• Amazing People,  Blessings

    The Necklace

    I’m not really a “jewelry person”. Don’t get me wrong; I wish I were. I am in awe of my friends who wear different jewelry accessories with every outfit, who make use of lovely necklaces and beautiful bracelets and all kinds of earrings, seemingly endless choices. Unfortunately the awe is where it stops for me. I’m apparently more of an appreciative observer than a joiner in this situation. I’m lazy. I’ve tried to be like them. I have a small collection of pieces I could interchange (and my loving husband has given me a few gorgeous pieces through the years), but the reality for me is that I just…don’t. Ninety-five…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  The Dailey Method,  Working On My Fitness

    A Belated Anniversary Love Letter To The Dailey Method

    My one-year anniversary at The Dailey Method came and went about six weeks ago, in mid-June. I fully intended to write a post at that time but it’s been a busy summer around here. Better late than never. (P.S. This is NOT a sponsored post.) Dearest The Dailey Method Naperville, What a ride so far, right? In preparation for writing this, I reread the other posts I’ve written over the past year thirteen-and-a-half months (you can find them by clicking “The Dailey Method” at the very top of this page). I can’t believe how far I’ve come. It amazes me for many reasons that it was only a year thirteen-and-a-half…

  • Amazing People,  Confessions,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    Son Set

    I really didn’t want to write about this–the emotion surrounding sending my kid off to college–since I wrote about it at length three years ago when I did it the first time, but I can’t help it. The fact is, I’m doing it again and I have returned to that state of mind. Under the circumstances, I feel an intense need for a cathartic release–again–especially because this time involves the added element of becoming an empty nester. Though I still carry a smile on my face and am truly, extremely happy, I have this inner shrieking and squirming that ebbs and flows underneath it all. The act of putting these…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Fun in Chicago,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    #BlogHer13: Wow.

    After reading somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 BlogHer ’13 recaps (so far) for my job as Social Media Researcher for BlogHer, I caught up yesterday afternoon (for now) and decided to go ahead and write my own post before hundreds more show up in my queue and my brain gets fried completely. (I hear it sizzling, so I thought I’d better hurry.) This was my fifth BlogHer; I’ve attended it each year since the last time it was in Chicago (2009). It was the first BlogHer that was experienced as a member of the BlogHer team as opposed to just attending. I’ve said for two years now that San…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Writing

    I Have A Head For Business*

    Although I graduated from high school wanting to earn a degree in Journalism but instead started out majoring in German and then switched to Elementary Education (and carried that through to my Bachelor of Science), these days I tell myself that a Business degree would have been great, too, because I am good at seeing things from the points of view of both a customer and a company. I have excelled at this in every job I’ve ever held, and I believe that my employers notice it about me very quickly. (I have always been proud of the fact that, at eighteen years old, I was given a set of…