Kerri Thoreson

As we prepare to celebrate America’s 248th anniversary of independence we need also to remember over two centuries of selfless service to country by those who left it all on the battlefield.

When I first moved to Post Falls in 1985, then with a population of about 5,000, Jim Hammond was serving his first term on the Post Falls City Council.

OK, it wasn’t really date night, but we were under the stars on Wyoming Avenue in the dark of night. After seeing people post awesome photos of the Northern Lights in real time Thursday evening and recognizing that they were actually viewing in town in Post Falls, Rathdrum, Hayden and Coeur d’Alene and not from a mountaintop, I convinced Bert to join me in driving a few blocks so we could have an unobstructed view.

On the eve of the 2024 general election I'm reminded of this lesson from my father's life. When I go to the polls every election I feel as if I'm honoring all who've sacrificed so much through the generations so that I can exercise that right. From the Suffrigists to the men and women in uniform, all of you walk into the voting booth with me.

My sister, Janna Scharf, is hands down the royalty of our family. Her ascent to the throne began in 1988, 36 years ago. She and her husband, Rick, were the parents of three elementary school-age boys when they relocated to Omaha, Neb. On a lark, Janna signed up for a gingerbread house class at church. It was all old-school, no kits like there are today. You baked the house pieces from scratch. Her takeaway from the class was, “Frosting fixes everything!”

Garrison Keillor: “March is the month God created to show people who don’t drink what a hangover is like.”

Earlier this year, a Main Street reader emailed asking if I’d be interested in speaking at a monthly meeting of the Coeur d’Alene Womans Club.

I love my birthday month of May, which I celebrate all month long with a hundred or so Main Street Birthday Club friends, starting with May Day, the Kentucky Derby, Cinco deMayo, Mother’s Day, then Memorial Day. I can stretch out a celebration like nobody’s business.

Throughout the winter and spring we’ve seen more robins than usual in our trees and bird bath. Earlier this month, we noticed that a robin was building a nest in the peak of our patio gazebo. I was excited, Bert was not. He wanted to knock it down. I said, no!

A few years ago, a wise friend who works with children in fragile family circumstances told me we should never tell children that Santa brings presents to children who've been good. There are so many good and wonderful children who, through no fault of their own, won't see the things on their list from Santa under the tree on Christmas morning. So I've taken "have you been good this year?" out of my vocabulary unless it's to children I'm intending to surprise with a Santa gift.