Message me. What does that mean these days? Message me via text, Facebook, email, Twitter, whatevs? Honestly, when someone says that, how do you take it? It's a term that we all struggle with. A good friend of mine recently sent me a text message letting me know that she vented something on Facebook that made a lot of mutual friends paranoid, and she wanted to assure me that it had nothing to do with me. Since I only use FB for business now (and only connect that way with close friends and family), I didn't see the message, but immediately checked to see what it was that wasn't inspired by anything I did. It was a frustrated message about not getting responses to messages. It made me paranoid, too. Then I realized that the text message that she sent... Read more

Yesterday, Ted Talks, taking a summer break from new videos, posted a playlist of talks on "childish thinking." We can all (hopefully) appreciate the thought processes of children, and sometimes we wish to revert back to the unabashed creativity and lack of fear that we had when we were kids, but how many of us actually do it? In fact, I'll bet we're all guilty of saying things like, "what, is she 30 going on 15?" or "when are you going to grow up and stop acting like a child?" We are amused and amazed at the minds of children, but when it comes to letting ourselves learn from them, we tell ourselves that we are adults and know better. Check out the video playlist on the TedTalks page - you might see childish thinking in a new light. No,... Read more

If you're a gardening addict, pass that healthy and fun habit onto the kids in your life. I found some great info online to help kids learn about gardening and garden life at every age - pass on any tips and ideas that you have as well - we'd love to hear them! KidsGardening.org has a wonderful primer to give parents ideas for gardening with kids aged three plus. The key is not to start out seeing how much horticulture information your little Einstein can cram into her head, but to catch toads and plant watermelon seeds, telling a story about how they will grow. There are several age groups listed with ideas for each one. This site also has wonderful information for teachers, including classroom projects and thematic explorations. LucyGardens has some fabulous ideas on sensory gardens where children... Read more

Earlier this year, after driving with my husband from Dallas to Fort Davis, Texas, I wrote about how I survived the eight hour drive. Here we are again, except for this drive, we decided to take the scenic route through Waco, Brady, and Ozona. And a thousand tiny farm villages in-between. It took twelve hours. It was much more scenic, for sure. Hill Country is simply beautiful, and the people are laid-back-fine. We managed to make it to this area of Texas desert during monsoon season, and the normally dry creek is full of water, the mountains are wearing cloud caps, and the dragon flies are mating like bunnies. One amazing byproduct of rain and life in this normally dry and cragled landscape is the local social events. The Southwest attracts a huge variety of people, from hippies to militants... Read more

For the unemployed or under-employed, there is more to worry about than how rent and utilities will be paid. As if that isn't enough to worry about. On top of the frightening prospect of not having electricity, gas, health insurance, or God-forbid a home, there are worries about networking, keeping skills and knowledge in check, and finding things to do to fill up the eight plus hours a day once spent at work. Combine that with all of the conflicting news reports on the economy - depending on which day it is, it's either getting better or worse. Jobs are up? Nah, never mind, they're down. Fact is, people are still getting laid off, the housing market is still in the toilet, and the competition is brutal. Top that with a recent report about prescription drug overdoses increasing, use of... Read more