Haven’t the leaves been beautiful? There are some years when the foliage isn’t as spectacular, just a lot of yellows with maybe a little orange. But this autumn is vibrant, with intense reds, perky oranges, and light-up-my-life yellows. Must have something to do with the weather. I don’t know, but I’m going with it.  One of my favorite things I get to do all year round is to visit libraries across the great state of Maine. Spring and fall are the best times to do this. Winter is touch-and-go with the weather, and summer is pesky because of the tourist traffic. Spring is nice because you get to check out the buds, leaves, flowers and …

Charlie’s been enjoying this spring as much as I have. We’re both filled with energy. I’ve always wondered why folks don’t do spring cleaning in the winter when there’s nothing going on. But, you know, winter is a time for hibernating, and spring is all about getting things done. Charlie’s been working in the yard, clearing away blow down, and raking up the leaves that we got too sick of dealing with last fall. And last week, it was time to mow the lawn, a sure sign that summer is around the corner. Not surprisingly, he wrote a poem about it. First Mow of the Season First pull, mower started! That, to me, is poetry …

One day a while back, I was at the Rite Aid picking up a few things. Seems like I’m in there every other day. I mean, if they didn’t see me for a week, they’d probably send me a get well card.  Anyhoo, I have a little list of things to get, and on that list, second from the bottom, was “L-Glutamine.” Yes, I thought, that’s definitely my handwriting. But I had no recollection whatsoever of writing it, and no idea what the hell it does. I must have read about L-Glutamine somewhere in a magazine and thought it would be good for me, so I bought it. When I got home, I searched through …

Rose Thibideau got out of rehab last week. Not your Betty Ford kind of rehab. I’m talking about the rehab wing of Mahoosuc Green, the Senior Living Facility where my Dad is. He’s not in the rehab section, though. Dad moved in there a few years after our mother died. He has the cutest little apartment. Anyways, Rose Thibideau’s children tried to get her to move into Mahoosuc Green, but she wasn’t budging. She was Eighty-nine and still living at home until she took a tumble, breaking one wrist and spraining the other. I don’t know how long she was lying on the floor before her daughter Clair found her. Of her seven kids, only …

The other day, I had the misfortune of seeing some photos taken at our New Years day brunch at Celeste and Bud’s. Rita got a new digital camera for Christmas, and while I’m happy for her, it was like spendin’ the day with the paparazzi! The posed shots are OK ‘cause you have time to assemble your parts and put ‘em where you want ‘em. You wedge yourself between a couple of friends and turn sideways. That makes you look thinner. Then you suck in your gut and do the Princess Diana bit. You know, tilt your head down a little and look up. This kind of camouflages whatever double chin action you got goin’. …

Happy 2014! I hope your holidays were wonderful, and if they weren’t all you wanted ‘em to be, well, at least they’re over! Time to take a deep breath, regroup, and move on. As you may or may not know, I don’t make New Year’s resolutions anymore. No, I do what my niece Caitlin calls “setting an intention.” She’s works down at Mahoosuc Health Food, and seems to have the inside scoop on all things New Age-y! “An intention is gentler,” she says. “When you break a resolution, well, it’s done. With an intention, you may lose sight of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s lost forever. All you have to do is refocus on …

Well, it’s the last first blog of the month. (Kind of confusing, huh?) Well, I’ll bring you up to speed. My book, Finding Your Inner Moose, has twelve chapters, so all this year I’ve been dedicatin’ the first blog of the month to a chapter. We’re trying to incorporate a little change into our life each month, hoping it becomes habit. If you haven’t been tunin’ in, or want to revisit one of the past months, you can just scroll back. Pretty swanky, huh? Chapter Twelve in the book is about summing it all up, so that’s what we’re gonna do. Ready? January: Don’t bother with resolutions. Instead, set an intention to make little changes …

It’s the first blog of the month again, and you know what that means. The year’s winding down, and we’re on Chapter Ten of my book, Finding Your Inner Moose, called “Getting Rid of Frogs and Toads.” No, it’s not about amphibians. This chapter’s about self care. Hey, it’s a self help book. You gotta have a chapter on self care, right? I don’t know about you, but my life tends to be plumb-chucka-full of what Charlie and me call the gottas, gotta do this, gotta do that. So much so, it’s real easy to get overwhelmed. And when I get on one of these benders, seems like every time I open my mouth to …

Well, folks, it’s the first blog of the month again. Is it just me, or is time speedin’ up? Seems like Fourth of July was just yesterday, and here it is, September. Yikes! It’s the ninth month, so we’re focusing on Chapter Nine of my book, Finding Your Inner Moose. This one’s called “Listening to Your Inner Moose,” and is about intuition. I know, kind of woo woo, but basically it’s all about listening to your senses and trustin’ what they tell you. Sounds simple enough, but problem is, when your head gets involved, it makes it harder to hear your inner voice. My husband Charlie says it best. He has a little section in …

It’s the first blog of the month again, so you know the drill. We’re trying to incorporate a little change from my book, Finding Your Inner Moose, into our life each month, hoping it becomes habit. Our aim? Livin’ the good life, of course! July just flew by, didn’t it? We’re already on Chapter Eight, “I Can’t Die Today (Because If Anyone Saw the State of My House, I’d Die)”. In other words, we’re talkin’ declutterin’ folks: declutterin’ your house and your mind. The moose sheds its antlers every fall, and grows new ones in the spring. So all winter long, the moose doesn’t have any antlers. This makes it easier for him to forage …