A cautionary tale for those of us who like to kill two birds with one stone. I think the term of choice now is multi-task. If you are one of those taskers, like I am, then you’ll want to know what can befall you if you’re not vigilant.I was risking life, limb, and driver’s […]

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Did you ever notice that from the time we were little kids, we’ve been counting - something or other. The days until summer vacation. The hours til you’ll see him, and then, how long are his parents going to stay? You’re how many days late? Counting push-ups at the gym, calories, carbs, the money in your wallet, the time […]

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The guy who lived directly across the way from me on the 15th floor of the building across the street became a kind of - I wouldn’t say friend - more like an acquaintance - although we’d never met, never spoken, never even acknowledged each other’s presence. Like me, he looked to be in his early […]

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It’s not like I don’t have a respectable list of things I should be doing, or could be doing, for that matter, instead of spending the better part of a perfectly lovely spring day languishing at the computer. But the fact is, that’s what has occurred. They (the Royal they) counsel that hanging around the wrong […]

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One of our readers sent me an email that really touched me:

“I am not completely an empty nester unfortunately. My 20 year old son was not able to return to college this fall because of the lack of loans and grants available to him. So now he is doing nothing except for playing the computer game WoW (World of Warcraft) most of his waking hours. He did just purchase a small business that will make him a small living, but I pray he goes back to college. He is very bright and it would be such a waste if he didn’t.

Hannah, my heart goes out to you. As a mother of three adult…

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The Healing Waters of Eureka Springs

If you’re driving along route 62 through Northwest Arkansas and don’t venture off the main highway, you will only catch half of Eureka Springs. Depending on one’s bent, it’s the best half or the worst half.

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After spending last Friday at a Ballroom Dance competition, cheering for my friends, both amateur and professional, I did, as always, have a brief moment of regret that I hadn’t entered the competition myself. Oh, I have no need or desire to dance publicly, but, oh! those magnificent gowns - sequined, feathered, flowing, and the […]

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The phone rang a moment ago, and just like that! my past collided with my present - but in a good way. It was my (almost) 10 year old granddaughter who has the warmest , most infectious giggle in her voice,  that just hearing it,  put me in  a very “good place,” when only moments before, I’d […]

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Now that the chicks are out of the nest I’m nurturing a new side effect–fearlessness. Okay, not exactly fearlessness, but I’m finding that I’m more drawn to crazy antics than I used to be. Perhaps this effect is common in empty nesters–or at least with the baby boomer ones. Were we not the VW bus driving, world-changing, stickin’ it to the man, try-anything generation? There must be some latent drive lurking beneath my ex-helicopter mommy exterior–and dammit–it’s getting my attention. So I crammed my not-so-perky butt into a wet suit, strapped 16 pounds of weight around my waist (apparently I’m very buoyant) and jumped in. And immediately FREAKED OUT.

There I was in the ocean, treading water like a madwomen, embarrassed and humbled. What happened? I aced the pre-ocean part of the lesson. In the swimming pool I was amazing–a scuba diving machine if there ever was one. I was practically one of those Discovery Channel shark chasers. My mind frantically tried to grasp where things went terribly awry…

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Aoccdring to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinevtisy, it deosn?t mttaer in what oredrthe lttereers in a word are, the only iprmoatnt thing is that the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae we do […]

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