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SEE.SAFE.SMART: We cross here; watch for us

Throughout New Ulm, the Heart of New Ulm and the Safe Routes to School Action Team are working hard to promote walking and biking as a form of transportation and recreation. There are so many benefits associated with walking and bicycling that it seems like a no-brainer. However, if people don’t feel safe doing either, they most likely won’t do it. Whether walking or driving, we all need to be good role models to ensure safety for everyone — and especially our children who are walking to school. In surveys conducted by the Safe Routes to School Action Team, New Ulm parents have ...

Trust, space and sisterly grace

Dear Annie: My fiance, “Mark,” and I have been together for four years and are set to get married next spring. We live together in a small house we bought last fall. For the most part, things are good. But lately, something’s been bothering me. Mark has a weekly “guys’ night” every Thursday with his two best friends from college. It used to be every other week, but now it’s weekly, and sometimes even more often. I’ve asked if I could come by to say a quick hello or drop something off, and he always says not to -- it’s their “tradition.” Last Thursday, I found a ...

Prioritize your well-being

August is National Wellness Month, a time to focus on self-care, stress management, and building healthy habits that support overall well-being. In our busy lives, it’s easy to put ourselves last, but caring for our physical, mental, and emotional health is essential—not a luxury. Even small, intentional steps toward wellness can boost energy, improve resilience, and help us show up as our best selves for the people and commitments that matter most. This month invites us to pause, reflect, and invest in ourselves. Neglecting self-care impacts both mind and body. Chronic stress, ...

Parental panic

Dear Annie: My father has always been a deeply anxious man. If there is nothing to worry about, he invents something. Growing up, this often meant high-stress evenings when my siblings or I were out with friends or running late. I still remember one night when my dad woke my mother in a panic, convinced my brother had been in an accident. She calmly asked what time he was due home. “Midnight,” he said. It was only 10:30 p.m. My mother, now gone, had a gift for staying calm. But at 93 years old, my father is still ruled by his worst-case-scenario thinking. And now, that constant ...

An airhead at an air show

The blue Helldiver — a WW II single-engine dive bomber — was taxiing placidly down the runway when its wing abruptly dipped. The airplane came to a halt at an unsettling angle. Its right wheel had strayed off the paved runway and onto its border, which had been turned into mush by a lengthy spate of monsoon-like rains. “This is wonderful!” I thought. “That’s exactly the kind of thing that might have happened in real life. This is so authentic!” Thus began the Victory at Sea airshow, held recently at the Fagen Fighters WW II Museum located near Granite Falls. The ...

A doctor in training with a family in crisis

Dear Annie: My daughter “Theresa,” now 46, always wanted to be a doctor. I divorced her father when she was 4 and her sister was 2-and-a-half. When it came time for college, her father refused to help, and I couldn’t afford to pay for it as a single mom. Determined, Theresa joined the Army and used the GI Bill to earn two undergraduate degrees while working full-time as a medical technician. She then earned her Master of Science with scholarships and loans. During this time, she got married and had a son, now 7. At 39, while pregnant, she applied to medical school. She used ...