Welcome! It’s a bright, sparkly crisp day outside this morning. After 2 days of rain the temp dropped and iced the leaves’ edges so Bella and I crunched along on our walk. It’s Monday, time for a new schedule and positive thoughts about the week. Last week was a reflective one that closed with thoughts of missing a dear high school friend. She had been a book editor for years and I had not reached out to her since I became an author. I know she didn’t edit children’s books, b

What day should we celebrate? So many choices.

Happy New Year, Friend! I just discovered that today is Personal Trainer Awareness Day! I’ve been using a trainer twice a week for several years now, just to keep my arthritic body moving. What a blessing it has been as I think back to how many times I wanted to stay home but forced myself to go. I have always left the gym with a smile because of my trainer’s positive feedback. My style has always leaned toward positivism when I’m around others, but I didn’t realize how much

Happy Halloween Y’All, This is my apology for staying out of your in-box in October. I had over-committed myself and had to realize that I didn’t need to become a social media guru author, or a workaholic author, or an all-around author/speaker/presenter author; after all, I’m retired. I just wanted to be me, write a few books, and share the strengths I have developed being an educator. As I have added years, I have discovered that I am similar to other humans in many ways. M

Today is National Thoughtful Day. Somehow it zeroed right in on ME! I decided before 6am this morning that I had to have this day for thinking. Yesterday's events were a bit breathtaking, scary, and sad. Here's what happened yesterday: I'm taking care of my website all by myself these days; not a small task for a new career-oriented person of undetermined age. I have had some amazing helpers along the way and my platform company is unbelievable helpful (and patient) when they

Did you know that yesterday, August 17th, was Black Cat Appreciation Day? I first found an email from a special friend (thanks, Maureen) just before I checked my Calendar day email, and both confirmed it. Serendipitously, we have a reason to CELEBRATE that happened exactly a month ago! On July 17th, we watched this tiny black kitten who wandered into our yard, to see if she was feral. It took only a couple of meals (dog food at first) to tell she was clearly tame. Her 3lb bod

Good Mental Health Morning All, Today, May 16th, there was a fascinating section on CBS Morning Show celebrating Mental Health Action Day. The animated feature highlighted the 3 steps that we can easily remember (similar to Stop, Drop, and Roll for fire safety). These are A.S.K. or Acknowledge, Support, and Keep-in-Touch. This report made an impact on ME today because, over the last month, I have heard from several of YOU after my blog posts! It is such a good feeling to ha

Wednesday, February 7, was World Read Aloud Day and I took advantage of the day. Here it is Friday and I'm just recuperating from a busy reading week. I guess you could say I celebrated World Read Aloud WEEK! I read to one class of 3rd graders on Tuesday, two classes of 2nd graders and two classes of 3rd graders AND 23 college students on Wednesday, as well as another class of 3rd graders yesterday! My presentation was as much a discussion of the writing process as it is a re