Hello to everyone! I hope you're in high spirits and glowing health.

Amid the chaos of back to school, take a break and relax with this issue, which features the joy of letting our unique light shine. . . even at the risk of being "weird." Read on to discover why my daughter used that word on me.

Also included is more about humor writer Carole Moore, who has opened and shut career doors then leapt through figurative windows to find and create opportunities for herself.

Enjoy!

If you prefer to read online, go to: Newsletters

Uniquely Painting our Lives
By Sheri McGregor

"Mom, you're so weird." My teenage daughter glanced around the hotel pool to see who might have been watching.

"What? Can't I have a little fun?" Over my swimsuit, I buttoned the shorts I'd just shimmied into, adding an exaggerated extra wriggle for the video camera. We were on the second leg of a summer vacation, and my husband had to go back after the first week. Wouldn't he enjoy a two-second "show" just for him when he watched the movies back at home?

Read on . . .
 

Who knew this stuff existed?
 

Now, in
one place, everything you need to make life fun!

 

Carole Moore:
When a Door Closes,
There's Always a Window
By Sheri McGregor

When I first contacted humor writer Carole Moore for a possible profile, I asked her if she had children. Her amusing response included:

"Am I a mother?  I suppose so. If I'm not, then I must be into some sort of bizarre role-playing game where you give up your sleep, money and sanity and in return you get custody of expensive balls of flesh that like you and don't like you in alternating random patterns over a 20-odd year period of time. . . . Or else I'm on the X-Files."

Seeing humor in nearly every situation is typical of Moore's attitude, and she probably learned to laugh at herself as a way to cope with moving around at an early age. Her father was in the Navy, which meant Carole became a world traveler at a very young age. Seeing exotic locations may also have fueled her intense interest in ancient history, shaping her first career goal. Moore wanted to become an archaeologist.

"I've stood in the presence of Ramses," she says, enthusiastically recounting a visit to Cairo, Egypt and its Museum of Antiquities. History still lights her fire, but. . ..

Read on . . .
 

You can't watch your children every minute. Here's a helper. .
 

Since I'm talking so much about us all being our individual and uniquely special selves, I thought I'd share some fun. Well, fun for me, anyway. . . .

It's a given that I like my heroes "larger than life." My husband stands six-foot-seven. Of course he's the real "hero" of my life, but even at his height, he's dwarfed by some of the guys I've recently met. See what I mean by visiting the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun page from my writing website. After all, don't all us girls like a man in a uniform? That's not all you'll see. . . . (don't worry, it's all G-rated).

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

  'Freudian Slip"
 is   Sheri's latest release --
the lead story in
Romancing the Holidays
Vol. 2