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It’s OK to need a break from your children

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Parenting is hard. You give all you’ve got to love your children and make sure they’re safe and thriving. You may not be sleeping well. You haven’t had time to yourself. You miss being with other adults.Every parent has asked themselves this question at some point: Is it OK to take a break from my children?The daily pressures of juggling work, children and everything else can feel like too much. You might feel even more tired and stressed out.That is why taking time for yourself is not only good for you, but also good for your children. It’s a lot easier to support them when you’re refreshed after a little mental and physical break. There is no shame, failure or lack of love in needing time for yourself. We care for others best when we have taken care of ourselves as much as possible.Here are some ways you can do this:Spend time with a friend in person or on the phoneTake a walkTry meditation or breathing exercisesRun out for a favorite treatSchedule an...

Heather Graham stars in uplifting true-life movie ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

The peril in Heather Graham’s new Prime Video project “On a Wing and a Prayer,” streaming Wednesday, only sounds like a movie.A family of four are in a small private propeller  plane when their pilot dies.  Can Dad actually land the plane and save his wife and daughters?It really happened to Doug White and his family who credit angels and God with saving them.For Heather Graham, who plays Teri White, a sweet surprise was discovering that Dennis Quaid, a co-star a decade ago, had asked for her.“I had a great time with him and was super flattered he remembered and thought of me,” Graham, 53, recalled in a Zoom interview.“This was really interesting in that it’s a true story. I like the idea of having a dark night of the soul and somehow getting through that. That’s a beautiful story.”Playing Teri, still very much here, was “Intimidating in a way.  A fiction script with a good role is great. But true stories are fun, because you can really research the real person and I like rese...

Putting in excessive work for job interview

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Q. I was asked to complete a writing test as part of a job interview. I’m in PR and realize that’s standard, but they gave me 10 products and wanted 10 sample pitches and a media list! This seems excessive. Can I just tell them no way?A. I feel your pain — yes, writing samples are part of the interview process, especially in PR, but what makes me pause is the number. Ten samples — really? I could see one or two, tops.This is taking up your time, but my other concern is how do you know they’re not leveraging this as free labor? Plus, a media list — that crosses the line. I’d run, not walk, away from this employer. Yes, tell them no way — you can say it tactfully, something along the lines of, “While I appreciate your interest in my candidacy, with all due respect, other PR agencies I’m interviewing with are requesting two writing samples. They’re not asking for a media list because that doesn’t really attest to m...

Austin likes sports, games and going to school

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Austin is a lovely boy, an easy-going child with many interests who loves exploring new opportunities. He enjoys going to the park, the beach, and the movies. Austin enjoys going to the arcade and playing with Legos and video games. He likes helping to cook, ride bikes and rollerblade, along with crafts and music.Austin does well in school and enjoys going there. He has developed some great attachments at his school and he regularly comes home with a gold star for being the star student of the day. Austin likes  practicing and maintaining things that he has learned in school such as reading, engaging in math workbooks or spelling workbooksCan I Adopt?If you’re at least 18 years old, have a stable source of income, and room in your heart, you may be a perfect match to adopt a waiting child. Adoptive parents can be single, married, or partnered; experienced or not; renters or homeowners; LGBTQ+ singles and couples. As an adoptive parent, you won’t have to pay any fees, adoption from f...

Cooperate to create a holiday schedule

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Q. My ex is Christian and I am Jewish. When we were together, we made a vow that we would support each other’s faith in the eyes of the children. This is our first attempt to celebrate the holidays after our split, and we have yet to put an agreed upon holiday schedule in place. Passover is on Wednesday this year. It is his week, and he is reluctant to let the kids come over. I’m horrified by his attitude. It’s like nothing we ever said or did ever happened. What’s good ex-etiquette?A. This is a tough one. Everyone believes their way of worship is the right way, and when couples worship differently, they often agree to expose the kids to both ways of thinking. After a breakup, one or both may not be as invested in cooperating as they once were.Let’s look at this from the children’s point of view (“Put the children first,” Ex-etiquette for Parents Rule No. 1). No longer celebrating as you once did may be confusing. It also can be confusing if your parents were formally tolerant...

Greater Fort Myers on the rebound & ready for visitors

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

On the second floor of Sanibel Island’s famed Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum (www.shellmuseum.org), just a few feet above where Hurricane Ian swept through and ripped away their aquariums, gift shop and more this past September, there’s a photography show featuring scenes people took of the hurricane’s effects on the area.One shot of three White Pelicans rising up from the aftermath struck me. I told museum Director Sam Ankerson so and he said, “Yes. It just looks like hope, doesn’t it? We’re getting more and more submissions that move past the destruction and focus on the hope.”After touring the Greater Fort Myers beach region recently I left with, yes, shock over just how destructive that storm was and how much still needs to be done; but more so with the sense of a community acting with a  passion to rise again.Which made this Blizzard of 78 survivor who has strong, strong feelings about “lookie-loo” tourists visiting devastated spots to think anew. Because while Gre...

Ben Affleck goes to the source – Michael Jordan – to make ‘Air’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Ben Affleck likes to say “Air,” his new movie about Nike’s game-changing signing of Michael Jordan, is a family-style affair with old friends, including Matt Damon, in front of and behind the camera.But it’s Affleck, 50, who’s done the lion’s share of work. He produced, cast and directs this, his fifth film, and also wins laughs as Nike’s legendary and legendarily eccentric founder Phil Knight.“Air” has already won acclaim for its storytelling, humor and heart.  Damon, 52, carries the saga as Nike marketing agent Sonny Vaccaro who ferociously advocates — against intense Nike indifference — to signing rookie Michael Jordan.“This was a group of people that I knew and had a lot of respect for and worked with often and adore and admire,” Affleck said during a Zoom conference.  “This movie is a massive failure if it’s just my voice.”While “Air” did not buy rights to Jordan’s story, Affleck wanted the legend’s blessing. “I didn’t understand the movie until I went to talk to Mi...

Tituss Burgess joins fresh season of ‘Schmigadoon!’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Joining in the fun for the second season of “Schmigadoon!” Tituss Burgess is back with his Broadway roots after five seasons – and five Primetime Emmy nominations — for “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”Still, it seems surprising Burgess, 44, wasn’t in the show’s first season.“I will say this,” he began in a Zoom interview, “how we decide to show up in the world, at whatever point we are in, really kind of dictates how the world shows up for you. So perhaps I was not ready to intercede.”Is his Narrator, who sings and seems slightly malevolent, a parody of the musical “Pippin” ’s Leading Player?“I was very familiar with ‘Pippin’ but,” he noted, “it is not a parody. It’s more of a homage. A wink and a smile. We’re borrowing from the shades of all the things that these musicals have offered because we’re telling our own unique story.”As to deciding who his wily Narrator would be, “I was able to borrow from my own darkness, from my own demons and really tap into the side of ...

Dear Abby: Couple unnerved by neighbor’s odd behavior

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Dear Abby: My husband and I met our neighbor “Maggie” one day while she was walking her dog. She has since befriended me via additional meetings on the street and walks about once a week. She’s 68, has been looking unsuccessfully for a job for three years and has financial difficulties. I have given advice to her on job searches.I have noticed that she has taken pictures with me in them and pictures of the front of our house. I recently came home late, and she seemed to be lurking near the front of our house. She has asked about our alarm system and when we will be out of town. It is starting to freak me out. How do I unload this person and determine whether she is just troubled or dangerous? — Creeped Out in the EastDear Creeped Out: Start being less available for those walks. Vary your schedule so she won’t run into you as often. Use your alarm system religiously and install cameras in your home. In light of the crime situation in many communities, th...

Concert review: John Mayer spends an intimate evening at the X with 14,000 friends

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:17:08 GMT

Maybe John Mayer sensed that we all need a little quiet time right now. Perhaps that’s why the singer-songwriter turned bluesman turned Grateful Dead collaborator decided that his next tour of professional basketball and hockey arenas should consist of nothing but solo shows. Just him on a stage with a guitar and microphone with a dash of piano.And it would seem that intimacy is what was desired by the approximately 14,000 folks in attendance at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center Saturday night. Mayer can be a rocker when he wants to, and he’s proven a scintillating guitar soloist over the past 20 years. But Saturday night was all about getting back in touch with the passionate and disarmingly forthright songsmith he was when first discovered around the turn of this century.Mayer was showered with adoration throughout the evening, which sometimes felt a bit odd when his songs were so emotionally vulnerable. But, at this point in a pandemic-scarred world, we won’t ...