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 …

Wow! Time’s flyin’ by. It’s already the first blog of the month again. We’re up to Chapter Seven in my book, Finding Your Inner Moose, “A Moose Does What a Moose Does Best,” and it’s about work. More specifically, findin’ the job that’s right for you. Like in a lot of self help books, this is the section where I talk about leaving your job as a receptionist and turning your design for the perfect paper clip into a multimillion-dollar corporation. Well, not exactly, but I do see articles like that all the time. I find them inspiring, but a little depressing—kind of like that “half their size” issue of People magazine. I don’t have …

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. Isn’t this year just is flying by? I mean, we’re already on “Chapter Six: A Good Marriage Starts With Please and Thank You.” Now like in real life, I do most of the talkin’ in my book. But I’m not the only one. My husband Charlie has a little section in each chapter where he weighs in on whatever topic I’m covering. You know, givin’ the guys point of view. His …

It’s the first blog of the month again, and if you’ve been followin’, you know the drill. For those of you who don’t, my book, Finding Your Inner Moose, has twelve chapters, and I’ve decided to dedicate the first blog of every month this year to a chapter. Not too shabby, huh? My intention is to choose a little change or two from that chapter I can incorporate into my life, hoping it becomes a habit. We’re on chapter five, “Tending the Roots,” which is about friends and family. I don’t know about you, but when I think about living the good life, I imagine myself surrounded by family and friends. They’re what keeps me …