With Your Family in Mind

After career day in kindergarten a little girl came home all excited and told her mother that she wanted to be a nurse.  Her mom went ballistic and said, “You don’t have to be a nurse, this is America, you can be anything you want to be.  You can be a doctor, an orthopedic surgeon – you can even be the director of the whole hospital.”  She was excited.  “I can be anything, anything at all?”  Her mom said, “Yes, anything at all!”  Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “I’ll be a horse!”  

Estate planning isn’t for everyone.  If you have less than $100,000 of gross assets in your name, alone, a will may suffice.  If you don’t care about future cost to your beneficiaries, the prospect of a probate proceeding when you die may not trouble you now.
If, however, you want to be sure that your assets go to your chosen beneficiaries without undue expenditure of time, effort and money, or unnecessary dilution by attorneys, accountants, taxes, and courts, then estate planning deserves your time and attention.

Gardening has many health and therapeutic benefits for older people.  The love of gardening spans generations.  Its benefits extend beyond baskets of veggies or flowers nestled in a vase.  Gardening enriches your body, your diet and your spirit.
Seniors can get particular benefit because gardening:

The Center for Cooperative Divorce… a place where Peace is Possible.  The co-founders, Dana Schutz Keane, a family therapist, and Irving Zaroff, an attorney and family therapist, have been working with families dealing with the difficulties of divorce for the past 20-plus years.  What became apparent in this work was the impact of the divorce process itself. 

The potential for change is one of the few constants in life.  Whether your circumstances evolve unexpectedly or as the result of careful planning, you may have to alter your investment strategy.  The following are transitional events that may present opportunities or savings obstacles:
Changing jobs -- If you change jobs or get promoted and receive a salary increase, consider investing at least some of the difference for your long-term goals.  You won’t miss the money if you invest it right from the start.

Many people use the terms “Alzheimer’s disease” and “dementia” interchangeably, but the two have different meanings, and it can be very important to know the difference.

Falling in love changes your health quite a bit.  Getting involved with a partner includes taking on new friends, new relatives, a new place to live and dreams about the goals you’d like to reach, trips you want to take together, and children you hope to have.
A romantic partner often has more influence on our behavior than anyone else.  Relationships tend to occur among people who have comparable backgrounds, attitudes, and behaviors—qualities that often find their way into health.

Growing older is a challenge.  Making correct decisions for seniors who depend on us can be a greater challenge.  Dementia issues, choosing care facilities, understanding Medi-Cal, Medicare and insurance issues, handling repeated hospitalizations, hospice, skilled nursing, pursuing VA benefits to help pay for care, asset preservation, trusts, wills... and the list goes on and on.  There are so many decisions to make. 

Following the season of gift-giving and warm tidings, the year 2012 may begin with resolutions.  You may start out with practical ideas that include saving money, losing weight, increasing time for exercise, and considering how you can reduce stress.  Let me propose something else.  Please consider what you can do to help a child or group of children have new beginnings in 2012.

We’re in the dead of winter.  In many areas of the country, that means that we could be in for some rough weather.  When severe weather strikes, parents of young children are well aware that they need to check for school closings as they prepare for the day.  But sometimes inclement weather can be severe enough to close down government buildings and offices as well — including Social Security.

Many debtors filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy wonder whether their creditors can still sue them or garnish wages while they are in bankruptcy.  The answer is generally no, due to the “Automatic Stay” protection afforded the debtor by the bankruptcy code.  The protection is automatic and goes into effect upon the filing of the case.

Most of us dream about the future.  What will we be doing?  Where will God have us? Yet, while we have our plans, Ephesians 3:20 says, “He is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.”  In 1961, when a small body of believers met as First Baptist Church of Saugus in the home of Amos Clemmons, they may have not had any idea all that had God planned for their church.  They probably couldn’t even imagine that in 1977, the very seedling they named Canyon Country Christian School would flourish into Santa Clarita Christian School…now celebrating 30 years of God’s faithfulness.  

“We may define therapy as a search for value.” – Abraham Mazlow
Divorce mediation has, as its ultimate goal, the achievement of a legal resolution.  At the Center we have team mediators of attorneys and therapists.  So, what does a mediator with training as a psychotherapist bring to a mediation that has a legal objective?

We often think of binge drinking as a young adult phenomena, one reserved for high school parties, college students, and spring and summer breaks. But according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) there are more than 38 million U.S. adults who binge drink an average of four times a month and the most drinks they consume on average is eight, according to a new Vital Signs report from the CDC.

It’s sad when those who reach out for help for themselves or their children are taken advantage of by “professionals” who are unqualified, inexperienced or straight-up con-artists who take advantage of those who are desperate and ignorant as to what can really help them.  Many treatment processes can cost thousands of dollars and by the time a family figures out their bogus it’s too late.

We are well into 2012 and for those of you who are students or have students in your home, a new semester has begun.  If this refers to you, take a moment and ask yourself, “Did I prepare for this semester like I did in the fall?”  When you embark on a new semester it’s important to be prepared, organized and to maximize your time in order to get the grades you want.  If you haven’t prepared yourself yet, take the time to do that now.  

There are two types of support in California.  One is child support and the other is spousal support.  There are two types of orders in California dissolution cases.  One is a temporary order during the pendency of the case, called a pendente lite order.  And the other is an order after judgment. 

The Hague Conference, held in the Netherlands for more than a century, has long been involved in protection of children at risk in cross-frontier situations.  Three Hague Children’s Conventions have been held over the last 25 years for the purpose of providing practical machinery to enable states in protecting children.