It's time for a Holiday Photo Session!

My pets love the holidays in one way (presents; trips to family & friends), but they don't look forward to the photo sessions I put them through! I love to put holiday hats on them and get them to pose. I then use the photos online as well as make holiday cards and stationery from them.

Jam, my rescue Dane, had obviously never had anyone put a Santa hat on his head. After many frames, though, we got a keeper!

My Dane girl Bella is an old hand at posing for silly photos. I think she is getting a bit tired of the holiday costumes though, if the photo below is any indication. ;-)


Finally, I even got Pumpkin the kitty in on the action. She was NOT pleased at the prospect of wearing antlers on her head. But she finally resigned herself to the ordeal.

Face-to-Face Coaching!

On Saturday, November 15th, I had the pleasure of participating in a women's health and wellness workshop in Romney, West Virginia, in Hampshire County in the northeastern part of the state. The event was very well-attended with more than 35 women spending the day learning about nutrition, health, exercise, etc. I was asked to give workshops on life coaching and I truly enjoyed giving mini coaching sessions to more than 15 interested people. Since the majority of my client contact these days is via telephone, it was nice to interact face-to-face with people for a change.

CHANGE

I watched in awe on November 4th as we elected Barack Obama the new president of our country. Looking at the election in historical perspective makes it a most awe inspiring event.

Considering that Obama's campaign platform is based on change is also exciting from many perspectives, not the least of which involves people creating and achieving their goals in life. It's all about change. We have it whether we seek it or not, so why not learn to embrace it and make it work for us, not against us.

As we enter a new political era as Americans, I believe we will have a more enlightened leadership which will encourage us all to seek our true power. A power that has nothing to do with force or blame or coersion.

An inspired grassroots movement started from the ground up to help enable Obama be elected, and we can now look forward to him leading us from a place of vision. When we all meet in the middle, watch out world!

Mid-Term Frost!

We had our first frost of the season up here on the mountain last night. Just in time for grading mid-term exams! Luckily I had covered up the tomato plants so they didn't freeze. Since it was such a cool, wet spring, my tomato plants have taken longer than usual to mature. Consequently, I have lots of large green tomatoes still to be harvested. I'm going to let them stay on the vines as long as I dare before bringing them in to finish ripening.

Harvesting Sunflowers

I planted sunflower seeds for the first time this past spring, and wonder why I've never done it before! The flowers were enormous -- over 10 feet tall -- as they grew along the side yard that is fenced. They have brought such beauty and joy to the outdoors for the past three months and I'll be sure to have them every summer from now on.

The trick now is to figure out how to harvest the seeds. I have lots of huge flowerheads and, after researching online, realize that they aren't yet ripe since the seeds don't have any black stripes. As soon as they appear, though, I am going to cut off the heads and allow the seeds to dry and fall off. Then I'll boil them in water and roast them in the oven. It will be wonderful to have sunflower seeds on my salads this winter from the gorgeous flowers that brightened my summer.

Sunflowers are also the flower of my zodiac sign, which makes the fact that I have finally discovered the joy of growing them even more meaningful. The photo above is one of my flowers that I captured in the early morning just as the moon was setting.

My Website is Unveiled!!!

WooHoo!!!! My website is finally ready as of today. Thanks to my designer Elisa Miller who designed it for me. She programmed it from scratch, using no templates. Elisa did the designing and I did the writing and photography. We are pretty proud of our online "baby" and I'm pleased to have it as an additional tool to help me in my marketing efforts to build my coaching practice.

Check it out at www.wingonwingcoaching.com

Well into the semester already

Yesterday I completed teaching two weeks of classes at the college where I work. I was even asked to pick up a fourth class, taking over for a professor who is in hospital for an extended period. I've almost been able to memorize everyone's name. Oddly enough, I seem to remember the men's names before the women's. I need to figure out the reason for that one. Maybe because the guys in the class distinguish themselves sooner than the girls usually do. It's the distinctions about someone that enable me to remember their names.

Although I'll have lots of work with all the classes (two essay writing classes and two communications/speech classes) it will be good to have a paycheck again. I dubbed the summer that is coming to a close my "Summer of Plenty" to indicate that I already have plenty, so don't need more money. It worked for the months I needed to, but I have another mouth to feed now (my new adopted Dane Jam) so being able to make deposits into my accounts instead of withdrawals is very welcome.