Save your sanity, time & money!

Need solutions for the medication, medical appliances and/or medical travel that you can't afford? READ EMPOWER Yourself.

A Health Information Management professional, I survived a life-threatening emergency with information that only a person of my professional experience would know. And I’m sharing it!

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Welcome Back - to YOUR Life!

B'SD

11 Nisan, 5775

I haven't blogged in a bit because I've been busy helping people not feeling well at this hectic time of year. I've been matching people up with outtathebox solutions, preparing for Passover and enjoying gorgeous sunshine, too.

Several of my friends and some of the people I've helped asked me how I can remain upbeat despite the setbacks of my own life.

The answer: Practice. I've cried out my pain, consulted with people who persevere, and worked on increasing my inner strengths.

This graphic pretty much sums up how I look at life.





Go on. Take your life back. And if you need ideas on how to do that, read cost-cutting, sanity-saving






Get your grin back. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge

And if Pesakh/Passover cleaning and preparation have you feeling down, refresh your spirit with







Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fight back at despair with what you desperately need: A sense of humor.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Physics, Fun and Fighting Off Negativity

B'SD

6 Nisan, 5775

I've been rather bummed out today, as you can tell from my recent Facebook message

I want a break from cyberlife cuz I keep learning of downright nasty stuff in the news. So, I'll sign off for a bit with the most moving Star Trek episode I can remember. May it promote decency worldwide. Grab the tissues, hug the dog, the kids, your spouse, and grab some more tissues. Everybody's gonna need them. Star Trek: The Next Generation; Season 3, Episode 16: "The Offspring" http://www.dailymotion.com/…/x264n2d_star-trek-the-next-gen…
Like · Comment · 
  • Chani Smith likes this.
  • Yocheved Golani BTW Israelis, we'll have an hour less to wipe our tears as of tonight. We move to that goshdarnit Daylight Savings Time at 2AM, making it 3AM. So when you fall out of bed Friday morning, you'll be justifiably sleepy, having lost an hour there. Nap today and brace for impact.


So now that you've grown to be a better person for watching that long video, let's share fast-paced Get Ready for Pesakh fun with students of Israel's Technion Institute. Who says physics can't be fun?





Medical or mental health challenges getting you down? You just might laugh aloud when you find solutions for your problems in the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fight negativity with s sense of humor. Resistance is futile.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Be the Type of Person You Want to Meet

B'SD

5 Nisan, 5775

Ever wish somebody had treated you far better than they did?

Ever felt deeply sorry that you failed to live up to your niceness potential?

I have a solution aka new mantra for you:

Be the type of person you want to meet.

News reports are full of headlines about people misbehaving in very strange ways, and mostly from severely emotional reactions to this or that. NOT a good sign for the future.

Let's deal with that, and with your life, by realizing that you can choose your response to stress. Yes, your initial impulse can be wildly not nice, but you need not behave that way. Your heart and mind can work together; You can choose to behave in a cultured, pleasant fashion. And you can do so, too.



Emotions are not slave masters. 
Be the type of person you want to meet. 

PS - It's fun not to drive yourself nutz. 
Give self discipline despite HOT ANGER
a go.
And yes, it's gonna take practice 
until you do things nicely 
even when you're peeved.

And for those of you angry with GOD, 
think this thought over:

Consider not asking (AGAIN) for what you want/need.
Change the paradigm to asking, then thinking about

"What do YOU want from me, GOD?"

It's quite soothing to make the switch. 
And very, very enlightening.




Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge




Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fill your life with decency.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Dead Man's Crawl - to a Better Life

B'SD

4 Nisan, 5775

I often wonder how to share messages that speak to my male readers. Being a woman, I tend to go for content that females readily understand. That's not fair. It also misses the point  of my communication efforts: Inspiring the wider world to pass its limitations, to reach for excellence when facing problems anything, let alone illness.

This video portrays a message I want to share. It's packed with life lessons that all people can grow from.



That kid did the Dead Man's Crawl to a better life.

Coping with illness requires a quality common to any challenge: Pushing past your fears, anger, physical and intellectual strengths. If necessary, put your challenge into the perspective of a game, then face it with your increasingly better character.

Grow your soul. It's there inside you, waiting to flex its muscles to the max.

You'll appreciate yourself more when you do that. And some people will admire you.

I thank my real life and facebook friend Asher Blachman for bringing the video to my attention.




Find more inspiration in the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Fight with every ounce of decency in you. And then some.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Lessons to be Learned from the Fire

B'SD

3 Nisan, 5775

My present thoughts about the horrific loss of life in the fire that decimated the Sasson family are focused on perspective.

My dear friend David Morris, head of the charitable organization Lemaan Achai, expressed some excellent perspective on his blog, today. Please join me in reading and re-reading The Brooklyn Tragedy - Are there Lessons to be Learned?

The spiritual dimensions of the disaster are not something we can easily comprehend. This is a time of grief.

Please hold back from the temptation to lecture anyone, to impugn or to insult anybody. Adding pain to aching hearts is not going to improve anyone's life. 

Causing fresh pain does not solve problems.




Sometimes, life is not about asking GOD for what we want. We can instead ask GOD "What do YOU want from me?" 

Before that can happen, we need to be quiet, to let our hearts and minds adjust a bit to unspeakable pain. 

Each person adjusts at their own rate of speed. 

This is not a time for making demands of anyone.

And if you need help to know how to discuss what happened with young children, listen to this broadcast by Chai Lifeline's Trauma and Crisis Intervention Department.




Listen in on these fire safety lessons:



and






Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge





Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Permit yourself time to gain insights plus inner growth.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Haveil Havalim Blog Carnival Round-up - Parshat Vayikra edition.

B'SD

2 Nisan, 5775

Woohoo, it's NISAN - the month of spiritual redemption. Hat tip: GOD!

And now, a word from the other sponsor of this blog:
Havel Havelim, the long running, weekly international Jewish blog carnival that has been appearing well over a decade. It was begun by Soccer Dad who no longer blogs. He coordinated it for quite a while. Now we use our facebook page to coordinate and publicize it. 
Next week's Havel Havelim will be hosted by Batya Medad of Shilo Musings. You can send in your links to shilohmuse@gmail.com with "HH" as subject and a short "blurb" about the post with a one-line description of your post and HH as "subject." Our weekly deadline is before Shabbat "your time." 
          You're also invited to send posts from other bloggers, not just yours. Thanks.

So, how'd you enjoy the clean-up this past week or so, allergic readers? I hope that you're breathing easily with all those non-allergenic household tips I shared with you. PS - please let me know how The Bathtub Trick works out for your oven racks.

How are your hands? Nails OK? Sure was a nail-biter of an election day this past Tuesday. 

Even GOOGLE Doodled about it.


V15 and other underhanded stuff sure Backfired.

While we're on the topic, can SOMEBODY please 
convince the powersthatwannabe 
to allow innovative Israelis to create 
user-friendly ELECTRONIC voting devices,
and to permit voters to USE them? 
The Start-up Nation has a few minuses in the
"Achievements" column.

As for the robo-calls, grrr...

False promises? Arrrghhh!!!!!


(translation of mocked-up Israeli voting ballots
for outtatowners: "The truth is, all politicians are liars.")

Sad to say, the Start-Up Nation
still votes by putting paper ballots
into paper envelopes that go into
cardboard ballot boxes.
Some malcontents use them for ashtrays
so they can influence the outcomes.

No matter how some people voted, 
they probably did not get 
all the results they wanted.

YACHAD had no chance against ballot thieves.
 (ah-heh-hehm!)

Lose with truth and right rather than gain with falsehood and wrong. 
— Maimonides



Let's laugh along with Karmieler
RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FUNNY 
ANECDOTE OF THE WEEK

The Chazon Ish in the 1950's gave 
a strong speech about how it was 
a mitzvah to vote in the upcoming 
elections. 

One of his students approached him 
after the speech and asked his Rebbe 
if the Rav felt that it was truly 
a mitzvah. 

When the Chazon Ish affirmed his decision, 
the student asked if this was a mitzvah 
just like eating Matza? 

The Chazon Ish responded "No, it is 

a mitzvah like eating Maror! 
JJ...


Let's get spiritual...

Rabbi Pinchas Winston cites the HUGE importance of an apparently tiny letter in Perceptions: Vayikra.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin has some Physics or Metaphysics? thoughts to share after we finish rubbing our eyes from the TOTAL ECLIPSE of the SUN.

Hmmm, I just realized that I'm friends with each of those men. We've been acquainted for years and years. I wonder what that can do for my IQ?

Anyway...



Calvin and Hobbes' sentiment above is my idea of a perfect intro for Tzivia MacLeod's contributions to this HH festival:

This… is how you should welcome olim.


How will you be greeted when you finally arrive here in Israel?  Or, if you’re already here, how were you greeted?  Was it a depressing, bewildering, lonely aliyah story (I’ve heard my share of those) or an upbeat, thrilled, amazing aliyah story?

REVIEW: Hebrew through story with author Leah Broderson

I’ve found a Hebrew reading “coach” who is tough without being impossibly demanding.

What do otters have to do with Pesach? (aka Passover)

After trying to find an animal that was cute but not cloyingly so, I came across this adorable otter.  And thus, Otter Passover was born.

HH regular Batya Medad has BUNCHES of stuff for us to read (don't hold back, Batya. Share your thoughts with us from now on. It's OK, we're friends!):






Now we can share the thoughts of other writers.









(wow, lotta content this time around... only a few more entries to go...)

My friend Miriam Green fills her rice pudding with love. Read this delicious Lost Kitchen blogpost and learn about Alzheimer's Disease, family and utter decency.


Jacob Richman puts us on alert with his PassoverEducational Resources and 348 Passover Videos (I'm not gonna count them, but you may if you wish. I trust Jacob).


Back to me, your HH hostess of the hour: 
Here's my plug for paying work. One look at my LinkedIn profile clues you in to my diverse writing skills. Best of all, I tend to beat the boss' deadlines. Yes, I tend to hand in my fact-checked work ahead of schedule so everybody can breathe more easily. No need for errata on my watch. I deal with reality and make it understandable.

Lego Pesach commercial (getchergiggleon!) HERE.

Didja check if the kids hid their 
cereals, 
sandwiches 
or popcorn 
in the air conditioner yet?

Here Comes Pesach Blues here!






Want to put your medical life in order, and still have a sense of humor when you need it? Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge




Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Find something to smile about.