2018 was another amazing year!

It is incredible how much faster time flies when you get older. It feels like only yesterday this New Year began with a bright promise, and now it is already Dec 31^stand we are getting ready to ring in another new year.  

Perhaps time seems faster as I watch my grandson grow bigger and more charming each and every day. He is absolutely prefect and I treasure every minute that I get to spend with him. Being a Grandma makes everything new and wonderful again – so spending the holiday season with him has been so wonderful. 

Time also seems to fly when I spend time with my crazy and very lovable husband. Peter makes me laugh every single day and no matter how we spend time together we really enjoy being in each other’s company. 

Time is rushing forward toward my next big travel adventure, going to Greece this spring. I have managed to take one big trip each of the last three years, with visits to Iceland, Thailand and now my upcoming trip to Greece. I have also made many, many trips to Tennessee to spend time with my daughter and grandson. Planning these trips has been so exciting and so far they have been spectacular.

Even though it feels like 2018 has come and gone so quickly, as I look back I have so many things to be grateful for  and I cannot wait to see all of the amazing things that 2019 will have in store for me.

Movie Review: The Man Who Invented Christmas

I felt like watching something for the holidays, but I was not in the mood for another corny Hallmark Holiday special so I scrolled though the movies available on Amazon Prime and decided on “The Man Who Invented Christmas”. This film, based on the book The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford is a fascinating look at the author Charles Dickens and how he came up with his iconic Scrooge character and the story of A Christmas Carol.  

I found this movie captivating. What I enjoyed the most was the visualization of Dicken's writing process, and how the characters in his story reveal themselves to him.  The movie uses actors and actresses that interact with Dickens during his writing process, as he discovers the story that these characters share with him.  Dickens wrestles with some of his own inner demons as he envisions his character Scrooge battling with the Christmas spirits. 

As an author, I appreciated the ability to see into the mind and imagination of Dickens as he wrestles with the characters, and I felt his frustration as he was interrupted just as he was making progress on the story.  I find that my writing process is somewhat similar, thought not nearly as dramatic as Dickens is portrayed.  I can actually hear the dialogue in my head as my book characters interact, and my fingers sometimes struggle to keep up with the cascading thoughts as my imagination begins to swirl in a story.  I related to the frustration as a perfect piece of the story disappears from my brain because I was interrupted mid-thought. 

This movie was charming and at times chaotic, and it gave me a new and deeper love for A Christmas Carol. I hope that the ideas really did come to Dickens in the way the movie presented. I believe that all good authors draw upon their own experiences to add their unique voice to their writing. 

Before watching this movie I had no idea that Christmas was not widely celebrated until after the publication of this story, so while Dickens didn’t actually invent Christmas, he did help change how it was celebrated not just in England but across the United States and the rest of the world as well.  

I really enjoyed The Man Who Invented Christmas and I would recommend it highly to help you get into the holiday mood.  

Being thankful

I am incredibly thankful….

I have so much to be thankful for…

Despite the fact that I have a bad cold and I am sitting on the couch surrounded by tissues and cold medicine, I am spending time thinking about how truly grateful I am for everything in my life. I could be moaning and groaning because let’s face it no one likes being sick, especially right before a holiday weekend, but a cold is just a temporary annoyance.  

Thanksgiving offers all of us a wonderful chance to reflect on everything that we have to be thankful for, and I have an embarrassment of riches in my life.

·      I have a wonderful husband. I am thankful every single day that he came into my life.  He isn’t perfect, but he is absolutely perfect for me. He makes my life better every single day.  

·      I have two of the most amazing incredible children in the world. My two daughters make me so proud every single moment. I know that all parents think their children are exceptional, but my daughters give me reasons every day to be proud of them.

·      I have a grandson who is the light of my life. He is already such a kind and caring person and I am excited and grateful each and every day to watch him grow into the amazing person he is becoming. 

·      I have a beautiful home. It is a place that is warm and welcoming. I love coming home each day and feeling that special contentment that our home brings.

·      I have the sweetest dog. I am so grateful she came into our lives. She adds so much joy to our home each and every day. 

·      Other than this annoying cold right now, I am grateful for my health. I am working on losing weight, but I am able to do all the things I want to. I don’t have any major health problems and that really is something to be grateful for every single day.

·      I have a wacky and wonderful family that I am grateful for. My father is 89 years old and even though he is struggling with health issues, I get to spend time with him and I know that is something to celebrate and be especially grateful for. I have wonderful siblings who are all so different and I know that they love me – each in their own way. I have the most amazing nieces and nephews and I treasure my relationship with all of them. I am even lucky enough to have beautiful great nieces and nephews. 

·      I have a fun car to drive. I had always wanted a convertible and it does add a lot of joy to my life. There is nothing quite like driving along with the top down on a warm and sunny day. 

·      I have had the privilege of travelling across the world. I have been to Europe and Asia and across most of this country. I am grateful every single day for the ability to travel and see new places and learn about different cultures. 

·      I have really wonderful friends. Some I see often and others I see only sometimes, but they are always in my thoughts. Friendships make our lives richer and I am very rich indeed with some of the most wonderful people that I am honored to call friend.

·      I am so grateful for all of the experiences that make my life more fun. I love being able to watch my beloved Sun Devils with my husband. Our evenings watching ASU basketball make me so happy. Having things we love to do together adds so much to our lives.

·      I am thankful for my kindle and my ridiculously large collection of books. I love reading and my books bring me great joy.

·      I am thankful to live in Arizona where the weather is beautiful for so much of the year. The warm sunny days offer so many opportunities to enjoy being outdoors. 

·      I am so thankful that we have enough money to pay our bills and even have enough to splurge once in awhile on fun things like basketball tickets or Christmas decorations. I know that there are so many people who do not have that privilege. 

There are so many more things I could add to this list. Expressing gratitude for the many wonderful things in your life can make a big difference.  Being thankful is actually healthier. “Studies show that people who more frequently think about and express gratitude tend to be happier and less lonely or anxious. They cope better with stress and trauma and are more forgiving, helpful and empathetic.”

This holiday weekend enjoy your turkey dinner and spend some time thinking about your life and what you are thankful for. If you have a few minutes, write your list down – and occasionally take out your list during the upcoming year, reminding yourself of the many things you are thankful for.

My latest book project

order your copy

The Keto diet has become very popular. 

Many of you know I have been doing the Keto diet with my husband for the past 100 days. We both managed to lose quite a bit of weight, I lost a total of 30 pounds and my husband lost over 35 pounds.  I have been blogging daily during our weight loss journey and I decided to turn my blog posts into a self-published book, which is now available on Amazon. 

I am excited to share this book with the hope that it might be helpful for anyone who is also considering the Keto diet. I don’t offer any medical advice; this isn’t a cookbook. I am simply sharing a day-by-day look at my Keto journey.  

Keto is not new, doctors have been prescribing ketogenic diets to treat epilepsy for nearly a century, and some doctors think Keto may hold some promise for people with Type 2 diabetes. 

Many famous stars including Halle Berry, LeBron James and the Kardashians have endorsed using the Keto diet. 

If you are interested in the Keto diet, or know someone who is please check out 100 Days of Keto by Laurie WJN on Amazon Link: http://a.co/d/57balkj

And add it to your list of books on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42286757-100-days-of-keto

20 Day Mental Wellness Challenge

I saw this online and decided it would be a great thing to do. 

Here is my list for Day 2

10 Things I am grateful for:

1.    My amazing husband- Peter is so loving and supportive of everything I do. He is kind and fun and funny and he makes my life better each and every day.

2.    My two incredible daughters – they are intelligent, compassionate and loving women who make me proud every single day.  

3.    My perfect grandson – William is the light of my life, he is smart and sweet and each day I marvel at how he is growing into a fabulous human.

4.    My Dad – I am so lucky that my Dad is still around and he is the very best role model for the kind of person that I want to be. He is truly an example of the greatest generation; caring for his children, his grandchildren and now his great grandchildren. 

5.    My beautiful home – I am always grateful to live in my house with our stunning view and our pool. My house is my happy place.

6.    My great friends – I am grateful for having good friends that I have known for years as well as more recent friends like my fabulous book club ladies. Friends add so much to my life.

7.    My dog – I can’t write a list without including my fur baby. I am lucky to have had several dogs in my lifetime who have added so much to my life. Lexi is sweet and such a special girl. She makes me feel loved everyday.

8.    My car – There is nothing quite like driving a convertible, especially in the gorgeous Arizona fall and spring. 

9.    The chance to travel – I am so very fortunate I have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit, seeing most of this country and many countries around the world. Travelling is an experience that changes your life. 

10.Words– I am grateful for the ability to write and my love of words; reading and writing have brought so much to my life. 

Feminism is not just for other women. Know your history

I found this incredible list online and just had to share:

10 THINGS WOMEN COULDN'T DO IN 1971…

1. Get credit cards in their own names.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 gave women that right. The law forced credit card companies to issue cards to women without a husband’s signature.

2. Legally get an abortion.
The seminal Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade, which protected a woman’s right to choose, didn’t happen until 1973.

3. Access the morning after pill. Or birth control.
The FDA first approved emergency contraception in 1998. The morning after pill didn't become available over the counter until 2013.

1965 The Supreme Court (in Griswold v. Connecticut) gave married couples the right to use birth control. 

It wasn't until 1972 The Supreme Court (in Baird v. Eisenstadt) that single women's access to birth control was legalized in all 50 states. 

4. Be guaranteed they wouldn’t be fired for getting pregnant.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 added an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, specificyng that employers could not discriminate “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”

5. Marry another woman.
Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004. That right wasn't extended to all 50 states until 2015. For the pitifully pedantic.......that right did include men. 

6. Fight on the front lines.
Women were first admitted into military academies in 1976. And in 2013, the military ban on women in combat (tied to a Pentagon rule from 1994) was lifted by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta. Prior to 1973 women were only allowed in the military as nurses or support staff. 

7. Take legal action against workplace sexual harassment.According to The Week, the first time a court recognized office sexual harassment as grounds for legal action was in 1977.
The 1986 case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, was first time the Supreme Court recognized "sexual harassment" as a violation of Title VII.

8. Decide not to have sex if their husbands wanted to.
Spousal rape wasn’t criminalized in all 50 states until 1993.

9. Obtain health insurance at the same monetary rate as a man. Sex discrimination wasn't outlawed in health insurance until 2010. Until then, insurers regularly charged women more than men for even the most basic insurance.

10. Keep your husband who had been convicted of spousal abuse from owning a gun. Voisine v. United States, 579 U.S. ___ (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that reckless misdemeanor domestic violence convictions trigger gun control prohibitions on gun ownership. In other words, until this year, the man that was convicted of beating the crap out of you and your children was still allowed to own a gun and keep it in your house if you decided to still live with him. In his house if you managed to get out.

In 1880 the age of "consent" was set at 10 or 12 in most states, with the exception of Delaware, where it was 7.

This is why we all need to VOTE! 

*credit for this amazing list goes to Lisa Bialac-Jehle, https://www.facebook.com/LisaBialacJehle/ 

I’m angry

I don’t know about you, but right now this all just feels like too much to bear. Watching the heart-wrenching testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and the disgust, disinterest and degradation of the old white men in power and how they disregarded her words has left me feeling angrier than I can ever remember. It is not a momentary anger, this is a built up frustration of decades of men being held to a different standard than women. 

·      This is an anger at un-equal pay, but I can’t even say for equal work because women work twice as hard for half the recognition. 

·      This is an anger at being dismissed simply because of my gender. 

·      This is an anger at  being told I should “smile” as a way to dismiss me and my feelings. 

·      This is an anger at all the times someone accidentally brushed against my chest. 

·      This is an anger at not being allowed to take a maternity leave.

·      This is an anger at the many salespeople that walked past me to shake hands with my husband first, as if I wasn’t even there.

·      This is an anger at the time I first got married and my credit cards were then put in my husbands name.

·      This is an anger at a voting public who believe lies about a female candidate but disbelieved the truth about a male one.

·      This is an anger about watching the Anita Hill hearing on TV back then and realizing that NOTHING has changed.

·      This is an anger at the college professor who gave my daughter a lower grade than her male classmate for the same work. 

·      This is an anger at being told I am too loud and that women should be seen and not heard.

·      I am angry about so many more things like this.

I am ANGRY because I have every right to be angry and I have just one thing to say to those misogynistic old white men who dismissed me and every other woman this week – I am angry and I WILL VOTE. And I am not alone!