Awesome Finds!

MindFULL Monday Holiday Music Playlist

The season is upon us and I for one, love it! One of my favorite parts is the music. Given Thanksgiving week kicks off “the season”, I am sharing my MindFULL Monday Holiday Music Play list this week.

Seeking great holiday music started as a gift for the marketing department at Bass Pro Shops. Behind every guy stands a great woman, and at Bass Pro Shops that woman is Bev. She has generously tuned my ear to new music throughout the years. As such, I extended my new found appreciation for all kinds of holiday music ( I know much of it reflects Christmas, but Adam Sandler’s Chanukah song is in there, too!). At the beginning of each season I search for holiday songs that one doesn’t hear in the department stores or on FM 24/7.

Below are just a few of my favorites. May these songs become part of the soundtrack to your holidays, with warmest wishes for a MindFULL holiday season!

The Chanukah Song Adam Sandler

This Christmas Donny Hathaway

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa The Jackson 5

Angel Standing By Jewel

Hallelujah k.d. lang

Deck The Halls Smokey Robinson

Winter Weather Squirrel Nuts

Blue Christmas BonJovi

Do You Hear What I Hear Whitney Houston

Cool Yule Louis Armstrong

Please Come The Eagles

Sleigh Ride TLC

Happy Xmas John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Do you have any MindFULL favorite holiday songs? Let us know!

MindFULL Learning

How many of you know the brainteaser: There are two doors, one leading to pain and one leading to happiness, guarded by two men – one lies and one tells the truth – and you have to ask the same question of each to figure out which door to open?

Last night, Ken and I had fun trying to figure out the answer as we played around on a new website we found, Khan Academy. http://www.khanacademy.org

Sal Khan, a young and VERY smart guy (MBA from Harvard Business School, a Masters in electrical engineering and computer science, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and a BS in mathematics ALL from MIT) uses nothing more than his Yahoo Doodle Pad and a videocamera to upload his explanations to Youtube, where he helps us understand everything from Algebra to Mortgage Backed Securities to History to Brainteasers.

Khan, an ex VC’er turned world educator, shows us the easiest ways to understand some of the toughest concepts. Smart isn’t only what you glean from a book, its also about how you explain what you know in a way that someone else can understand. This makes Khan a genius. And you can be one, too.

It started as a way to tutor his young cousin over the phone and grew into an open source project–allowing the Khan Academy to become the free classroom for the World, with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Its totally cool! There are over 1800+ videos on everything from Math (every level) to Science to Humanities to SAT Math and GMAT Test Prep.

Whether you have kids in school who could use a new way of hearing their math, science or history lesson or you are looking for a way to understand what the heck is going on in our world (i.e. why your 410k is down 40% and what your mortgage has to do with it), you have to at least check it out. There is no charge. His site runs on donations and one of his new benefactors is Bill Gates, who uses the site with his 11 year old son.

Simply click through and learn one new concept for today. You’ll be amazed at how you can fill your mind with something that leaves you the better for knowing it.

How do you mindFULLY encourage ease of learning in your home?

AND…what do you think the answer is to the brainteaser?

Let us know!

What’s For Dinner?

It’s 5 o’clock and the question that causes me to shallow breathe and pour a small vodka on the rocks, echoes from the family room…”what’s for dinner?” I know how fortunate I am to be able to answer that question with “what are you in the mood for?”, but that doesn’t keep me from standing in front of the refrigerator with the doors wide open and staring at the shelves, tasting dread.

You see, I have made many mistakes as a parent. And the one that is in my face (literally) every day is around food. My 12 year old is a vegetarian (and has been for 4 years), my husband is as skinny as a refugee and I am still battling the chubby 10 year old I see when I look in the mirror.

So wondering what I can make that will be meatless, fill up my husband and keep me from carbo-loading, is a constant challenge.

Elly to the rescue! Elly is my old sidekick from high school who makes all things look effortless. I appreciate knowing that the woman behind the curtain actually has to think about being human. Even she wonders, “What’s for dinner?” As such, she follows the blog of her friend, Amanda Haas. Elly claims that Amanda has “the best cooking blog and marriage saver I’ve ever tried!” When asked what makes it so great, she says, “No more wondering what’s for dinner and we go to the store once a week. Reading Amanda’s blog saves me time, energy and money.”

So friends, check it out. www.onefamilyonemeal.com

What if we tried it together, for a month, starting the week of September 6^th? Its Labor Day weekend – and we could take the “Labor” out of the day. We could use TMC to post ideas we find, tips and success. Yum!

In the meantime, it would be delicious if you could share your favorite time-saving dinner recipe with our MindFULL Creative readers. I will post mine next week. It’s actually an old recipe that I have changed over the years that Elly used make in high school! And guess what, I have managed to make it into a vegetarian, low-fat and filling one dish meal. Thanks, girls!

What’s your favorite MINDFULL and easy family dinner recipe? Let us know!

What Next?

While today is MindFULL Monday and the last real day of summer (school and work start tomorrow), for many of my friends it’s the start of a new life story. Many are closing their old books and sending their kids off to college for the first time. It’s huge. I can’t imagine, as my child is still navigating middle school. However, for many dear ones, there are lots of emotions and thoughts flying around. I am struck by how many are pondering the question, “What Next?” As old chapters end and new chapters begin, getting clear on a new life direction can be challenging. Picking up the pen and writing “Next” can be daunting.

Unless you are lucky enough to have someone like Tama Kieves whispering words of wisdom in your ear.

Tama wrote the book, This Time I Dance. Creating the Work You Love/How One Harvard Lawyer Left It All To Have It All. Lucky for me, Tama lives in Denver and while reading her book can inspire you to step into your life, looking into her eyes and seeing them sparkle can gently get you to lift your foot.

I’ve talked with Tama about different ideas, desires and dreams over the years. How sometimes I hold myself back. How certain projects bring out fear and others bring out creative genius. Learning to excavate our “why’s” can take time. Taking action, while taking time, is where someone like Tama can come in. She’s been there. Did all the things she was “supposed” to do. And almost croaked along the way. But she triumphs. Her story inspires introspection, her courage inspires permission.

Lucky for you, you don’t have to live in Denver to hear her speak, read her words or dance with her under a foreign sky. Check out her website. http://www.AwakeningArtistry.com Sign up for her inspirational newsletter. Read her book. Pack your bag and spend a weekend with her on a retreat. Do a phone session. The least you’ll do is gently pick up the pen – and who knows what you’ll begin to write next!

As you MindFULLY think about new chapters this Fall, what’s “Next” for you? Let us know!

MindFULLY Fly Fishing

What happens when you say “never”? You can just about count on it coming to be. Yup. I could write for days on all the things I thought I’d never say, do or be — and all the things I have said, done and achieved.

And that’s why I am writing about Fly Fishing.

One of my favorite clients is the Bass Pro Shops (www.bassproshops.com). Who’d have guessed? 5 years ago, I was recommended to them as a focus group moderator. I did some groups for them, they asked if I could travel and here we are, still collecting funny stories. I’ve heard things, been places and learned more about the outdoor world than I could have imagined. And you know what? While I am not lining up to go hunting or camping (unless it is for one night, by a car, with my friend Colette), I do have an new appreciation for the outdoors and hope to own a boat one day.

With my new found appreciation for the outdoors, I found conversation came easily with the nice guy at UPS last week. Turns out he is a professional fly fishing guide. His name is Chris Galvin and he leads guided fishing trips, offers instruction and custom ties flies. His work at UPS affords him time off for the sport he loves. I was struck by his life balance. Finding work he enjoys to support his passion. Hmmm, now that is something to think about.

So, if you are ever considering a fly fishing expedition, check out Bass Pro Shops for your gear and then get in touch with Chris at galvinguiding@gmail.com. You never know what life balance you might strike out there one day.

How do you mindFULLY balance your work and passion? Let us know!

MindFULLY Fit

Who is that woman in the mirror looking back at me? There is no excuse not to be in shape these days, although clearly, I have found several. Nonetheless, when my head is on straight and my eye is on the prize, I remember several folks who have ways that make it easier to stick to the vision.

The first is a program that serves folks who are, well… “after forty”. Armed with insight about why we do what we do, Mary Coussons-Read, PhD, Professor of Psychology and an amazing life coach, is now coaching folks to use their minds AND their bodies. In addition to life coaching, Mary is working with Beachbody, an MLM opportunity that offers reasonably priced, highly effective home fitness programs and products to help you get where you want to go with your weight and fitness in your own home. Not only can you get yourself in shape, you can also learn how to become a Beachbody coach and get your finances in shape, as well. Imagine learning how to be your own boss and reach your financial and fitness goals!

To learn more about what Mary is doing, check out http://BeFitAfterForty.com

Let’s say that you not only want to look good, but you are looking for a proven solution to elevate your tennis game. Trainer and fitness expert Howie Waldstreicher has developed Half Hour Power, a DVD that features multiple exercise routines and workouts with Melanie Oudin or the Bryan brothers. Specifically created to help tennis players develop the kind of strength and stamina required of today’s game, Howie uses power bands and a 30-minute routine to deliver multi-directional total body movements, high-intensity resistance training intervals, isometric core stabilization and core reactive training.

To learn more about what Howie is doing, check out www.halfhourpower.com

For those of you who live in Denver and are looking for a hands-on and mindFULLY encouraging workout experience, check out Energy Balance Inc. Once a week, I share the talent and spirit of David Jacobs, Energy Balance’s brains and brawn, with my girlfriend, Ellen. We laugh, sweat and stretch our way toward feeling AND looking better. No more Hadassah arms, or lower back pain, for us! David’s approach to helping us attain our goals is based on principles and concepts of function (gravity, ground-reaction, momentum, three-dimensions, eccentric muscle loading, subconscious based movement). From these concepts, he creates a workout that allows us to be successful and move towards, and beyond, our current goals. We can see AND feel the difference.

To learn more about what David is doing, check out www.energybalanceinc.com

How are you MindFULLY working out this summer? Let us know!

A Festival Full of Ideas

It’s MindFULL Monday AND Memorial Day. How fun is that? In the spirit enjoying a mindfull weekend and doing fun things, we spent yesterday in Boulder. For those of you who have never been there, I highly recommend a visit. Nestled at the foot of the Flatirons, Boulder is a cool college town with a high social conscience and a clear blue sky.

The Boulder Creek Festival is a Memorial Day tradition. Loaded with people watching, games for kids and booths filled with Healers, hand-made jewelry and organic goodies, it’s a wonderful place to go for new ideas.

One of the best ideas we saw this year was from a company called ENO. They created a light weight hanging chair that would make swinging on your porch on lazy summer eves as sweet as honey drizzled over fresh brie and pears. Another ideas was of wind chimes made with metal carvings, beads and bells. The carvings included animals and words. It was as if your saying was speaking to you each time the wind blew.

Much to my personal delight, I heard Rebecca Folsom on stage by the food tents playing one of my all time favorite songs, Lets Be Too Much! Rebecca is on my play list of Colorado Women Musicians. She often plays at the local folk music school and I just love her music. Check her out on i-Tunes.

My daughter brought a friend and their laughter wafted through the air as they bungee jumped, caught bubbles and savored handmade crepes for lunch. We even witnessed a flash mob dancing to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance! It was a day that made you revel in the moment and delight in the walking of the woman on stilts. A wonderful moment and awesome balance – great reminders that summer is on its way!

What MindFULL ways remind you that summer is coming? Let us know!

The Cultural Concierge

Bored with what you’re reading, listening to or seeing at the movies? No time to research, no one to ask and plum sick of looking to Oprah for the answers? Well, look no further…Head Butler is the site for you! Think of Head Butler as your own “Cultural Concierge”!

www.headbutler.com

I discovered Head Butler awhile back, quickly subscribed and now eagerly await new recommendations every week. Why wait? Well, as many of you know, I love a good coincidence. As such, one summer, when we had just returned from Aspen where we were delighted to hear Josh Ritter, my favorite musician, perform with Grammy-award winning violinist, Hilary Hahn, I was lamenting on how no one knew of Josh. The following week, Head Butler wrote about him — they loved him as much as I did — and I have trusted HB recommendations ever since. I was so excited and found more to learn of as I dug deeper and deeper into the site.

Head Butler was created by Jesse Kornbluth. So beyond a coincidence, why trust Jesse’s recommendations? Because…he’s been tracking down and writing about quality culture for decades. He’s been a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, New York, Architectural Digest, Reader’s Digest, The Los Angeles Times Magazine and Departures, and a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, etc. He’s written several books and co-founded Bookreporter.com, now the hub of the Internet’s most successful non-commercial book network.

And btw my friends, Josh Ritter is also amazing. In 2006, he was named one of the “100 Greatest Living Songwriters” by Paste magazine. He has been compared to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Leonard Cohen. He has a new album out this week, So Runs The World Away. You can take a listen at http://www.joshritter.com/ and link through to NPR. They’ll be streamlining the album for a few days. You can also read Jesse’s interview with Josh on Monday at www.headbutler.com.

Summer is a great time to stock up on good books, new music and culturally cool stuff. I encourage you to toss Josh’s CD in the car (my personal favorite is Animal Years), try one of Head Butler’s book/movie recommendations and kick back and enjoy the long days of summer. Believe me, there is so much to discover, you’ll wish they never ended.

Let us know which Head Butler recommendations you choose for a MindFULLY creative summer!

Follow Your Thread

So excited! On Saturday my new stationary arrived.

I love stationary. There is something about the crisp clean card, the feel of the pen gliding across the paper and the sense of grace as I seal the envelope.

When I was a kid, whenever I received a gift, my parents made me write a thank you note immediately. I hated it. Now, I love it. Moreover, I appreciate it when someone writes to me. So few people use paper these days. It’s an era gone by.

I also learned that in addition to writing personal thank you notes, handwritten professional thank you notes are also treasured. When I was young, I worked at the Illinois Lottery and Desiree Rogers was my boss. Desiree used to write us thank you notes for jobs well done on her personal stationary. I saved mine and learned to do the same as I moved through my own career. I think it is elegant. Maybe that’s why Obama tagged her to be the Social Secretary!

Now I collect stationary and one of my favorite places to buy it is at The Little Monogram Shop www.littlemonogramshop.com

LMS is owned by our friend, Dori Loomis. She is as cute as her store. Creative and light-hearted, Dori’s spirit is only surpassed by her taste in gifts and goodies. Lucky for us, when her girls were in Kindergarten and 2nd grade, she was itching to do something that utilized her creativity. One evening after a glass or two of wine with friends, Dori casually mentioned how perfect some vacant space in town would be for a little monogram shop.

She’d been sewing since she was 7, loved computer graphics and design (which made learning the specialized embroidery software fairly easy), had managed the volunteer non-profit stationery business for The Junior League of Chicago in her 20’s and understood buying and managing inventory. Lastly, she’d handled all the finances for her family’s Funeral Home business.

They loved the idea. So did her husband. So, she set about gathering information about start-up costs and created a business plan.

Dori is a perfect example of when you are thinking about work you’d like to do, “build on what you know.”

Looking back, she found a way for her crazy unrelated jobs to make sense! She’s been around for 8 years, has 5 part-time employees and lots of new ideas still hatching every day. No matter what you may need, LMS is brimming with stationary and gifts that will inspire a thank you.

Check out www.littlemonogramshop.com

Reflect on your own mind full of experiences. What thread weaves through the years?

What Are You Reading?

I am prone to hormonal insomnia and one of the best ways to lull myself to sleep is with a good book. I am always asking my friends, “What are you reading?”

Such the question also dovetails with my other standard question, “How did you get to be where you are in your work?” And the two fit like hand in glove with my long time pal, Carol Snow.

True confessions. I adore Carol. Haven’t seen her in years, but she and her husband hold a special place in our lives. They were our sidekicks when the guys were in graduate school. We summered at the Cape and came way too close to buying a small home together on the beach, before losing it in a tug of war with another family. We still lament.

Carol is one of those friends who is witty and intelligent, but doesn’t lord it over you. She simply uses it to write contemporary fiction for teens and adults.

How cool is that?

Carol held a variety of jobs post-college and during the early years of raising a family. One constant thread wove itself into Carol’s life – a love of writing. As Carol says, “ Eventually, I decided that I could accept failing as a writer, but I couldn’t live with myself unless I at least gave it a shot. I wrote nonfiction for awhile: articles for Park City Magazine and essays for Salon. One of my essays, about a night spent with my vomiting toddler, was nationally syndicated. If you Google “Carol Snow” and “puke,” you can still find it. Finally, I finished a novel, found an agent, and landed a publishing contract. That was five years and six books ago.”

She lives what I wish for us all to know. If there is something you do well, try and make it yours. If you want to make a living, give it a shot.

Carol’s latest book has just been published. Just Like Me, Only Better Carol Snow. Berkley, $14 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-425-23248-4. And she was reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly, 2/15/10!

A divorced Orange County suburbanite’s life gets a delicious jolt in Snow’s superb romantic comedy. After Veronica Czaplicki’s husband leaves her for a mega-rich realtor, she scrapes by, substitute teaching at her son Ben’s elementary school and renting a guest house from an overbearing couple. In a fun twist of fate, Veronica’s resemblance to young superstar Haley Rush (think: Miley Cyrus meets Lindsay Lohan) attracts Haley’s manager, who offers Veronica $100 an hour to pretend to be Haley for photo ops. At first Veronica loves getting a makeover and “dating” Brady Ellis, Haley’s hot ex-boyfriend and co-star. The good times, of course, can’t last, and romantic treachery lurks. Snow (Here Today, Gone to Maui) turns what could’ve been just another single mom mope fest into a wonderfully witty reminder that celebrity always carries a price tag. (Apr.)

My daughter is currently reading, Been There, Done That, one of Carol’s earlier books. Last night she asked for an extra 15 minutes before bed to read. Carol’s books are also awesome travel companions, but be prepared- folks shoot quizzical looks when you chuckle out loud.

I am in a book club. We have been meeting for six years. Some months we love the book and others we simply ignore and turn our attention toward the food. Carol is in a book club, too. Can you imagine how fun it is? Check out their picture. While she says they don’t always dress like this, I find their spirit infectious. I’m defiantly going to bring this to my book club on Thursday!

If you choose to read one of Carol’s books with your book club, it comes with discussion questions. If you are interested in having an author chat, Carol would be happy to join your meeting via speakerphone. Just drop her a line at carolsnow@roadrunner.com

This week, check out one of Carol’s books at www.carolsnow.com and settle in for a good read. Use her stories, and her story, to ponder your own tale. If Carol can turn her love of writing into something she enjoys doing for a living, what would you like to do?

Think mindFULLy and remember, you are the author of your own story.