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Have You Ever Wanted To Just Be Done With Stuff? Here's An Idea!

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It's Time To Do My Annual 2017 "I'm Done" List Every year a friend, of about 10 years, and I get together for our annual “I’m Done” list.  This list, when finished, is comprised of all the things we’ll be done with by the end of the following year.  I’ve been told by my friend that this list has helped her be stronger person over the last 8 years we’ve been putting these lists together for ourselves.  I have to agree, making a list with someone can help make me accountable for what I say I'm going to do.  Goal setting with accountability! We always plan to do our "I'm Done" list about a week before the new year.  The day starts with a celebration champagne cocktail before we start.  Then we open our little spiral books and click on our pens.  We read aloud, each of us taking turns, what we wrote the previous year for the current year.  Some of the things we previously wrote were funny but most were serious.  A few things we wrote down had t

The Best Children's Books Of 2016

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I am posting this reprint today because the holidays are upon us and I still believe giving books as presents encourages people to read, especially children.  Here is a list of the best children's books of 2016.    The Best Children’s Books of 2016 "From love to mortality to the lives of Einstein and Louise Bourgeois, by way of silence and the color of the wind."  Brought to you by www.brainpickings.org Happy book buying!

Here Come the Hectic Holidays...Again

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It’s that time of year again when people are getting on my nerves.  The frantic, frenetic pace of the holidays seems to make everyone crazy.  Driving like maniacs to get to the mall, running into people with their shopping carts, ripping stuff off the shelves and not putting it back.   And the parking lots!  Pulling in and out without so much as a turn of the head to see if anyone is behind them.  The other day I saw a huge pickup truck pull into a parking space where the mom had her door open and her child standing between the door and the vehicle and this monster truck pulled in so fast and close the mom had to close the door so that the child and herself were between the door and her vehicle to be relatively safe.  If the truck would have been one inch closer he would have squashed them both, maybe to death.  Inside the store, he was walking hard and fast, fists clenched, I thought he was deliberately on his way to punch someone out who worked in the store.  Normally I would

Goals, Goals, Goals Are Driving Me Crazy

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Why Can’t I Follow Through With My Goals? I want to start my goal setting, again, before New Year’s Day.   I try to do this every year and it doesn’t work.   Then I say I’ll start my new goals New Year’s Day and then that doesn’t happen.   As you can see I haven’t posted in quite some time, a long time.   All because I can’t seem to follow through on my goals – again.     And there seems to be many different reasons (excuses?) why. Tomorrow’s another day.     I’ve had to do things my entire life, now that I’m retired I don’t have to so I’m not going to   I’d rather be doing something else   I’m afraid I might fail   Writing seems like so much work.   I think I’m going to clean the house right now   I’m retired.   Why am I forcing myself to do things?    I’m afraid I might fail These are just a few of the reasons I procrastinate and I’ve gotten better at procrastinating than at *doing*.   This year I’m going to try to figure out how to get out of thi

Best Movies of 2015 For Older Adults

These are picks from AARP. Check them out! Best Movie for Grownups Our Age - Any Age The Theory of Everything The true story of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his first wife, Jane (Felicity Jones), starts out as a tale of young love. But as Stephen falls ill, the film supernovas into matters both painfully personal and mind-blowingly cosmic. Best Director Richard Linklater, Boyhood Richard Linklater admits it was “insane” to start a movie about a 6-year-old and continue filming it with the same actor (Ellar Coltrane) through age 18. Maybe, but it's fun watching the boy get older while his parents enact growing up too. Best Actor Steve Carell, Foxcatcher In Foxcatcher, the Steve Carell (left) we’ve known for his hilarious turns becomes the dead-eyed John E. du Pont, a wannabe wrestling coach whose delusions, combined with his vast wealth, spelled disaster for all around him. Best Actress Julianne Moore, Still Alice As a 50-year-old professor enduring early-ons

Things We're Too Old to Say - reprint from Politico by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Things We're Too Old to Say - Sounding off on slang we should drop by Jacquelyn Mitchard, March 11, 2011 I'll never be too old to say I love you. I'll never be too old to say I'm sorry. I'll never be too old to ask an obnoxious jerk if he's this rude to everybody or if he's running a special just for me. Still, I am too old to keep on saying certain things. Being part of the generation that won't grow up means that I still have many friends (female) who announce that they're going "to the little girls' room" to "tinkle," and many friends (male) who clap their pals on the back and cry "dude!" We may be young at heart. We may even fit into our wrestling singlet or cheerleader uniform. (No, you don't have to prove it … I believe you!) All that said, we could at least talk the talk of gracefully grown people. What follows here is a smattering of silly syntax — slang that people of my generation should never utter.

What Old People Know About Sex That You Don't

This is an article from the Huffington Post today by Dr. Karl Pillemer. I'd like to share a revelation with you. It took me months of pondering my interview data from hundreds of long-married elders, but I finally got it. It's about sex and older people -- not something younger folks think about a lot. However, when I have given talks to 20- and 30-somethings about my  book  of advice from people married a half-century or more, I know there is one question in the back of their minds, even if they don't come out and say it: How can sex possibly stay interesting for a lifetime? I have good news for you. I'm going to allay your worst fears and help you to relax about the idea of sex in the later years of marriage. I will tell you the spoiler right now. The message from our elders is: don't waste your time worrying about sex in later life, because it's pretty good. But first, here's the revelation. Ready? The reason you are worried about this issue is