Consider Fall Leaf Color When Choosing Your Next Plantings By Deborah Clark NABBW’s Gardening Associate Close your eyes and imagine a bed of tulips – translucent reds, saturated yellows, crayon bright oranges. Imagine the sun shining through these tulips, making them appear as  colored lights. Imagine these tulips 40, 50, 100 feet tall, a woods of tulips lining the road and you’re in a car driving through them on a beautiful, clear autumn day. What you’re driving through is an Eastern forest of oak and maple, ash and beech, tulip poplars and sycamores in the fall. Fall leaves are like... Read More

Trouble Sleeping? It Might Be Menopause By Karen Giblin and Jo Anne Turner Menopause results into trouble sleeping for so many women. We wake up too many times in the night to go to the bathroom. Our restless legs wake us up. As our hormones continue to shift (typically declining) beginning with peri-menopause throughout menopause and post-menopause, we experience more hot flashes and night sweats that interrupt our nightly rest. Even small amounts of light and noise can wake us up and stimulate our nervous system making it difficult to fall back to sleep.  All of these things can leave us feeling... Read More

What Traditions Do You Do For the Holidays? By Natalie Caine, M.A. NABBW’s Empty Nest Expert Empty Nesters, Boomers and those in life transitions, share their traditions: Read a children\’s book Christmas Eve and then add it to the collection for your children when they will be parents Make candy apples while playing favorite holiday sing along songs Open one present Christmas Eve Open the stocking in bed in the morning even when the children are older than 17 or they don\’t get the stocking. Cuddle time is good at any age Take a hike Go to the movies Visit relatives Make seasoned... Read More

Plenty of Fish in the Sea: Seeking Love After 50. By Dr. Dorree Lynn NABBW’s Boomer Women Sexuality Expert “Wouldn’t you love somebody to love?” Both Grace Slick and the late, great rocker Janis Joplin certainly thought so. (Remember, Grace and the Jefferson Airplane sang “Somebody to Love?” And Joplin was famous for “I Need a Man to Love”…) In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world, many people in their 50s, 60s, 70s (and beyond) suddenly find themselves unwillingly and often unexpectedly alone. Unless you want to give up shared sex entirely... Read More

Thrifty Christmas Decorating By Barb Tobias, NABBW’s Thrifting Expert I am a collector of orphans…the savior of parts.  I love to put together all the unloved pieces that people throw away and make masterpieces.  And, no season brings more opportunity than the holiday season. I begin my decorating by pulling out all my Christmas finds and begin sorting, purging and grouping “orphaned” items that will be used to fashion holiday displays. This year I made a splendid centerpiece from odds and ends collected throughout the year from various thrift venues…garage sales, flea markets... Read More

Year-End Special By Barbara E. Friesner My father used to quip:  What do you get the person who has everything?  A box to put it in. Oddly enough – that’s not such a bad suggestion!  Especially now when you’re helping them get rid of stuff! The kind of box doesn’t necessarily matter. What matters is what you put into it. Once I gave my mother a Mother’s Day card that said something to the effect of:  “I may have been a difficult child but I never deliberately stepped on a crack.”  My mother read the card and looked at me and it was obvious that she totally... Read More

Holding a Diva Garage Sale – Part III By Barb Tobias, NABBW’s Thrifting Expert There is always a lot to do right before I open up for business the morning of my sale, and if I have failed to plan effectively … I’m stuck. I can’t simply leave to run for the store or the bank or to put out signs.  So, all last-minute preparations are carried out the day before the sale. The Day Before the Sale Getting a minimum of $100 in small bills for change is first on my agenda. At the least, I make sure I have fifty $1, six $5 and two $10. I’ve learned that people will often hand you... Read More

A Brand New You: Rebuilding a Meaningful Life with Chronic Illness By Mary J. Yerkes, NABBW’s Living With Chronic Illness Expert A diagnosis of chronic illness can bring with it feelings of denial, anger and grief. But, at some point, the emotions subside and you are faced with a harsh reality—you are no longer the person you once were. Chronic illness has robbed you from your sense of identity and purpose. Do you even stand a chance of rebuilding a meaningful life? According to Judy Gann—a breast cancer survivor who suffers from fibromyalgia and other autoimmune disorders—you can.... Read More

Beauty in Life Comes from Letting Go By Sheri McConnell, NABBW\’s  Entrepreneurial Publishing Expert In life and in business I have discovered that beautiful synchronicities show up in all parts of our life when we just let go.  Here are just a few areas you can begin to practice letting go.  Even though some of these areas might seem focused more on the personal side of our lives, rest assured that they completely affect your business too. And isn’t it such a beautiful world to live in where we can allow our businesses to help us grow. Let Go to Love Letting go and trusting others... Read More

Travel to A Fairy-Tale Chateau in the French Countryside By Carol Sorgen, NABBW’s Travel Expert Who hasn’t had thoughts that in a previous life she was, if not a princess, perhaps a countess, a duchess, at the very least a mere lady of the manor? So when my friend, Nan, and I drove up the long approachway to the fairytale-like Chateau d’Esclimont outside the pocket-size French village of Saint Symphorien-le-Chateau, is it any wonder I thought, “I am home!” (Nan, by the way, harbors no such illusions herself; I, on the other hand, am a semi-permanent resident of “Fantasy... Read More