It’s OK 2 Say Nope 2 Holidays + Pod 14: Dog Days + L. Brummet’s Leeks

December 29, 2021March 11, 2022 da-AL Compassion, Family, Fear, Gratitude, Happiness, Health, Mental Illness, Mindfulness, Religion, Self-Acceptance, Uncategorized Depression, Holidays, Podcasting, Self-Acceptance

extreme close-up of gingerbread cookie face.

Cool Doggie Days + Lillian Brummet’s Leeks Recipe – Happiness Between Tails

#Authors #Books #Cooking #Veggies #Photography #Gardening #Pets #Dogs #MonarchButterflies #Butterflies #Recipes Hungry? Backyard fruits and veggies are the best. Lillian Brummet, a blogger from Canada who’s written many books, says hot weather means leek season. Here’s her recipe for “Leek n’ Mushroom Bundles.” What are you hungry for these days? Share your thoughts, experiences, and questions by recording them on my Anchor by Spotify page — or comment at HappinessBetweenTails.com — or email me. Like what you hear? Buy me a coffee. Time Stamps (where segments begin): HBT introduction 1:00 Today’s topic and about today’s guest 2:05 Lillian Brummet’s “Leek n’ Onion Bundles” recipe 4:18 My question for you 6:28 HBT outro Photos available at the blog version (H-E-R-E) of this show: Serendipitous photos of shadows and beautiful Los Angeles blue sky. Closeup of green onion flower. Lillian and Dave Brummet Links referred to in this episode: About the novels I'm writing. Video of K-D dog serenading. About monarch butterflies. A wild PBS video about monarch butterflies. Recipes by Khashayar for Happiness Between Tails: a great hot soup, a crunchy salad, a fruity dessert and a carrot cake, an entree, and this appetizer and this one. Lillian Brummet's site with info about her, including her books. — This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/depe9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/depe9/support

Click H-E-R-E for my new podcast page at AnchorFM. This week’s episode is the audio version of “Video: Cool Doggie Days + Lillian Brummet’s Leeks Recipe,” which you can read the text version of H-E-R-E.

At the Happiness Between Tails podcast page, you’ll also find links to subscribe, hear, and share it via most any platform, from Spotifyand Apple Podcasts, to Google Podcasts and Pocket Casts, along with RadioPublic and Castbox and Stitcher and more, plus an RSS feed. The full list of 50+ places is at LinkTree.

Wish the holidays would just go away? It’s okay to tell them to go away.

Holidays can be nice — and terrible! Family can bring us to our knees — both to swoon and to cringe. Romance can make our hearts flutter or seize.

From Halloween to New Year’s, at least here in the United States, we’re inundated 24/7 with messages of how this is the time for families and lovers. We’re instructed to either kiss, or to kiss and make up.

Sometimes none of that is possible or isn’t in our best interest.

Traditional or sacred, I invite you to join me in acknowledging that ignoring any special day is perfectly acceptable. Never, sometimes, always; we can give any number of them a rest, whenever we please.

What matters is that we do everything to get through them as best we can — whatever it takes to mark time, to survive, to thrive through and into gentle holiday-free January.

Do you ever prefer to ignore holidays?

Self-Publishing Gets Easier by Ashley L. Peterson

February 20, 2020March 24, 2022 da-AL Blogging, Guest Posts, Happiness, Marketing, Mental Illness, Mind, Novels, Publishing, Women, Writing Authors, Books, Depression, Pets, self-publishing

Photo of Ashley L. Peterson's guinea pig, Peanut, sitting at a laptop. — Ashley L. Peterson’s guinea pig, Peanut, is a great help when it comes to self-publishing!

Note: here’s an audio version of this post.

From any angle, writing a book is a huge undertaking — and then when it comes to publishing, that’s even huger, whether through the traditional route or by self-publishing. While I struggle to complete my novels while building an author platform, Mental health nurse/blogger/author Ashley L. Peterson of Vancouver, Canada, has put out several books!

She first visited HBT here — and now she’s back with a new book and more self-publishing advice!…

Ashley’s favorite photo of herself with one of her adorable little ones!

“Self-Publishing: It Gets Easier” by Ashley Peterson

I remember how overwhelming it was when I published my first book. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, and I was just flying by the seat of my pants. I had no idea what to expect when the book was released.

My second book was released 7 months later. I felt much more prepared, but then tossed in the new challenge of selling on sites other than Amazon, including my own website. There were also some hiccups; it felt like forever before Amazon accepted the file for my paperback, which turned out to be because there was a special character that it didn’t recognize and therefore didn’t accept. The biggest problem was my paperback cover; it wasn’t showing up on the Amazon listing as the same colour in the cover file I’d uploaded. I spent a whole lot of time trying to get that sorted out,

Now with my third book, I’m a lot more relaxed about the whole process. Sure, formatting and converting file types is still frustrating; I don’t think that would change even if I’d published a whole bookstore. Overall, though, I’m much more at ease. I feel a sense of mastery that I know how to do this – a very different feeling from the first time around.

I’m a huge list person, and my book launch lists are nicely fine-tuned. I’ve got all the steps laid out, so I can just do things without having to think about them.

While the learning curve is steep and self-publishing can be daunting, it gets easier – really. And if you’re thinking about self-publishing, dive right on in; the water’s warm.

Details on my new book Managing the Depression Puzzle can be found here.

What’s your experience with publishing and building a platform?

Happy Un-Holidays by da-AL

December 7, 2018February 26, 2022 da-AL Adults, Art, Beauty, Blessings, Body, Bravery, Common Good, Compassion, Consumerism, Fatherhood, Female Shamans, Fiction, Film, Gender, Gender-Creative, Happiness, Humor, Identity, Individuality, Joy, Kindness, Life, Love, Magic, Marketing, Marriage, Mental Illness, Mind, Modern Life, Motherhood, Mothers, Movies, Parenting, Partying, Self Esteem, Self Image, Survivors, Uncategorized, United States Anxiety, Celebration, Depression, Holidays, Loneliness

Not feeling holiday cheerful? Don’t despair — holidays are merely dates on the calendar. Before you know it, they’ll be over and done with.

Here’s confirmation that Xmas isn’t always merry — but life can still be funny or at least interesting. The Davenport family holidays, as realized by John Waters, the king cult film-making, with the help of Devine who departed from us far too soon…

Are you feeling holiday-ish?

The Benefits of Pets on Our Mental Health by Kalia

February 13, 2018March 25, 2022 da-AL Animal Husbandry, Animals, Friendship, Guest Posts, Kindness, Love, Mental Illness, Self Esteem cats, Depression, Health, Loneliness, Pets

Pets have enhanced my life in many, many, many, many, many ways.

Here guest blogger Kalia, from Washington state, writes of the many gifts that come of caring for furry friends…

Hi there! My name is Kalia. I am the founder of frontseatryder.com. Front Seat Ryder is a blog designed to inspire, encourage and empower the modern dog mom to improve her mental health with the help of her doggy companion.

I am super excited to share with Happiness Between Tails — Thank you so much for having me! Today, I’m going to talk a little bit about the benefits pets have on our mental health.

When adopting a pet into your home, you probably aren’t thinking about your mental health. Are you?! I want to talk to you about some of the great benefits pets have on our mental health. These will give you another reason to love your fur babies – as if you needed one.

A pet can benefit you in a variety of ways including:

Mentally
Emotionally
Physically
Socially

While these are all important ways a pet can benefit you, improving mental health is high on the list. My dog Ryder is actually my Emotional Support Animal. He helps me cope with my depression and anxiety.

Pets fill the void of feeling isolated. Feeling of isolation and loneliness can lead to many different mental health issues. Some of which include forms of panic, anxiety attacks, and depression. Those feelings are soothed with the company of a pet.

Having a pet gives you a feeling of true purpose. A feeling that there is someone who needs caring for and tended to. Having a purpose in life gives someone suffering from depression hope. This can make all the difference in someone’s life.

How does your pet make your life better?

Bah! Humbug! is Perfectly Fine by da-AL

December 22, 2017March 11, 2022 da-AL Blessings, Gratitude, Happiness, Love, Psychology, Self Esteem, Self-Acceptance, Survivors, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized Celebration, Depression, Family, Holidays, Loneliness

burnt gingermen cookies — Photo courtesy of Getty Images

It’s quite alright to say, “No!” to a holiday. It’s ok to write off an entire season. Sometimes holidays are worthy of looking forward to. Sometimes they’re not.

tray of burnt cookies — Photo courtesy of Getty Images

It’s perfectly fine to ignore the myriad external messages elbowing each other to influence us. People, companies, cultures, they all would love for us to spend, do, and feel exactly as they think we should.

Never mind them. Really. Sometimes some holidays (and/or seasons) are best ignored.