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Mothers Day Cookies – A Special Treat

4/28/2022

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Who doesn’t love Mothers Day Cookies?

​So many of us associate cookies with our mothers baking cookies for special occasions and after-school treats. We have a few ideas for you that makes a plain sugar cookie into a “master piece.”

But first a little history about Mother’s Day…

Mother’s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed throughout the world. The American origin of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. While dates and celebrations vary, Mother’s Day most commonly falls on the second Sunday in May and traditionally involves presenting mothers with flowers, cards and other gifts.
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To make these Mothers Day cookies, use your favorite sugar cookie recipe. Then, decorate them as you see in the photos. This is a great time for your creativity to shine!

Mothers Day Cookies #1
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Mothers Day Cookies #2
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Mothers Day Cookies #3 
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A tip for decorating sugar cookies: Make icing with confectioners’ sugar and milk. Make it fairly thin and ‘paint’ the icing on the cookies with a pastry brush. Thin enough to spread easily but not so thin that it just makes your cookies wet and runs off. For Cookies 2 & 3 above, you might want the frosting a little thicker.

For more Recipes, Click Here & Click Here

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The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado!

4/19/2022

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Did you know that the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve has the tallest dunes in North America?

The Sand Dunes of Colorado can reach as high as 750 Feet!

The sand dunes constantly shift with the wind, water and time sculpting its appearance and beauty.  The dunes are in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo (“Blood of Christ”) Mountains.

The Dunes stretch across 30 square miles with an average elevation of 7,500 feet.

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Interesting Facts About the Sand Dunes in Colorado:

1) Members of the Ladies P.E.O. sponsored a bill to Congress asking for national monument status for the Great Sand Dunes. The bill was signed into law in 1932 by President Herbert Hoover.

2) In 2000-2004 the Sand Dunes in Colorado was expanded into a national park and preserve.

3) About 500,000+ people visit the Great Sand Dunes every year because of the oddly beautiful combination of desert dunes and high mountain peaks, the spring-time flow of Medano Creek, and dark, quiet nights in the Dunes wilderness.

4) Camping, hiking, and photography opportunities are plentiful in the area.

“Visitors must walk across the wide and shallow Medano Creek to reach the dunes in spring and summer months. The creek typically has a peak flow from late May to early June in most years. From July through April, the creek is usually no more than a few inches deep, if there is any water at all.

Hiking is permitted throughout the dunes with the warning that the sand surface temperature may reach 150 °F (66 °C) in summer. Sandboarding and sandsledding are popular activities, both done on specially designed equipment which can be rented just outside the park entrance or in Alamosa.” Source…



The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado is a “Must See” Attraction!
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Those Over 50 have stayed happier during the pandemic

4/12/2022

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Did you know that new surveys over the last couple of years show that the 'ability to cope' improves with age?

Because of the pandemic this last year has certainly been a challenge to our mental health. However, there is a consoling truth: that age and emotional well-being tend to increase together, as a rule, even as mental acuity and physical health taper off!

People aged 50 and over score consistently higher (and more positively) on a wide variety of daily emotions. The older crowd tend to have more positive emotions in a given day rather than negative emotions. This is independent of income or education in national studies.

Dr. Laura Carstensen led a research team that studied the reality of prolonged stress. Older people have been at a much higher risk both of getting sick and dying of Covid-19 than younger people.

“This was, from the beginning, a threat to older people that they simply could not avoid — and, crucially, it was prolonged stress,” said Dr. Laura Carstensen, a psychologist at Stanford University’s Center on Longevity.

In April, after the potential scope of the pandemic was apparent, the team recruited a representative sample of some 1,000 adults, aged 18 to 76, living across the country. The participants answered surveys with detailed questions about their emotions over the previous week, including 16 positive states, like relaxed or amused, and 13 negative ones, like guilt or anger.

“Younger people were doing far worse emotionally than older people were,” Dr. Carstensen said. “This was April, the most anxiety-producing month, it was novel, cases went from nothing to 60,000, there was lots of attention and fear surrounding all this — and yet we see the same pattern as in other studies, with older people reporting less distress.”

In a similar study, psychologists at the University of British Columbia exhaustively surveyed some 800 adults of all ages in the first couple of months of the pandemic — and found the same thing.

A "take away" from these studies indicate: Older age was associated with less concern about the threat of Covid-19, better emotional well-being, and more daily positive events.

Also, after middle age, people become more aware of a narrowing time horizon and, consciously or not, begin to gravitate toward daily activities that are more inherently pleasing than self-improving. Source...New York Times

You might enjoy this recent post: Aging in Place



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Time Travel in Colorado: 8 Ruins You Should Visit

4/10/2022

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There’s no doubt that there is a lot of history in the beautiful state of Colorado, but beyond museums and antique shops there are lots of abandoned sites and “ruins” that turn back the clock as well! Many of them are still beautifully maintained and definitely deserve a visit! Check out our list of Colorado ruins below and plan your next weekend (or longer) trip! (Please note that some are open seasonally, so check their website before heading out)
1. A door to nowhere…
Take a step back in time to the Gold Rush days of the 1860’s. Central City just west of Denver is now a quaint “gambling” town that offers old buildings and architectural relics of days past!
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2. Mount Falcon Park
“The story of Mt Falcon is largely the story of John Brisben Walker, who once owned 4,000 acres surrounding his castle. The acreage is now an open space area that the public can use for hiking and biking.  In a large meadow near the ruins is where he would race cars from the Stanley Steamer Co which he then owned . He went on to own Cosmopolitan Magazine. During the early 1900’s Mr. Walker lived in an elaborate stone house with eight fireplaces a 3 story towering turret, which eventually caught fire. The ruins remain still.”
3. The Mount Evans Crest House
“The Mount Evans Crest House, located at the terminus of the Mount Evans Scenic Byway at the summit of Mount Evans, was constructed between 1940 and 1941 by contractor Justus ‘Gus’ Roehling… It originally served as a restaurant, gift shop, and tourist attraction, making it the highest business structure in the United States, until it was partially destroyed in a fire in 1979. Its ruins have since been partially reconstructed.”
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4. Mesa Verde
“Created by the Ancestral Pueblo nearly 700 years ago, Mesa Verde National Park is home to 5,000 known archeological sites and 600 cliff dwellings. Mesa Verde is considered to be one of the most notable and best preserved Ancestral Puebloan archeological sites in the country.”
5. Tomboy
Tomboy is an old mining town from the 1920’s with ruins and remnants still remaining. It sits high above Telluride, CO (11, 500 ft) so the drive up is not for the faint of heart, and it’s only accessible during the Summer months.
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6. Redstone Coke Oven Historic District
Constructed in 1899 when a spike in the region’s smelting production was in demand. The ovens closed down less than 10 years later when the areas mines closed.
7. Camp Hale
Camp Hale near Vail, CO was a U.S. Army training facility constructed in 1942 that housed and trained soldiers back in the early 1940’s. Now all that remains are some concrete walls.
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8. Leadville Ghost town
One of the largest Ghost town areas in the state of Colorado. It houses nearly 20 square miles of mining history.
All images courtesy of posted website links or wikipedia.com
Travel Related Post: Colorado Museums
Enjoy going back in time by visiting these Colorado ruins!
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Top 5 Cakes for Easter

4/7/2022

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Here are five cake recipes to choose from that will be a hit on Easter Sunday! Growing up we always had cake for Easter dessert. Sometimes it was a layer cake and other times it was a bunny cake.

1)  Easter Bunny Cake

This is a favorite of mine and is easy to make. It is definitely a topic of conversation at the dinner table. It also makes a great centerpiece!

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For recipe, Click Here
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2)  Easy-to-make Bunny Cake!
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Two layer cake rounds and a little cutting and shaping will make a Bunny Cake in no time!


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For recipe, Click Here

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3)  Easter Egg Layered Cake

This is such a pretty cake and is easy to make. Kids love the various colors of the layers and Mom’s love the simple, easy recipe.

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For recipe,  Click Here


4)  Peeps® Easter Garden Cake

What a fun cake for all ages…bunnies in the garden!


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For recipe, Click Here

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5)  Tiramisu Layer Cake
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If you want a more traditional cake dessert, this easy version of the wonderful Tiramisu is a perfect choice for Easter dinner.
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For recipe,  Click Here

Enjoy Making and Eating these Cakes for Easter!

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13 Tips for Retiring Alone

4/5/2022

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Do you feel that the world is designed for couples? Let's face it - retirement and aging can feel scary when you are on your own. This also applies if you become a Solo Senior or Elder Orphan during retirement.

Whether by circumstances or choice, the U.S.Census Bureau estimates that there were 19.5 million unmarried U.S. residents age 65 and older in 2016. Experts estimate that around 23 percent of the older population nationwide will age alone and that percentage can be much higher – as high as 50% – in many cities.  These aging adults are often referred to as elder orphans or solo seniors.

'Elder Orphans' are older people who don't have a spouse or children they can depend upon. 'Solo Seniors' are older adults who are living alone and don’t have children. In either case, this is a population of older people who don’t have a safety net if they need support, whether that’s physical, emotional or practical.

While being single was once stigmatized as a lonely or unhappy state, times have changed, and more and more people are staying single and societal norms are becoming more open to all kinds of different ways of living.

About 28% (14.7 million) of all older adults living in the community in 2019 lived alone (5 million men, 9.7 million women). They represented 21% of older men and 34% of older women. The proportion living alone increases with advanced age for both men and women. Among women age 75 and older, for example, 44% lived alone. Source...

There are challenges to retiring alone.  Here are a few tips for navigating retirement on your own:

1. You need a personalized plan. A detailed retirement plan can be easy to create. The New Retirement retirement planning calculator has received a lot of praise for being a highly detailed tool.

2. Overcome your financial insecurities. According to a study from Northwestern Mutual, “overall, single men and women are generally less satisfied with their financial circumstances than married Americans.”

3. Maintain a schedule. Experts suggest that a major contributor to aging after retirement is the lack of the schedule that a job provides.  When you retire - especially if you live alone - having a place to go every day can be an important aspect of staying vital.

4. Special note for people who become single after retirement. Whether you are married now or not, it is important that you try to educate yourself about personal finance.

5. Consider adopting a pet. The research on the benefits of owning a dog is overwhelming and are particularly true if you are single.

6. Cultivate a support network. Maintaining friendships is critical to your health and well being. You need people you can rely on emotionally and science says that you are way better off when you have people who rely on you.

7. Stay social. There are benefits of being social as we age. loneliness may have twice the impact on early death as obesity and is as damaging as disadvantaged socioeconomic status.

For the remaining '13 Tips for Retiring Alone' - click here...








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Summer Camping in Colorado for the Over 50 Crowd!

4/1/2022

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Put camping in Colorado on your activity list this summer!

There are thousands of campsites in Colorado ready to help visitors experience the beauty of the state’s wilderness areas. Since there are so many campsites, it’s easy to find a tranquil spot to get back to basics and enjoy the simplicity of nature.

Reservations can be made up to 6 months in advance. That means it's time to reserve your spot for this summer!
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Basic Info to Know About Summer Camping in Colorado:

1) Colorado State Parks administers forty-two parks throughout the state. This system alone has more than 4,000 campsites.

2) In addition, the US Forest Service manages 14 million acres of land in the state’s 11 National Forests and two National Grasslands.

3) The Bureau of Land Management oversees an additional 8.4 million acres.

4) Both the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management have campsites that range from developed areas with restrooms, fire rings, water and other amenities to remote areas. They have no amenities and are reached only by horse, mountain bike or backpacking. Reservations can be made at recreation.gov.

5) There are many privately owned campsites in Colorado which have perks you may not find on public lands. These include playgrounds, hot tubs, laundry facilities and Wi-Fi.

6) One caveat for camping in Colorado is that the weather can change quickly, even in the summer months. It’s best to wear layered clothing.

7) You may be required to purchase a pass or permit depending on your location. Plan ahead by visiting the website listed below and the information posted at campground entrances.

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Packing Essentials for Summer Camping in Colorado:
(Courtesy of Camping in Colorado: The Basics)
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• Tent with a rain cover

• Down sleeping bag (even in summer, it can get below freezing in Colorado’s higher altitudes)

• Pillow and sleeping pad (keeps you warmer than just sleepin’ on the ground)

• Camp stove and/or matches to use your campsite’s fire pit

• Plenty of drinking water and food

• Can opener, aluminum foil, paper plates, cups/mugs, utensils, multipurpose knife, trash bags, paper towels

• Layers of clothing, including water-resistant coat, wool socks and long underwear

• Flashlights/headlamps/lanterns

• Sunscreen, bug spray, first-aid kit, toilet paper

(Above Photo Courtesy of: Palisade Basecamp RV Resort)



Camping in Colorado…A Camper’s Paradise!


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