Blog
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How to Keep From Getting Old
- January 29, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
20 Comments
Lunch with my girlfriends is never dull. Whichever group gathers for a bowl of pho or a sashimi lunch (salad and miso soup included), there are always things – big, thought-provoking things – to talk about. There are little things, too, but it’s those big things that we all take home with us and think
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Making Room for My Young Adults
- January 15, 2018
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: parenting
Young adults still need their parents. Those of us with 20-something children know this to be true. Some need us more, some need us far less than we’d like them to, but sooner or later, they will come to us—their older and wiser parents—with a problem too complicated or painful or expensive or dangerous to
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When Something Happens
- December 31, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
You know that old Yiddish expression that translated means “Man plans, God laughs?” Well God ha ha ha’d at us big time. I mean, really, really big. A few years ago, my husband and I decided to downsize from our family home, where we had raised our children and lived for 24 years, to a cozy
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Living By the Book
- November 20, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
The notebooks sit on a shelf in my office, mocking me. They are brightly colored – orange, turquoise blue, red – and they are, for the most part, empty. I bought each of them in a moment of weakness, after seeing the words “bullet journal” or “daily schedule” or “personal record.” I saw ads for
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Is There a “Real” College Experience?
- October 1, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: parenting
My two kids both went away to college – one across the country and one an hour plane ride away. They didn’t have much choice – my husband and I had, from their earliest days in school, told them that we not only expected them to go to college but, in my husband’s words, expected
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10 Books I’ve Loved in 2017 (Plus a Few More)
- September 25, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: books
Books books books. How much do I love to read? I love to read more than just about anything. However, as I’ve grown older, I’ve become far less patient with mediocre books. After 50 pages, if I’m not interested, I will put a book down and start a new one. I would say about half
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How Dads React to the Empty Nest
- August 19, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: parenting
When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, it had been barely a month since my husband and I had walked down the aisle. This surprising – but wonderful – turn of events had quite an impact on my new marriage. Imagine this scene – a young husband, called to the phone
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The 98.1% Jew
- August 7, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: family
In my never-ending, self-absorbed and completely-boring-to-any-other-human-being desire to understand myself, my family and my history, I decided to take not one, but two DNA tests. I ordered the kits and dutifully filled the test vials with saliva (not as easy as it sounds), and then waited for the results. Having explored my family tree to
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Retirement? It’s on My Mind
- August 4, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: midlife
This post is in support of the Ad Council and AARP. Though I was not compensated for it, I believe the information is important for the readers of my blog. Retirement. If you’re prepared, it can be a beacon of light in the future, a time for relaxing, enjoying life and doing what you want
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130 Things to Do as an Empty Nester
- July 29, 2017
- Posted by: Sharon Greenthal
- Category: empty nest
The empty nest is your chance to do anything you want – if you could just figure out what that is. Find a job Quit your job and start a home-based business Go back to college and get a Bachelor’s Degree Go back to college and get a Master’s Degree Go back to college just