Eat Less By Slowing Down and Enjoying Your Food.  Do you find yourself rushing through life? Are you always busy? If so, this could be contributing to many health problems, including weight gain. What can you do? Try slowing down a bit, especially when it comes to meal time. If you're in the habit of eating while standing or eating very quickly...You need to sit down, and slow down. Take the time to enjoy and savor your food.

It happens. An story idea I thought was important and I did the work on is blocked by a Force Divine that is yelping at me at a high rate of speed, “You gotta do this, not that.” And I say “I can’t, looky I really worked on this…” and the Force Divine says, “Save it for next week, kid. We got business here.” And I say “Yeah, but…” and I am lost before I pronounced the “t” in but.  So this is free form and we’ll see where it takes us.

Diet and exercise are important for good health, but did you know laughter is too? If you want to be as healthy as you can be, than laughter needs to be part of your healthy living regimen. Is it? Here are some of the Health Benefits of Laughter: Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases infection fighting antibodies. It increases our attentiveness, heart rate, and pulse.

I spent my first 18 years in the northern suburbs of Chicago. My family was your average mild class Jewish clan clinging to the American dream; my grandparents worked in factories, as secretaries, and skilled construction. My parents were the first generation to obtain college degrees. Vacations as I knew them involved stuffing my parents, grandparents, sister, and me into our rusted blue sedan, then driving four hours to a resort in Michigan filled with elderly Jews and mold. World travel was not something I ever expected to do.

I groan when I hear the words "date night." It sounds so geeky, so corny, so ... domesticated. (In my head, my dears, I'm sophisticated. Shut up.) But, as parents quickly realize, all work and no play makes Mommy and Daddy (or, Mommy and Mommy or Daddy and Daddy -- we're equal opportunity here) 100% parents and 0% couple. Not feeding the romantic relationship can be devastating. Feeding it, particularly if you don't have family in town, can be expensive.

So, let's just cut right to the chase here.  I'm the mother of four children, three of whom are elementary-aged boys.  If I'm qualified to write a post on the subject of table manners, it's because I'm in the thick of the battle, not because I have it figured out.  It's a work in progress.  There's a learning curve.  There are days when our dinners are lovely and polite, and there are days when I wonder if we should just eat in the garage.

The thing about being a Mother of the Bride who lives a couple of thousand miles away from the Bride to Be and the location of the upcoming wedding is that it causes you to spend a lot of time on the telephone. I hate the telephone (but love my iPhone.) Being a couple of thousand miles away also means that you spend a lot of time on the internet. I love the internet. Being a couple of thousand miles away also means you have to be willing to interupt your mother's surprise 65th birthday party weekend for a trip to David's Bridal.

Loads of media types are already wondering aloud, what kind of parents the Obamas will be. For me, that question is sort of silly -- won't they continue to be the same kind of parents they've always been?

When you hear the word tenement it might conjure up images of dark, run down and overcrowded late 19th century apartment living. And although there were many negatives to tenement life, one aspect that always seems kind of cool to me is the notion of multiple generations of families living in the same building.

Last night I went to a meeting about a proposed city ordinance to allow backyard hens in residential areas. Although my city was formerly a farming community, hens and other livestock are currently only allowed in areas zoned for agriculture. I'm interested in having backyard hens myself as a way to live more sustainably and because I feel it would be great for my kids. A teacher who attended the meeting, while pleading her case in favor of the hens, said she's had students that didn't know a hamburger came from cows.

With all eyes on the economy, many people are searching for ways to be more disciplined in their spending.  Increased personal financial responsibility is a good thing, of course, and it may be one of the silver linings in these dark economic clouds.  As parents focus on their own budgets, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to pass these lessons on to our kids.

I learned something really important this week about blogging and I'm going to share this knowledge with you. Ready... Just because you have a lot to say about something doesn't mean the blog post will be easy to write. Having a lot to say about something can make it pretty darn difficult to blog. My difficult topic of the day: Christmas stockings. That's right. I'm having one heck of a time writing a post about the Christmas stockings I've known and loved. I have too much to say and not enough time or space. Forgive me if I muddle it all up and let me just start at the beginning.