A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

A Whole New Meaning to “Doll’s House” When I was a little girl, my grandfather built each of his seven granddaughters a dollhouse. It was a beautiful tri-level design. It was also seven feet long. Huge. I played with my house for hours at a time. My grandmother helped me make furnishings for it and I bought things for it with money I earned selling potholders I made. I have happy memories of that dollhouse. Now I am a grandmother. I have three granddaughters of my own. A couple of years ago I decided I would build each of them a dollhouse. After Christmas in 2016 I purchased three dollhouse kits. The plan was to put together the houses over the course of the following year. I figured it to be a cinch.  I had a year to complete three houses. Grandpa had less time to build seven of them. And he had to draw out the plans and cut the wood. I was smart. All I had to do was punch out the “precut” pieces and use the “easy to assemble” directions. Hammer and finish nails? Not ...

Uh, make that a few of my favorite Christmas posts. I must have been caught up in The Sound of Music ! No Snow for Christmas this Year... I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. I spoke for a women’s program at church, hosted a dinner for widows and widowers at my house, and on December 18 recognized my forty-seventh wedding anniversary by having close friends over for my annual Christmas caroling party. {This will be the fifth Christmas Tom is  celebrating with Jesus in heaven.} I digress. As I was thinking about this post and my post for next week I looked back over the posts I’ve made these past seven years. Yes, in January,  A Novel Cre ation will be SEVEN YEARS OLD! Three of my Christmastime posts stood out. All three were popular with readers and all three were favorites of mine. I decided to share these posts with you and to tell you why I chose them.  The first appeared on my blog in December of 20...

Hey I’ve been there. I was a young wife, mother of three, full-time teacher, and active in my church. I know the sound of the word “busy.” And the weeks before Christmas seem to be the worse. You have visions of sitting down and enjoying your child’s concert, but your mind is elsewhere. You would love to be able to buy a few gifts for that sweet child on the “Wish Tree” who wrote “All I want is a soccer ball and a coat, but you wonder when you’ll have the time and where you’ll get the money.  I learned long ago the benefits of what I call The Standardized Christmas List. Here’s how it works and how it benefits you and your family: 1.  Recognize that Christmas comes on December 25 every year. Because you know it is coming, you can plan ahead. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Maybe, but I personally know people who act as if Christmas came as a total surprise. One family takes out a loan every December to buy extravagant gifts for their kids. They count on their inc...

I am a product of the space age. I was a bit too young to remember the launch of Sputnik by the Russians in 1957, but I remember when Alan Shepard went into space in May of 1961. I remember it because my birthday was only three days earlier. Everyone seemed obsessed with the notion of exploring outer space. This Computer is a Result of the Race for Space The science behind making the space race possible yielded curious new technology that soon spilled over into the consumer market. For example, space travel required maximizing power while minimizing space. Think transistor radio. (If you’re old enough to remember those.) I’ve shared with students through the years that we have computers today because of the need for them to operate rockets to conquer space. It’s true.  Space travel inspired futuristic comic books and movies. The idea of living in outer space or on another planet captured the imagination of everyone. Including the Hanna-Barbera team that produced th...