The Mom Weekly Volume 52: August 6, 2024
On July 25, 2023, The Mom Weekly began.
Thank you for reading along for an entire year!
I am interested and proud that my goals have stayed ths same from Volume 1, as has my sense of urgency to share ideas and concepts. And I don’t have any plans to stop, so you’re stuck with me. 🙂
What has delighted me is when family members and the occasional friend will send me a quick text or email to say how much they enjoyed that week’s offering. I even like it someone disagrees with something I have written. Apparently, I love dialogue! Who knew? LOL.
And I especially love questions and suggestions. More than a few times, a question from someone has led to a weekly reflection. That process helps to organize my thoughts (and even change them). By writing about something, I understand it better.
For no discernable reason (I didn’t even remember why at the time!), I missed one week late last fall, so the anniversary each year for me will be around the beginning of August. Even more oddly funny: as I looked through to see which week I missed, I noticed that not once, but twice, I numbered a weekly the same one as the week before (Volume 34 and Volume 48, in case you’re wondering, which I’m sure you are not).
So this weekly should perhaps be numbered 53, or 54? Who knows? I am not going back to change all of that (everyone makes mistakes, after all). We will just go forward and I will try to celebrate around the first week of August.
What am I going to do to celebrate? Probably bake something chocolate. I hope you will celebrate too, and remember that you can always respond to a weekly by replying to the emails, or texting, me or reaching out in any other way. I love hearing from you.
And, as always: remember how much I love you,
Mom
Interesting/Notable:
Fertility Awareness — good article!
Roz Chast on a great term from the Great British Baking Show.
An Action Item: (Continue to Educate Yourself About Scam Stories)
It is well worth reading this entire article about yet another person scammed out of almost their whole life savings.
How One Man Lost $740,000 to Scammers Targeting His Retirement Savings (gift article)
A couple of takeaways:
*scammers isolate people from their loved ones and create a sense of urgency
*anyone can get scammed (this person is a retired lawyer)
*family and friends are good for helping us keep out of harm’s way, but can also be a good source of solace when we have been through something. Keeping silent about it is understandable, but sharing these kinds of stories.
*I think it’s really important to be open with family members or trusted people in our lives. Remember when the personal finance writer who was scammed out of $50,000 in one day? Here’s what one of the criminals who supposedly worked the IRS, told her:
Calvin told me to listen carefully. “The first thing you must do is not tell anyone what is going on. Everyone around you is a suspect.”
Anyway, this is just my regular reminder to be aware of things around you, and remember that we are better for living in community, and we should act like it!
I hate to even share this other link, because it is so depressing.
The Slave Sending You Scam Texts
This is a podcast episode from the Wall Street Journal about the criminal enterprises in Southeast Asia who are trafficking people into slavery to scam others. And I alwys said that there is a special place in purgatory (or hell, let’s just say it, hell) for people who defraud others. And the criminals who trick individuals into slavery in order to scam people of their money? Well, a different, and much worse, place in purgatory/hell, for them.
What are you doing this weekend?
So, now that it’s Tuesday, what are you planning for the weekend? I’m going to suggest trying to cover four “F”s to get ideas flowing:
*faith—when are you going to Mass?
*friends—what friends will you see or connect with?
*food—any fun recipes you plan to try, or restaurants you plan to visit?
*fun—anything interesting you are going to play, watch, or do this weekend? Now’s the time to think it through, and put it on the calendar (even informally).