The Golden Rule...

 ”Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.”-Mark Twain  Good morning! When my daughter was in the difficult school years featured in movies like Mean Girls she lashed out at a bully who had been picking on her. When I asked her why, she explained she was following the golden rule “treating others like they were treating her.” I explained that although that is how much of society lives, she had the golden rule backward. I explained that she was half-right. If the bully was practicing the golden rule, then she...

Have time to complain?...

“If you have time to whine and complain about something, then you have the time to do something about it.” -Anthony J. D’Angelo Good morning! I don’t know about you, but I have made a few observations. (1) A lot of people like to complain-they almost seem addicted to complaining, chaos or negativity. (2) Often we are too busy to just “stop” and be thankful! Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, with its absence of stressors like presents and high expectations. It reminds us all to STOP and celebrate what we have...

How do you kick?...

“It isn’t how hard you kick — but how you kick.” Samantha Noel (who is celebrating her 13th birthday today! AHH! A TEENAGER! Stop in and leave a comment to wish her a Happy one) Good Morning! When Samantha was eleven-years-old she participated in several camp programs through the Milwaukee Public Museum. Group activities and group sports were held each afternoon. Here is an entry I wrote one night after camp that is a personal “Sammy-favorite.” I have been traveling for a week so when I landed tonight I picked up Sammy for a...

Let the positive out…...

“People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln  Recently my daughter had her second band concert. Her band teacher likes to highlight each student throughout the course of the concert and often chooses “rounds” so that each student, or a small group of students, can play 8-16 measures of a song. The band as a whole had made wonderful progress since their first concert, when they had only had their instruments a few months. That was an enjoyable but often squeaky evening. The second, concert, four months after...

What are you thinking?...

“Don’t compromise yourself, you’re all that you’ve got.”~ Janis Joplin God morning! As most of you know, I have a spirited and spunky 12-year-old daughter who has inherited my positive attitude and self-belief. One day about two years ago I was exhausted and decided to take a quick nap. Sammy asked if she could come upstairs and read while I napped. Unable to fall asleep right away, I began doing a Soduko puzzle while she read. I have been working through the “Fiendish level” puzzles in a book a girlfriend gave me at Christmas....

Feeling groovy...

Slow down you move to fast, you gotta make the good times last. from the song Feeling Groovy Good morning! When I was a little girl I learned the lyrics to “Feeling Groovy” in choir and we sang the song for a spring concert. It has such wonderful lyrics and a catchy tune that I have retained many of the lyrics and occasionally find myself humming them. Earlier this winter we had a really “wet snow” in Wisconsin. The roads were snow covered and quite icy and as I made my 20-mike-trek home on the freeway, the top traffic speed was 20 mph. When I got...

Tips on living from a 12-year-old...

Me: “I’ve had a long day, Sammy.”   My daughter (at age 10): “Acutally – all of your days are the same length, Mother. It is just your perception that is changing.”   Good morning! One day in 2005, I arrived home from my office wiped out. The week had been relentlessly hectic and challenging, both personally and professionally. Sammy, who was 10 at the time, ran to greet me. She was not challenge-wrought. She was speaking excitedly with each sentence hitting a higher octave than the one before. Quickly, she rattled off an...