Marie Rippel's Page

When you're a parent, you spend a good part of your life comparing your children to others. That's normal, and almost all parents do it -- we use comparison as a gauge to measure our child's progress and development.

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Are you the type of person who hams it up for the camera, or do you prefer to be the one holding the camera? I'm definitely in the second category. So this month, I was SHOCKED when I found myself in front of a video camera.

That's what passion does for you—it makes you comfortable doing things you never thought you could!

Do you have a passion? Has it made you do things you thought you couldn't? If so, I'd love to hear about it—post a comment and tell us!

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I love to play with words, and when I get together with friends who share my literary bent, we have some pretty esoteric conversations. Like the conversation I had with my French-Canadian friend, James, about portmanteau.

What in the world is a Portmanteau, you ask?… Continue

Imagine that a teacher brings to her class a bag of flour, a packet of yeast, a bowl of tomato sauce, and various piles of cheese, sausage, and dried herbs.

She unceremoniously dumps the food onto an empty desk in front of the room. All wholesome ingredients, but her students know that they are expected t… Continue

Building my rock wall has reminded me of some powerful lessons - and I learned one of them very well.

One particular section of rock wall was proving difficult to build. The land dipped down into a small swale, and the foundation row of my rock wall followed it… Continue