I saw an email recently from my kids’ school that they have off on March 8 and 9. “Oh no!” I thought. “I need for them to be in school those days!” Hmmm…. Not exactly the response I would like to have. Sure, we all have that reaction sometimes. In fact, there are many times when my kids are fighting, whining, or just generally annoying me when I think, “GO TO COLLEGE.” But I don’t like feeling that way. I think as moms, we experience the gamut of emotions with our kids (and ourselves) on a daily basis. The image often doesn’t match up... (Read More ...)

When Did Hats Go Out of Style? My Freshman year of college, I made a wool dress with a matching pillbox hat. I came in second in the University-wide competition for homemade outfits. President and Mrs. Kennedy, November 22, 1963 It was 1965 and Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat was still in style. When my husband was in Officer Candidates’ School, in Oklahoma, all the candidates’ wives wore hats to the parades our husbands were in. The post Commander’s wife liked hats and we wore hats and gloves as though we were in uniform. The next post Commander’s wife did not like hats. “I’m not... (Read More ...)

Do You Have Any Family Secrets You Haven’t Told Your Children? My mother told my father, before they married, that her father had died of syphilis. Nogales, Arizona My father told my mother his mother had committed suicide. Neither wanted the other to enter the marriage without full knowledge of the families they were marrying into, especially, for instance, if mental illness could be inherited. But, my brothers and I were in our 40s before we knew these family secrets. How Do You Discover Family Secrets? Although I never felt any part of the house was off-limits, except my parents’ bedroom,... (Read More ...)

Do You Carry a Thumb Drive with You? I just got a new laptop recently. Eight years is several generations in laptop land. 8-inch, 5.25-inch, 3.5-inch Floppy Disks Of course, all my old files had to be copied to my new hard drive. Fortunately, this mostly happened over a network. But, some files just wouldn’t move over. I found out later I could have taken it to the dealer and, for a modest sum, they would have copied everything and handed it back to me. But, I went with the free 90-day technical support. How Do You Transfer Data Physically? You may remember 8-inch floppy disks. Then, 5.25-inch... (Read More ...)

Looking pulled together and cultivating your sense of style may seem as if it takes a lot of work. In fact, many women I talk with often seem overwhelmed when it comes to getting dressed and creating an outfit day after day that looks great, helps them express themselves authentically, and is easy to pull together. So they just give up. Can you relate? But wait! Before you just throw in the towel, or acknowledge that you already have, I want to offer a few suggestions and give you a few words of encouragement. You deserve to look like the amazing woman you are and feel gorgeous, pretty and chic. Putting... (Read More ...)