By Audrey van Petegem, Chief Editor
As I recently delved into all sorts of questions regarding oh… little things such as the dichotomy of  love & desire in my marriage and the discovery of seeing myself as a sensual being, the thought pattern inevitably led me to questioning my “beauty”.
Actually, what does “beauty” mean? It’s hard to discern, especially in our society, exactly what makes a person beautiful. The continuous assault of “perfect beauty” imagery wants us to believe one thing. Wiser outlets – and even dedicated organizations – tell us that beauty comes in all colors, shapes and sizes… And ages.
I’m 50 [...]

By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
Audrey and I were honored to be interviewed by Becca Niederkrom at the AgingInsider.com. She featured us in her new series called the 5 Alarm Boomer Blogger Series. Becca is all about empowering the aging senior, especially on the tech gadgets and systems. She also reaches out to us Baby Boomers as she knows well that we are the ones making most of the decisions for our aging parents. Here’s more about Becca’s work. 
If you ever wondered how this whole bloggin’ thing got started, you’ll have to story right here as painfully coaxed out of us by Becca!
 
 
You will [...]

By Liza Kovacs, M.S.C, M.A., Fitness Contributor
Do you feel a strain in the back of your neck after too many hours of the computer? Do you find yourself massaging your shoulders in the hopes of finding relief? If you regularly have pain in the back of your neck this post might be for you.
Our cervical spine (the segment of our vertebral column that makes up our neck) is the most mobile part. It also holds a heavy appendage, our head, which generally weighs around 10 lbs (or 4.5 to 5 kilos). Simplistically, your posterior (back) and front (anterior) neck muscles work together [...]

We love these annual recaps by JibJab. Here are some memorable highlights of 2012.
 
I’m pretty sure we say this every year but, thank goodness this one is over. Phew!
In case you’re feeling nostalgic, here is last year’s recap. Interesting. Many repeating characters…

By Liza Kovacs, M.S.C, M.A., Fitness Contributor
My sister (Chief Wife here at TSW) has been on me about this post for a couple of months now.
She needed some help transitioning from working sitting to standing. You might have read a previous post here on the Succulent Wife, on how she became allergic to her chair (yup, no kidding) and about the physical toll accumulated from years of sitting at her computer. She even reviewed standing desks in her quest to get the most out of her predicament.
So once the chair was out and the standing desk was in, the Chief Wife encountered [...]

The Succulent Wives are taking a little (very little) time off this summer. While we are still actively working on bringing you new content and ideas every week, we have also decided to bring back some of our favorite posts from the archives, those that are still timely, relevant, useful and that deserve to be revisited. Thanks for allowing us to recharge. We promise that we will be coming back with more new ideas and recommendations for cool stuff than you’ll know what to do with…
By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
We wrote about the movie, Waiting for Superman, two years [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Three miles over the Mexican border in Tecate, a short distance from San Diego, is a spa and fitness center called Rancho La Puerta. I thought that this would be the perfect spot to celebrate my birthday with my BFF Anne-Marie.
In the location where the spa opened, two oak trees grew towards each other and formed an arch. This became the symbol for Rancho La Puerta which literally means “ranch of the door”. The Ranch is family owned and was founded by Edmond and Deborah Szekely in 1940. Deborah was just 17 years old when [...]

By now, you have undoubtedly seen some of the many iterations, permutations and variations of the Shit Girls Say video, the brilliant piece of pop culture that started it all (still, in the avalanche of Shit…Says videos, my favorite remains the Shit Yogis Say). This meme seems unstoppable. And of course, since we also wanted to be represented, we had to make our own age-appropriate Sh!t video.
Is it hot in here? Where are my glasses? These represent just a couple of the very erudite and enlightened everyday epigrams of midlife women:
 
 
Yeah. We talk like that all. the. time.
Thanks to Marjie [...]

So, how long has it been since you bought that new ceiling fan? It’s still sitting in the box because you never got around to getting the ladder you need to install it. Or the electrician… And how about that mountain of ironing that has been piling to the point that it has now become an unmanageable chore? Or how about getting some help to get those Christmas lights down already, huh?
We CAN’T do it all. Even the best intentioned among us. That’s the cruel reality. So, instead of having all this unfinished business haunt us, let’s deal with it [...]

Goodbye 2011.
 
Viva 2012. Happy New Year to all!