Marilyn Campbell

Discarded Electronic Equipment Helps Seniors in Need

Handheld devices keep the elderly in contact with healthcare providers, family and friends.

On a recent summer morning, a group of college students gathered in Chantilly to sort and sanitize handheld devices ranging from smartphones to tablets.

A COVID-19 Summer Gives Time for Reading

From current events to mysteries, books can fill time and lead to lively family conversations.

During a recent 12-hour car ride to their summer home in Michigan, the Leland family finished two books, “Bridge To Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson and Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

A Summer Oasis

Pool house evolved into a space that incorporates the beauty of the outdoors into the interior design.

Transforming the expansive backyard into a summer oasis by designing a pool and adjacent pool house.

Using Holistic Practices

How Yoga and Meditation can help ease anxiety over racial injustice.

Before the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent stay-at-home orders, Kesha Davis’s weekday evening routine included picking up her fifteen-year-old son at a bus stop in Old Town Alexandria.

Seniors Join Protests for Racial Injustice

Remembering the past to inform the future.

Long before there was a Black Lives Matter movement and smart phones that captured police brutality on video, and long before throngs of people filled streets around the world to protest racial injustice, there were smaller crowds of pioneers fighting to tear down barriers imposed by Jim Crow laws.

Discussing Racial Injustice with Children

Books and visual art can help begin difficult conversations.

As horrific scenes of police brutality and images of passionate protesters fighting for racial justice are ubiquitous in a smartphone and social media obsessed society, parental control over information that children receive can be limited. Framing and discussing such issues can be equally as challenging.

Summer Blooms

Heat tolerant flowers that add bursts of color to gardens and landscapes.

As spring flowers begin to wither under the heat and humidity of summer, the vibrant blooms that once graced yards and gardens begin to fade. It’s during this time that landscapers and gardeners rely on a bevy of color-rich flowering plants that are hearty enough to stand up to the relentless summer sun.

An Arlington Kitchen Gets a Facelift

From dark and dated to light and modern.

When an Arlington family grew tired of their home’s cramped, dark kitchen, they turned to interior designer Elena Eskandari to modernize and expand it, while creating a space for entertaining.

When One Drink is No Longer Enough

Increase in alcohol consumption during COVID-19 worries some.

Just three months ago, her evening routine was simple. She made dinner for her 10- and 12-year old children, and after they’d taken showers and gone to bed, she settled onto the sofa in her family room with a book and a glass of wine.

Organizing Boxes of Old Photos

The daunting project can be broken down into smaller tasks.

Stacks of boxes containing thousands of photographs line the walls of the basement in Alice Denson’s Fairfax home. For the past five years, the 73-year old mother and grandmother has promised herself and her family that she would begin the monumental task of sorting and organizing the photos.

Parental Burnout on Distance Learning During COVID-19

How to survive until the end of the school year.

Whether deciphering algebraic equations and trying to teach them to a disinterested child or helping with a science experiment during a Zoom conference call, for parents who are trying to homeschool their children during the current COVID-19 pandemic, the struggle is real. Last fall, some parents developed a plan to deal with the academic burnout that occurs as the school year neared an end. Little did they know that the plan they created would be themselves.

Island Vacation Inspires Kitchen Remodel in Alexandria

A dark and cramped kitchen gets sunny makeover.

During a vacation to the Maldives, Lesli and Daniel Creedon found inspiration for the design concept behind their newly remodeled kitchen. The family, which includes two 15-year-old children, wanted to capture the aesthetic of the powder-white sand and glass-blue lagoons that characterize the strand of islands.