Happy New Year! If you read my series on making it the best year ever, you know I’m pretty excited and I have a lot of big goals. Right now, the year is shiny and new. But what’s going to happen to us when it’s not so factory-fresh? When it’s, say, early March, and the weather’s bleak and blah, and

Why am I posting today about frugal and thrifty romance? Well, I’ll tell you! Last week, Mr. Donovan got laid off after 13 years with the same company. Neither of us knew it was coming. It certainly wasn’t about performance: he’s a great copywriter, copy editor, and proofreader, besides being literally the nicest person anyone has ever met. I can’t say

Most of us believe in the value of venting. “I just need to get it off my chest,” we say, or “I just need to blow off some steam.” By complaining, we believe that we won’t carry the negativity inside of us any more, because we let it out. It makes so much sense! Except that it doesn’t always work

I had an epiphany the other day, and it went like this. Some friends of mine were discussing cruises, and one of them said she didn’t think she would like going on one because there would be group dinners and group activities. I thought: What? That would be so much fun! You’d meet all kinds of new people! And then I

A while back, I wrote about focusing on our strengths instead of our weaknesses. But sometimes, it’s hard for us to even be aware of our talents and positive qualities. A lot of people, especially creative people such as writers and artists, think that they don’t have “people skills.” They consider themselves awkward (which isn’t really a big deal, even