Her Voice Magazine - Fall/Winter 2022

My Voice

Hello, Fall! 6

By DeLynn Howard

Her Journey

The Intuitive Connector 7

By Susan Smith-Grier

Her Style

Astro Knots: Defying gravity and stereotypes

By Alyson Levig

Your Voice

Honoring Women

Over 90 17 Reader submitted Her Lifestyle

Indulge without the bulge 20

By Michelle Oie

Her Community

DeAnn Barry: At the center of the senior community 24

By Sue Sterling

Her Tradition

For the Love of Lefse 26

By Kim Raboin

Her Health

Women-owned practices seek to improve clinic atmospheres

By Sheila Helmberger

10Her Story

Horsin’ Around at the Train Museum

By Carolyn Corbett

Darlene Blazina is the founder of the Northern Trackers/Northern Minnesota Railroad Heritage Association in Crosslake, but she’s also known for her equestrian skills.

30

Her Business

The Thrill of the Hunt

By Sue Ready

Seven years ago, Julie LaValle and her daughter, Amy LaValle Hansmann, made a joint decision to leave their jobs and form a business partnership to develop their new vision, a thrift store called The Mercantile.

Kim Raboin continues the tradition of lefse-making started by her paternal great-great-great-great-grandmother, Berit Olsdatter Letrud, who lived to be 105.

36

Her Life

Brief but Spectacular Moments from a Long Life

By Jan Kurtz

Sister Adela Gross, a Franciscan nun from Little Falls, is celebrating her 75th jubilee of service. Read Jan Kurtz’s story spectacular moments.

Her Passion

Grow a Heart 38

By Sheila DeChantal

Preschool teacher Stefanie DeVries had a desire to “help children feel and express empathy and better understand how their words and actions can affect others” so she wrote a book.

Her Conversation

His Name is Connor 39

By Sarah Nelson Katzenberger

Writer Sarah Nelson Katzenberger talks with Kelli Johnson, a woman who lost her son, Connor, 15 weeks into her pregnancy. Nelson Katzenberger also shares her experience with grief and miscarriage.

Her Table

Fall is in the Air 44

By Sue Ready

These incredibly cozy and hearty fall recipes are perfect to satisfy your cravings with meals meant to be shared.

VOICE

BY DELYNN HOWARD

The leaves are turning. The air is getting more crisp. Before we know it, we’ll have snow and below zero temperatures. Oh, how I love the beauty of the four seasons in Minnesota!

You know what else I love? This magazine. Her Voice. By women. For women. About women. Every time I begin to prepare for a new issue, I wonder if we’ll have enough content. Will the stories we do be inspiring to others? I shouldn’t question it because without fail, Her Voice magazine is phenomenal each and every time.

We have stories to make you smile and stories to make you think. And of course, in some way or another, they’re all inspiring.

Her Voice photographer Joey Halvorson is always willing to take on any assignment I give her. With sometimes only a moment’s notice, she’s ready with camera in hand, to capture the amazing women in our community. I couldn’t do this without her and her positive can-do attitude! And I’m not the only one who feels this way.

The Brainerd Lakes Sertoma Club awarded its Service to Mankind Award to Joey in June. The Service to Mankind is the most prestigious award a non-member can receive and is awarded to someone in the community the club feels goes above and beyond without expecting anything in return.

I was lucky enough to be there when Joey was presented with this award. She was so surprised to be the recipient, but also so very thankful. Joey told Brainerd Dispatch reporter Sara Guymon, “It's pretty special to have a community say thanks. I love everything that I do. And I do say yes to everything. And I'm always sad when I'm not the one they're asking, you know, but to have people say, ‘Hey, thanks for being part of us’ — it’s a wonderful feeling.”

Joey, you are wonderful and I’m so very thankful to you, the Her Voice writing community, our readers and our advertisers.

Without all of you, and the women who agree to have stories written about them, this magazine would not be possible.

Thank you all and happy holidays!

The Intuitive Connector

BY SUE SMITH-GRIER

There is a story about a little African girl who decides to build herself a hut. She meets different animals as she gathers her materials and each one tells her that she cannot do something as important as building a hut. She smiles and continues gathering and then building. Meanwhile the animals decide to have a council meeting about the situation. By the time they reach their consensus that such a thing is not possible, the little girl has finished her hut and made a feast to celebrate with all her animal friends. She didn’t let anything stop her from achieving her goal.

Kathleen Krueger’s journey reminds me of this story.

Kathleen is a quiet, unassuming person. No one would suspect this woman of rather petite stature has done so much to help so many people in so many ways. She shared how she came to journey on this path of creating a way for herself then sharing her knowledge and experience with others.

“There was a time when I was unable or unwilling to reach out and ask for help, but others did that for me, so I wanted to do that for others as well,” she said. “I tend to recognize

Photos by Joey Halvorson

in other people what was inside of me during that time of needing somebody to come along and speak what was inside my heart and mind and to read it without me saying it. So, I feel like that’s what I do for others.”

Kathleen has the ability to recognize those who are feeling lonely or in need of a friend. She also can feel when a person is in need of resources she has access to.

Opportunities abound but many of us are either oblivious or we feel we cannot or dare not take advantage of them. Most times this has more to do with self-doubt than anything

Kathleen Krueger, and her dog, Mojo, sit at her painting area in her home.

else. Kathleen has the gift of recognizing opportunities and making full use of them and paving the way for others to get out of their own way and join her in the journey. Because of this gift, she has nurtured exploration in areas of writing and art for others who thought they had no talent in these disciplines. She has also launched careers in writing, not just in our area, but across the country in Texas, Kentucky, California, and Tennessee and across the globe in Ireland, England and the Philippines.

Starting with click-for-pay writing gigs which provided pennies, Kathleen saw an opportunity for more and was able to eventually launch her own writing business. She also paved the way for area writers to see themselves and their craft as an art form.

“As I started writing and got involved in writer’s groups, particularly the poetry group, Heartland Poets, I found out about Crossing Arts Alliance. When I got involved in that I wondered where’s the literature section? Where are the literary arts? Locally, writers and poets didn’t see themselves as artists,” Kathleen said. Kathleen submitted her poetry and encouraged others to do the same. As more writers and poets contributed, they became more connected to artists in the area and the literary arts became part of the local arts scene.

In her early years as a young mother, Kathleen met a special woman who was also a young mother. She was one of the women who came alongside Kathleen and fed into her when she needed a friend.

“She allowed me to come and sit with her in a very informal way and let me learn from her and experience her spiritual life with her. I have tried to keep that as something I am very aware of,” she said. When in church and out and about, Kathleen stays open to the unspoken call of others who may need a friend, guidance or just a listening ear.

“There is a great need, for particularly women, to know that they are being seen and given the opportunity to share who they are, what their struggles are and what their questions are. Sometimes after church service I may look around for a woman who is standing by herself and invite her for lunch or coffee. I’m not part of an organized ministry to do that. It’s just a ‘me’ thing,” said Kathleen. She sees this organic approach to the needs of others as more productive and genuine because it is coming from the heart. She feels particularly led to minister to people through prayer.

Kathleen Krueger works on a painting in her home.

"Avoid labels. People are people. Give people the chance to have their own opinions."

For those who feel inclined to be that unseen helping hand for others, Kathleen has some wise words: “Keep your eyes and heart open and push down the fear. I’m not a naturally outgoing person. Listen to the Holy Spirit. I depend on that completely that the Holy Spirit will stir my heart toward this specific individual. Then it’s up to me to say something to them and give them the opportunity to connect. Don’t be discouraged if someone doesn’t respond immediately. Sometimes they’re just not in the right place. Sometimes it will take more than

- Kathleen Krueger

one time of contact before a person feels a level of trust to go beyond saying hello. It’s a very Spirit-led thing,” she said.

She also encourages people to be open to listening to others who have a different viewpoint. Kathleen believes in making the effort to find common ground.

She says, “Avoid labels. People are people. Give people the chance to have their own opinions. Don’t feel like you need to correct. Be willing to listen to others and their opinions. You may learn something. Don’t assume that everyone under a label is the same. We are all

different individuals. It’s important to avoid the tribal mentality of ‘us versus them.’

In this day and age, we need more people like Kathleen to bring healing and beauty to our world.

Susan J. Smith-Grier, mother, grandmother, writer, storyteller, blogger, and Reading Corps tutor of early elementary kids, enjoys the changing seasons of Minnesota lake country. She lives for those moments when the possibilities light up the eyes of her awesome school kids and delights in the power of words and story.

Hor sin ’AroundTRAIN MUSEUM at the

BY CAROLYN CORBETT

Darlene Blazina, founder of the Northern Trackers/Northern Minnesota Railroad Heritage Association in Crosslake, is the person who insisted horses be included in a farm layout populated with cows. That’s not surprising. She doesn’t have just a passing interest in horses. She has an impressive list of accomplishments from her years as an equestrian.

Darlene, who will be 80 in October, doesn’t just smile and greet people at the train museum, though she loves that job. She also makes all the signs, posters, name tags, plaques and whatever else needs printing, for the club.

Cerebral palsy and the Epstein Barr Virus that paralyzed her arm don’t stop her from utilizing the computer any more than it kept her off horses in younger years.

As a young girl, Darlene would go to her neighbor’s, drag the old horse over to the fence and climb on with no saddle, no lead rope, no bridle and she’d ride. From that beginning, she took English riding lessons for a year at Hill Top Riding Academy in St. Paul. She begged for a horse of her own until finally her parents gave in. She loved King, who jumped even the highest fences and wouldn’t

Darlene Blazina smiles and greets people at the Crosslake train museum.

Photos by Joey Halvorson

stay home. Next came Duchess, a beautiful show mare who won every competition in which Darlene entered her.

Darlene helped organize several saddle clubs and, over the years, gave riding lessons to many local children and adults. In 1984, she rode in Minnesota’s state competition for the disabled and won four out of seven clas ses. The following year, she won a bronze medal and a silver medal at the National Championship for the Disabled. Then came an amazing opportunity. The North American Riding for the Handicapped Association organized a team to represent the USA in Sweden for the World Championship for the Disabled. The organizers had 250 videos of potential participants to evaluate. They could only choose 10 riders and one alternate. Darlene was chosen. One of the most exciting accomplishments of her life, Darlene says, was when her team won first place.

Fast forward to 1998, when Darlene passed the Hennepin County Parks Mounted Patrol clinic conducted by instructors from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She became a charter member of the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Mounted Patrol.

It was 2006 when Darlene went from riding horses to (vicariously) riding the rails.

Darlene Blazina, pictured with Star, went on a ride for Camp Courage in 1988. She said the temp was 103 degrees.

In March that year, Darlene posted a notice on the bulletin board of a hobby shop in Brainerd. She invited anyone interested in starting a local model railroad club to leave their name and phone number. Within a few days, five guys had replied.

On March 18, the six of them met in Ironton. The club immediately became a reality. They named themselves the Northern Trackers and decided on dues of $50.

It was only a week after that first gathering that Bill Bury, who had volunteered to be president of the club, received a phone call. His brother, Dick, wondered if Bill knew anyone around Crosslake who

belonged to a model railroad club. Dick’s brother-in-law had died, leaving a provision in his will for his model railroad equipment to be donated to a railroad club in the area. Bill called Darlene, to see if she was interested. “Take as much as you can!” she said. This was the first of many times in the Northern Trackers’ journey where everything fell into place perfectly. Darlene says they had $48,000 in equipment even before the club’s first official meeting.

This was only a week after they met in Ironton and the club didn’t have a building. Bill offered to put all the model engines, track, buildings and other railroad paraphernalia

in his storage building for the time being. However, his brother bought a building south of Crosslake and leased it to the Northern Trackers. The cost to the club? Taxes and utilities. No rent. Everything fell into place again. One of the members of the new club, who was an attorney, got them set up as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

The Northern Trackers, all at least 55-plus, spent 11 years in that building. Then new owners wanted the club to buy the building. Funds weren’t available for that. They found a building right in the heart of Crosslake, across from Zorbaz and next door to Craft and Cones.

The 4,000-square-foot lower level

The historic train club — 4,000 square feet on the main level, as well as the 4,000 square feet downstairs — is still a work in progress. But it is vibrantly alive with color, motion and sound.

villages and people in each layout, is both overwhelming and breathtaking.

was available to rent. Darlene remembers it took two full days to move in as much of their treasures as possible. That second night, the weekend of July 4 in 2018, the building was engulfed in flames. Zorbaz was just closing; they saw the flames and called in the fire. The fire inspector condemned the entire building. Nearly all the equipment and supplies were destroyed.

But again, everything worked out beautifully for them. The owner didn’t have the money to rebuild and offered to deed the land over to the Northern Trackers if they wanted it. They wanted it.The insurance money from the fire would enable them to get a loan and to build. Jonathon Grothe, a local architect, donated his services. When asked what they wanted the new building to look like, Darlene said, “A train station, of course!”

Construction on the new building started in 2019. And then COVID hit. The building project and creating layouts for the museum took nearly two years. When it opened in 2021, everyone was masked. But they came. Two thousand seven hundred people

visited the museum that year, despite COVID. Pushpins in a state map marked where Minnesota folks came from. Visitors from farther away put their pushpins in a United States map. The beginning of 2022 brought fresh maps, and by April there was already a pin marking a visitor from Alaska.

The historic train club — 4,000 square feet on the main level, as well as the 4,000 square feet downstairs — is still a work in progress, they say. But it is vibrantly alive with color, motion and sound. One’s first sight of the trains, tracks, villages and people in each layout, is both overwhelming and breathtaking.

Since the inception of the club, they have promoted railroad history, hosted tour groups, educated children and adults, assisted visitors with model engine repairs and built and donated railway layouts for senior homes and local businesses.

If you stop in, you will meet Darlene. She is at the club all the time. Every monthly board meeting. Every monthly members meeting. Every time the museum is open, Darlene is there meeting and greeting.

Carolyn Corbett wrote her first magazine stories during the five years she spent sailing the Bahamas. Back ashore, she continued freelancing and has over 250 articles published in various regional and national magazines. Carolyn was the professional English and writing tutor at CLC for 3 1/2 years. She loves cats, laughter, lattes and playing with words.

Patriot Ave. 218-568-5001

DEFYING GRAVITY AND stereotypes

Kimberly Rice, owner of Astro Knots: Dreads and Threads, wants to eradicate dreadlock stereotypes by educating customers and displaying well-crafted and maintained dreadlock works of art.

Photos by Joey Halvorson

BY ALYSON LEVIG

At the age of 25, young adults tend to discover new aspects of life they decide to incorporate into their own — and for Oregon native Kimberly Rice, that feature was dreadlocks.

“I learned I had quick hands for the work,” Rice said, after long hours of research mixed with practicing on friends’ hair as well as her own. By then she also enrolled in multiple online courses in Europe, Ukraine and

even Australia concerning her love of tight locks. The United States doesn’t offer as much.

“Actually, there aren’t many locticians who form the practice into a career, especially in the U.S.,” Rice explained. “There are only a handful more though in Europe.”

Plus laws regarding locticians can be different in each state.

“In Oregon, you need an actual

braiding license to do dreadlocks on another individual, which you can get without going to cosmetology school,” Rice said. “But in Minnesota, you don’t need the braiding license as long as you’re not cutting or dying hair.” Regardless of the state she is currently working in, Rice will take additional courses in order to be up-to-date on various certifications as it adds to her ever-growing portfolio.

Currently, Rice can be found within her store, Astro Knots: Dreads and Threads, on the corner of 13th and Oak Street in Brainerd. In the future, her store will expand into a boutique, fullservice salon and contain fun extras as well as a full-service team, which will be added based on customer desires.

“I want Astro Knots to express bright, colorful, alternative styles,” Rice said. “It also will always welcome uniqueness.”

Rice’s primary goal with Astro Knots is to eradicate dreadlock stereotypes by educating customers and displaying well-crafted and maintained dreadlock works of art. The store itself had been a dream of Rice’s since she discovered the passion for its staple: dreadlocks — and the name oddly enough, also came from a dream. The dream comprised an astronaut displaying dreadlocks while in space.

“It was while I was explaining the dream to my fiancé that the name came to us,” Rice said. “The astronaut brought the space theme while the dreadlocks displayed the knotting hair; thus, Astro Knots. It just puts a fun spin on the place.”

And both dreams may not have been possible if not for the Brainerd lakes area. Though it was an early goal for her to return to Oregon after her mother married a Pequot Lakes native, Rice learned the Brainerd lakes area accommodated who she wanted to be the most — an individual who pours her heart and soul into creating natural dreadlocks.

“My motto is no string, no wax, no damage,” Rice said. “Because some places and people will add those aspects. But I always advocate for the natural method which doesn’t damage your hair nor use any products.”

Currently, Rice is spreading her love and talent across the western United States by participating in an exclusive Astro Knots dreadlock tour, a type of tour Rice tries to

complete yearly, allowing her to expand her passion to others across the nation. Tentatively beginning in early September through the rest of the month, Rice will take Astro Knots through North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and finally Oregon while also visiting family. Rice will return through the same states in case a potential client missed her the first time around. To keep track of her progress, check out her Facebook and Instagram accounts as Rice will update them daily.

Alyson Levig is a part-time freelancer who enjoys being out in nature. Her writing reflects this passion as all of her work engages nature and the wildlife living in it from her point of view. When she’s not writing, Alyson can be found working full-time at Jacobson Excavating and Landscaping in Brainerd, which takes up most of her time. In the free time she musters, Alyson enjoys hiking, hammocking, kayaking or maintaining her garden at home with her friends and family. Alyson also maintains a blog in which she publishes some of her writing or hiking adventures, reflecting on the beauty of God’s creation she witnessed. Feel free to follow her adventures at https://pinesandprairies.com/.

A client’s hair is prepped to get dreadlocks.

Elevate Wellness

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and improved circulation, muscle recovery, decreased fatigue and soreness, and improved physical performance.

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Compare changes in body mass, body shape, body composition, and other insights that will track progress toward weight loss and wellness goals.

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Their Families: Shannon and Noelle live with their families in the Brainerd Lakes community. Outside of working at Elevate Wellness, they enjoy spending time in nature, laughter, and family time.

15133 Edgewood Dr. N #330, Baxter

HER VOICE

Celebrating + admiration

WOMEN OVER 90

In the summer 2022 issue of Her Voice, writer Jan Kurtz asked our readers to acknowledge, honor and lift up women aged 90 and older. The readers did just that.

In this issue, Helen Hamrick and Marion Erlandson are being recognized through submissions their family members made.

Readers, do you have an elderly woman in your life you want to lift up and honor? Her Voice wants to help you do that.

For possible inclusion in the spring magazine, email high resolution photos, the woman’s name, age and a short quip about them whether it’s something they always say or a piece of advice to delynn.howard@brainerddispatch. com or by mail to Her Voice, Attn: DeLynn Howard, 506 James St., Brainerd, MN 56401. Deadline is Jan. 13.

- Helen Hamrick

Emma Clarke

My mom (Helen Hamrick)

SUBMITTED BY COLLEEN LEBLANC

Four-year -old Baylee came twirling into the room and suddenly stopped. In awe and in a whisper, she said, “‘She’s here.’” She tippy toed, with Pooh bear over her arm, to Mom and said, “‘Hi Grandma. You’re really old,’” gave her a hug, threw her a kiss and danced away.

Baylee, like everyone who knows her, admires my 100-yearold mother, Helen Josephine (Nagel) LeBlanc Hamrick. She lives in her own home in Little Falls. Being a mother of nine children, 19 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild keeps her busy especially at Christmas time when she prepares a special box of gifts fitting for each person.

All of her eight living children (a daughter passed away in 2018) live within 16 miles of her. One of them dines with her and stays overnight every night — just for company. She likes to read the books everyone is reading, tend to her flower gardens and raise vegetables in a raised bed. Of course, I love Mom’s cooking and baking and try to beat her at card playing, but seldom do. She practices a strong spiritual faith.

I admire all of these things about her, but one thing I, and others, admire most is Mom’s adventuresome spirit. She will ride in the side-by-side to look for wildlife with her sons, go fishing whenever invited (which includes ice fishing), shoots a deer each season, loves searching for bargains at thrift stores and garage sales and always dresses in the fashion of the day.

When she was asked at her 100th birthday party what the secret to longevity is, she said, “‘It’s not a secret. You just keep living one day at a time.’”

Going After Her Passion For Engineering

Emma Clarke, EIT Civil Engineer in Training

Emma Clarke’s interest in construction and engineering began when she worked side-by-side with her dad, uncle, and now-husband at Young Excavating, a familyowned company started by her grandfather in Hackensack, MN. Having grown up learning about construction, she was curious how the projects were designed. It was no surprise,

then, the classes she enjoyed most at the University of Minnesota-Duluth aligned with civil engineering. She interned at Widseth for two summers, watching the projects she helped design come to life during construction. She was hooked. She joined Widseth full-time in 2020 and has since passed the necessary exams and will become licensed in the fall of 2024, when she fulfills the four-year experience

requirement. Of her career choice, Emma says, “If you are a young girl interested in the fields of engineering or construction, I would encourage you to go after it.

Don’t be intimidated. It’s such a rewarding career once you get into it.”

Helen Hamrick, 100, Little Falls, took a powered parachute ride in August, proving what her daughter, Colleen LeBlanc, said about her mother having an adventuresome spirit. Contributed

Marion Erlandson

SUBMITTED BY TONI ERLANDSON

I love this picture of my then 94-year-old mother-in law, Marion Erlandson, with her 24th great-grandchild. She loved preserving family heritage and would encourage all to love, enjoy and pray for their family.

I picked up your magazine at a Brainerd hotel while vacationing there from Fergus Falls. Thanks for the magazine and thanks for asking about over 90 year old women.

LIFESTYLE

+ holiday season

Indulge without the bulge

5 tips for the holiday season

BY MICHELLE OIE

The holiday season is right around the corner. What seasonal foods do you love to eat? I love to eat absolutely everything. How do I get through this season without having my clothes remind me of my willpower issues?

If it was just Thanksgiving and Christmas I might squeak by gaining only a few pounds but there’s a January football party, February’s Valentine, March spring break and Easter. Heck, throw in a graduation party and summer get togethers and I might as well indulge all year long.

There are foods I like and some I just don’t. My diet does not contain quinoa (I just learned how to pronounce it a few years ago), kale, kombucha or kefir. I love steak, potatoes, French fries and waffles. I put butter on my popcorn, prefer full calorie salad dressing and put more peanut butter on buttered toast than necessary. I eat goodies at parties and at our wonderful Minnesota State Fair. These indulgences do not occur every day, mind you, but I do allow myself the

joy of eating what I love once in a while. More often than not, I’m eating little meals of healthy foods throughout the day. Everything in moderation, right?

After almost 50 years on this earth I’ve managed to stay the same size as when I graduated high school. My blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol are good. My idea of working out is 30 minutes of cardio three days a week at 80 percent of my maximum heart rate. Strength training is important at least twice a week. I share this to encourage you that being healthy is not an “all or nothing” proposition.

Feeling good physically is a big deal. It positively affects our mental and emotional state. It helps us make better decisions, be more focused on others and makes us less likely to get injured or sick. I like who I am, I’m happy in life and in my body I am grateful and feel blessed.

Following are some tips I try to keep in mind so I can indulge without the bulge during the holidays. I hope you read something that empowers you.

NOTE: When it comes to your health and well being, please talk to your doctor about what’s right for you.

1. FOOD IS FUEL

It might seem odd but it’s important to ask, “What is my relationship with food?” How we see ourselves is reflected in what we eat. If I see myself as junk I’m more inclined to eat junk. If I see my value, I’m more likely to eat food that maintains my value.

It’s hard not to depend on food. I get it. Food never lets me down. Food is always there for me. Food doesn’t judge. Food never disappoints. Food provides a great temporary high. If I eat six cookies and a donut for breakfast, food will keep my secret. Food is a great friend and comforter but I can‘t forget that food could care less about me. It’s a one-way relationship. Always will be. Food, in its basic sense, is fuel for the body. If I eat more fuel

than my body needs, that energy is stored to be used later … as fat on my thighs.

When I was young, a guy on TV asked, “Why does one person eat a candy bar and have it go straight to their thighs and another eats it and it doesn’t affect them?” He explained the first person never exercises so their body turns the candy bar into fat fairly quickly. The second person is a marathon runner so the

body converts their candy bar to immediate fuel. He explained the candy bar to the runner was indeed “jet fuel.”

Are you giving your body clean, powerful fuel filled with the vitamins and minerals it needs? Or are you feeding it junk that will make your check engine light come on sooner rather than later? If it’s the latter, ask yourself why and get to the bottom of your relationship with food.

2. READ PACKAGING LABELS

I often read packaging labels, especially serving size. A small can of soup is three servings. Not because it will feed three people, but because they want the sodium to read 1054 mg per serving instead of 3159 mg for the whole can. You might feel good about eating chips that only have 120 calories per serving until you realize (after eating half the bag) that the serving size is six chips.

Take note of foods labeled “fat free” and “sugar free.” Food isn’t as tasty without sugar or fat so “fat free” may contain more sugar and “sugar free” may contain more fat. A sugar substitute might be an ingredient. I’ve read mixed reviews on the health benefits and side effects of sugar substitutes. Do your research. I realize some people need these products for specific dietary needs, but I try to stay away from “sugar free” or “fat free.” I figure my body knows how to process natural sugars and fats. It doesn’t quite know what to do with the substitutes.

Do you remember Olestra? It was a fat substitute used in potato chips. This sounds great but eating too much Olestra could cause, as the warning label read, “anal leakage.” Um, I’ll take my chances with real fat, thank you very much.

3. WATCH OUT FOR FAKE HUNGER

This one hits me at the holidays. “Fake hunger” is feeling hungry when I know I am not. I’ll eat myself silly at a holiday meal, be uncomfortable all night and not sleep well because of it. The next morning I feel hungry for a big breakfast. Wait… what?

I give my brain permission to override my stomach and decide, “Not gonna eat.”

"Why are you eating this?

Are you actually hungry or are you

just thirsty, tired, stressed or bored?"

- Michelle Oie

How do I know it’s fake hunger? Mine goes away in five to 10 minutes if I just wait. If I don’t want to wait, I drink a glass of water. Gone? It was fake. Real hunger won't budge after that glass of water. Believe me. The opposite of fake hunger is lack of hunger when I haven’t eaten all day. Again, I give my brain permission to override my stomach. I won’t perform well physically, mentally or emotionally on an empty stomach even if I don’t feel hungry. We need food to keep our battery charged and be our best.

4. WHY AND WHEN ARE YOU EATING?

I can’t tell you the number of times I eat when I’m not hungry. If I can just pause before eating something, there's a good chance I won’t eat it. I try to ask myself, "Why are you eating this? Are you actually hungry or are you just thirsty, tired, stressed

or bored?" Sometimes I reach for ice cream when I’m just thirsty and a cold glass of water would hit the spot. Sometimes I eat when I’m tired to get more energy when all I need is more sleep. And sometimes if I’m stressed or bored, I answer, “I’m eating because I want it and I deserve it! So be quiet, you!” Deep down I know I need to deal with my stress or boredom and not use food as a temporary fix but having a bowl of ice cream with decadent chocolate and caramel sauce when I “need it” may prevent me from chasing my husband around the house with a frying pan.

I try to balance my calorie intake throughout the day. A bad habit I get into is skipping breakfast, eating an apple for lunch, then overeating at supper. The next morning I’m not hungry due to the big supper the night before, so I skip breakfast, eat an apple for lunch and overeat at supper. There is a fine line between

decreasing your caloric intake and allowing yourself to get too hungry. Eating more daily calories in the morning allows more time during the day to burn those calories. Eating a large evening meal doesn’t afford as much time to burn the calories. Going to bed on a full stomach is very uncomfortable and affects my sleep, not to mention my dreams.

I have also been guilty of eating because I’m told it’s time to eat, by the clock. If not eating at meal time would be impolite to the host or to my guests, whichever the case may be, I make the tough sacrifice and eat.

5. DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP

There came a point in my life when I had to accept who I am, including my body. Growing up I desperately wanted to be smaller than my 5-foot, 10-inch frame. Never reaching my many impossible weight goals, I realized I had to accept the genetics involved with who I am physically. Be your own friend and stand up to the bully voices that tell you you're not enough.

Guilt is oppressive. Guilt steals joy. Why waste life being miserable when we can be joyful? This is a simple question but a lot of people, women especially, give up their joy for guilt when they wish their life away wanting to be someone they are not.

Sometimes that guilt can motivate us to do what we need to do. If so, then do it.

We are all made unique with different shapes and sizes. Our job is to take care of our body to the best of our ability. After that, we accept it as the gift it is. When was the last time you thanked your body for all it has done for you? I challenge you to be nice to yourself, take care of yourself the best you can, then forget about wishing you were someone you're not.

Happy holidays!

Michelle Oie is a Finding Purpose coach, inspirational speaker, writer and soonto-be author. Her passion is helping people find their unique life purpose. She loves Jeep Wranglers, peanut butter and hitting all green lights driving through Brainerd. Take The Happiness Quiz and learn more at www.michelleoie.com.

DeAnn Barry

BY SUE STERLING

At the center of the senior community

Photos by Joey Halvorson

If you are over the age of 55, you might know about The Center. It’s the one place in town you can make friends, learn something new, play cards/games and never get bored.

The director of The Center for 18 years, DeAnn Barry is doing what she loves best – serving older adults.

When DeAnn started in 2004,

there were approximately 700-800 members. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the membership was 1,600-plus. Currently the membership is about 1,400. The building on Kingwood Street has had many renovations to enable them to expand their programs. The Center offers many areas of interest: woodworking, art classes, sewing/knitting, games

of all sorts and pickleball and tennis. There are also two exercise rooms; this generation of older Americans are keenly aware health and wellness play a major role in staying active.

DeAnn said her greatest achievement at The Center is keeping up with what happens there. That’s understandable considering she has to keep track of 54 different activities each week,

The Center Director DeAnn Barry stands at a table of senior men enjoying coffee and doughnuts.

various monthly programs offered to the public and making sure the doughnuts are some of the best in town. They sell fresh-made doughnuts every Thursday morning.

I had the privilege of working for DeAnn prior to the pandemic and soon learned she was a very unique executive director. She did everything from mopping the floor and cleaning the kitchen, to organizing dinners and

speakers, hiring the staff and then putting on her best dress to be the master of ceremonies at the many functions held there.

How did the pandemic affect The Center? They were closed three weeks and then brought back programs when they were deemed safe. On the upside, that experience has made everyone more appreciative of what they have and know it’s a safer place for everyone who comes.

What is DeAnn’s vision for the future of The Center? She looks forward to upgrading programs to meet the desires of members as the dollars allow and plans unfold. The growth of The Center is in the hands of the members and the board of directors.

DeAnn grew up in western Minnesota in the little town of Tintah. She was raised on a family farm, learning the value of a hard day’s work. DeAnn said her parents and grandparents inspired her and provided balance to her as a child growing up on a farm. They were community-minded and willing to help out friends and neighbors whenever they saw the need. Today she maintains those values and is continually inspired by her husband, kids and grandkids.

DeAnn is the mother of three — two daughters and one son. She is the grandmother of five — four girls and one boy. Her husband, Jack, is retired now, and they live tucked in the woods in the Brainerd lakes area.

When she’s not at The Center, her interests include camping, gardening,

DeAnn Barry said her greatest achievement at The Center is keeping up with what happens there.

fishing, reading, drawing and painting, taking walks and enjoying the outdoors. The joys of her life include her faith, her family and her friends.

DeAnn doesn’t want to miss out on anything life has to offer and she’s got goals for the future. She wants to watch her grandkids grow up, perhaps take a college course to learn something different, travel to national parks, but most of all, to enjoy the beautiful area she calls home.

DeAnn said The Center makes Brainerd a better place to live. It shows aging individuals can live in the Brainerd area, participate, make new friends and enjoy their retirement here while being active. It not only gives older citizens a place to be active and meet other people with the same interests, but it also improves their mental and physical well-being, which in turn, makes for healthier families.

What message would DeAnn pass on to the people of this community and anyone who comes here?

“Come in, have a tour and see what The Center has to offer. If you just drive by or come for doughnuts, you really don’t have a sense of what happens here; you have no idea. You need to come in the door and find out what happens within the walls and beyond the walls with our 54 activities Monday through Friday,” said DeAnn.

“If you have an interest in something and we do not offer it, come talk to us and we will help you get it started here. Just come in the door,” she said.

Sue Sterling is a freelance writer, computer tutor, professional calligrapher and amateur photographer who lives in Brainerd. She is currently working parttime at The Center as their Outreach Coordinator. Sue is also the president of the Lakes Area Singles organization and a member of the Brainerd Area Art Guild, as well as the Lakes Area Writers Alliance. She has three sons and seven grandchildren. When she’s not at home at her computer or art table, she loves spending time with her family in the metro area.

Kim Raboin, left, and her mother, Janis, make lefse, a tradition which began with Kim’s paternal great-greatgreat-great-grandmother, Berit Olsdatter Letrud.

Photos by Joey Halvorson.

For the love of lefse

BY KIM RABOIN

As a young girl I was taunted by my uncles for something I had little control over. It happened during the holidays, when Thanksgiving and goodwill was supposed to abound.

The source of this teasing? Lefse. You might wonder how soft potato flatbread, loved by Norwegians everywhere, could elicit ridicule. It wasn’t really the lefse per se. It was my method of preparation. And maybe I had more control than I realized, but hey - I was just a little blond haired, blue eyed kid

celebrating her favorite ancestral food.

The holiday smorgasbords were predictable. So was my method of navigating them. I’d buzz past the Swedish meatballs, lutefisk, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, dressing, dinner rolls and creamed corn (thrown in for color), and make a beeline for that lofty pile of spotted perfection near the end.

That’s where my solemn lefse liturgy would begin. I’d carefully unfold a

piece, slathering butter evenly over the surface. Next I’d dump a mountain of sugar in the center and spread it carefully to the edges. Finally I’d roll it up tight, pick it up in the shape of an upturned smile (so as not to lose a granule of sugar out of either end), and shove it in my mouth.

That first bite of the season was pure Valhalla until some uncle would shout, “‘Hey Kim, why don’t you put a little lefse on your sugar?!’” Mom’s younger brothers were more like older brothers

to me. You can imagine how often I got mocked about my lefse to sugar ratio, especially when they had to wait in line for my painstaking performance.

I never took offense because I never doubted; more sugar made lefse better. Also, I wasn’t doing anything berserk like slurping down gelatinous blobs of dried, aged cod rehydrated in lye, then rinsed and boiled to waft through the entire neighborhood like so many dead fish.

I come from a proud line of lefse rollers and lutefisk slurpers on both sides of the family. In old Norway, groups of women went from house to house, rolling, griddling and flipping lefse over an open fire so each household had enough to last the year. It was baked crisp, then stored and moistened just before eating. Family lore about my paternal great-great-great-greatgrandmother, Berit Olsdatter Letrud, confirms this communal tradition. She was born in 1795 and lived to be 105. At the age of 103 1/2, she was still rowing across the Gudbrandsdalen River to help her close friend make lefse. I imagine her determination to keep rowing boats and rolling lefse kept her robust to the end.

Like many in the old country, most of my ancestors were tenant farmers. Their yearly supply of lefse was essential because food was often scarce for those tenants. Potatoes arrived in Norway during the 18th century. They eventually became a staple in the national diet and were also added to the flour, butter, cream

Ki’tttt

Kim’s great-great-great-greatgrandmother, Berit Olsdatter Letrud, lived to be 105 years old. Contributed

The Haugen kids: Renee, 2; Kim, 3 1/2; and David, 4 1/2. Contributed

and salt mixture that became known as potato lefse. By the 19th century, due to a population explosion and limited farmable land, thousands of Norwegians caught Amerika Fever. The remedy was a one-way ticket to the new promised land. My ancestors immigrated to central North Dakota. The hardships they endured

before arriving to America equipped them well for homesteading on the prairie. They proved themselves worthy of the free land by breaking up the hard soil, surviving the harsh winters and living in dugouts and sod houses with the hope of a better life. The back bending work was rivaled only by their mind-bending determination to keep plowing forward and rolling plenty of lefse.

My grandmothers became expert rollers like their mothers had been. I remember Grandma Evelyn being fastidious about everything; her lefse was no exception. Each piece had to be rolled perfectly round and thin. She baked them on her “modern” electric griddle, and nary a crumb dared fall on her spotless kitchen floor. Grandma Myrtle, on the other hand, wasn’t overly burdened by cleanliness. My dad recalls her rolling lefse at lightning speed in a cloud of flour that settled like rain on every surface in the kitchen. Her old cast iron cook stove (it started out black but probably turned white by the end of the session) served as her griddle.

When my grandmothers got too old, Dad picked up the rolling pin while Mom made the lefse dough. Each November their basement would transform into an impressive assembly line. My young kids and I were soon initiated into the annual ritual as helpers. The day Dad announced it was his last year, I stepped up to the rolling table. Mom and I continue making lefse together every holiday season and my grown children and grandkids are now the novitiates in the multigenerational tradition.

Rolling that ball of lefse dough into a round shape isn’t as easy as it looks either. First attempts usually look more like Africa, Australia, or in some cases, a great white shark. While seasoned pros develop a feel for the process, the deeply grooved rolling pin with a cloth sleeve (I inherited Grandma Myrtle’s hefty one), a proper griddle, potato ricer, pastry board and turning stick are integral tools of success. Just ask my son James. His first attempt included a wimpy plastic rolling pin wrapped in a kitchen towel and secured by rubber bands at both ends. His kitchen table served as the pastry board and a frying pan was his griddle. It was a sticky, doughy mess, but, according to him, the thick, misshapen lefse was still tasty.

Those holiday seasons long ago included many Norwegian desserts that appealed to the eye — rosettes, fattigman, sandbakkels, and krumkake to name a few. Whenever

Kim said, “Rolling that ball of lefse dough into a round shape isn’t as easy as it looks either. First attempts usually look more like Africa, Australia, or in some cases, a great white shark. While seasoned pros develop a feel for the process, the deeply grooved rolling pin with a cloth sleeve (I inherited Grandma Myrtle’s hefty one), a proper griddle, potato ricer, pastry board and turning stick are integral tools of success.”

I tried these desserts I felt betrayed. Surely some mischievous trolls were playing a game of bait and switch. They could try sneaking their creations into the dessert smorgasbord by adding a teaspoonful of extra sugar to the same five or six ingredients, but they couldn’t fool my refined young palate. I put a little lefse on my sugar and got the sweet dessert I wanted every time.

I find comfort in having a tangible, ongoing connection to our family heritage that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. Each year when I unpack the tools of my lefse craft, nostalgia stirs as I use the same heavy rolling pin Grandma Myrtle handled and the same recipe handed down from Grandma Evelyn. Past memories mingle with my hopes for the future as I thank God for another year to spread His

The day Dad announced it was his last year, I stepped up to the rolling table."

- Kim Raboin

Kim and her mom, Janis, continue making lefse together every holiday season and Kim’s grown children and grandkids are now the novitiates in the multigenerational tradition.

goodwill wherever I can. That includes not dissing anyone’s lefse choices.

Lefse doesn’t appeal to everyone. My French father-in-law wrinkles his nose whenever I offer a piece, and no amount of sugar can change his mind. But to all those who appreciate the flatbread our Viking forbears brought to the communion table of humanity, I pronounce a solemn blessing: “MAY THE NORSE BE WITH YOU!” To which all good Norwegian Lutherans (and any who wish they were) will mumble in modest reply, “And also with you.”

All for the love of lefse.

Kim Raboin is a bread

Oh, and a lefse

accurately – and

Writing

She also believes everyone has an interesting life story to share, even if they don’t know how to tell it. Kim lives in Brainerd with her husband Jim. They have seven grown children and eight grandchildren to date.

of the Hunt The Thrill of

Mother and daughter repurpose a way of life

BY SUE READY

While the pandemic has been a setback for many small business owners, Julie LaValle and her daughter, Amy LaValle Hansmann, wisely used the time to recharge, regroup and pay attention to some personal health issues. During this time they moved the location of their store The Mercantile from its location on Washington Street in Brainerd to a new building on Highway 371. They were closed from September 2020 to July 2021. Since the family also owns a storage unit facility next door to The Mercantile, they felt fortunate that business generated a steady income for the family during this time period.

The LaValle family are long time Brainerd residents. Julie and her husband, Dennis, previously owned North Central Medical Supply in Brainerd. A variety of health issues and the high stress of being in the healthcare field had Julie rethink

her lifestyle and look at other business options. Amy has worked in a variety of jobs in the nonprofit sector doing human service work and previously owned a specialty food store. She is immune compromised and found her health issues began to impact her job and family life raising two children.

So seven years ago, both women made a joint decision to leave their jobs and form a business partnership to develop their new vision, a thrift store called The Mercantile. As the name denotes, it’s an old fashioned store with a variety of treasures including vintage collections, retro decor, vintage jewelry and some new curated items. The inventory is kept high, clean, unique and affordable.

Becky Flansburg, an enthusiastic shopper, gives them a high endorsement.

“I adore vintage and all things weird and wonderful. The Mercantile is my favorite place to discover new treasures.”

Julie and Amy both have strong work ethics. Each has a different style and taste. Julie considers herself a minimalist

and brings to the table her money management and business skills. Amy embodies an artistic spirit. She enjoys creating the displays for their extensive inventory and making new things from something old to sell. Since they both look at inventory with a different set of eyes and possibilities, they are able to offer a variety of items for purchase. Amy enjoys collecting vintage newspaper ads and recently purchased a stack of old Brainerd Dispatch newspapers dating back to 1954. It will be interesting to see what creative old to new things she will create from this stack.

The store is closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. They use these days to look for merchandise at live auctions, online auctions and estate sales. They both concluded the rising costs of transportation and gas have made them rethink some of their out of town trips to find stock.

Julie and Amy have devised a system as a way to split money with a registered department code. If you are the one who priced it, you get the money from the price of the object from the sale. Pricing can be challenging and both concurred they want things to be affordable for their customers.

During the pandemic, Julie LaValle, right, and her daughter, Amy LaValle Hansmann, moved the location of their store, The Mercantile, from its location on Washington Street in Brainerd to a new building on Highway 371. Photo by Joey Halvorson

- Amy LaValle Hansmann

Thrift shopping is a way of life. It's a great mindset for people to embrace as a less expensive way to live and support local business."

The store is a collaborative venture as other family members have been known to bring in their own items to sell. And it's not unusual, at busy times, to find a family member helping out at the cash register. If there is a family event, they feel comfortable closing the store if needed. They both think the biggest challenge when working with family is to be clear about who is in charge of each task.

Amy notes, “When you add my dad and my husband to the mix, it starts to feel like there are four managers as we all have different ideas about how we should do things. So knowing who gets the final say in different situations is important since we can't all possibly agree on everything all of the time. We try hard to remember that work is not more important than our relationships with each other.”

Both women value the importance of customer service. Treating people with kindness and respect have always been important values in their family. Amy added, “We're all about building relationships. Getting to know the customers is one of the most rewarding aspects of our job. We even keep a notebook with customer requests and preferences to refer to when we’re on the hunt adding more treasures to the store inventory. Long time customers have become our friends.”

While Julie and Amy value the importance of social media to get the word out, it can be a challenge. With only the two of them running the store, they have found it hard to keep up and post frequently. “Word of mouth” has been their best advertisement.

Some words of advice for families working together and starting a business is to recognize each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Employ family members as needed to keep operations running smoothly.

Julie and Amy both want people to realize: “Thrift shopping is a way of life. It's a great mindset for people to embrace as a less expensive way to live and support local business. It also benefits the environment by keeping things out of the landfill giving items a second chance. You can usually find things that are more unique and better made.”

There's much to admire how this mother and daughter duo have formed a strong thriving business partnership based on mutual respect and support of one another.

Sue Ready is a freelance writer, poet, food writer, book reviewer and former middle school teacher.

is a member of the Northwoods Arts Council in Hackensack and one of the chairs for the Annual August Northwoods Art and Book Festival. Sue blogs at http://sockfairies.blogspot.com

recipes, up north living and travel adventures. Her book reviews are posted on Facebook under EverReady Book Reviews and on her blog.

Seeing Family Together is

the

Women-owned practices seek to improve clinic atmospheres

BY SHEILA HELMBERGER

Central Minnesota Dermatology, Key Wellness and North Star Family Medicine are new clinics in the Brainerd lakes area. All three opened within the past two years. They strive to offer a smaller, comfortable alternative to a traditional doctor visit, have local loyalty in their staff and services and all feature innovative advances in their practices. They are also all owned by women.

CENTRAL MINNESOTA

DERMATOLOGY

“Treating Your Skin Like it was Our Own”

“When I started out my career, I always envisioned myself being an owner,” said Dr. Kristina Britton, about opening Central Minnesota Dermatology in May of 2021.

A board-certified dermatologist, Britton was raised in Brainerd and her journey to open the clinic started at Potlatch. When the paper mill closed, she took advantage of a grant offered to help displaced workers go back to school. She finished her four-year degree and decided to study medicine.

After seven and a half years of working for someone else, she was ready to

branch out on her own. “It is always a little scary starting out on your own,” she said, “not just financially, but it is a big commitment to take on all aspects of opening and running a practice, from finding a suitable location to hiring an amazing staff.

Yes, I went to school to be a physician, but I didn’t know the first thing about the administrative aspects. It was a decision I thought about for a couple of years.”

She says there are a couple of misconceptions about dermatology.

The first is that you need a referral from a primary care physician to see her. No referral is needed. She says she is currently accepting new patients. The second is that the practice only deals in skin issues. “When people

hear dermatology, they typically think it has to do with just your skin, but we also specialize in hair loss and nail disease.”

An important aspect of her visit with patients is a desire to teach them about their skin condition, which allows them to actively participate in their healthcare.

She admits patients may feel more comfortable seeing her because she is a woman. For a full skin check, the patient takes off all of their clothes. It’s uncomfortable and going to a woman might offer a little extra comfort.

Central Minnesota Dermatology offers medical and surgical dermatology services. Skin cancer screening and mole checks are available as well as

Dr. Kristina Britton visits with a patient. Contributed

treatments for conditions such as eczema, rosacea, acne and warts. In-office procedures are performed including mole and skin tag removal and excision of skin cancers and birthmarks. The recent addition at the clinic of the Optimas device from InMode means aesthetic treatments are also now available to clients offering services such as laser hair reduction, non-invasive skin remodeling, deep tissue remodeling and intense pulsed light. These procedures help to restore skin, reduce the appearance of pigmentation irregularities and stimulate collagen that can help to tighten skin, improve elasticity and reduce the signs of aging. The clinic also offers neurotoxin and filler injections.

She opened the clinic in Pine River in May of 2021, and this past March, she opened the doors on the Brainerd location, on South Sixth Street. Britton also does outreach twice a month at the Little Falls clinic and twice a month in Verndale for the Tri- County Health System. Her commitment to help

smaller communities have access to the care they deserve is evident. Besides the Brainerd and Pine River clinics and the outreach work she does, Britton travels to Rainy Lake Medical Clinic one Saturday a month to see patients there. The effort is appreciated by those who would have to travel to Duluth or Bemidji otherwise. “So many people need dermatology services who cannot travel,” she says. “It is a way for me to help them out too. It is a jaunt and makes for a long day, but they are so appreciative.”

Central Minnesota Dermatology has already surpassed her expectations. Her staff has grown to include a clinic administrator, five receptionists and six nurses. She says when she finds another provider that is a good fit for the clinic, she is ready to expand the practice.

Britton is proud to offer excellent skin care to residents in central Minnesota. “I am from the Brainerd lakes area and have no intention of leaving. I plan to stay and help the community I was raised in.”

people need dermatology services who cannot travel. It is a way for me to help them out too. It is a jaunt and makes for a long day, but they are so appreciative."

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- Dr. Kristina Britton

KEY WELLNESS

Key Wellness in Crosslake is an aesthetic med spa owned by nurse practitioners Kelly VanVickle and Kelly Thompson. Before becoming business partners, the two worked together for over 20 years. They say they talked about owning their own clinic for years. Last October, they made it happen.

It was a huge leap for the duo, but with a high five, the women say there are no regrets.

Key Wellness offers primary care, IV therapy and a variety of aesthetics services including Botox, fillers, laser hair removal, body contouring, chemical peels and facials.

Infertility services have become a heartfelt focus for the two. Helping couples pinpoint the reasons they haven’t been able to conceive and helping them find a way to make that happen has become a specialty for the pair. They say they have helped thousands of ‘Kelly babies’ into the world.

“Being nurses, we both feel strongly about mind, body, spirit and treating the whole person and focusing on prevention,” says VanVickle. They describe the practice as ‘Eastern meets Western,’ incorporating holistic-type therapies as well as traditional medicine.

“We have both found that when we take the time to really sit down and talk with our patients and get a full history and understanding of what has been going on, we are able to avoid a lot of unnecessary diagnostics and testing,” explains Thompson. “Sometimes we can pinpoint things down to a change in lifestyle or diet that led to the symptoms they have, and we are able to try some other things before we order an expensive test. We can spend 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes and spend the time that we need to focus on prevention and treatment.” This allows them to be cost effective and can help their patients wisely use their health-care dollars.

The pair strive to make their clinic feel warm and not sterile. Instead of paper sheets and gowns there are regular sheets on the tables. Patients get warm blankets and robes. The staff uses aromatherapy to engage all the senses to make it feel comfortable and less intimidating.

Contributed

“That’s kind of where the aesthetic side of it comes in,” says VanVickle. She says she never saw herself as the type of person that would get Botox or laser hair removal but when she had a treatment done, she says she remembered looking in the mirror and her first thoughts were positive ones. “I liked the way I looked, and I realized I didn’t look so tired. Now I have the equipment and the skills to be able to help other women feel that way. We must switch the thought process of those sorts of procedures from vanity to self-care and self-esteem. When you look good, you feel good.”

Key Wellness has developed and sells their own line of skin care products and offers prescription skin care on-site.

Office manager Vanessa Bettis and licensed practical nurse Sandy Paskewitz round out the clinic’s staff giving Key Wellness clients 40 years of combined experience.

- Kelly Thompson

“Helping you Look, Feel and Live your Best Life”

Kelly VanVickle, left, and Kelly Thompson, co-own Key Wellness in Crosslake.

laugh everyday here,” says Thompson. “If someone loses five pounds and we’re working with them on weight loss we whoop and holler, and when we get a positive pregnancy test, we all whoop and holler then, too.”

has been very free and empowering to do what we’re doing,” says VanVickle, “We’re truly here for the patients and we feel that the approach that we’re using is the best way to do that.”

NORTH

FAMILY MEDICINE

“Guiding You to Health”

Dr. Kristy Lelcu says starting a new business in the healthcare field during COVID was interesting timing, but she had another hurdle to clear. “The hardest part was nobody knew what we did. There hasn’t been an independent practice in this area for about 30 years.”

Offering comprehensive outpatient medical care, once the word spread about the new clinic, patients were happy to give the new experience a try. “We opened in June of last year,” she said, “and saw our first patient on June 7. We saw 10 patients in the first month and by August we were up to 100.”

Opening her new clinic, she knew the atmosphere she wanted to create for her patients. “I wanted it to be welcoming. Nobody likes to go to the doctor. When you come in, we want you to feel comfortable. The staff is incredibly good about making sure that people feel that way.” Seeing patients of all ages, the clinic has examination rooms geared for male patients and one for children.

A board-certified family medicine physician, Lelcu started her career with a degree in psychology and worked in business before returning to college for medicine. Prior to opening North Star Family Medicine, she worked for Essentia Health and in urgent care in St. Cloud.

“For me, the biggest part of healthcare is the physician-patient relationship,” she said. “If I connect with you, then that will make your health better. You will trust me and I can make recommendations on what you should do. We say ‘guiding you to health’ because you are the one that is in control of your health. I cannot make you put things in your body. I can’t make you take medications. You are the one that must make decisions on how you want to live your life. You get to make your choices. I will

t r relationship"

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give you advice to stay healthy. There are a lot of different ways to approach patient care and everyone is a little bit different. We respect those individual differences.”

Routine physicals and sports physicals can be done at North Star Family Medicine as well as X-rays and blood work. The clinic supports and guides patients in healthy lifestyle choices such as weight management, the goal to stop smoking and to make healthy dietary choices. Various IV Hydration Therapies can be administered onsite that aid in basic hydration, hangover therapy, GI recovery and post workouts. Meyer’s cocktail is a popular option that offers a mixture that can reduce fatigue, seasonal allergies, chronic pain and stress.

The doctor strives for familiarity with her patients. Not happy with the typical 10 or 15 minutes with a patient, she says it is a way to help her patients reach their goals and make decisions that can aid in their care. Being a small clinic, she says they keep expenses in line and pass the savings on to the patients.

She is also a believer in supporting the local economy. “Ninety percent of what we do is tied locally, from our office supplies to the construction of the clinic. If we can get it

from the area, we do.”

North Star Family Medicine runs on flexibility and the knowledge that scheduling an appointment that is weeks out does not work for every situation. The clinic tries not to schedule too far out and aims to see patients in one to three days. “If you call me at 8 o’clock in the morning and have a bug bite, we will try to get you in that day.”

Lelcu says she is pleased and satisfied at the end of day with the work she is doing at the clinic, located in Wilderness Court, off Highway 77.

“Our staff all have strong ties to the community. We are all invested in improving health in the Brainerd lakes area,” Lelcu said.

Sheila Helmberger lives in the Brainerd area and is a frequent contributor to Her Voice.

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Dr. Kristy Lelcu opened her clinic, North Star Family Medicine, last year. Contributed

- Dr. Kristy Lelcu

BY JANET KURTZ

Brief but Spectacular Momentsfrom a Long Life

What do Mario Andretti (race car driver), Cesar Chavez (founder of the United Farm Workers Union) and Bello Nock (renowned Ringling Brothers circus clown), have in common? Give up?

Meet Sister Adela Gross — a Franciscan nun from Little Falls, now celebrating her 75th jubilee of service. Her “brief but spectacular moments” range from working among the Aymara Indians in Peru, joining mission efforts in China, teaching catechism to migrant workers in the Rio Grande Valley, and working among the circus, carnival, gypsy and race track circuit populations.

“I’ve had nuns in my life ever since grade

school at St. Joseph in Pierz,” Sister Adela recalls.

“Many girls wanted to become nuns then. I liked helping the Sisters by cleaning blackboards after class. In high school, I rode the school bus from Pierz to St. Francis High School in Little Falls, where I met the Franciscan Sisters. In my senior year, I decided to join them. The two years after graduation were spent in the novitiate, learning scripture, prayers and the Franciscan way of life,” she said.

Her novitiate was followed by a ceremony of profession of the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for a threeyear period, after which she professed

perpetual vows. “Our future ministry,” Sister Adela explained, “was determined by the superiors according to the strengths and talents they had observed during our training.”

After two years of college, Sister Adela was assigned to teach in the elementary schools of the St. Cloud Dioceses. “Many parishes were opening Catholic schools so the need for teachers was great,” Sister Adela remembered. “Of my 16 years as an elementary teacher, a most memorable year was when I had a class of 52 seventh and eighth graders at St. Mary’s Cathedral School in St. Cloud, before the opening of The Holy Spirit School. I had to go up three flights of stairs many times a day,

Sister Adela Gross, left, a Franciscan nun from Little Falls, performs a baptism in 1975. Contributed

usually with a very noisy group following behind. I got pneumonia that year. The heat didn’t go up that far. The kids would stand around the thermostat blowing on it, thinking that would change the temperature!”

In 1966, Sister Adela became a student herself at a Spanish Language Institute associated with the Catholic University in Ponce, Puerto Rico. After five months of immersion, she was commissioned to start work in Peru. She arrived in Yunguyo, Peru, a small town located on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

“We lived in the village, but the parish consisted of over 30 small communities scattered all over the altiplano,” she began. “Some Sisters were nurses, traveling out to homes or working in the one-room clinic. I taught catechetics and trained indigenous pastoral leaders. And, because of a shortage of priests, we performed many rites including baptisms, weddings and funerals.”

The Aymara beliefs are a syncretic mix of indigenous traditions and Catholicism. They believe the devil was released on Good Friday when Jesus died. To protect themselves, they place large rocks on the roads entering their villages to block the devil’s access.

“One Good Friday,” Sister Adela shared, “after attending the Way of the Cross in the plazas, Sister Donna Zetah and I drove off to attend a prayer service in another community in the campo. The road was situated between the mountain’s wall and a steep precipice. It was getting dark when, up ahead, we saw a large rock in the middle of the road. It was impossible to move,” she recounted, “but Donna surveyed the situation and announced she’d squeeze around it and it was my job to pray! We made it, but I couldn’t concentrate during the service, wondering how we’d get back. Miraculously, on our return, the (Easter) rock had been moved aside!”

Sister Adela also worked coordinating the Sisters in Venezuela, Peru and Colombia, often crossing into Bolivia and Chile. “My passport had so many tack-ons, it looked like an accordion!” she quipped. “But, after 11 years, it was time to go home. I took a sabbatical and traveled with my sister, Marie, to Germany to follow our mother, Anna Weidenbach’s, roots.”

Next, Sister Ramona, a nurse from Peru

Sister Adela traveled all over the world during her years of service and said her “passport had so many tack-ons, it looked like an accordion." Contributed

days, invited Sister Adela to join her in the Rio Grande Valley. They lived in a mobile home, Ramona tending the sick and delivering babies, while Sister Adela continued religious teachings in three small communities. Some people had small ranches, but most were migrants working in the fields harvesting vegetables and picking fruits.

It was after four years of community leadership in Little Falls and time with factory workers in Lufkin, Texas, that she embarked on a completely new direction. She began her new ministry in Washington, D.C., working with Catholic Missionaries around the world. It was during this time she became involved with groups fostering relationships between the Catholic church of the United States and China.

“A highlight of this ministry was a trip to China during which I visited with Chinese bishops, priests and nuns,” she added, “all of whom had suffered persecution and many imprisonments under the communist regime. Their heroic sacrifices inspired me. I felt like I was in the presence of living saints.”

Sister Adela moved on to the Catholic Bishop’s Conference where she became the Coordinator of Pastoral Care to People on the Move. One afternoon, she showed me a photo of circus clowns and their chaplains. Sister Adela smiled, “Once, the auxiliary Bishop of Boston was going to administer the sacraments during the Ringling Brothers performances at the old Boston Gardens. My nephew and I attended, but left the performance early to find the area where the Bishop would preside. While heading down a long corridor, we heard a thunderous movement behind us. Someone shouted, ‘The elephants are coming!’ We broke into a run, but the elephants were gaining. Up

ahead, a huge ladder was perched along the wall, so we wedged behind it while the elephants, some 30 of them, stampeded by. Another miracle!”

This ministry took her in many different directions including attendance at auto races where she met Mario Andretti and his family. Her main focus, however, was migrant workers. This took her to California where she had the opportunity to visit with Cesar Chavez. “This was a difficult time for him,” Sister Adela reported, “as he was facing a court trial over the lettuce boycott. He looked extremely tired and died the night before he was to appear in court at Yuma.”

In a recent conversation about the tragedy at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, Sister Adela asked if I was familiar with the migrant camp at Brooten, Minnesota. “Many migrants from Uvalde go there in the summers to help with the harvest. Sadly, I discovered a grandniece of one of the women working there for 25 years, was killed on that day, as well as other family members from that camp.”

Connections of love, empathy, joy, and yes, sorrow. We are connected through our stories. Thanks to Sister Adela’s stories, there are now only three degrees of separation between you, Mario, Cesar, and Bello among myriad others.

Sister Adela, we celebrate your journey and your connections. We wish you a joyous and blessed 75th jubilee!

Janet Kurtz's book, Northern Shores/Southern Borders: Revelations of a Bilingual Life, is available at local stores as well as online with Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It just became available as an e-book, so read away!

grow a heart

BY SHEILA DECHANTAL

In a world where you can be anything, be kind.

Stefanie DeVries is a woman of many hats. She is a mother, wife, teacher, photographer, blogger, graphic designer, as well as an author — just to name a few of her passions. You could say she puts her heart into everything she does.

One of Stefanie’s passions is children. She has been a preschool teacher for 10 years as well as a mom of two, her 14-year-old daughter Ada, and 11-year-old son, Ian. Stefanie instilled in her children the importance of being kind to others, seeing how unkind our world can be at times and understanding the importance of teaching these values from an early age. It was important for her to be sure her own children understood the power of words and how they could be used to lift up others, as well as themselves. Stefanie also began to share these same values in her classroom.

“I became passionate about the importance of fostering social and emotional learning in young children,” Stefanie shared. “I wanted to help children feel and express empathy and better understand how their words and actions can affect others.”

An idea began to develop to create a book that taught these values in a way that young children could understand. While Stefanie knew of other books with this concept, these books, she felt, were not for the age group she wanted to reach, between birth and 6 years old. She wanted to create something with simple illustrations and an easy-to-follow rhyme scheme.

The first draft of her book, “Grow a Heart,” began to come together during COVID. Stefanie laughed as she shared, “I had to teach myself how to use Adobe again.”

With positive feedback from friends, family and fellow teachers, Stefanie decided to use Kickstarter as her platform to launch not only the idea of the book, but to find supporters to help her reach her publishing goal. “I worked with my friend who owns and operates Rodney K Press Publishing to bring my book forward. She helped me to create a Kickstarter campaign to offset costs associated with bringing a book to print, and honestly, I was amazed at the incredible support that came not only from people I knew, but also many I did not — including supporters from

other countries. I would most likely use Kickstarter again for such a project,” Stefanie said.

The Kickstarter campaign was a success. For a $25 pledge, Stefanie offered a copy of the printed book. For a $30 pledge, customers would receive a signed copy of the book. With a goal of $5,000, she surpassed it with 103 backers of her idea. In September of 2021, Stefanie’s vision became reality as she held the hard cover printed copy of her book.

classroom setting, she has set up a large board which she fills with hearts with the children’s names on them when they do something that is an example of “growing a heart.” Some of the things that earn a heart are: setting a good example, taking turns, sharing and inviting someone to play or to sit next to them.

Once the book was published, Stef has been able to offer it for sale in several locations locally as well as on her website, mudandmagnolia.com, where she also shares both her and her husband Matt’s passion for photography, design, pottery and gardening.

Stefanie has put together a packet of classroom activities that complement the book including offering teaching and writing prompts, coloring pages and art activities. She is very open to speaking engagements, sharing the book, as well as the curriculum she has put together with other classrooms and groups.

So, what’s next?

Stefanie has ideas for another book, maybe two. As she was very shy as a child, “Grow a Smile” is a title for a book she is thinking about, and maybe, at some point, the “Grow a” books could become a series created for young minds as they grow to become the future of our community.

Sheila DeChantal Sheila DeChantal is an event coordinator, freelance writer and adventure seeker. She loves to plan and execute events that benefit our community. Sheila is the Friends of the Brainerd Public Library president, secretary on the City Library Board and vice president of Camp Benedict, a camp for those infected and affected by the AIDS virus. You can find her writing about life and books at bookjourney.net. In her free time, she enjoys biking, hiking, campfires, time with family and friends and snuggling up to her new grandbaby, Kylie.

Stefanie grew up in northern Minnesota and other than college, has continued to live in now central Minnesota. She feels fortunate to be able to raise her family in such a wonderful community. Photo by Joey Halvorson

His name is Connor

BY SARAH NELSON KATZENBERGER

Warning: This story describes events following a pregnancy loss that may be triggering for some readers.

October 30, 2022. Kelli Johnson has been anticipating this date for months. She tracks the passing days with an app which tells her what would be new with her baby’s development.

Would be.

After years of waiting and dreaming, Kelli found out she was pregnant only to suffer the devastating loss of her son, Connor, 15 weeks into her pregnancy. While pregnancy loss is typically seen as something that is grieved quietly, Kelli found herself, amidst her own grief, asking why don’t we talk about these things?

Kelli has always wanted to be a mother. She and her husband, Tim, have been married 11 years. They got married in their early 30s and dreamed of starting a family, but it just wasn’t happening.

“We just weren’t getting pregnant,” Kelli said. As it goes for many couples, IVF wasn’t an option for Kelli and Tim and by the time she was in her mid-30s, Kelli said she was coming to terms with the fact that she may never be pregnant.

“It was painful,” she said. “We were in a good spot.” Kelli said as time passed, she felt more content with the life she and Tim shared and that the idea of not having children was just something they accepted.

Then it happened.

In February of 2022, at the age of 41, Kelli found out she was pregnant. She said she remembers feeling symptoms immediately. “I’d never been pregnant before,” she said. “I knew something was different.”

Kelli and Tim Johnson suffered a devastating loss when Kelli miscarried their son, Connor, 15 weeks into her pregnancy.

Photos by Joey Halvorson

The struggle to get pregnant made the news all that more exciting for Kelli and Tim, but out of an abundance of caution they planned to follow the generally recognized guidelines of keeping their news quiet until they felt things were in the clear and Kelli had made it through her first trimester.

“You wait until you have reached the ‘safe zone’ and then it’s time to celebrate,” she said. “You don’t share you are pregnant until you are in the clear because if your good news becomes bad news, you don’t have to share the bad news.”

Four weeks after discovering her news, Kelli started bleeding and discovered she had a subchorionic hemorrhage bleeding beneath the chorion membrane that encloses the embryo in the uterus).

“I was shocked, very scared,” she said. “We had developed a life that we thought was so blessed. We are OK with being childless and suddenly everything felt so fragile.”

Kelli said she was closely monitored, limited movement and cut out exercise. She had several ultrasounds over the next few months to monitor the spot that was of concern and through the first 15 weeks, all looked well. Then on May 10, Kelli said she went in for a routine visit with her physician. After some difficulty finding the baby’s heartbeat, Kelli’s doctor sent her for an ultrasound. Within a few minutes an ultrasound confirmed there was no heartbeat.

Kelli was alone. “It was just a normal check-up so I didn’t think Tim would need to be with me,” she said.

The lack of conversation about pregnancy loss makes the next steps after finding out about an impending miscarriage very difficult. Miscarriage doesn’t just end with the diagnosis. It takes days, sometimes weeks, for the body to respond.

After hearing her devastating news, Kelli was suddenly faced with a choice — a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure or endure labor.

“I chose labor,” she said. “I wanted to feel what it felt like to go through that — it was awful.”

Kelli went home that night and slept in her own bed and as she described, “screamcried.”

“It was just excruciating,” she said.

Kelli Johnson chose to deliver her tiny 15-week-old baby — Connor Timothy Johnson. He weighed 0.3 oz and measured 4 inches in length. Kelli said their nurse let them hold him as long as they wanted. And they did. Contributed

The next day, Kelli went back to the hospital and prepared for delivery. After some anxiety, complications with fever, several hours later, she delivered her tiny 15-weekold baby — Connor Timothy Johnson. He weighed 0.3 oz and measured 4 inches in length. Kelli said their nurse let them hold him as long as they wanted. And they did.

They spent the night in the hospital in the OB wing. Kelli said a pastor visited and blessed their family. “It was very sweet,” she said. The funeral home came and got Connor.

“Tim got to walk him out,” Kelli explained. “But it was really sad, because of my epidural, I couldn’t walk, so I couldn’t walk out with them.”

“The next morning, we ate breakfast, saw the doctor and we walked out of the hospital childless.”

After her miscarriage, Kelli said she asked all the questions many women ask themselves — Did I exercise too much? Did I eat something I wasn’t supposed to? Did I DO something to cause this? Her questioning sent her into a bit of a tailspin.

Kelli’s physician at Lakewood Hospital in Staples, Dr. Carol Uhlman, assured Kelli there was nothing she could have done to cause or prevent her loss.

In her 25 years of practicing medicine, Uhlman shared the stigma around miscarriage and the lack of open conversation regarding a difficult topic that is so common, has been one of the most frustrating things in her career.

“Women are nurturing — we take this on as our responsibility,” she said. “If something happens it feels like a sign of our failure.”

Uhlman noted the education around what actually happens when a woman miscarries is important because the process is not as black and white as many people assume.

“It’s very difficult,” Uhlman said. “There is often a lot of waiting and excruciating decisions.”

Twenty percent of pregnancies are not viable and end in a lot, making miscarriage an extremely common medical diagnosis.

“We wait and plan and when it doesn’t go as planned, we are devastated,” Uhlman said.

Within a few days after saying goodbye to Conner, life began to return to normal for Kelli. Tim worked from home; they ran

errands together. “I think we were both just in shock — we were just numb,” she said.

Kelli, who works in the mental health field, said she knew grief looks different for everyone. “Eventually Tim went back to work and I ‘scream-bawled’ for two weeks,” she said. “I wanted to be with someone that had been through a miscarriage and could tell me what they had gone through — I just

wanted that connection to normalize what I was going through. There was nothing available like that.”

Kelli said she started to recognize her grief and her drastically changing hormones were deeply affecting her ability to participate in normal life. “I felt isolated and alone. I didn’t want to be a part of social events. I couldn’t even have a normal conversation with anyone,” she said. “I knew I needed some help.”

She reached out to her doctor and told her she felt that maybe she needed to get on some form of medication to help balance things. In addition to accepting help through medication, Kelli reached out for therapy the same week.

“Mental health and medical health go hand and hand,” she said. “You cannot really heal one part of you without addressing the other.”

Kelli’s employer covered the cost of a number of therapy sessions for Kelli — something she says she is extremely grateful for. Kelli said her friends and family were available and supportive, but she found herself editing what she shared with them.

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"Mental health and medical health go hand and hand. You cannot really heal one part of you without addressing the other."

Kelli said that though this year has been tough, she and Tim still feel so blessed by the life they live. “We had a good life before and we have a good life now,” she said, noting that mutual communication and continued love and support for one another has kept their marriage strong. “That has truly been our key to (making it through) this.”

“I have an amazing support system,” she said. “But I think being able to talk to someone in private and talk at a deeper level about my emotions has been really important.”

A good support system is key, and Kelli said, looking back, she wishes she would have let her friends and family in on her news sooner.

“With any pregnancy, you are scared — there are a lot of nerves. I could have gotten reassurance right away from my loved ones,” she said. “We keep things quiet instead of saying, ‘Hey, I’m pregnant, support me.”

Kelli said her grief, and Connor, have changed her.

“I look at life differently now,” she said.

She hopes to see the conversation around miscarriage become more open and education more prevalent and for things like medication and therapy to become a more accessible help.

“Not everyone knows how to recognize grief or even ask for help,” she said. “We have to work harder at making that an easier conversation to have — it’s OK to not be OK.”

Dr. Ulhman said she has seen a great deal of positive change in the conversation about miscarriage and pregnancy loss.

“We have made some strides, but not nearly enough,” she said. “Every little thing we can do to bring to the forefront of conversation just helps other women.”

Uhlman encourages women to talk about their pregnancies earlier and notes a good support system is important whether the news is good or ends in grieving.

“You want people to support you and surround you when you are grieving,” she said.

Kelli and Dr. Ulhman have maintained contact in the months following Kelli’s loss. Uhlman continues to be a source of healing for Kelli as she navigates the next chapter.

She said she thinks of Connor every day.

“I wonder what he would have looked like,” she said. “How tall would he have been?”

Kelli said that though this year has been tough, she and Tim still feel so blessed by the life they live. “We had a good life before and we have a good life now,” she

said, noting that mutual communication and continued love and support for one another has kept their marriage strong.

“That has truly been our key to (making it through) this.”

Kelli is still counting the days until her due date. October 30. She doesn’t expect the day to be the end of her loss, but she knows reaching it and acknowledging it is another part of her healing.

“Grief is complicated,” she said, “Healing has no beginning or end — it’s just kind of constant.”

MY

I find myself writing this story about pregnancy loss for the second time about a year after my own second miscarriage.

It’s never not devastating.

It’s never not life changing.

The day I found out I had a “threatened miscarriage,” I had a panic attack in my doctor’s office. I literally could not breathe. I could not believe this was really happening again.

I remember being on the phone with my best friend later that day and without even having time to stop myself from saying it, I sobbed, “What if something is wrong with me?”

It’s a question that would haunt me for the weeks and months that followed.

My first miscarriage was devastating; my second completely knocked me off my axis. I couldn’t sleep. I had horrible headaches. I also had several other panic attacks. I felt like nothing was within my control.

I think the most gut-wrenching part was that while it was clear from the ultrasounds my baby had died, my body did not catch on right away and I was left with this feeling my body was trying so hard to support this pregnancy and couldn’t. It was a strange feeling of self-pity I couldn’t shake. That led to some fairly common, but scary, after effects.

In the weeks that followed, I faced anxiety and depression like I had never dealt with before. Honestly, until this loss, I didn’t know I had ever dealt with anxiety. One day, last October, my doctor — who is also a great friend (the perks of small-town life), texted me to see how I was doing.

I started to respond, “Doing fine.” And I stopped myself.

I wasn’t fine.

I knew I wasn’t fine.

I took a deep breath and told her I thought something was off. That I wasn’t sleeping, and I didn’t want to be around anyone, and I would go from feeling completely numb to not being able to stop crying.

She called me immediately and asked if we could have coffee the next day.

We did.

She let me be super, scary honest. She asked good questions. Most importantly, she said, “‘OK, Sarah, we need to deal with this, and you are not going to do it alone.’”

For the first time in my life, I started a

relationship with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (antidepressants). I sought counseling. I faced the really dark parts that come with this profound, but rarely talked openly about, loss. My experience had stopped me in my tracks. I biked a lot. I spent a lot of time journaling. And just being quiet. And, slowly, but surely, the intense pain has dulled. It still takes my breath away from time to time, but I know I can be honest about that, too.

When Kelli reached out and wanted to share her story, I knew I would need to, again, share mine. Kelli told me she wanted people to know what she went through because she knows so many women face this type of grief alone or at least feeling extremely lonely. I told her about this book I read called, of all things, I had a Miscarriage by Jessica Zucker. Zucker is a psychologist who had her own horrific pregnancy loss and realized she couldn’t just muscle her way through it. She needed help. And then she wrote a book about it so that other women would know it’s common, yes, but it also matters. The grief is real and it’s worth acknowledging.

We must be willing to talk about hard things and to get really honest with ourselves and those we trust when grief gets to be too much. And if someone we love is grieving a loss, we must be brave enough to ask them

"Let's make it normal to talk about this."

- Sarah Nelson Katzenberger

how they are really doing — to offer a safe place for them to say out loud, “I’m not OK.”

That’s my hope — that Kelli’s story and her willingness to say, “Let’s make it normal to talk about this,” will spark bigger conversations, so that women can look each other in the eye and say, ‘I see you and I’m here for you.’

Sarah Nelson Katzenberger is a displaced Californian who had no idea there were four seasons until she moved to Minnesota. She is a former missionary, law school drop-out, high school teacher and award-winning journalist with the Brainerd Dispatch. She continues to write for local and national publications and provides unsolicited grammar correction as needed. Sarah lives in Brainerd with her husband Chad and their three baby Vikings, Ellis, Meredith and Truett.

Fall is in the air

BY SUE READY

The leaves are changing to festive orange, reds and yellows. A slight noticeable chill is wafting through the air. As the season changes, so do our palates and our kitchen routines. We look for warm and comforting meals.These incredibly cozy and hearty fall recipes are perfect to satisfy your cravings with meals meant to be shared.

Cook’s Notes: The perfect soup for using leftover turkey though chicken works as a great substitute.

Add more water or chicken broth the second day when reheating as the rice absorbs the liquid. Using apple cider instead of water adds just a bit of sweetness to the soup. The recipe serves six. If using wild rice the cooking ratio is 3 1/2 cups water to 1 cup uncooked wild rice. A time saver is making the rice up before and refrigerate until needed.

Cooking time: 1 hour.

+ DIRECTIONS:

Sue Ready is a freelance writer, poet, food writer, book reviewer and former middle school teacher. She is a member of the Northwoods Arts Council in Hackensack and one of the chairs for the Annual August Northwoods Art and Book Festival. Sue blogs at http:// sockfairies.blogspot.com with recipes, up north living and travel adventures. Her book reviews are posted on Facebook under EverReady Book Reviews and on her blog.

Cook wild rice or wild rice blend and set aside. You will need 3 cups cooked.

Reserve 1 cup broth for later, if soup becomes too thick.

In a soup pot, melt 1 tablespoon butter. Saute mushrooms, onions, celery, carrots and minced

+ INGREDIENTS:

3 cups cooked long grain brown and wild rice blend or wild rice

10 cups chicken broth, low sodium, divided 1/4 cup butter, divided

1 cup each fresh mushrooms, onions, celery, carrots, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon each herbes de Provence and parsley flakes

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/3 cup flour

1 cup each water and apple cider

1/3 cup half and a half or cream

1/4 cup dry white wine

3 cups shredded cooked turkey or chicken Salt and pepper as needed

garlic stirring 3 minutes and then cover until tender. Set the mixtures aside and continue using same pot.

Add in rest of butter, melt and whisk in flour and cook 1 minute or until bubbly.

Whisk in 9 cups broth, water and cider, spices, mustard and cook,

stirring often until slightly thickened.

Simmer 30 minutes on low uncovered.

Whisk in wine, cream, mushroom mixture, turkey or chicken and cooked wild rice or wild rice blend.

Cook on low heat uncovered, 15 minutes more. (Do not let the mixture boil)

Cook’s Notes: A delicious loaf to add to your fall and early winter baking with a cinnamon taste, bursts of tart and tangy cranberries and the added crunch of walnuts. It’s the perfect season for this bread as cranberries, oranges and walnuts are plentiful. Buy a large orange and squeeze it fresh to get the best juice for this recipe (grate the peel first). You can easily prep the cranberries by pulsing them a few times in the food processor, or manually cut them in half first. I used frozen ones so they were easier to cut.

Recipe inspired by onceuponachef.com and makes one 9x5-inch loaf (about 10 slices).

Cooking time: 1 hour.

Cook’s Notes: A hearty egg bake is easily made ahead to keep your holiday entertaining a little less hectic. Croissants take the place of cubed white bread in this stylish update of a traditional breakfast casserole. Honey and mustard add just the perfect sweet-savory touch to this dish.

Cooking time and preparation: 1 hour.

+ INGREDIENTS:

4 large croissants or 8 mini croissants, torn into 2-inch pieces

2 cups diced cooked ham pieces or deli ham

1 1/2 cups Swiss cheese or cheddar cheese grated or a combination of both 6 large eggs

1 1/4 cups half and half

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon each parsley flakes and Italian seasoning

Optional 1 1/2 cups diced broccoli florets

+ INGREDIENTS:

1/3 cup fresh orange juice

2 teaspoons grated orange zest, from one orange

2/3 cup buttermilk

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Saigon cinnamon or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped coarse

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

+ DIRECTIONS:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray bottom of 9x5-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together orange juice, orange zest, buttermilk, butter and egg.

Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda.

Stir liquid

ingredients into dry with rubber spatula until just moistened.

Gently stir in cranberries and nuts. Do not overmix.

Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan and spread evenly with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.

Cool loaf in pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool at least one hour before serving.

+ DIRECTIONS:

Grease a deep dish pie pan or an 8x8 glass pan.

Arrange half the torn croissant pieces in a baking dish, top with half of the ham pieces, half cheese, and half broccoli (optional).

Repeat with remaining croissant pieces, ham, broccoli and cheese.

In a blender, mix half and half, eggs, mustard, honey and spices. Mix well.

Slowly pour egg mixture over croissant mixture.

Use a sheet of wax

paper to press croissant pieces into the egg mixture to moisten completely. Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 8 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

Remove from refrigerator one hour before baking time. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake casserole covered 35 minutes.

Uncover and bake 1520 minutes more or until browned and set.

Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Locally Owned - Quality Service

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Sat-Sun: Closed

My goal with Thairapy Lash & Beauty Bar is to help women unveil the fullness of their value through self-care.

Thairapy Lash & Beauty Bar originated during the pandemic 2020. It became clear to me that I needed be initiative-taking in my own self-care in the form of challenging myself and to keep growing and helping others.

Beauty is so much more than skin deep, it is about embracing life's changes and feeling good and healthy inside and out. Thairapy was exactly that for me and it can be for others as well.

Maintaining

psychological

is the beginning of the journey

healing, happiness,