We’ve been itching to travel again. I saw where Iceland is allowing fully vaccinated Americans to visit without quarantine or further testing. But I’ve been to Iceland before. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a beautiful place, and I have a business conference to attend if it’s not postponed again this summer. I just don't feel it in my heart quite yet because...

Cuba is tugging

Nila has been on my mind a lot. She has her own unique way of spelling things in Spanish. It must be the Cuban dialect because the words are not found in any dictionary I have access to. But we get by. Most of it is understood easily enough. I read her messages and then paste the text into Google translate to make sure I’m not missing any important details.

When we took the kids on this adventure, as the borders had officially opened up for Americans, we didn’t want to take the typical path of paying some overpriced agency out of Miami to show us a limited...

Author, Michelle Weidenbenner

Moms are heroes for their addicted child

Moms of addicted loved ones are hero warriors because they have to fight every day.

They fight to find and save the child they once coddled to their bosom.

A child with a substance use disorder becomes lost and trapped inside an imposter, a dark being that sucks common sense, logic, and rational decisions out of a beloved child. The demon hijacks the brain.

When a Mom looks into her child’s eyes, she can no longer see the man or woman she raised, the one who kissed her goodnight, the one who held her hand and knew right from wrong.

She sees a possessed demon who lives for only one thing: his drug of choice.

Download: Free guide

Moms are confused about when to let their addicted child hit rock-bottom

Friends look at her differently. They think she’s part of the problem. They say, don’t enable him. You need to let him hit rock bottom.

But rock bottom sounds like death, and she refuses to believe...

Camilla & Keith Spadafino, Nashville teachers, find ways to navigate the pandemic, including making a career change

This interview took place on September 28, 2020.

We met at a party in Nashville. It was an artsy crowd, and we met a lot of new people that night. Somehow the two of us have kept in touch, Camilla and I, via Facebook. So when I found out that Camilla was navigating being an art teacher during the pandemic, I asked if we could chat. She brought along her husband, Keith, also a teacher, and I must say it was a great discussion.

Surprisingly, Camilla has left her teaching career and ventured full-time into an art business with her educational paint-by-number kits. Please listen to this episode or watch the video, as we had a great time talking about "all things 2020".

Visit Camilla's art shop:  Paint the Town by Numbers

YouTube:

Podcast:

Transcript:

Sally Hendrick (00:00):

News stories were coming in about this strange virus in Wuhan China. It was...

By Sally Hendrick

With protests happening this summer across the United States around racial equality issues, Shout Your Cause focused on education and discussion of tough topics, such as racial inequality. "White fragility" is a phrase that Robin DiAngelo based her famous book upon, and I wanted to explore its chapters to see what this concept was about. It helped me find a deeper meaning behind our country's racial divide.

Shout Your Cause Founder's Story

In case you don't know, I am a white woman who grew up in rural West Tennessee. White privilege is written all over my face, as we had well-to-do lives with housekeepers, cooks, and college educations. More on that will come in later posts and projects.

I always had this feeling that my life was meant for something more, something beyond the scenarios that played out with my family and peers in a small town with a strict delineation between black and white neighbors.

Shout Your Cause Facebook Group Members

From July to...

Alisha Morris, high school theater teacher, responds by gathering news on COVID-19 cases in schools

This interview took place on August 31, 2020.

After joining a Facebook group about reopening Tennessee schools safely, I was tagged by Alisha Morris, a high school teacher in Olathe, Kansas who had spent a considerable amount of time gathering information of COVID-19 cases in schools across the country. She noticed that I was talking about collecting data, which meant we had something in common.

Alisha started gathering news articles in her local area and then expanded beyond that to other cities and towns across the country. Few articles about cases involving schools' faculty, students, and athletes were hitting the mainstream media as plans were forming up around opening for the fall semester. She saw an opportunity to pull information together to show how serious the pandemic was affecting reopening plans. 

Listen to this interview to hear the full...

As a writer for NewsLanded, our founder, Sally Hendrick, has focused on statistics related to the pandemic and the racial equality movement born from it. The following is a quote from one of her articles, which you may read in full here.

"Nashville, Tennessee, is known for having mostly peaceful protests. No matter the cause, past marches with as many as 15,000 people, have shouted for attention for social justice issues, such as women’s rights, LGBT rights, civil rights, and more. In February of 1960, the Nashville sit-ins began at various lunch counters at the Woolworth, Walgreens, Kress, McLellan, and Grants stores along Fifth Avenue North. Unbeknownst to many, in the months leading up to the full-scale protests, smaller-scale demonstrations had occurred at Harveys Department Store and Cain-Sloan nearby to “test the waters,” so to speak."

Protests in Nashville since May 30, 2020, have been peaceful

None of the official protests in Nashville have been...

Focus on statistics related to the pandemic

As a writer for NewsLanded, our founder, Sally Hendrick, has focused on statistics related to the pandemic and the racial equality movement born from it. The following is a quote from one of her articles, which you may read in full here.

"Criticism of the figures showing reported cases and deaths due to COVID-19 is rampant in the media and across social media. How deaths are recorded citing COVID-19 when someone also has diabetes, heart disease, or a respiratory illness is being criticized based on pockets of stories from nurses and doctors across the country. This has sown doubt into the population, especially people with right-leaning political views, as they suspect COVID-19 charting is being politicized. However, numbers don’t lie, and there are ways to validate the pandemic’s effects on expected deaths that can be seen in the excess death graphs."

Excess death charts that debunk that only 6% of deaths are related to...

Growing up in rural West Tennessee

Life growing up in the '70s and '80s looked different to me than it did for close friends of mine from the same place, same time, and same school system. Yet, I was oblivious to the differences until now.

Meet the Maggie Lipford Family

The video will give you more background on how our friendship came about, but everything is centered around one woman named Maggie Lipford from Humboldt, Tennessee. I learned even more about her in this discussion with her family.

Enjoy!

Working with other women in business is inspiring

When I first started my business, I was inspired by other women doing amazing things, such as investment coaching, teaching technical courses, marketing coaching, fitness training, business coaching, providing business services, or any number of things, using their unique skills with a feminine touch. Those same women have continued to inspire me to push through the entrepreneurial roller coaster ride that can rattle those of us who like security and certainty in our lives.

Meet Angela Matthews, an investment coach

Angela and I first met online when she was an online reputation specialist. After doing that for a while, she wasn't quite feeling the vibe anymore, so she segued into investment coaching, which was more her style. The beauty of being an entrepreneur means that you can figure things out as you go. If one pathway isn't working for you, then change directions to develop something else. Now, Angela has a thriving...