• Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    Nine Months Overdue, But Who’s Counting? (Besides Me)

    Big news around here: might you have heard the shrieking coming from my house last night around 11:00 p.m. Central time? I finished researching and writing my book*. Finished. Though I thought for a while it would never happen, it did. Short of some minor editing, it’s done. Of course, my personal goal when I sent proposals out was December 31, 2009, but we won’t dwell on that. Life gets in the way of the most reasonable goals sometimes, and at least I kept plugging away at it. Better late than never, I always say. The writing, though, was the easy part. Getting it published? More than likely, a little…

  • Something That Could Change Your Life

    Autumn Cleaning

    Since we took the older boy to college two weeks ago*, I was hoping that life would slow down a little bit. And it did, just a little bit. What I am finding is that, like so many of my good friends out there in the blogosphere (and IRL!), I still have too much to do with too little time. My to-do lists aren’t cutting it anymore, because I end most days disappointed when I assess what actually got completed: it’s usually a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but not a whole lot of anything in particular. After putting some thought into it, I finally…

  • Something That Could Change Your Life

    Happiness in the ‘Hood!

    Pssst…hey, you! Yes, YOU. What are you doing today, say, around 1:00 p.m. Eastern/12:00 p.m. Central? Just eating lunch? Great. Want some company? I’m thrilled to be co-hosting a live Talk over at The Motherhood about happiness and what leads to it. My co-hosts are seven other bloggers along with special guest Gretchen Rubin, author of the best-selling book The Happiness Project! It’s sure to be a great time full of fabulous conversation; I hope you’ll join me! (By the way, it’s a text-based chat only, so you can read along and jump into the conversation as much or as little as you want to!) To participate fully, go to…

  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Friends,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  Spreading the Bloggie Love,  Travels

    BlogHer Recap 1: What I Learned

    I’ve decided to split my BlogHer recap into a couple of parts because it was such a huge experience. This was my second year attending BlogHer, and it was spectacular. I had great fun that I will remember forever with friends both old and new, and I loved experiencing some of the excitement Manhattan had to offer outside of the hotel. I only attended two sessions (oops) but have no regrets about that whatsoever. I achieved my goal of connecting with some great brands that I really believe in. I interviewed Courtney Hansen, the spokesperson for AutoTrader.com, and I also spoke with Dr. Stuart Seale, author of The Full Plate…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    This Could NOT Wait Until Tomorrow.

    Totally over-the-moon; that’s me. I am thrilled to announce that I welcomed a foster “baby” into our home today. She’s adorably cute, and I plan to take her everywhere with me for the next six weeks (including BlogHer, Germany, and downtown Chicago, of course!) until I have to return her to her home (which will be a really sad day for me). I think I’m going to learn a lot from her. This photo was not taken with my trusty, pink duct-taped Olympus NOR the new Olympus PEN E-PL1. I took it with my Photo Booth program on my MacBook in case you wondered. Olympus was nice enough to allow…