Beth Nast

Trying Out Santa Barbara For The Winter

Beth Nast
There are many ways to go on vacation. Each one suits a personā€™s soul, budget and time constraints. Trips to Europe to see cathedrals and art, cruising the Greek Islands, staying put at a lush resort in Fiji, climbing the Alps, the list is endless. Over the last 10 years or so, since empty nest-hood and semi retirement, weā€™ve taken to renting homes in one place and learning the ins and outs as if weā€™ve moved there. Our kids visit and we are a family in a home again, having traded traditional home life for our Boston condo years ago. Spending time in one place suits my purpose of feeling as if I have lived in many places. Weā€™ve done this in Breckenridge, Colorado (4 yrs), and Delray Beach, FL (4 years) and this year we added a new place to our temporary digs: Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara is known as The American Riviera thanks to its Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, cliffside beaches, mountain ranges, a world-renowned food and wine scene, stunning natural beauty and near-perfect weather. That sounded to us like a trip to Europe while staying in the USA. Our Colorado son said, ā€œSounds like another rich white flightā€ (which in part it is), but fortunately we were there long enough to see what lies beneath. After careful investigation on Air B&B, and enlisting a local to confirm our choice, we rented a hilltop beach home in Summerland, CA, a tiny town just a few miles outside of Santa Barbara, next door to Montecito, the home of Harry and Meghan, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah, to namedrop a few....
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Menopause And After: The Truth About Hormone Therapy…Every BA50s Right!

felice
"You mean we can take Estrogen now, after 60, we can start now?Ā  I was hoping I would be allowed to take estrogen for specific issuesĀ  but also because frankly, I have read that the benefits can help with the aging process like our memory, bone health, heart health and our skin.... Is this really true I asked one of the top Doctors, Dr. Susan Hardwick-Smith, GYN, who is the founder of the Complete Midlife Wellness Center in Austin. "Absolutely... but not orally, but yes, every woman in menopause and after menopause should find a Dr. to talk about this topic and educate themselves!" "I was told I had missed the window...Ā  and now after 60, I was 10 years post menopause and it was risky?" "This is not true," said Dr. Susan. "How could I/We have been so misled?Ā  Two years ago my very smart OB told me I had missed the window on Hormone Therapy as I was 10 years post menopause." "This is so frustrating to hear but thank goodness for Susan Dominus' New York Times article...."Women Have Been Misled About Menopause," published on Feb 1 (just 2 weeks ago)." "Yes, that's why I called you... we need to continue this conversation. My friends in their 60's all were told absolutely NO Hormone Therapy and 2 weeks ago, since this article was published we are learning this is no longer true... this is so upsetting that we were so misled but how do we know what the truth really is...can we just rely on this article?"...
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Felice Shapiro

How To Feed Your Vegan Guest 101

felice
I shamed myself the other week when I invited myĀ  dear friends who are Vegan over for dinner and we started to discuss the menu. "So I'm not sure what to make because I know you are Vegan," I said. "Don't worry, we will bring a Vegan App and a Vegan Pizza." "Wait, I invited you guys." "It's ok don't bother." I let them bring the pizza and the App. "Really Felice.....this is so not OK," I chided myself. "You should know better. You're smart and love to learn so you can do this...you can learn what to make for your Vegan friends. More and more of my friends are becoming Vegan and rather than educate myself about what I can serve them when they come over,Ā  I keep asking the same dumb questions about whether this or that is ok. I should know better! I mean what's so hard about this? Roast the veggies and don't use butter...use olive oil. No you can't have Cobb Salad with cheese and bacon. Do you know why...
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Cooking in kitchen

What’s a Chia? What’s a Hemp?

Marjorie Siegel Lyons
Chia seeds. Hemp seeds. Flax. Nutritional yeast. Liquid aminos. I ask you. Did your mother ever sprinkle nutritional yeast on your frozen dinner? Chia on your canned green beans? I think not. "Cheeseburgerfriesandacoke." That was one word to me, for decades, from elementary school through my forty's at least. For years growing up, we'd go to the local diner, The Golden Coach, or just "The Coach" for those in the know. But it could have been any restaurant. I barely needed to look at a menu. When the waitress came by, my mouth just went on automatic pilot. I am a real foodie. I love to cook. Entertaining my family and friends around my table is my favorite thing ever. I worked in a restaurant kitchen. I've been to cooking school. I follow a million food bloggers. So I am not a culinary neophyte. But I want to embrace this new healthier way of eating...so, as my title here asks, I go in search of the answer to my question, "What's a Chia? What's a Hemp?"...
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Loud and Proud

Loud and Proud

Liz Kurkjian-Henry
My teachers consistently wroteĀ ElizabethĀ could try harder, Elizabeth is too social, Elizabeth is very smart but she talks too muchĀ on my report cards causing my parents much anxiety and disappointment. So I would try harder, for a while, but I always lapsed backĀ Ā into my pursuit of the latest celebrity gossip inĀ Beat, the latest makeup/hair trends inĀ SeventeenĀ orĀ MademoiselleĀ so I could discuss them, opine on them (opinions- I always had a LOT of them) and ultimately find the funny or absurd in them and my life at fourteen so I could make people laugh.Ā ...
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no more, hand up in stop gesture

A Parent’s Perspective: What….Wear an Emergency Alert Necklace!

JoAnn DiFranco
ā€œYou live the closest.Ā  How about you call every morning just to make sure she is okay.ā€ ā€œAm I the ā€˜sheā€™ you are talking about?ā€ I asked walking in with a tray of appetizers. And then, with a tinge of anger in my voice, ā€œIf so, donā€™t you dare appoint anyone as responsible for checking on me.ā€ Uh oh!Ā  Realizing I had initiated a palpable tension in the room, I offered a feeble laugh. ā€œGuys, Iā€™m not anywhere near there yet. I promise I wonā€™t be the lady crying, ā€˜Iā€™ve fallen and I canā€™t get up,ā€™ from the bottom of the cellar steps.ā€ Throughout dinner, I remained cheerful, happy to have my children, their spouses and my grandchildren enjoying the meal I had made for them.Ā  I wanted to remind them that I had shopped, cooked, cleaned the house, and stood on a stepstool to get the good china from the top shelf of the breakfront.Ā  All by myself. That evening, in bed with a magazine, I felt guilty that I had snapped at my children.Ā  Iā€™d been living alone since the last of my four children married ten years ago. Why their sudden concern? And why my failure to graciously accept a plan to ā€œmake sure Mom was okay.ā€ I remembered how ā€œdifficultā€ my mother became as she got older. She almost never wore the hearing aids we insisted she needed.Ā  How often I stood outside ringing her doorbell, pounding on the door, and calling her phone with no response.Ā  I knew she was home; I could hear the blaring television. Iā€™d resort to walking around the house and banging on one of her living room windows....
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Saying Yes To Separate Marital Bed Responses Blew My Mind…What Did You Think?

felice
I was blown away by the response to the post we published last week on BA50, Marcia Byalick's "Marriage Everlasting In Separate Bedrooms." The post literally went viral. There have been 60K views on our BA50 Instagram and BA50 FacebookĀ  and the comments poured in... including a rousing... The honesty of our readers' comments were fascinating with so many sharing their own sleep arrangements both separate and not.Ā  I wanted to share some of my thoughts on this topic and am inviting you all to share yours as well. I truly was surprised and curious to learn more when I read the comments by soĀ  many who were also happier in separate bedrooms and still have healthy marriages.Ā  This was news to me and struck a chord as well.Ā  First of all, there is the judgement piece.Ā  There are many topics about our marriages that we prefer not to share because who wants to be judged, so I was thrilled Marcia took on this topic. And, the truth is, I learned from this post....
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Lynn Walsh

Our Friend Has Died

Lynn Walsh
Itā€™s been almost two months since my friend Tommy fell to the floor at his friendā€™s house in Milton, Delaware and suffered a fatal heart attack. What began as a typical evening of socializing among these transplanted Delawareans turned deadly in a split second. Hardly the picture of health- Tommy was overweight, a smoker; nevertheless, no one expected death to strike so suddenly and violently. At age 63, Tommy was just a year older than me, making him my first contemporary to pass. And leaving me unsettled in ways I am trying to comprehend. Countless others have written volumes about death and loss and grief far more eloquently than I, and yet the questions remain. How do we get past the grief: mine, ours, Janetā€™s? I tell myself what I tell my suffering patients: There is no way around grief, only through it. Navigating this level of loss means something different to every person experiencing it. For me, I will begin by remembering Tommy, his antics, and his goodness, and I will say his name. I will remind myself and Janet that grief is not linear, nor is it predictable. It is indiscriminate in its assaults. ...
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