After first listening to you about a two years ago, I took your sage advice and started my trek toward being thin and healthy. I was so fat the Army wouldn't take me. More >>

I have been listening a lot lately and some days the callers are even frustrating to me! So I came up with this little poem, I hope you think it's cute! Keep nagging! More >>

What it means to have inner peace... More >>

I have 1 boy and 4 girls and I wanted to tell you about our family's experience when my daughters started dating. More >>

I just read an article in USA Today that I think you will find very entertaining and I'd get a kick out of hearing your assessment of it. The article is entitled "Moms, Part-Time Work is Overrated" More >>

Awesome Avocado By Cheryl Tallman www.FreshBaby.com Avocados are the most practical "go anywhere, eat anywhere" food. They do not need to be cooked, require no refrigeration, they come with their own carrying case and even have a built-in serving bowl! So next time you and your baby are on the go, drop an avocado and a spoon in your diaper bag and you are all set! Directions: The handiest method for preparing an avocado is to cut the pear-shaped fruit in half length-wise with a sharp knife so that you cut in to and all around the pit; then rotate and pull the two halves apart. Remove the pit. With the knife, gently make a cross-hatch pattern throughout the halved fruit while the skin is attached, then use a spoon to separate the flesh from the shell by scooping the soft, ripe fruit gently. The skin becomes the serving bowl. Yummy, Quick, Sweet treat: Spread some avocado right on a graham cracker. For an older toddler, add a few raisins and make "Ants on the grass"! Age to introduce: About 9 months Here are few quick tips for adding more avocados into your family meals. 1. Avocado pizza: Top a pizza crust with pizza sauce, avocados, tomatoes, red bell peppers, red onions and feta cheese. Broil it. 2. Homemade salsa: Dice tomatoes, mangos, avocados, red onions, cilantro, and lime juice. Serve with chips for an after school snack or use it as a garnish with any meat, fish or eggs. 3. Spread avocado on sandwiches or hamburgers instead of mayo. 4. Add sliced or diced avocados to any salads or soups (when ready to serve). 5. Start the day with mashed avocado and fresh herbs (cilantro, garlic, or basil) on a bagel instead of cream cheese. 6. New twist on deviled eggs: Fill egg white halves with mashed avocados and spices instead of egg yolks and mayo. 7. Avocado milkshake: 1 avocado, 1/3 quart whole or soy milk, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 scoops of vanilla frozen yogurt - Blend and Drink! About the author: Cheryl Tallman is the co-founder of Fresh Baby, creators of the award-winning So Easy Baby Food Kit, and author of the So Easy Baby Food Basics: Homemade Baby Food in Less Than 30 Minutes Per Week and So Easy Toddler Food: Survival Tips and Simple Recipes for the Toddler Years . Visit Cheryl online at  for more delicious tips.  Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

How Not To Protect Your Personal Assests From Lawsuits By Cliff Ennico www.creators.com "I am just beginning to recover from very near destitution after my wife's serious health problems and her death. I will finally be getting some money soon and I'm planning to buy a Wyoming shelf corporation under which I will run a Web-based retail business. During the past few years I have read books, listened to CD's and watched DVD's about corporations and revocable living trusts. I was unaware of the possibility of being personally liable while working for my corporation. It is my understanding that if my corporation owns my house that all the expenses are tax deductible, such as lights, telephone, heating and cooling. And the same is true of my automobile. If my trust (not formed yet) owns my car and I use it exclusively for business and I have an accident in which I am charged with negligence, can my trust be sued?" E-mail messages like this always make me wonder what kinds of books are out there that people are reading.  While this reader was obviously distracted by personal tragedy, he has picked up a lot of misinformation that will need to be straightened out, so here goes. A "revocable living trust" does not protect your assets from lawsuits.  It is merely a device to avoid probate.  When you die, any assets put in the trust bypass your will and go directly to the trust beneficiaries (your children or other relatives) without going through the long and stressful probate process. Since you are usually the "trustee" of the living trust as long as you live, and have considerable control over the trust assets, the trust will not be considered a separate entity for purposes of lawsuits.  Anyone suing you will be able to reach the trust assets.  The only way to avoid that is to have someone else - someone totally independent from you and your family, such as the trust department of a local bank - act as the trustee of the trust.  While that will protect the trust assets from legal liability, it also means that the trustee, not you, decides what to do with the assets as long as you're living.  Now let's talk about that Wyoming corporation.  Unless you are a resident of Wyoming and will be conducting your business there, a Wyoming corporation does you absolutely no good.  You will have to register the Wyoming corporation as a "foreign" corporation in your home state, and will have to register for state and local taxes there.  You do not avoid those by incorporating in Wyoming or anywhere else.  Your corporation or LLC should be formed in the state where you reside and do business.  Period. Putting assets into a corporation which you control will not protect them from lawsuits.  While the assets belong to the corporation, your shares in the corporation are still a personal asset and can be seized by your creditors.  Attaching shares of stock in a lawsuit is usually a lot easier than putting a lien on real estate, so by doing this you are actually making it easier for your creditors to get hold of those assets. Also, putting real estate in a corporation, especially a regular or "C" corporation, is a very bad idea tax-wise.  Talk to your accountant or tax advisor about that. Having your corporation lease a car to you gives you some tax benefits, but it does not protect you from liability if you are involved in a traffic accident.  The injured person is legally entitled to sue not only your corporation, as the owner of the vehicle, but you personally, because you were the driver whose negligence caused the accident.  Even with a corporation, you will need auto insurance on you personally, although the corporation may be able to pay the premiums and take a deduction if you are a W-2 employee of the corporation.  Ask your accountant or tax advisor about that. So what can you do to protect your personal assets from legal liability?  Here are some suggestions to discuss with your attorney and/or accountant: form a corporation or LLC in your home state (not Wyoming), and make sure you use it when conducting business online - that should protect your personal assets against lawsuits without your having to set up a separate trust; consider transferring title to your house and other key assets to a friendly relative (such as your mother), but be sure that person changes his or her will so that you get those assets back if he or she dies prematurely - also be sure to have a written lease with that person allowing you to live in the house rent-free (or One Dollar a year) until you die; and if you are working out of your home, consider taking the "home office deduction" on your tax return - you may find that will give you better tax benefits than forming a corporation and "living through the company". Cliff Ennico ( crennico@gmail.com ) is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television series "Money Hunt." This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com . COPYRIGHT 2010 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO.  DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM.  Permission Granted for use on Dr.Laura.com. More >>

Social Media is quickly growing into one of the most-used marketing tools for work-at-home moms. One of the largest social media websites, Twitter.com, can be an effective way to spread the word about your business and learn from other top representatives in your business niche. However, it can take a lot of time to determine the best ways to use Twitter effectively for business.  More >>

Can a Mother Be Her Daughter's Best Friend? By Linda Perlman Gordon and Susan Morris Shaffer www.parentingroadmaps.com There is an old Chinese proverb that states "One Generation plants the trees; another gets the shade," and this is how it should be with mothers and daughters. The intimate nature of the relationship between a mother and daughter is sometimes confusing. If close, the relationship can simulate friendship through the familiar characteristics of empathy, listening, loyalty, and caring.  However, the mother/daughter relationship has unique characteristics that distinguish it from a best friendship. These characteristics include a mother's role as primary emotional caretaker, a lack of reciprocity, and a hierarchy of responsibility. This hierarchy, combined with unconditional love, precludes mothers and daughters from being best friends.  Because the essential ingredient for friendship is equality and there is always an imbalance when one person in the twosome is the parent of the other, mothers and daughters naturally can't be best friends. Marina, 27 years old says, "I love spending time with my mom, but I wouldn't consider her my best friend. She's MY MOM.  Best friends don't pay for the dress you covet in a trendy clothing store that you wouldn't pay for yourself. Best friends don't pay for your wedding. Best friends don't remind you how they carried you in their body and gave you life, and sometime gas!  Best friends don't tell you how wise they are and trump your opinion because they have been alive at least 20 years longer than you. I love my mom, and I want her to remain a mom." This doesn't mean that the mother/daughter relationship can't be very close and satisfying. While some adult relationships are still troubled, many find them to be extremely rewarding. So many moms spoke to us about how happy they are to be finished with the "eye rolling" and look from their adolescent daughters, a look that says, "You must come from a different evolutionary chain than me."  Daughters also adopted the famous Mark Twain quote about aging, with some slight alterations, and their feelings about their mothers. Mark Twain said, "When I was a boy (girl) of 14, my father (mother) was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man (woman) around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man (woman) had learned in seven years."  This generation of mothers and adult daughters has a lot in common which increases the likelihood of shared companionship. Mothers and daughters have always shared the common experience of being homemakers, responsible for maintaining and passing on family values, traditions, and rituals. Today contemporary mothers and daughters also share the experience of the workforce, technology and lack of a generation gap, which may bring them even closer together. Best friends may or may not continue to be best friends, but for better or worse, the mother and daughter relationship is permanent, even if for some unfortunate reason they aren't' speaking. The mother and child relationship is, therefore, more intimate and more intense than any other. As long as that hierarchy exists, it's not an equal relationship.  Daughters should not feel responsible for their mother's emotional well-being. Not that they don't care deeply about their mothers, it's just that they shouldn't be burdened with their mother's well being. As one mother said to her daughter, "I would gladly dive under a bus for you and there is no way that I'm diving under a bus for my friends." Her daughter responded, "And I'd gladly let you dive under the bus to save me!" The mother/daughter relationship is so much more comprehensive than a best friendship. It's a relationship that is not replaceable by any other. This unique bond doesn't mean that when daughters mature they can't assume more responsibilities and give back to their mothers, but it's never equal and it's not supposed to be. Mothers never stop being mothers, which includes frequently wanting to protect their daughters and often feeling responsible for their happiness. Mother always "trumps" friend.  Linda Perlman Gordon  and  Susan Morris Shaffer  are the authors of  Too Close for Comfort: Questioning the Intimacy of Today's New Mother-Daughter Relationship . While exploring the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship, the book demonstrates that mothers and their adult daughters have formed a greater friendship than past generations. .For helpful tips and practical advice on staying connected to your children visit  www.parentingroadmaps.com .  Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>

Your Body is Not Disneyland - Part II By Erik Fisher, PhD, AKA Dr. E' www.ErikFisher.com Welcome back. In my first installment, I discussed the nature of our relaxed attitudes toward sex. I feel that we are in a precarious position, and our children are in danger of suffering from our lack of self-respect. So let's pick it up from here. What I always tell people is that even though we may have roots that connect us to the animal world, we also have a brain that functions at a higher level. The gift of our frontal lobe is that we can use our ability to reason to help manage our unavoidable more primal and animalistic tendencies. The goal of this article series is not to become moralistic and judgmental, it is to challenge people to consider their intentions, values, emotions, attitudes, and choices. I hope you will evaluate yours. How Do I Love Thee??? Let's first look at our concept of love. We have one word that describes so many different emotional states, and this lack of attention to detail to this very important concept is a major problem in our culture, IMHO. There is a popular urban legend that says that Eskimos have more than one-hundred words for snow, and while the figure has been grossly exaggerated, the idea is that concepts that are important to a culture will have much more specificity than those that aren't as important. So, just how do we "love" things, let me count the ways' You can love your mom, your dad, your kids, your sister, your brother, your friend, your uncle, your aunt, your cousin, your teacher, your boss, your student, your country, your team, your school' You can also love a sunny day, an ice cream cone, the beach, skiing, baseball, football, as well as your pets. Some even say that they love sex. The question is, even with this short list of things we may say that we love, do we love them the same way? I think not. Yet we use the same word to describe so many states of emotion. Do we have some words that describe different states of love? Yes, but our use of the word love is somewhat careless and leads to a lot of confusion that I firmly believe affects our relationships and attitudes toward intimacy and sex. It has been said that Sanskrit had 96 words for love and ancient Persian had 80. Greek has three: Agape, Philos, and Eros. I will explain those, because it takes a takes a lot less time to convey the point. Agape is considered to be a more spiritual love. It is described in the Bible as to how God loves man, and I would describe it as our admiration and connection to people on their journey in life. Philos or philia is a brotherly type of love and overlaps into how parents love their children, how siblings love each other, friends love each other, and even how some people may love their pets. As you can see only three words is already getting a bit sticky. The third type of love is eros, which describes a romantic type of love. It involves the attraction between two people that is sexual and ranges from physical attraction to blind infatuation. Well, what happens when we only have one word to describe so many states? It leads to emotional confusion and a great deal of discomfort. Let's say that a girl loves a boy in a philos way, but the boy feels eros? They both love each other, but the boy is feel that he wants to take the relationship to the next level, while the girl is enjoying the closeness with the boy. She may then feel pressured by him to take the relationship where he wants to go or fear losing him and the love she feels from him. They both "love" each other don't they? But does it mean the same thing, and are either of them ready for sex? Age Is A Relative Term What I try to teach people, as young as twelve years old through adulthood, is that in order for any intimate long-term relationship to survive, both people have to feel all three components as the relationship develops and grows. Too many times, people in our culture believe that feeling that eros attraction, which is often as strong as a mind-altering high, is enough to take a relationship to the next level. Eros will always wear off, because that is, in part, a neurophysiological experience (I will explain more about that later). The problem is that when the eros wears off, what are the two people left with? Too many times they are left with nothing, and the relationship dies. What happens when either person wakes up and one finds themselves pregnant or they find themselves married? Developing a deep friendship (philos) and admiring the person (agape) that you are in a relationship are crucial to a successful relationship. It is easy to open ourselves up to our more primal urges and let emotion take over only to find ourselves in the walk of shame the next morning, but I feel that we were born with the ability to reason beyond our more primal self and learn to respect ourselves and those we relate to. We owe that to ourselves. In my next installment, we will discuss "The Ultimate High'" About the author:  Erik Fisher , PhD, aka Dr. E', is a licensed psychologist and author who has been featured on NBC, CBS, FOX and CNN. Visit him at  www.ErikFisher.com  to learn more about his books "The Art of Empowered Parenting" and "The Art of Managing Everyday Conflict" or to check out his blog. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com. More >>