From Girl Scout to CEO: Building Families and Rebuilding Lives
According to the Girl Scout’s website, “Badges are a great way for a girl to explore her interests and learn new skills — and to remember eve...
5 Family Friendly Beach Vacations to Take This Summer
Nothing screams summer like a beach vacation. Toes in the sand, kids building sand castles, going on adventures, or maybe even just lying under an...
Overcoming Generational Trauma - Ashley's Journey
Trauma is an intrinsic part of the human experience. Shaping our lives, our goals, and even our families, the wounds we receive at a young age will...
6 Customizable Decorations That Make Grad Parties Next Level
Whether it’s from highschool or college, graduation is a huge milestone in every person's life. After months of hardwork and dedication, graduati...
How To Navigate a Relationship With Different Love Languages
Communicating is one of the foundational pillars to any relationship, but how you communicate love is arguably just as important. In order to know...
Vicki Wilson Spills the Tea on Finding Success by Valuing People
Vicki Wilson, founder of Door County Coffee & Tea in Carlsville, WI, created the culture of her business based on a Mark Anthony quote: “And one...
Conversation Starters for Couples and Why They're Important
Starting a conversation is an art form. Some people are good at it and others, not so much. But, wherever you fall on the spectrum, it’s an impor...
One Woman’s Journey of Addiction and Recovery With a Family Member
My younger sister Jackie always enjoyed wine. She couldn’t always distinguish between fine wine and cheap wine ...
Threading The Needle Through Five Generations of Fierce Females
One of my greatest blessings was to have my grandmother Ruth in my life for 38 years. She was there for my wedding and for the birth of all three o...
Teen Mental Health Impacted by Digital Habits — Help for Parents
As a parent, watching your child struggle with mental health isn’t easy. As Larissa “Larz” May knows, what is portrayed on the outside, and i...
5 Hidden Beaches For Memorial Day Getaways
Memorial Day is on its way, including some dedicated time off for reflecting, recharging, and otherwise relaxing before getting back to the grind....
Passing On Family Legacies As an Expat
Most of my family traditions come from my grandparents — from recipes for Christmas dinner to bedtime stories. These little things become a natur...
4 Reasons To Start Writing Letters – Again
When’s the last time you hand wrote or received a handwritten letter? In today’s digital age, it’s so easy to forget about writing letters...
Past Family Trauma Is in Your Genes
Everyone knows about DNA, but did you know that the trauma of your ancestors can determine how your DNA is expressed? This is the study of epigenet...
Need Some Inspiration? Visit The Museum of the Creative Process
April 21 is International Creativity and Innovation Day, which has me reflecting on my own creativity and innovation — the way those things manif...
Her Honey-Based Cold Remedy Built Her Career
Joyce Dales was familiar with the word “immunocompromised'' even before news broadcasts amplified the term for the general public. A history of f...
Remembering My Mother, the Queen of Empanadas
I don’t have a childhood memory in which my mother wasn’t in the kitchen. It was her realm, where she wielded her creativity and love with aban...
5 Family-Friendly Adventures in California Wine Country
While beach vacations and Disney resorts are familiar options for family getaways, there are others that are not as obvious. California wine countr...
The Family That Pranks Together Stays Together
Who’s up for a little harmless pranking on April Fools’ Day? These kid-tested, parent-approved pranks are sure to bring puzzled looks and lots...
Breaking Free from Family Dysfunction
What does it mean to break free from family dysfunction? First, let’s do a little unpacking on what the phrase “family dysfunction” even mean...
Breaking the Chains of Dysfunctional Patterns
At a young age, I became aware that my family wasn’t picture-perfect. But it wasn’t until my 20s when I realized my family was dysfunctional. M...
10 Funny Easter Thoughts to Put More Hop in Your Holiday
Click Through For Laughs >> There is only one thing more serious than a lord and savior dying on a cross and then rising, alive, from his tomb thre...
7 Fun and Totally Free Things to Do With Your Kids
As a parent to an energetic 2 ½-year-old boy, finding new and exciting things to do daily can become challenging, not to mention expensive. I tend...
Looking Back is an Important Part of Moving Forward in Motherhood
Waddling into my kitchen, I carried an overabundance of stickers and paint pens. I also carried with me a strange sense of prepared pride. With one...
3 Ways to Make Peace After Yelling at the Kids
Hard truth: Even parents and caregivers who are usually amazing at keeping their cool are having a hard time these days. It’s no surprise as to...
How This Girl Scout Badge Changed Her Life Forever
Earning Girl Scout badges can be one of the best parts of being in the organization. Badges represent hard work, new skills, and friends made along...
Tap Your Trees and Make Your Own Maple Syrup with These Tools
Maple Syrup tapping is a family-fun activity for when winter slowly starts turning into spring. Maple sap flows when days are above freezing, and n...
Gender Equality Starts in the Home
As a millennial, I’ve been lucky enough to grow up in a more enlightened time for women. Our grandmothers’ generation and even our mothers’ h...
8 Ways to Feel More Secure in Your Relationship
Insecurities can crop up in any relationship, even the most loving of marriages. They often stem from a place of questioning your self-worth within...
Celebrate The Ways Other Women Give You Strength
Valentine’s Day always seems like a fun day for people in love, but, at times, it can be rife with tension. With the pressure on partnered people...
Building My Kid's List of Dreams
The last few years have been full of limitations. My kids have had two quarantine birthdays each. Not only that, but I got a divorce in 2020 and my...
Start Collections That Make Giving a Breeze
One of the best things I ever did for myself was starting to collect sterling silver flatware. I remember the day I decided to take the plunge. In...
7 Ways That Diverse Cultures Show Love
In the U.S., Valentine's Day is often celebrated with boxes of chocolate, bouquets of flowers, and an exchange of heartfelt messages on store-bough...
6 Things You Should Know As A Co-Sleeping Mom
Before I gave birth to my son, I was under the impression that babies slept. As a newbie mama, I dreamt of strolling my snoozing baby through the m...
4 Steps to Prepare Aging Parents for Healthy, Happy Lives
One of the most stressful financial burdens falls upon the Sandwich Generation — people who are simultaneously caring for their children and thei...
Getting (And Losing) A Taste of COVID
“You can’t have COVID, Mom. Your drenching night sweat must have been a hot flash.” Those were my daughter’s words, spoken simultaneo...
COVID Reinvented My Idea Of Home
It’s hard sometimes to remember a time before March 2020. But I know that that time did exist and that, in it, I spent a lot less time at home th...
Christmas Is Cool, But Let's Talk About New Years
I’m a Dec. 1 kind of Christmas tree person. I love the Christmas season. Because I usually host now that I’m an adult and have kids, I have all...
Why the Holidays are Sweeter This Year: Your 2021 Holiday Guide
After more than a year in quarantine away from friends and family, the holidays just feel … more special this year, don't they? While it's always...
Inspire Your Season of Cheer With Holiday Quotes From Witty Women
‘Tis the season to be … jolly. But those dealing with cliché ugly sweater parties, wrapping paper disasters, Christmas cookie fails, and more...
Staying Engaged with Long-Distance Friendships
It was Oprah Winfrey who best defined modern friendship when she said, “Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone...
Why Are We So Afraid to Talk on the Phone?
When I was a teenager way back in the late ’80s, talking on the phone was one of my favorite hobbies. It started with those long phone cords that...
My Kid Told Carpool There is No Santa
I don’t know why my 7-year-old chose to divulge this secret on this particular day in October. We were driving home from school with her brother,...
Reporting On 'Santa' In A Small Town
An important note up top here: This article is for the grown-ups among us. If you are a kid and your mom has left her computer open and you saw the...
Phone Anxiety? Here’s How to Change That
It’s hard to remember a time before caller ID or voicemail, when missing a phone call meant potentially missing important news or events. Now it?...
My Father's Attempt at Christmas Magic
The year was 1999, and I was getting ready to head to a holiday block party with the rest of the neighborhood kids. I was wearing a velvet red dres...
Phone Calls: A Millennial's Lament
Have you watched Only Murders in the Building? It’s a delight. If you haven’t seen it yet, I won’t be giving anything away. But I will tell y...
I Finally Invented Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sarah and I met nearly eight years ago while walking in our neighborhood when my daughter was 3 weeks old and hers was 6 months old. We began hangi...
A Christmas Ring Of Much Significance
For years, I coveted. I’d gaze at other women’s left hands and imagine what it must be like to carry around a rock on your ring finger. A spark...
Cheesy Holiday Movies Cured My Homesick Blues
Girl from the big city heads home for the holidays. She meets small town boy, possibly he’s an old flame, or even her nemesis. Plot twists bring...
I Gave $1,000 Away. It Changed My Life.
From about age 6 to age 10, my entire family looked forward to a holiday tradition created by my maternal grandfather each year. For all of these C...
Preserve Tradition, Even Through Change
The winter holiday season brings to mind traditions, cultural and sometimes religious practices passed down across hundreds or thousands of years o...
40 Self-Care Inspired Stocking Stuffers
Whether your holiday shopping list is a mile long or super short, there’s bound to be someone on it this year that deserves a bit of self-care ?...
Building The Perfect Self-Care Gift Kit
If there is anything that the stress of the pandemic has taught us, it’s that at the end of every day, all we really have is ourselves. And, with...
Don't Make Resolutions. Make Decisions.
There’s something magical about the beginning of a new year. The possibility of new dreams is laid out like the red carpet at the Oscars as we wa...
Brooke Shields Slams Barbara Walters Interview She Did At 15
Brooke Shields opened up about the sexualization she experienced as a young girl in Hollywood and had some pointed words about journalist Barbara W...
4 Gifts Your Loved Ones Will Actually Appreciate
Giving and receiving gifts can be exciting and meaningful. But, let’s be honest, there are so many gifts that never get used or are thrown away a...
I Wrote Letters During Covid. Here's What Happened.
On Friday the 13th of March of 2020, I bought a brand-new car. I was about to discover my independence again after going almost four years without...
Let's Build the Perfect Doggy Gift Basket
For many of us, our fur babies are just as much our children as two-legged ones, and to some of us, maybe even more so. This holiday season, don’...
How to Write a Christmas Card
Christmas cards are still in, and there’s nothing quite like receiving a piece of mail that isn’t a utility bill. Plus, Christmas cards are oft...
Giving the Gift of Holiday Memories
This holiday season, my 8-year-old is ready for as many presents as Santa can stuff down our chimney. My son made his gift list and checked it twic...
Tips on How to Beat the Holiday Blues
The holidays are often referred to as “the most wonderful time of the year,” but if this tends to be a difficult time for you, you’re far fro...
4 Ways To Give Thoughtful Gifts
I like giving presents more than receiving them, and I’ve been told a few times that I have a gift for giving gifts. But I was a lot less investe...
Cooking With My Avah: Creating A Bond With Food
When you live far away from your relatives, it can be especially hard to form close bonds with them. The distance creates, well, distance, both in...
Finding Gratitude Wherever You Are
Thanksgiving, 2001. It is my first winter in New York. It’s just a little over two months after the 9/11 attacks, and the city is still reeling....
On Thanking Inward: Practicing Gratitude For Yourself
No matter where I end up on Thanksgiving — which relatives populate the table, which side dishes make the cut — the same question always comes...
5 Ways To Holistically Balance Through the Holidays
Holidays are stressful for many of us. The entire family crammed in a small house together, spending too much money on gifts that will be broken or...
Staying Connected: How Technology Can Make (or Break) a Family
Staying connected with your loved ones as you move through different phases of life remains a top priority for most families. We all want to share...
This Thanksgiving, I'm Not Leaving The Table
My favorite spot to eat dinner as a kid was always on the couch. I used to follow my dad there, and my brother and sister did the same. It was one...
How I Got Through My First Thanksgiving Post-Divorce
In 2020, I got a pandemic divorce from my husband of 12 years. In our divorce agreement, when it came to divvying up holidays, I wanted Christmas,...
How I Rediscovered My Financial Freedom
Talking about money is something that we’re taught as children to never do. This notion, though appropriate at times, can also lead to feelings o...
How To Stay Connected With Your Long-Distance Family
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it's that seeing long-distance family members is imperative for our own mental well-being and for maintaining c...
The Demon That Haunts My Family
No one liked that bedroom. No one. Perched on the second floor of an old 1900s farmhouse in Winona, Minnesota, the bedroom had been my grandpa’s...
How to Say "I Care About You" to Someone Who's Struggling
It can be difficult to tell someone who is struggling that we care about them and want to help. Sometimes, they might isolate themselves or put up...
What a Trip To Witchtown, USA Looks Like In 2021
Around Halloween each year, I share a tradition with the women most closely tied to my spirit — my mother, her twin sister, my cousin, and my you...
5 Filipino Traditions and Beliefs Surrounding Wakes and Funerals
Filipino culture has many customs and superstitions surrounding death, but it was only when my lola, my mom’s mom, passed away when I was 11 that...
Boppy Recalls Millions Of Infant Loungers After 8 Babies Died
Parents of newborns will want to be aware that the Boppy Company recalled more than 3 million loungers after several infant suffocation deaths were...
Simple Ways to Thank Your Loved Ones Based on Their Love Language
Everyone has their own love language or way of experiencing and receiving affection, and it extends to how people receive our gestures of gratitude...
Celebrating Father's Day
Dads are the best. The good ones teach us valuable lessons, love us unconditionally, and are always there to lend a hand (or a power tool) when you...
Celebrate National Grandparents Day By Saying "Thanks" to Your Grandparents
If you are lucky enough to still have your grandparents around, make sure to give them some extra love and attention on the second Sunday of Septem...
My Grandma’s Finger-Lickin' Dal Makhani Recipe
Dal Makhani (ma-kha-nee) is one of the most popular lentil recipes from North India. A much-loved dish for the natives of Punjab and New Delhi, it?...
Olivia Munn Is Having a Baby With John Mulaney
Comedian John Mulaney opened up this week about some pretty big news: he's having a baby with actress Olivia Munn. The former Saturday Night Live w...
Here's Why Condolences Were Such An Impactful Part Of My Grieving Process
Grief is a nuanced and mysterious thing. There have been many studies on grief over the years, and the stages have been defined and redefined. De...
Tim McGraw Says Faith Hill Is Why He Could Get Sober
Tim McGraw opened up about the role his wife — fellow country music star Faith Hill — played in helping him get sober. The 54-year-old singer a...
3 Ways Kids Can Make New Friends — Even During a Pandemic
When school campuses closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, many kids found it difficult to make new friends and connections. In response, forme...
Why Grief Goes Hand in Hand With Love
About a month ago, I was driving in a part of town where I don’t normally go. As I was waiting for the light to turn green, a memory came over me...
How This Grandma Became a GlamMa
There are so many ways to refer to a grandmother — grandma, nana, nonna, nanny, mee-maw, minnie ma. But Regina Malveaux, director of the Washingt...
Why Glamping with Friends in Michigan for $200 Was Worth It
I don’t love winters, but come summer, I'm proud to be a Midwest girl. I chose not to schedule any major trips this summer since the weather is b...
Jamie Lynn Spears Is Writing a Memoir
Jamie Lynn Spears is sharing her story with the world. Last week, it was revealed that the Zoey 101 star would be publishing a memoir slated for re...
15 Life Lessons My Soldier Dad Has Taught Me
My father is the most magnificent person in my life. He is, and always has been, my biggest support system and the most incredible source of inspir...
'In the Heights' Has Me in the Clouds
Thanks to my dad, I have always been an avid lover of the arts, and theatrical performances are among my favorites. I still remember some of my mor...
Kate Middleton Will Have a Different Title When Charles Becomes King
Kate Middleton may not be the Duchess of Cambridge too much longer. As any Anglophile and/or Royals obsessive knows, upon those closest to the th...
How to Talk About Money With Your Significant Other
Talking about money with your significant other is important to do but this doesn’t always mean the conversation will come easily. When my husban...
5 Tips on How to Co-Parent with a High-Conflict Ex
Parenting on the best of days with two parents is hard, but when you add a divorce and conflict between ex-spouses, co-parenting can become extreme...
This Mom's Reaction to Her Son Passing the Bar Exam Is So Heartwarming
If you need something purely joyful to smile about, we're here to help: A viral video making the rounds on Twitter and Reddit last week shows the...
Honoring My Most Important Essential Worker
Our country couldn’t have made it through this lethal marathon of 2020 without all the essential workers who helped the world run — from delive...
7 Ways to Survive the Holidays with Kids
Getting through the past 10 months has been a marathon. And things are going to be a bit tougher in the ensuing weeks, as most of the country prepa...
6 Easy Ways to Break the Ice with In-laws
Of all the relationship-related situations a woman will ever face in her life, there is nothing quite like rubbing elbows with the in-laws. Holiday...
Love and Identity with Minda Harts
Minda Harts, author of The Memo and the founder of The Memo LLC — a career-development company for women of color — is the creator and host of...
'The Parent Trap' Cast Reunited and It's Like 1998 All Over Again
Millennials, prepare yourselves: The cast of The Parent Trap reunited for the first time since 1998 and we’re flipping out. In honor of it being...
How I Found Community After My Son’s Autism Diagnosis
When my youngest son was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2 and a half, it was not a surprise to me. There were enough red flags to alert me tha...
Bringing Peace and Comfort to the Dying
Although Marne Lucas isn’t religious in the traditional sense, she’s come to understand the importance of faith and spirituality in death. In...
How Social Distance Made Us Closer
They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. In the blink of an eye, we all lost parts of our lives that we somehow believed would a...
Celebrating a Social-Distanced Birthday
Birthdays are special. They’re a chance to reflect on the last year, plan for the next, and, of course, get your favorite friends and family toge...
Mom Has a Secret: Coffee
Being cooped up with a person can reveal new things about their personality, no matter how long you've known them. And family is no different. In t...
Honoring My Grandfather’s Legacy
To honor American independence and July 4, CircleAround is collaborating all month long with NAWBO (the National Association of Women Business Owne...
People Help People Without Fixing Their Problems
What to say: "I can hear you struggling with this" "That sounds difficult for you" "How have you thought about resolving this?"
Freedom of Choice — Just Like Great-Grandma Had
Freedom is the presence of choice, and the ability to create and forge a life different from the circumstances we were born into. My great-grandmot...
Ignoring Glass Ceilings
Freedom has allowed me to ignore glass ceilings and unconscious biases to build a successful wealth-management firm.
How This National Security Analyst Protects Her Home and Homeland
In terms of everyday chaos, 2020 has shown no signs of slowing down. It’s no wonder that Juliette Kayyem, a national security analyst and Girl S...
Carolina Dreaming
Facing uncertainty can be a challenge that’s hard to accept. Leaping with faith may be the remedy that you need to move forward. Never underestim...
Honoring My Grandparents' Triumph
As an immigrant, I understand the hardships of learning a new language and the challenges of assimilating into a foreign culture.
How I’m Staying Connected to My Grandparents Overseas
One of the hardest things I’ve had to come to terms with during this pandemic is not being in close proximity with my grandparents to check up on...
How Videos Are Helping Us Make International Connections
My husband and I live in New England, but his whole side of the family resides across Canada. Normally, we make a monthly drive up for a weekend vi...
How Intentionality Is Strengthening Relationships in Quarantine
On an early morning walk — while social-distancing measures and stay-at-home orders were in effect — I spotted three vans parked in a parking l...
6 Fun-in-the-Sun Items for Your Next Beach Vacay
Whether you’re a local on the coast or you’re planning to visit a beach for your summer vacation, there are several items that make trekking to...
