to this crappy coronavirus, family groups in church were limited to little more than a half dozen invitees.
To see more on this story, pick up the November 5, 2020 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

On Tuesday, Nov. 3, hundreds of millions of Americans will exercise a very important right - the right to vote.
We will cast our ballot on a simple - yet important - piece of paper.
The ballot.
As long as this country has existed, people have had to fight and even die, for our right to vote. Everyone has the responsibility to stand up and vote to preserve this right and to honor those who went before us.
That piece of paper links us to the past as we fill in ovals to determine our future. It is an equalizer that gives every citizen a voice in governing.