If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you. ~Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I almost broke out into the Hallelujah Chorus this morning. I would have, if I wasn't tone-deaf and didn't want to torture anyone who might be in hearing radius of the wailing that masquerades as my singing voice. So I had to be content with writing a blog post instead.



Yesterday,… Continue

I think I live a pretty decent life. However, compared to the lives of the people on Oprah, it's pretty mundane. Which makes me think maybe I'm doing something wrong or missing out on something. Here's why I don't think Oprah would ever have me on her show:



Compared to the people on Oprah's show, I'm boring. I'm not a… Continue

Mothers are not appreciated for being professional, intelligent, and talented women. Their economic value is dismissed; their lives are viewed as a "luxury;" their needs are considered secondary to those of their families and volunteer groups; and they are pushed to exhaustion from unreasonable expectations and constant, mundane tasks. Mothers work without pay, are on-call… Continue

I'm in sticker shock...over Christmas cards.



It isn't that Christmas cards in and of themselves are necessarily expensive. I was pleased to get forty of them on-sale at my local grocery store, when I found myself stuck at the auto mechanic's shop much longer than anticipated and walked to the grocery store for something to do. I had the cards signed and… Continue

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Apparently the Disney Company is issuing refunds for its line of Baby Einstein DVDs and videos. Why? A group called the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood sued Disney for false advertising: showing Baby Einstein videos to your young child does not turn your child into a genius.



Well, no kidding. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure that one… Continue

Here are some truisms about “starving artists:”

• Most artists will indeed continue to produce work throughout their lives whether or not they ever receive payment, sufficient compensation, or recognition for his or her work, simply because they want to.
• However, most artists like to be paid for their work rather than continuing as a “starving artist.”
• Some artists “go commercial,” attempting to combine their…

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Benjamin Franklin is remembered for a plethora of great things, ranging from his ability to rise in the world as a printer to his inventions to his role in the formation of our country. In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin writes of how he came to create his Thirteen Values in order to live a virtuous and productive life. His eleventh value, "chastity," carried the notation, "Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or… Continue

Remember the story of the Little Red Hen? She wanted a loaf of bread. To get the loaf of bread it was going to take a lot of work. Planting the wheat. Harvesting the wheat. Grinding the wheat. Baking the bread. It was not easy to do.

She asked for help. She asked a lot of animals for help. No one was willing to do the work. But she still wanted that loaf of bread. So she did all the work all by herself. And, then, when she had the bread,… Continue

Unless you are someone like Bill Gates or Donald Trump, you have to live on a budget all the time. In these troublesome economic times, many of us are tightening our spending habits even more. I've been a penny-pincher ever since I was a newlywed living in family student housing in college; after seventeen years it's become a lifestyle rather than something I have to do for economic necessity, even though I do still have to do so for economic… Continue

Salary.com, a Waltham, Massachussettes-based firm that studies workplace compensation in all fields across the nation, apparently recognizes the financial value of a mother, whether she is working at home full-time or also works outside the home.



In fact, they have a handy… Continue