Blog
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Tips to Downsize When the Kids Go Off to College
- September 9, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: empty nest
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You’ve done it! You’ve ushered your children through their formative years and now they’ve flown the coop. As you sit back and take a moment to enjoy the quiet of a kid-less house or take some time to mourn the loss of a significant chapter, try to think forward. For the past 18+ years, your
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I’m In a Book! “Grown and Flown: How to Support Your Teen, Stay Close as a Family, and Raise Independent Adults.”
- September 2, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: empty nest
When I started blogging in 2011, I knew no one who blogged. I was naive, clueless, and completely unaware of the many skills and tools that I would need to learn to find any level of success or fulfillment in the blogosphere. One of the first things I did was join Facebook groups where I
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The Exact – and Estimated – Numbers in a 30 Year Marriage
- August 31, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: marriage
Happy anniversary to my husband and me. Thirty years is a long time! 1 wedding2 babies3 houses6 dogs15 cars360 mortgage paymentsWe lost2 fathers1 grandfather4 grandmothers We gained4 nieces3 nephews1 bonus father 4 dining tables7 sofas20,000 cups of coffee300 meatloaves500 pans of brownies116 birthday cakes900 barbecued burgers1500 ears of corn7,000 cut-up apples5,000 packed lunches8,000 loads of
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Inspiration to Chase Your Dreams!
- August 12, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: empty nest
Finding a purpose after the kids leave home is one of the hottest topics in my Facebook group, The Empty Nesters Community. Over and over empty-nesters ask, “How do I find my purpose now that my kids are grown?” I had the opportunity to talk with 3 women who turned their empty-nest into the chance
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The Painful Paradox of Successful Parenting
- July 12, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: parenting
I’ve had conversations – both virtual and face-to-face – with thousands of parents (mostly moms) since I began writing about empty nesting and midlife in 2011. Those parents range from exhausted first-time mothers to joyous and celebrating empty nesters. Each mother has her own parenting story to tell, her unique experience to share, her child
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Avoid the Biggest Mistakes in Retirement
- May 21, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: Uncategorized
This is a guest post by Danielle Kunkle Roberts. She is the co-founder of Boomer Benefits where she and her team help baby boomers navigate their Medicare insurance options. She is a member of the Forbes Finance Council and writes frequently about Medicare, retirement and personal finance. Dreaming of retirement day is something that nearly everyone
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Do You Believe in Magic?
- March 24, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: family
I was at a chateau in the Burgundy region of France for my cousin’s wedding when a butterfly flew in my room. It hovered there for a few minutes, flapping its orange and black wings, just hanging around, and then it flew outside and landed on the hundreds-years-old stone façade, taking in the view. I
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The Hair I Always Wanted
- March 22, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
In 1978, there was no fashion love for straight-haired women. Every where you looked, curls and Afros ruled—big, haloed heads, bobbing up and down, all sassy and free and wild. I was obsessed with getting a perm. It started with Barbra Streisand in “A Star is Born,” her formerly ordinary long hair a mass of
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Is Anyone Listening?
- March 13, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: empty nest
When I was raising my kids, at the end of the last century, there was a lot of chatter in my life. Right before the explosion of the internet, texting, and email, so much of my time was spent talking to other people. If I wanted to order something from the Nordstrom catalog, I had
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Invisible But Not Unseen at Midlife
- March 5, 2019
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
Any discussion of middle age women is incomplete without touching on the fact – not the feeling, the concept, or the belief – but the fact that at some point in our lives, we become invisible to the world. As our youth disappears, these things may happen: our boobs droop and our hair thins, our