My childhood memories of summer revolve around beaches and summer reading. Having grown up in ‘the Hamptons,’ (Southampton, to be precise), I spent most of my childhood sitting on the beach. Reveling in the luxurious sounds of waves crashing against the shore and seagulls singing, I would lie down on my towel not to sunbathe, but to settle in and read a good book. Back then we didn’t have Amazon.com. No, my mom would take us to Rodger’s Memorial Library… Read more »
I’m sorry. So sorry. My apologies. Mea culpa. Such short phrases that should just roll off of your tongue, right? But what if you are tacitly ordered to apologize when you strongly believe you did nothing wrong? Expected to apologize when the person you are told to apologize to is at ‘fault,’ from your perspective? Last week, a colleague endured verbal abuse from an ‘internal customer.’ It lasted close to an hour. I kept my distance because 1) I didn’t… Read more »
This week has been particularly hectic–boy, am I frazzled and in dire need of relaxing music. So far this week, it’s been jury duty (and getting selected for a high profile case), field trips, candidate interviews (for my boss’s replacement), and flying to Mars (ok, just kidding on the last one). Need I say more? Oh, wait, being short-staffed at work the past two weeks! After a stressful day, no, make that week, I need to reclaim my zen with… Read more »
My family recently learned how pizza, more specifically, pizza boxes, can be a fire hazard. Two weeks ago, I headed off for several days without my family and almost without a care in the world to my first blogging conference. I attended Focused Blogging in Richmond, Virginia. In another life, this would have been a 90-minute drive (without traffic), but now Richmond is over 4 hours away from home. The first night, during dinner, I received a frantic phone call… Read more »
Dear Mom, This Mother’s Day, I wanted to tell you how much I love you and reflect on how much I have learned from you. First, let me tell you how much I envy your energy and grit. No matter what challenges life throws at you, you jump right back up on your feet like a cat! As a parent, when juggling work and family life overwhelms me, I stop to pause and wonder…”How did mom pick up the pieces… Read more »
Taming Chaos in the Kitchen The Well-Ordered Kitchen Planner could not come at a better time of year–’tis the season for spring cleaning. My kitchen and pantry could use a serious overhaul. Our pantry is still the dumping ground for random ‘things’ without a ‘home.’ Half empty paint cans, two crock pots, and a million dollars. Ok, maybe not…. Pulling my hair out trying to decide what to eat for dinner is a common occurrence in our household. Almost daily… Read more »
Are you a recovering Type A personality (like myself) perpetually in search of zen? If so, you might consider aromatherapy. Two years ago, I realized my health was in jeopardy when my family doctor gave me an Rx for what he characterized as ‘anxiety attacks.’ Just the thought of taking prescription drugs to manage my stress was stressing me out!! Taxing Work (Pun Intended) After a taxing day at work (oh, the irony….I worked for Bloomberg BNA’s International Tax unit),… Read more »
Do you ever feel like you are spinning your wheels when it comes to your blog? Don’t miss this FREE training series from Elite Blog Academy called Blogging Made Simple–it is a total game changer! Thanks to a conversation with my mom, I learned about Ruth Soukup’s NY Times bestselling book, “How To Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul.” I was hooked — Ruth’s book was a page turner for me. After reading her book, I wanted to learn… Read more »
AllThingsRelax was created during a highly stressful time in my 9-5 life. I won’t go into detail, but I worked for a Fortune 125 company in the DC metro area. At the end of each day, the stress was so bad that my veins felt like they were going to pop. Not good! To alleviate my stress, I decided to write about my quest for relaxation techniques and created ‘AllThingsRelax.com.’ Elite Blog Academy A few months later, after reading Ruth… Read more »
[Note: This post may include affiliate links.] I love blogging, but I’ll be honest —it can be hair-raising!! For starters, I found it difficult to identify my niche and find my voice. So many ideas, so little time!! Although I consider myself to be relatively tech-savvy — heck, I know how to read a ‘document type definition’ (.dtd) and code in SGML, the precursor to HTML–it can still be challenging to keep up with the latest trends, especially with the… Read more »
