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Years of buying, selling, living in homes and cooperative/condominium apartments and rentals, as well as watching lots of reality TV shows about how to transform houses with no cash and lots of elbow grease, have made us experts, sort of.  However, the recent gyrations of the housing market during Covid and afterward have thrown us off our game. The stakes have changed. Long-held beliefs about what buyers, including us, want and must have are no longer set in stone.  With this in mind, we have adjusted our approach, keeping our eyes and ears open to master new lessons, some of...

Been there? Cooked that? We’re both experiencing cooking burnout. Our joy of cooking has waned along with the yellowed and food-stained pages of the cookbook by the same name.  After years of being excited to try a new recipe, study a new cookbook, read a new food magazine and subscribe and test new recipes from food blogs and other social media, we’ve largely put away our whisks, spatulas and aprons. And we’re happy as clams at high water. (It’s an expression, but who knows if clams are really happy! )  Reasons include the fact that we’re tired and so many...

  New beginnings are inevitable. In nature, change occurs with each season. In our personal lives, changes happen as we move through the various stages of our lives. Some beginnings have a soft landing, and others can be a seismic shift that can be wonderful or terrifying, expensive or difficult. Some are generic that are easier to absorb and over which we have control. We may change our hair salon, doctors, grocery store—big and small, specialty food store, library, bookstore, schools, places to walk, parks, clothing, Pilates or yoga studio, shoe repair shop, pharmacy, temple or church, hardware store, art...

Two of our most important senses—seeing and hearing-- often get misdirected or not used properly if we want to connect authentically with people. We see what we want to see, and we get so busy talking we don’t listen. We get so caught up in the conversation and the buzz of our own inner voice and thoughts that it makes it easy to ignore what we hear and what’s right in front of our eyes.   People hurt and want to share. Too often we rush in with solutions or share our tale of woe to mirror theirs. We think we’re...

  Growing up, we had parents, teachers, bosses, friends and spouses telling us what to do and how to spend our time. Many of us as children and teens were overscheduled with school, music and dance lessons, sports, volunteer activities, clubs and more. As adults we had work and maybe children and parents, which structured our time.  No longer. Since many of us have retired or are semi-retired, how we spend our time is on us.  Throughout the years, we have learned to master a great deal. Most of us have figured out how to budget our funds, cut our...