Greetings!

Instead of becoming disheartened by any type of upheaval, become one with a big heart. Brahma Kumaris

Visit me at the Award Winning Women's Expo March 11-12 www.womensexpomd.com. I'll be speaking at 4:00 on Saturday.

It is with tremendous pleasure that I share a fun connection I made for one of our members this month. I continue to hear from writers and reporters concerning all things boomer women due to the search engine rankings of www.boomerwomenspeak.com.

One morning I received a call and email from someone at NBC Nightly News. They were in need of a family to film who was right smack in the middle of the sandwich in the sandwich generation. I quickly made a few calls to women I knew who were caring for children, and Mom and Dad.

I know Raven West (http://ravenwest.net/) through the association and BWS forums. She also happens to be writing a book about eldercare. Perfect! By the grace of God she answered when I phoned. She and her family quickly spent four hours with the NBC Nightly News' crew filming for the segment which appeared the following night.

These kinds of connections make my heart sing. Please know this is the type of commitment I have to promoting NABBW members. I am always thinking and looking out for you. It's my passion.

I'd also like to share that I've added to the NABBW/BWS staff. Georgia Richardson is working as our Virtual Assistant. For those of you who don't know her, she is a Southern humorist, writer, speaker, and as she likes to call herself, a gabologist. Georgia, or Queen Jaw Jaw, currently writes a monthly humor column for us. Her writing has been published in Woman's World, Guidepost online, GRAND magazine, Shoals Woman, and a host of other online and print publications. Her debut book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Throne, released May '05, was awarded First Place in the 2005 Peditors and Editors Reader's Poll. Her second book, Pink Jasper- Gems from the Journey, is equally amazing and was written by Georgia and five other women across the United States, Canada, and England ... and these women have never met.

Georgia and I became quick friends several years ago while corresponding online. I have been touched by her enthusiasm for life and dedication to NABBW/BWS. I am most grateful to have her onboard. To learn more about Georgia visit her at www.queenjawjaw.com.

Onward with grace,
Dotsie
dots@nabbw.com

Onward with other exciting news: The National Association of Baby Boomer Women continues to grow.

I am offering all newsletter readers the $50.00 discounted rate to join the National Association of Baby Boomer Women. You receive a $25.00 discount by joining in February. Click this link to register at the reduced rate. This link is no longer available on our home page. Membership includes:

� Endless opportunities to network with other boomer women
� Forums for seeking, claiming and living your passions�
� Reduced coaching fees
� Complimentary legal and financial advice
� Reduced web design rates
� 35% off all Arbonne products and 20% off Silpada Jewelry and Black Rabbit design purses.
� Reduced advertising rates at BWS
� Opportunities to be the Featured Member in our newsletter
� Free information from experts on fearless aging, women's health, empty nest, caring for aging parents, living in the moment, domestic violence, traveling, the new retirement, writing and so much more.

JOIN today for $50.00!

FEATURED ASSOCIATE
Dee Adams
http://www.minniepauz.com

Hello NABBW Members! I'm a little late in greeting you personally, but as with everything else I do (or don't do), I blame it on menopause! First let me give you just a brief rundown of my business and how I might be able to help you. About 12 years ago I decided to help other women get through menopause with laughter. I had no idea it would turn into an actual business, but it did and now it is my only means of support. I'm telling you this because I want everyone to realize that even the impossible is possible if you believe in what you're doing! I had never drawn a cartoon before in my LIFE and now my cartoons have been shown on CNN, in a PBS special and I was in TIME magazine.

I have established my website as a "go to" place on the web where women from 40 to 65 can find what they need, whether it's a good laugh, information, support or resources. If you have a product or service that you want to promote to this market, I offer advertising and sponsorship opportunities on my site and in my newsletter. (the site averages almost 1000 unique visitors a day and I have almost 11,000 active subscribers to the newsletter--over 15,000 if we count everyone who has signed up). I am offering NABBW members a 30% discount on my advertising rates. (ex: Reg. one month ad fee $150 With discount: $105)

Also, if you need a cartoon to use on your website or to promote your business, there will also be a 30% discount. We will have to discuss this in detail, so please inquire by email and we will set up a time for a phone call.

Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of such a great association and I wish all of you more business than you can handle!

Dee Adams
"Rebel with the Pause"
As Seen on CNN, PBS and TIME Magazine!
http://www.minniepauz.com

Inner Voice
By Julie Clark Robinson

“Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.” -Margaret Fuller

It's the inner voice that's going to do me in. Not the trans fats. Not talking on my cell while driving. Not the pesticides on my beloved cherry tomatoes. It'll be the inner voice. For instance, I am a fairly productive person and I realize that I deserve a break here and there. In fact, I wrote the book on it, so to speak. The message of my radio interviews, speaking engagements and book (Live in the Moment) is one and the same: to help people learn how to cut themselves a break and create their own pockets of joy, every single day. But even as I try to live up to my own mantra, my inner voice nags at me.

“Hot tea with lemon? Are you nuts? Grab a bottle of water, that'll do.” “You can not take the time to plug in your aromatherapy machine and rest your eyes right now.” “Just do your own pedicure this time, no one will notice.”

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/julierobinson.html


From This Moment
By Donna Shepherd

Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." - Jude 1:21 niv

I attended two weddings in one weekend one hour apart. The first ceremony was held in a small, Pentecostal church with under a hundred guests in attendance. The entire bridal party consisted of a matron of honor and two flower girls. The forty-something first-time bride glowed in her traditional white gown with beads, lace, and sequins. Gail walked down the aisle to the music of “From This Moment” sung by a trio of friends and relatives. When the bride brushed the tears from the face of her groom after they said their vows, it seemed as if the entire crowd said, 'Awww” in unison.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/ donnashepherd.html


Dealing With Your Depression
By Karen Stephen, Ph.D.

COLUMN THREE: CHANGE YOUR DEPRESSED MOOD THROUGH ACTION

When you think therapy do you imagine lying on a leather couch five days a week for twenty years or doing the California touchy-feely thing with a guru sitting in the lotus position?

For heavens sake, you're in midlife! You don't have twenty years to waste. And you would rather spend your money on one good outfit from Saks Fifth Avenue-if you could just get over this depression thing and go shopping.

Are you good at following straightforward common-sense advice? At least willing to try? Then COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY, along with medication (when appropriate) may be just the ticket.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/karenstephen.html


The Better Angels of Our Nature
By Prill Boyle

Many women love Valentine's Day. Not me. I'm not inspired by Hallmark cards. Nor do I care for forced romantic gestures. (If you want to make my heart go pitter-patter, surprise with me flowers when it's not a special day.) But having just finished Doris Kearns Goodwin's monumental biography of Lincoln, I am newly inspired by our 16th President, whose birthday is February 12th. Anyone in the throes of a life change would do well to follow his example. Here's why.

During the most turbulent times this nation has yet encountered, the Civil War, Lincoln kept a cool head and a warm heart. Throughout it all, he never lost faith in our country's potential for greatness. Understanding the importance of timing, he was patient yet persistent in pursuing his visionary agenda. When others took credit for his achievements, or jockeyed to rise to power in his stead, he didn't seek revenge. He believed not only in himself but in what he called “the better angels of our nature.” In doing so, he strengthened the wings of American democracy, and his words and deeds still reverberate in our collective hearts.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/prillboyle.html


Staying in the Game
By Nan S. Russell

The message came from Human Resources. There's nothing to worry about with the newly announced organizational changes and pending merger, it reassured. The changes will be good for the company and good for the people who work here it coached.

I've seen a couple dozen messages like this during my career. In fact, I've even crafted a few. I've been through mergers, acquisitions, downsizings, organizational changes, personal career set-backs and a myriad of new corporate initiatives. And the best lesson I learned from all of them? Stay a player.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/nanrussell.html


Eldercare and the Home Office: Making it Work
By Barbara Friesner

In the mid-'60's, vast numbers of Baby Boomer women started working outside the home and child care was the “woman's issue” of the day.

Now, after “only” 35-40 years, due to the sheer quantity of working women; more men speaking out about and being involved in childcare responsibilities; more men in senior positions with families and working wives; and more women in senior positions, accommodating childcare is pretty much “socially acceptable”.

JUST WHEN WE THOUGHT WE WERE HOME-FREE, Baby Boomer women are now facing a new “women's issue” - eldercare. In fact, eldercare has replaced child care as the #1 cause of absenteeism and on-the-job distractions and is, for many Baby Boomer women, creating devastating career and financial consequences.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/ barbarafriesner.html


Guaranteed Ways To Build Up Your Ezine List
By Suzanne Falter-Barns

Want your ezine list to catch fire and really start to fill up? Jenna Glatzer took her own list from the hundreds all the way to 75,000 in 7 years by simple, steady marketing, and using many of these techniques. (Jenna bought only 4000 opt-in names along the way.) Here are some tips we provided, and some I’ve pulled from my own experience, building my list for The Joy Letter to 17,000 over five years.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/suzannefalter.html


"Myth-conceptions" (Part Four): Sex and the Baby Boomer
By Karen Baar

This month, I'm continuing my series on the “myths” about baby women that I discovered while writing my book. This month, I'd planned to write about the myth that all newly single (divorced or widowed) women are afraid of sex. But thanks to an article in the Weekend Arts section of The New York Times I've decided to broaden the topic to Sex and the Boomer Woman.

(The article is “Women Who Want 'What She's Having.'” It ran on January 13, 2006. I've written more about it in my fo rum at Boomer Women Speak - http:// www.boomerwomenspeak.com/ - another great web site if you don't already know it.)

First, let me tackle the original subject: are newly single boomer women afraid of having sex?

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/karenbaar.html


The Smart Business Women's Quick-Start Guide to Competitive Intelligence
By Patricia McHugh Lambert and Ruth F. Vadi

If the term “competitive intelligence” is not familiar to you, you should learn about it right away. Competitive intelligence is a concept derived from the manufacturing industry and military strategy, two fields not traditionally associated with women. This concept is defined as “a systematic program for gathering and analyzing information about your competitors' activities and general business trends to further your own company's goals.” Larry Kahaner, Competitive Intelligence (Simon & Schuster 1996) p. 16. Although the terminology may not be familiar to most women, “competitive intelligence” is a conc ept business women can easily relate to if they ref lect on their ow n personal experience.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/patlambert.html


Did you have YOUR hug today?
By Dee Adams

Hugs just don't get enough credit! When you've been single for a long time, you tend to forget how important a simple hug can be. With Valentine's Day looming I was thinking about all of the holidays and celebrations that came and went with no hug (or kiss or card) from a sweetheart. I have listed all the different kinds of hugs I could think of below. Maybe you can think of more.

ROMANTIC HUG - There's no mistaking this one! It usually involves both arms wrapped around you, with ge ntle pressure, some caressing and it lingers for a long time. I alwa ys call this one a "full-body hug". Can lead to kissing!

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/ deeadams.html


Enjoy Real Intimacy, Not Just Hearts and Flowers
By Judith Sherven, Ph.D. & James Sniechowski, Ph.D.

The season of high romance is here! Yet Valentine's Day can turn into the most dangerous day of the year for love and romance.

Because none of us receive formal training or preparation for how to date effectively or how to create a passionate long- lasting marriage, the full burden of our desire for an intense, satisfying love and passionate, swept away romance tends to fall on Valentine's Day, with Cupid, The Florist, and The Candy Maker trying to fill the bill. However, when fantasies of perfect romance, perfect gifts, perfect love-making collide with not-so-perfect reality, love loses out to broken dreams and broken hearts.

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/ judithsherven.html


Today's Hotels Offer More Than Just A Room
By Carol Sorgen

Providing their guests with comfort and service is the goal of most hotels. But cooking classes? Flower-arranging workshops? Fly-fishing school? You bet!

“We've seen a significant increase in educational travel in recent years,” says Dean Andrews, vice president of O rient-Express Hotels Trains and Cruises, North America. “T oday's sophisticated travelers expect a beautiful place and g reat service - but many are also now looking to walk away with ev en more lasting impressions beyond photos and memories of sun sets and vistas.”

Continue reading at this link: http://nabbw.com/columns/ carolsorgen.html


It's Okay To Be Selfish Once In Awhile!
By Jeanine Herrin

It's for your own well being. There's just times when you have to say, “No, I can't do that today, I've already made plans.”

It's always nice to keep the grandkids or be able to run errands for others. Just plain helping someone out. But, doesn't it just seem like you're doing and going for everybody but yourself? I don't believe everyone (or at least most) intentionally is trying to take advantage of you. It's just that you are always THERE to do for others and you seem to make it easy for them to ask. “Mom, I've got to go shopping. Will you keep the kids for a few hours?” “Mom, we're going aw ay for the week-end. Can you keep the kids?” “Mrs. _____, I' ve got a lot of errands to run today. Would you mind giving me a lift?” “We need a volunteer to handle the church bake sale. Will you do it?”

Continue reading at this link: http://www.nabbw.com/columns/ jeanineherrin.html