Author name: Erica

Choosing Christmas gifts for your adult children can be a challenge. It’s easier when they are small children but as adults you are less involved in their daily lives and may not be as in tune with what they want. When searching online for gifts for adult children you often come across suggestions that you …

10 Thoughtful Christmas Gifts for Adult Sons and Daughters Read More »

Microgreens are among the smallest and most nutritious plants you can grow. They can add texture, flavor and color to salads, sandwiches, smoothies and main meals.  It can be expensive to buy them but they are easy to grow. The best thing about them is that you don’t need a large space in which to …

A Beginner’s Guide to Growing and Harvesting Microgreens Read More »

Toys, books and games are great if you want to give your grandkids an alternative to Easter eggs and keep them entertained at Easter. Some of the following toys can also make great prizes in an Easter egg hunt.  Your grandkids will have great fun without overindulging in chocolate and becoming hyperactive and irritable. 1. …

8 Easter Gifts for Grandkids that last longer than Chocolate Read More »

Coronavirus has jolted us off-balance and as many of us have never faced a crisis of this nature before, we don’t know how to respond. For many, a sense of security, safety and certainty has disappeared. Don’t give in to fear We all have assumptions of how life should be and when something as unexpected …

Coping with the Curved Ball of Covid-19 Read More »

A woman’s skin goes through major changes after menopause when estrogen levels dip.  The structure of the skin changes completely and although the top layer becomes thinner, the epidermis becomes more impenetrable. It’s essential to use the right skin products  if you want to slow down the signs of aging and minimize any skin damage …

8 Affordable Anti-aging Skincare Products for over-50s Read More »

Visiting the South of France has been on my bucket list ever since I read Peter Mayle’s “A Year in Provence”.  Little did I know that my sister and her husband would move from South Africa to Cabrespine in France and I would be flying to visit them on the eve of my 62nd birthday.  …

A Visit to Cabrespine in the South of France Read More »

It appears that many people over 50 have overcome their initial prejudice  about e-books. Many of them already own one or are considering purchasing one. I was one of those who resisted the idea of using an e-reader, despite pressure from my children to buy one. I have loved reading books all my life – …

E-readers for over 50s Read More »

Christmas is approaching fast and you may be having some difficulty deciding what to buy for your young adult children. It’s not quite as easy as choosing gifts for kiddies. A good bet is to choose a gift that’s both practical and stylish. Here are some good options your young adult children will love.

The ‘fight or flight’ response has been with us as a species from our earliest beginnings. It’s a survival mechanism that causes our bodies to respond to perceived threat.  When you feel threatened, the brain starts preparing the body for action and it goes into a state of heightened alert. Those in the initial stages …

Divorce brain: How to put the “wise owl” back in control Read More »

You may not be aware of it but if you are in the throes of a late-life divorce, you are part of what is being called the “grey divorce phenomenon”.  Some of the main reasons for this phenomenon are reflected in the infographic below. Statistics show that gray divorce figures are rising at a time …

Facing a gray divorce? You are not alone. Read More »

You’re not alone if you’re living alone. There are many people in the world today that live alone – some have never married, others are widowed or divorced. In  the United States alone there are approximately 95 million single adults. Although living life as a single person is more accepted than it was in the …

Living alone does not mean you have to be lonely Read More »

Most of us are familiar with the five stages of grief introduced by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. As a psychiatrist who studied terminally ill patients, she was in a unique position to observe and document these stages.  She never meant for these stages to follow one another in a neat order. Grief is messy and does not …

The denial stage of divorce Read More »

It may not occur to you that you need to protect yourself when going through a late-life divorce. The process of divorce can be brutal and it comes at a time when your emotions are all over the place, making you very vulnerable. You may expect to be treated fairly because of all the years …

5 ways to protect yourself during a late-life divorce Read More »

With the rise in late-life divorce among baby boomers, many of us are facing living alone in the latter part of our lives, sometimes for the first time ever. Some of us may have gone straight from living with our parents to living with a husband and raising children. We are so accustomed to being …

Living alone after a late-life divorce Read More »

When we pass fifty, we seem to think about the passing of time more than ever before and it feels as though it is speeding by. As children, we may learn the concept of time but it stretches out ahead of us and we are not so aware of the tick, tick, tick as it …

Why does time speed up as you get older? Read More »

It may feel as if your life will never be the same after the years of hands-on parenting end. You are right – it won’t ever be the same. It will be quite, quite different. But although it’s different, there are ways in which it can be very rewarding. You have spent years wiping away …

Count your blessings in an empty nest Read More »

As babies we are completely dependent on our mothers and growing up is a process of becoming more independent. When we get married, it can be a battle to surrender some of that independence for the sake of the relationship. Over the years of marriage, some of us maintain more independence than others but during …

How to re-establish your independence post-divorce Read More »

No matter what you do, or who you are, getting a divorce after 50 is going to impact you emotionally, financially, socially, and legally.  A new life doesn’t just magically appear for you once the old one has been shattered. Recovery and moving on can be a long, slow and painful process.  Decades of memories …

A late-life divorce can be a catalyst for growth Read More »

An affair can be catastrophic to any relationship. When it happens in a long-term marriage, the consequences can be devastating. I had been married to my husband for decades but I was blind to the signs that he was having an affair.  I was so firmly in denial that I managed to ignore all the …

How an affair impacts a long-term marriage Read More »

When you are going through a divorce, you may be so traumatized that you stop caring for yourself physically. You may stop exercising, binge on comfort food or neglect to eat, battle to sleep and even resort to drinking too much. This obviously takes its toll on your physical health. Just knowing what happens to …

The impact of divorce on your physical health Read More »