My name is Betty Spaulding

Today is March 30, 2009, and there are some changes I need to make to this profile.

I live in Signal Mountain, TN, just outside Chattanooga. In my other lives, I am widow, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, retired college teacher, and jewelry-maker.

My husband of nearly thirty years died in December of 2007, after a lengthy illness.  I think I am still in a fog, but I wouldn't have him back because he was suffering and ready to go. 

We had five children between us, and twelve wonderful grandchildren. As of March 17, 2009, I became a great-grandmother.  Hard to believe!

I design and make jewelry, embellished idea boards, and ornaments of various kinds for all seasons. I can no longer work with knitting or bead-weaving because of arthritis in my hands, but there are still lots and lots of things I CAN do, and I enjoy doing them.  

I read voraciously--mostly paperback mysteries (particularly those written by women!), science fiction, and the occasional romance novel. I'd never make it without my Kindle.  TheKindle came out at the time my husband died, and I must have kept Amazon in business with the number of books I ordered--and read--during that first year of sleepless nights.  I still read a lot of Kindle books, but not at that same level.

A major interest these days lies in collecting, reading, and re-reading books written for the housewife in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century.  My favorites, which I keep by the bed for night-time relaxation, are THE COMPLETE HOME, by Julia McNair Wright, published in 1879; and COMFORT FOR SMALL INCOMES, by Mrs. Warren, published at about the same time, though no year is indicated.  I also enjoy collecting the big one-volume compendia of knowledge from the same period--these were often sold door-to-door and promised the reader a full education in one volume!

Along the way, I've developed a fascination with the women's magazines and newspapers from the same period.  Everyone knows about GODEY'S and PETERSON'S, but there are many others just as interesting!