Creative Success Depends on Long View
Listen Here:
In this podcast, we feature author Taylor Marsh, who [read more]
Letting Parents Off the Hook (sort of)!
It’s a two way street for parents.
When their kid is a dutiful citizen, smiling in circle time, raising his or her hand, getting the homework handed in on time, the parents swells with pride, thinking something like, “We’ve done a good [...]
Peace On Earth: Peace In Your Home This Holiday Season
Families are not perfect
The holiday season seems to underscore this fact: putting adults fuelled by eggnog in close quarters over a stretch of time are the perfect ingredients for bringing out the worst in us. So how do you bring peace into [...]
Pound For Pound (Relationship Rehab)
No, it’s not what you think it is.
I’m not talking about cake your mother or grandmother bakes for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I mean, how many of us like pound cake anyway? *raising hand.* I’m here to talk about relationships gone [...]
Avoid the Holiday Blues
For some people, the holidays aren’t a time of family, happiness, cheer, and feasting.
It’s a time of depression, isolation, and headaches. If you are one of the people who have more anxiety than joy at this time of year, what can you do [...]
The Midlife Sage Says: You Can Balance Tough Lady With Bawl Baby
My two-month-old granddaughter cries for three main reasons.
Either she’s hungry, she’s tired, or her diapers are dirty. I don’t need to be changed, but I could really use a sandwich and a nap. Maybe if I cry out loud…
I was raised to [...]
Hypnosis Or Mind Games
I love finding ways to improve myself in getting where I want to be in life.
I’m sure everyone does it one way or another. Everyday I wake, I have in mind what I am going to do for that day. Then, I lose it. See, I am a writer, and published [...]
When Two Worlds Collide: College vs. The “Real World”
I graduated college a year and a half ago, and a lot has changed
I traded a college town for New York City, a class schedule for a job, single life for a new relationship, a dorm room for an apartment, and rule-following for complete independence. [...]
Faith
“Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for faith is to see what you believe.” Saint Augustine
I was walking in Central Park years ago with another mother when our children were only 2 years old. Her son and my daughter [...]
The Positive Side of Pessimism
Yes, you read that right – there is a positive side to being pessimistic.
When I first encountered the positive aspects of being negative, I was as surprised as you are.
Think about it: it’s so easy for us to slip into worry mode and wonder, [...]
Is the Parent Badgering Factor Running Too High?
It’s December.
We’re into the second quarter of the school year. The dance is in full swing.
All across America each evening this dance is being played out in millions of homes. It’s the “Don’t You Have Homework To Do?….”No [...]
The Midlife Sage Says: Share Some Time, Beer and/or Pie with Your Mother-in-law
Unless your mother-in-law is a convicted felon or a pole dancer at the Kit Kat Klub, you should try and spend quality one-on-one time with her.
After all, she raised the person you married. If she lives far away, keep in contact with letters, [...]
Would You Mind?
A long journey
*Sigh* I can remember this like it was yesterday and I still talk about this to anyone who would listen about the time I went to see Janet Jackson in concert. Tell me, why on God’s green earth did I have to travel thousands [...]
Baby Talk
After picking up a few groceries, my sister told me that she had to go pick up my niece for a doctor’s appointment.
Clearly I didn’t know what was wrong so, I questioned the situation. I was told not to worry that my niece was just congested. [...]
ADHD/ADD: Trouble With Boredom
When was the last time your kid came home and said, “Mom, guess what, I got a really cool worksheet today!!!”
My guess is it has not happened to date. Frankly, the worksheets that I see (and I see tons of them) can be pretty dreadful [...]
Make Thanksgiving a Lifestyle
America celebrated its first nationwide day of thanks in 1789 under the leadership of our first president, George Washington.
However, it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln was president that our country had its first official Thanksgiving holiday. [...]
The Midlife Sage Says: Avoid The Platitude About Gratitude
Feeling guilty because your Thanksgiving experience never resembles the Norman Rockwell painting of a happy family gathered around a lovely table as Grandma in her white apron proudly delivers a perfect turkey?
Instead, does your feast often [...]
Driving, You Crazy?!
Do you want the “secret” to knowing how to read someone’s true personality?
The method I’m about to share with you is 100% accurate in every way, shape and form! Save yourself hundreds of dollars in books, seminars [...]
When’s the Last Time You Were a Princess?
I’m doing a reading of one of my stories for an upcoming children’s tea party.
Since the character I’m reading about is a dragon, I’ve decided to dress up as a princess for the afternoon. And you know what? I’m really excited about [...]
Freak in Your Own Circus
It’s 12:36AM and I have to be up and at a meeting by 7:45.
I just finished my second Red Bull, and I’m cramming for an exam I know I’m going to squeeze by with a C. It’s wake up, make coffee, down coffee, look presentable, [...]
Freshman Adults: Advice For Twenty-Somethings Taking Their First Steps After College
Freshmen in adulthood
I started my blog, “Champagne for Ducklings”, the month after I graduated college. I had just moved into a summer sublet in New York City and started an absolutely wonderful yet unpaid internship. Like most [...]
‘They’ Suck!
They are very, very scary!
They are work, (LOTS of work!).
They are intrusive!
They are selfish
They frustrate us,
They anger us,
Work with us,
Date us,
Play with us,
Live with us,
Inconvenience us,
Call us! Text us! Email us! Drive us crazy! [...]
Remembering David
My nephew, David C. Koger, was an energetic, witty, gentle, optimistic, friendly, and kind 33 year old man who passed away too young from a raging case of Type 2 Diabetes.
It had already ravaged one foot, requiring the removal of his left leg [...]
The Midlife Sage Says: Write – But Don’t Send – That Snarky Email
Most of you can relate to this egregious error:
Some fool offends you on a bad day so you have no other option but to get revenge with the instant brass knuckles available through the Internet. Normally a sweetheart, you suddenly morph into [...]
How To Beat Your Post-Election Blues
So we have a new President.
Or, better stated, our President has been re-elected. Do we “congratulate,” or “co-miserate?” Many people don’t know, many people are very disappointed while many celebrate. It was a very close contest, [...]
“Go Up To Your Room and Start Your Work”
How many households in America each night hear the refrain, “Go up to your room and start your homework”?
Recognizing that each household is set up differently, it is hard to make generalizations about how and where a child should be doing [...]
The Demons Within
Have you ever just wondered the reason for you having nightmares or bad dreams?
I call mine night horses because they continue running until I decide that I am able to wake up from whatever someone is doing their best to tell me. Sort of [...]
The Midlife Sage Says: If You Didn’t Vote, Don’t Complain
I’ll be SO happy when the national election is over because we can go back to debating important issues, such as which wine to have with weinersnitchel.
After serious research and exploratory activities, I’ve concluded that you can be more [...]
Is Your Child a Shut-Down Learner?
Matthew age 15, comes into my office with his mother.
Right from the start it was clear that Matthew had not read Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Matt was clearly shut down and sullen. The last place [...]
Why Adults Should Dress Up for Halloween
Why should kids have all the fun?
I used to dress up as a clown and accompany my children on their Halloween trick-or-treat trips. Instead of a bucket for candy, I carried a wine glass. Sometimes it was meager pickings in my conservative neighborhood, [...]
There’s Scared and There’s SCARED
It’s a perfect setup:
It’s getting dark, the wind’s howling, the leaves are blowing and you’re heading home fast to be there for the kids before they head out to trick or treat. You think back to when you were a kid and how you couldn’t [...]
Get Your Fright On When You Can!
My favorite holiday.
As I sit here, sipping my pumpkin spice coffee and looking out at what we Floridians consider Fall, I am reminded that one of my all time favorite holidays is swiftly approaching – Halloween. Ever since I was a little [...]
Don’t Be A Ghost …In Your Online Classroom!
If you are teaching online, you are most likely subjected to rigorous rules about posting and daily login requirements.
However, meeting the minimum is not usually sufficient if you want to engage your learners and help them thoroughly understand [...]
Five Top Tips for Young Women
There is no need to search for the Elusive Magic Guru of All Answers or schedule appointments with an expensive shrink.
Take some free advice from a well-seasoned traveler of life who scrambled out on the positive side of numerous trials and [...]
Take A Number
“Take a number and please be seated we will be with you in just a moment.”
Those words can actually cause a panic in some people having to wait to see a doctor. No matter what you are going to see the doctor for, it still can be nerve [...]
The “Curriculum Ship:” It Has to Get to the Other Side!!!
I met with a kid today who is going to be soon falling off the Curriculum Ship.
This Ship leaves port every September with one apparent mission – to get to the other side.
The captain will keep the crew focused. “We can’t stop the Curriculum [...]
© 2025