Bouncing Back From Set-Backs

I get knocked down, I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down! That Chumbawamba song is what came to mind when I began dwelling on the concept of bouncing back. When I turned 12, my grandma paid for me to take horseback riding lessons. I was "horse crazy" at the time, reading all …

Am I Nurturing Myself?

Or am I finding more ways to aggravate the stress? I don’t really have a solid plan anymore. It’s just kind of this vague, fuzzy glob of thoughts. My oldest two kids have moved out. One of them almost a thousand miles away, the other less than fifteen minutes away. I still have my twelve-year-old …

Enrichment Programs for Gifted Kids in the early 1970’s

In my very first post here, I talked about how it felt to be labeled "gifted" as a child. I felt vindication when my second grade teacher called my mom and asked her if I wanted to be a part of the "Enrichment Program" (also called Mentally Gifted Minors -MGM). Once a week, we would …

Middle School Heartbreak Over Grades

The honor roll assembly was last week, and as has been the case every year since kindergarten, my daughter was on it. Every year, she was on the Gold Honor Roll for making straight "A's." Her last award for fifth grade, she was one of a few recipients for the Platinum Honor Roll. That's if …

The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants

"He has no heart." "She's all heart." "My heart just isn't in this." But the heart is a muscle that pumps our blood and oxygen through our bodies. That is all. When we make statements like the ones above, we are really talking about brain function.  Somewhere along the line,  probably long before humans knew …

How Do I Pick a Theme?

Earlier this month, Christine talked about the usefulness of picking a theme for the year. Later, Jen touched on the subject in her recent post. This sounds like a good and worthy thing to accomplish. I think it would help me with setting goals, and staying on track with what I want to accomplish. What …

Clean and Lean for 2013

I know better than to set a New Year's Resolution. Why set myself up for failure? Instead, I like to set small goals. Ultimately, they lead to a larger goal. For example: I need to lose about 75 pounds to get from "obese" to "healthy weight." That would be the high end of healthy weight …

Tryin’ to Get That Feelin’ Again

Yes, I went there. I used a Barry Manilow song title for this blog post. Due to recent events in the news, which I think most of us are aware, I am having a difficult time finding a way to write about "Joy" again this month. (Notice that I'm posting this much later in the …

THANK You!

When Christine announced that the theme for this month would be “Gratitude,” I thought, “Well, crap, now I have to come up with TWO posts on this.” I have a difficult time with the “feeling” of gratitude. Intellectually, I know when I ought to feel it and express it, so I do, but I don’t …

Emotional Intensity: Two Sides of the Same Coin

When my son, Nick was three-years-old, I got him a Spiderman coloring book. I was amazed to find that not only did he carefully color in the lines, but he was very concerned with getting the colors “right.”  He wanted to make sure he used just the right shade of gray for the buildings, the …