General

The days of the cute Easter Bunny enhancing the high holy days of Christendom are now over. Camouflage Easter eggs and baskets make it possible for parents to use the holiday as an opportunity to expand their children's intellectual acuity and competency in hunting. You'll never hear the words "Easter egg hunt" in the same way again!

I thought I'd be okay with this. I thought I'd been encouraging my child's independence his whole life in part to prepare him for life as a productive adult but also to prepare me for his launch into adulthood. I've heard all about the Empty Nest Syndrome, all about the benefits and sense of loss for parents when their babies fly the coop. What I have heard NO ONE say is that many teenagers leave, for all practical purposes, years before they go to college or leave home at 18.

I got my turn to be Blogger of the Month for Arkansas Women Bloggers this past November. It was so much fun! I've collected the posts I've done for Arkansas Women Bloggers over the last couple of years.

This week I’m participating in {BLOGtober Fest} hosted by Arkansas Women Bloggers. Each day this week we’ve been given a different topic, and we’ll all be posting on that topic but with our own take on that topic. Visit BLOGtober Fest and see what all these remarkable Arkansas women are talking about today on our topic of Halloween memories.  It all started in third grade. In the fall of that year, my little group of girlfriends (the same group who will make an appearance again shortly) talked our teacher, Mrs. York, into letting us do a series of “plays” for the class. One of them was a “talk show” that quickly devolved into silliness. The other one, though, was a re-enactment of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. We rehearsed during...

After talking with a friend recently about developing leadership qualities in others, I decided it was time to recycle this post from a year ago No doubt we’ve all read the same articles and books and heard the same motivational speakers on leadership, and they all talk about getting ahead and career success with such eloquence and verve. I’m not going to be as kind as Stephen Covey or Tony Robbins. Over the years I have accumulated my own criteria for what it means to be a true leader, and I have decided to tell it as I see it. You’ve been warned. 1. Stop sucking up. Anyone with any ability to read people at all will know you are doing it, and you will be labeled a phony. I hate it when people suck up. I hated it in high school, and I...