Conversation-Starters: Food

Posted on February 11, 2023 by msw blog

Who doesn’t love to share their favorite restaurant or recipe? Talk to people about food, and you’ll likely have them hooked for a while. Whether you’re asking them for cheese recommendations or about the best dish they’ve tried recently, food is a topic that never fails to get people talking.

  • What’s your favorite part of the holiday meal?
  • What was your most memorable meal of the year?
  • What’s the best restaurant you’ve ever been to?
  • What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
  • What’s your signature dish?
  • What’s your favorite cookbook and why?
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Charcuterie

Posted on February 10, 2023 by msw blog

Is it possible to pack a charcuterie spread and without the cheese getting as sweaty as you?

Here’s what you do. Marinate the salami and Manchego with olive oil, black pepper, Marcona almonds, and lemon zest. The olive oil keeps everything from sweating.

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Reflections on Love

Posted on February 10, 2023 by msw blog

‘There is no reciprocity. Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters.’— Alice Thomas Ellis  

If we could raise one generation with unconditional love, there would be no Hitlers. We need to teach the next generation of children from Day One that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind’s greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.” ― Dr Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

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Time Affluence

Posted on February 9, 2023 by msw blog

Do you feel like you need more hours in the day to get everything done? What you’re searching for is time affluence, the feeling of being in control of your time and having enough of it to do the activities that are meaningful to you. Luckily you can build it up. Start by establishing your priorities. Plan out your week, schedule the basics first, like sleep and work, and then plug in fixed items like meetings and appointments. Include me time on the list for hobbies and passions. And plan a meeting -free day to address the nagging must dos that are taking up emotional space.  

Positively Purging-I welcome your feedbacks in the comments and your likes and passing the real life wisdom on to others as I embark on this new venture of “positively purging“, as I know each of these pieces represents something…

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Parenting

Posted on February 9, 2023 by msw blog

My dad used to say this when my wife and I were young, clueless parents. When Zay Zay and Jojo were babies, our main concerns were things like Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)  or them choking. We couldn’t wait for the kids to grow up so it could all be simpler.

But simple never came. Puberty came. Learning to drive came. Police brutality, gun violence and mass shootings came. Our worries turned from SIDS to Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), from choking on hot dogs to choking on the Standard Assessment Tests (SATS). You can try to be levelheaded as father. You can try to be a good example. You can try to have all the “right” discussions. But the worry doesn’t fade – it just evolves. Accepting that somehow makes things easier.

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