Category: Sanity Saving
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When your Mom Won’t Sell: Getting your Childhood Dollhouse on the Market
Read or listen as my mom and I take a fun and surprisingly emotional stroll down memory lane on the quest for more closet space. I am not sure if this is another “child of the 70’s” thing, but dollhouses were a big part of my childhood. Not the Barbie playhouse kind (one of my…
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A Lifetime of Greeting Cards
A box of 60 years of cards can hold a lot. In fact, sorting through them gets a little emotional. October, 2025 My sister and I just returned from a visit to my parents helping them out after our mom had minor surgery. It gave the 4 of us a rare chance to spend time…
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The Mink Coat Edition
What to do with bygone status symbols that are just so hard to let go? When a coat is much more than a “coat” Sometime in the early 80’s, my dad brought home an extravagant gift in a big box for my mom. It was probably around the holidays, or close enough, as the Connecticut…
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The Invasion of the Handmade Throw Pillows
Oh boy, the invasion of the handmade throw pillows. Do you have any idea how many throw pillows you can acquire over the course of your life? So. Many. Bed pillows, couch pillows, kitchen chair pillows, desk chair pillows! The options are endless. Some are handmade, others accumulate from trips to HomeGoods, or travel adventures. …
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Supporting Aging Parents: Productive Time vs. Quality Time – Top Ten Strategies
Does a variation of this to-do list feel familiar? This brings me to a topic I have been thinking a lot about: Quality Time vs. Productive Time At some point along your parents’ “longevity journey” 😉 you may notice a shift in the way you spend time with your parents. You are spending less time…
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Did I take my own advice? A mini-listen
Reflections on a week of “quality time” vs. “productive time” with my aging parents Recently, I shared Top 10 Tips from experts on how to spend more quality time than productive time when visiting your older parents. (Check it out!) I just got back from a visit to my parents and my husband asked, “Well,…
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Don't wait for panic-mode; tackle your historic photo archive in Zen-mode
My push to start organizing my historic family photos This weekend I was on a girls weekend and saw a friend I don’t get to see very often. For the last year or so she has been overwhelmed caring for aging parents; dealing with their housing challenges; mourning the loss of a parent; and moving…
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Whose Ashes are These?
Perhaps your parents also have yellow sticky notes all over their house. One day I am greeted with this message on the microwave: Ashes!!
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Who Gets The China? 