Culture
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Community :: Honoring Memorial Day
Many of us will be celebrating Memorial Day with our friends and family and enjoying some down time. I plan to relax, pick up a bit (if I am so inspired) and enjoy this time with my family. But I also plan to talk to my daughter in an age-appropriate manner about the true meaning of Memorial Day and why we celebrate the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. We are fortunate that the men in our immediate family who fought in previous wars (WWII Veterans, Vietnam War Veterans) came back home, but it is so very important to honor all those who did…
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Longview World of Wonders Provides Hands-On Discovery
The woman of the twenty-first century often wears many hats. Mine include wife, mom, educator, gardener, leader, volunteer, accountant, chef, planner, story teller, wonder woman and currently, facilities chairman of Longview World of Wonders, a children’s hands-on discovery center in the making. Longview World of Wonders: Over the past four years, LongviewWOW, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, has operated as a museum without walls serving East Texas children and their families in educational and hands-on programming featuring literary works, STEM, dramatic arts, LEGO ™ and more. In a city, in which there is a large population of children in poverty, LongviewWOW hopes to inspire a life-long love of learning…
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Teaching Your Kids About Money
Teaching Your Kids About Money As a bookkeeper I have seen just about every method of saving and spending there is. Everyone has their own way of doing it. But where did they learn how? My mother always tells the story of when I got my first babysitting job at age 12. I took the money I earned and divided it into thirds. I put one third each into a Holiday Savings Account, my regular bank account and into my pocket for spending that week. The following week I took whatever was left in my pocket, added it to what I made and then did my dividing. I was…
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Reflections :: Owning Our Needs
Owning Our Needs: Lately, in my work with women, I have been very aware of a theme around our needs. Identifying needs can be very difficult. Sociological programs are belief systems that aren’t personal to us, but often are, because of what is considered acceptable or normal, we measure our self worth. This can lead to a monotonous loss of vitality, a feeling of numbness or stress over the daily going-ons of life, because the needs that drive and demand us aren’t reflective of our true, actual, internal needs. Our needs speak to us from our truth. Needs speak in a quiet voice. Ignore the voice long enough and…
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Dove’s “Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable” Initiative
A few weeks back I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit at The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Laguna Niguel. The setting was amazing with the ocean views and salt-watered breeze, but what impressed me the most about the event was the Dove’s “Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable” campaign. You might have seen the Dove commercials showcasing women of all sizes to stress the importance of women accepting themselves as they are. Well, their Dove Self-Esteem Project aims to start teaching this important message to our young girls and will focus on self-esteem programming with the support of Lisa Ling and Jess Weiner. Let’s Make Girls Unstoppable Initiative: Dove® is committed to creating a world where beauty is…
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Instagram of the Week:: Spot Paintings by Damien Hirst
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the PBS Kids annual meeting in Miami as part of their Mom Blogger Ambassador Program. It was a great experience and I loved to meet the people who are responsible for the great PBS Kids programs my daughter enjoys. The hotel we stayed in had this painting in the hallway and it literally stopped me in my tracks. Some of you might know I am obsessed with polka dots (I named my company Polka Dots Publishing) and I fell in love with this huge (42 x 42) art piece immediately. For me, polka dots are happy – and they immediately tap into…