“Hidden Orchard Mysteries: The Case of the Air B&B Robbery” Film Review by Andrea Santo Felcone

The opportunity entertainment provides, to get lost in another environment, if only for a little while, can be a very important way to cope in these extremely trying times. Any joy seems like something to grasp and hold onto, now, more than ever. However, with live theater on hold, I didn’t think I would be able to review anything for you, for quite some time. Then, the opportunity to review the movie: “Hidden Orchard Mysteries: The Case of the Air B&B Robbery” arrived, and I was eager (ecstatic really) to watch this film and report back to you.

So, let’s get lost in the world of “Hidden Orchard” for a bit. If you are anything like me, you enjoy a good mystery—something to chew on, something to solve. This film is a little bit in the genre of the Nancy Drew mysteries—in that the “detectives” are young women—young teen girls, in this case. Actresses Gabriella Pastore (Gabby) and Ja’ness Tate (Lulu) are best friends, self-appointed “detectives” willing to stop at nothing to solve a case. Early on, Lulu’s mom tells the girls: “… Sometimes the best adventure can be right up underneath your noses…. Not everything around “The Orchard” is … Continue reading..

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THE HIGHLY SENSITIVE PARENT: Be Brilliant in Your Role, Even When the World Overwhelms You By Elaine Aron, Ph.D. (Book Excerpt)

Emotional Regulation

Since you are going to feel more deeply as a parent because of your innately greater emotional responsiveness, you need to become an expert in emotional regulation. Because of your depth of processing, once you have thought through emotional regulation, I think you’ll be better at it than others.

“Affect regulation” and “emotional regulation” are fancy psychological terms for any method that you might try, consciously or not, to change the otherwise spontaneous flow of your emotions—to increase, prolong, or decrease a feeling to make it appropriate for the situation. Because the human brain is designed to do this quite well, and probably the HSP’s brain even more so, you already know quite a bit about emotional regulation just from having lived awhile with other people. But it never hurts to make it more conscious.

Perhaps the biggest reason to become more familiar with your emotional regulation methods is that you are teaching them to your child. If they see you losing control often, they will learn that is how to respond to emotions, and you may end up dealing with a highly dramatic, intense child for the rest of your life. Your child’s temperament also plays a … Continue reading..

Posted in Blog | No Comments by Robin Gorman Newman

Simple, Jazzy Interior Design Tips for Families and Others by Ross Alexander

Over the past few weeks I’ve had clients reach out for help adding interior design finishing touches to their homes and apartments. Many of us are spending more time indoors these days.  Some are hunkered down solo. Others with friends or a significant other. Still others with family members. While everyone’s needs and experiences is different, I would like to offer the following tips that might spark some inspiration for you……

CREATING A PICK ME UP VIBE 

– Bring in more color through accent pillows, smaller accessories such as colorful fruit bowls, vases, or cashmere blankets. I love William Sonoma and LiveAuctioneers for vintage items.

– Buy some clay pots and fill a window sill with flowers, herbs, or bulbs.

– Find simple wooden picture frames and paint each in a different color. Think pale pink and navy!

– Create a display wall for your child’s artwork. Find vintage frames and insert a cork panel into each. Your child’s art can easy be pinned inside each and rotated every few weeks!

CREATING PRIVATE SPACE 

– Create your own private chill space away from the family in your bedroom, purchase a small club chair and ottoman from an online … Continue reading..

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Struggling to Sleep? 4 Natural Ways to Get Better ZZZZs

We all need a good night’s sleep to ensure that we wake up feeling well-rested and ready for the day ahead. However, if you are a light sleeper or find yourself struggling these days, then a good night’s rest might feel impossible at this time especially. Not getting the sleep you need is not only damaging to your physical and mental health, but it is also extremely frustrating.

There is little worse than finally drifting off to sleep and then being wide awake again before you know it. So, we have put together some tips featuring 4 natural ways to improve the quality of your slumber.

Keep Your Room Dark

It is crucial to make your environment as inviting and conducive to sleep as possible. This means keeping your bedroom dark both when you turn in and throughout the night. Flashing lights and sunlight creeping in sunrise could be one reasons you find it difficult to get a good sleep. To keep your room dark, we recommend  you invest in blackout blinds or curtains and leave all electrical devices in another room at bedtime. So many of us are guilty of scrolling through social media because we cannot sleep, but … Continue reading..

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Smash Your Parenting iShoulds by Amber Trueblood, author, Stretch Marks (Book Excerpt & Giveaway)

Chapter One

_{SMASH YOUR iSHOULDS}

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas layin’ in the sun, talking ‘bout the things they woulda-coulda-shoulda done… But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas all ran away and hid from one little did.  Shel Silverstein

I have this one stretch mark that’s longer and wider than all the rest. When I lay on my back, it looks like an earthworm crawled up on my stomach and died. A pet worm carcass, with me always.

Between all four of my pregnancies, I gained 178 pounds.

Parenting; it’s the perfect storm of sleep deprivation, dirty laundry, and preparing the same boring meals a quadzillion times. Yes, parenting is amazing. But, it can also make you feel insane. Or, like a vampire bat attacked and drained all your mojo. You play the part of personal chef, private chauffeur, nursemaid, housekeeper, bookkeeper, toddler-stylist, financial manager, activities consultant, teacher, and baby- whisperer. Oh, and you often look like crap. No offense.

Do you fantasize about feeling a sense of accomplishment? Imagine if someone complimented you regularly. Dream about receiving acknowledgment for all your time and effort. Ooh, this banquet is for me? What beautiful flowers! And a foot massage? How wonderful!

The Bad News: This will never … Continue reading..

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When in Europe, Keep Your Eyes on Your Pizza by Dana Klosner

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic I, like everyone else, was looking for something to do. I always love writing workshops. So, I borrowed my daughter’s computer and did my first Zoom meeting. An online writer’s workshop. The leader showed a picture of a leaning farmhouse in the middle of nowhere as a prompt. It reminded me of a trip I took a life-time ago….

The leaning house reminds me of the time I took a tour of Europe on a college tour from Michigan. I’m from New York. I didn’t know a soul but everyone just graduated college like me, except for one man who was in his 70s. The tour was a whirlwind. About eight cities in six weeks. It was all youth hostels, trains and buses. At one point there wasn’t a youth hostel available and we had to stay in a nunnery. Being a Jew from Long Island I was scared. I thought if God didn’t smite me, one of the nuns would discover my heritage and hit me across the knuckles with a ruler. That’s all I knew about nuns, what I heard from the Catholic school kids growing up. But I made it … Continue reading..

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Pocahontas, Buffy, and New Heroines by Lisa Selin Davis, book excerpt, TOMBOY: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different

Ode to Jo

Pocahontas, Buffy, and New Heroines

Around the time that Girl Power and Sporty Spice were drop- kicking the tomboy off the screen, a new publishing trend emerged: girl crisis literature, inspired in part by the American Association of University Women’s 1991 report Shortchanging Girls, Short- changing America.2 The report found that girls’ self-esteem plum- meted in adolescence and that boys were outperforming them all over the map, in school and at work. Mary Pipher’s 1994 book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls joined several similarly themed books that same year, and literature about the crisis of low self-esteem, declining academic performance, and eating disorders among America’s female adolescents itself became an industry. It promoted a problem that Girl Power—the sexy, commercialized version, not the Riot Grrrl version—seemed to solve in a way that the promotion of tomboyism in the 1970s hadn’t. Girl Power must have reached far more girls than tomboy- ism did.

The crisis, it turns out, was mostly found among middle-class white girls, something the media, so populated by middle-class white people, failed to note. If white girls were becoming meek in adolescence, African-American girls were being reprimanded for not being meek … Continue reading..

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How to make my Rose Bowl inspired Floral Themed Mother’s Day card by Pamela Francis

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