Having A Thankful Heart

November 20th, 2017
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Door Decoration

As we slide into this holiday week of Thanksgiving, my thoughts turn to the simple idea of setting aside a day to show gratitude.

Yes life is crazy, messy and unpredictable.

Yes the holiday season can be painful and a stinging reminder of a terrible loss or a difficult family situation.

But you can sit yourself down and listen to your heart and acknowledge your limits.  Be aware of what you need before you join family and friends for any holiday event.  Express your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person.  Change up your expectations and instead focus on one … Read More

Rapper Macklemore Hangs With His Grandmother

July 13th, 2017
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Macklemore and his Grandmother Celebrating Her 100th Birthday Hi There My Resilient Friends! If you are searching for something that’s just downright sweet and awesome, then you have stop what you are doing right now and  watch this new video from Grammy Award winning Hip Hop artist Macklemore. These days, it can feel more and more as though we are living in complicated, confusing times. But Macklemore reminds us in this new video — that he affectionately filmed with his grandmother who is celebrating her 100th birthday — that life is all about one basic emotion and that is: L.O.V.E.… Read More

5 Great Places To Laugh

May 30th, 2017
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There are a handful of people in my life who can make me laugh so hard that I CAN NOT get my breath and one of them is my brother, Scotty. He has an unbelievable sense of humor.  I’m not telling tales out of school when I say that hands down he does the best imitation of our mother and the fact that he usually does it in front of her makes it even funnier.  Not to worry.  Our Mom thinks he is funny too and she always laughs at his skits, especially the ones featuring her! My brother can… Read More

Me As Buddy The Elf

December 20th, 2016
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Photo Courtesy of Country Living This holiday season I feel a bit like Buddy from the popular Christmas movie, Elf. Remember the scene where Buddy the elf, who is magically played by Will Ferrell, travels from the North Pole to New York City to find his father and explains to his new family that elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup? That would be me this holiday season.  Except for the candy corn, which I have never liked because I think it tastes like some kind of plastic or wax.… Read More

Peace Out

September 29th, 2016
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We live in crazy times my friends, with election talk this week seeming to bombard us everywhere we go. Since I live in Washington, DC, where politics and government are considered our main industries, I usually don’t bring up the election as a topic of conversation unless someone else asks me first.  People are pretty polarized and the election is not the kind of thing that you toss out casually as you are waiting in line at the grocery story or talking to a bank teller or an Uber driver.   Chatting with someone you don’t know very well about either… Read More

Holiday Triggers

July 4th, 2016
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  The Fourth of July and other long holiday weekends which happen during these spectacular summer months are truly the best for unwinding from the stresses of our daily go-go routines. More time is spent outdoors relaxing and doing the things that we all look forward to: gardening, swimming, walking, grilling and just chillin’ and loungin’ in our favorite space. But those activities can also serve as a difficult reminder that a loved one is no longer with us and while I hope that those reminders don’t stop you from going ahead and doing what you planned, those wistful thoughts… Read More

5 On Friday

April 8th, 2016
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  What a freakin’ roller coaster of a week! Since I feel a bit spun around by the events of the last few days, it’s difficult today to put my thoughts into a few simple declarative sentences. Instead I found this dreamy picture. I really wish I were sitting in this car right now, smelling the fresh salt air and letting the warm ocean breeze play through my hair knowing that I could open the door, run to the beach and go swimming. But since I’m not really sitting in this car, I can do the next best thing:  imagine… Read More

Let Them Eat Cake

February 29th, 2016
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A Variety of Wedding Cakes Weddings are the ultimate in family celebrations and June 11 is the big day for my son and his wonderful fiancé! As many of you already know, wedding planning is made up of hundred of decisions, large and small and as with most things life, the process is so different from when I got married decades ago. I mean this in a good way because now there are more choices about invitations, places to get married and of course, the cake which makes the wedding feel that much more personal, reflecting the styles of the… Read More

Silly Family Laughter

February 5th, 2016
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My 88-year-old Dad misplaced his checkbook last week and over the weekend a full-on, pull-out-all-the-plugs search effort was executed by our mom, me, my five siblings and even a few grandchildren. We asked our Dad a million questions about the last time he used the checkbook and the last time he remembered seeing it.  We prayed to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost items, and then finally our Dad decided to call the bank since St. Anthony didn’t deliver the goods.  Thankfully, the bank said there was no activity on the account and no checks had been written on… Read More