Baby Boomer Diva Beverly Mahone joins the Woman2Woman Lounge

Baby Boomer Diva Beverly Mahone has joined our team with a column entitled “Baby Boomer Corner”. She is a veteran journalist, author, media coach and motivational speaker who writes about issues affecting middle-aged women in her book, Whatever! A Baby Boomer’s Journey Into Middle Age. The Ohio University graduate writes candidly about issues including weight gain and menopause, dating after the age of 40 and leaving Corporate America at midlife. She is also enjoying a lucrative speaking career in which she shares her life experiences with other women baby boomer women. Mrs. Mahone joins the Woman2Woman Lounge as our second Columnist. She will be sharing with our some of the things she has written. We are honored to have her join us We had the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Mahone here at W2W back in February 2008, you will be encouraged and uplifted upon visiting and reading her inspiring story. We hope you will visit to read what Beverly will be sharing with us. Beverly also has her own fantastic website that has a wealth of information and interview of Baby Boomers she has interviewed in the past weeks. You can visit her website @ http://www.thebabyboomerdiva.com

March Book of the month at the Woman2Woman Lounge

The Woman2Woman Lounge is featuring “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” written by Gazelle Simmons for the month of March.

We rejoice with Gazelle in the recent release of her new book, 15 years in the making.

You can check it out by visiting: http://www.woman2womanlounge.com

Again, Congratulations Gazelle, you have our support on your accomplishments.

Blessings,
Sherri Walker, Editor in Chief of the Woman2Woman Lounge

March is Women’s History Month

The Beginning
As recently as the 1970’s, women’s history was virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness. To address this situation, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration for 1978. We chose the week of March 8 to make International Women’s Day the focal point of the observance. The activities that were held met with enthusiastic response, and within a few years dozens of schools planned special programs for Women’s History Week, over one-hundred community women participated in the Community Resource Women Project, an annual “Real Woman” Essay Contest drew hundreds of entries, and we were staging a marvelous annual parade and program in downtown Santa Rosa, California.

Local Celebrations
In 1979, a member of our groups was invited to participate in Women’s History Institutes at Sarah Lawrence College, attended by the national leaders of organizations for women and girls. When they learned about our county-wide Women’s History Week celebration, they decided to initiate similar celebrations within their own organizations and school districts. They also agreed to support our efforts to secure a Congressional Resolution declaring a “National Women’s History Week.” Together we succeeded! In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) co-sponsored the first Joint Congressional Resolution.

Overwhelming Response
As word spread rapidly across the nation, state departments of education encouraged celebrations of National Women’s History Week as an effective means to achieving equity goals within classrooms. Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Oregon, Alaska, and other states developed and distributed curriculum materials all of their public schools. Organizations sponsored essay contests and other special programs in their local areas. Within a few years, thousands of schools and communities were celebrating National Women’s History Week, supported and encouraged by resolutions from governors, city councils, school boards, and the U.S. Congress.

The Entire Month of March
In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress to expand the national celebration to the entire month of March. Since then, the National Women’s History Month Resolution has been approved with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. Each year, programs and activities in schools, workplaces, and communities have become more extensive as information and program ideas have been developed and shared.

To read more about it visit: http://www.nwhp.org/whm/history.php

This weeks woman in the Spotlight is Author Irma White

This weeks woman in the spotlight is a mother and grandmother from New Orleans, GA presently living in Jonesboro, GA. She has been enjoying her life since she retired from her Job in January. She is also the author of the book, Special Creation ” A Psalmody of Encouragement. Her name is Irma White.

In 1991 Irma had a life-changing experience that set her on the path she believes God ordained for her before the foundation of the earth. Although she grew up hearing about Jesus, she did not know Him nor the vital necessity of reading and meditating on the Holy Scriptures. Until that experience Irma says she lived a very mediocre life and didn’t know how to change it. But, after reading one scripture verse in a devotional, her life began to change. She grew thirsty for the things of God and began to seek out God’s truths in His Word. She discovered that there are certain rights and privileges that belong to a child of God. She embraced those biblical principles and began to trust God with her life.

To read more of Irma’s Interview visit www.woman2womanlounge.com

Beverly “BabyBomer Diva” Mahone

Our Woman in the spotlight this week is a wife, mother, and an Ohio University graduate. She is a journalist, media coach, article writer, poet, Blog radio talk show host and author of books, “Mama Said There’d be Days Like This” and “Whatever! A Baby Boomer’s Journey Into Middle Age”. She is the one and only, Beverly “Baby Boomer Diva” Mahone! 

Beverly writes about issues the affect middle-aged women. Her topics cover weight gain, menopause, dating beyond age 40, and leaving Corporate America at midlife.  Beverly had spent over 25 years in the radio and television news business and traded it all in to publish her book consequently becoming a work-at-home-mom. She is now using her media expertise as a consultant to train individuals how to market themselves to radio, television and newspapers professionals. She enjoys her lucrative speaking career in which she shares her life experiences with other women baby boomers. She has a weekly blog radio talk show that you can hear her speak for an hour each Monday called Passions.  The show’s focus is on baby boomers who are pursuing their passions at midlife.  She plans to interview boomers from all walks of life who are on the move and making a difference. visit the www.woman2womanlounge.com to read our interview with her.

Testimony of Gazelle Simmons

I was saved when I was nine years old. I went forward in church was baptized but without the guidance of spirit filled parents, I soon lost my way.

My parents drank and fought, cursed, committed adultery and were physically abusive to their children. I remember praying God would take me away from it all yet still I remained.

When I was 13, I was molested and it took me years to forgive the relative who did it. Afterwards, I went from one bad relationship to another. Had children out of wedlock with a married man, wasted so many good years chasing after no good men. I eventually went on to marry a man who turned out to be a bigamist, then years later, a sailor who spent his time lying, cheating and doing his best to destroy my self-esteem.

Looking back, I realized I made a mess of my youth. Wasted it and the only good things I can say I retained from those years were my children. Unfortunately, I’m short one child due to a decision to have an abortion. I’ve never forgotten that child and still wonder what he or she would have been like.

You see, no one told me that after all the ripping and running would come the regret for bad decisions. No one told me I’d one day find out that what I really needed in my life was Jesus. No man, no money, no good time could fill the void.

Lord knows I was stubborn in my search and it took losing a lifetime’s worth of worldly possessions as well as almost losing my life and my children’s lives, to make me realize that what I needed was there all the time. All I had to do was ask.

One day in October of 2005, I did just that. I asked Jesus to come in and be my Savior. I felt His presence and immediately knew a peace that passes all understanding. I had something I thought I had lost. I had joy. I was in my bedroom with a chair, a desk and a futon. I was starting over again at the age of 38 but I had peace, joy, happiness and the love I was searching for.

Now I start each day, thanking God for letting me continue to be here. I will never forget that even as a sinner, he brought me out and set my feet on a rock. The song in my heart is Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. I found it! I found the love I needed and I’m never going to live another day without it.

I tell my children constantly that they need Jesus as well and I do my best to let His light shine through me. Throughout my life, I’ve been through so much yet I’m still here. The Lord has kept me here and I’m so very grateful because I know He isn’t finished with me yet.

Now I’m looking to see what the future holds and I’ve got the promise of a home in heaven that I’m waiting to see. I’m waiting on the Lord, He is my portion an I know He will never leave me or forsake me.

In parting I leave you with the following:

Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with the love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:1-5.

Oh what a mighty God we serve! Hallelujah and thank you Jesus!

Gazelle Simmons @ http://www.admnsrvcs.com/

Testimony of Cynthia Boyer

Ladies,

Only God has the power to do what He does and as His children, we know that He loves us unconditionally with an everlasting love that is like no other. Being able to share our testimonies to be a blessing, encouragement and inspiration to others, while giving God the glory, is a beautiful thing. The experiences of life lessons have taught us all well; some of our experiences have led us to call on the name of Jesus and to bring us closer to God. Designed to share a closer and more personal relationship with the Lord, my trials, tribulations, hurt bestowed upon me by those I thought were friends, persecution, suffering, hardships have brought me closer to God helping me to live by His principles and isn’t this what he desires for us and I, of course, wouldn’t want it any other way.

I grew up in a very loving and nurturing environment with two of the nicest parents and people one could ever encounter. My mother and father’s love for God was apparent in our daily living. We would go to church and on some Sundays, my mother would cry; I would sit and look at her and wondered to myself why she was crying. My sister and I went to Sunday school just about every Sunday with Tina, Yvonne, Deborah and Wendy. On the way home from Sunday school, we would stop at the corner store and buy candy and other snacks or should I say junk! My parents always provided us, just as God does, with a loving home with plenty of nutritious, delicious and hot meals. We had the very best of everything it seemed, and we had an enormous amount of love in our home. Being molded and shaped by and in their love has been a tremendous and great blessing that I have passed on to my own children of which there are four.

I went to a school, Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, PA, which is located right across the street from where my mother still lives today; my father died in March 2001 and my life will never be the same, but God is good and is so very good to me. After high school I went to college for all of a second and left after one year; oh how I regret that to this day and not necessarily because I didn’t earn a degree but simply because I had left a group of wonderful young girls who were in search of pursuing their dreams through earning a college degree. The bond that I formed with them was in deed a bond I will forever cherish. After leaving college, I began experiencing real hard life lessons that would come to change my life at a very young. The storms came in the form of hurricanes and tornadoes; the hurt that I would be forced to endure, through my own fault, destroyed my self-esteem leaving me without any kind of feeling at all.

As I walked and continue to walk through my many storms, and believe me, I can’t number them, I know that God is my eyes guiding me through the torrential storms that have come to blind me from time to time. With Him guiding me through the stormy and raging seas, I praise and wait for His perfect timing and when He says the storm is over, I thank Him for the lesson that I carried out of the storm with me.

I haven’t done too much since then and at 48, soon to be 49 years old, it seems I’m just here wondering what it is I should be doing and not for me, but for God. Sometimes when I get an idea, I get so excited and then the excitement leaves me as fast as it embraced me. I’ve always loved to write and I majored in journalism in college. I still write today and believe that God is using me in this discipline as I write a little almost everyday. I have also been truly and graciously blessed by the Lord to design all kinds of things and have just started a new website entitled Creations for Christ. I am in the process of building it and hope to have it up by next week so that everyone can see my designs and writings that I do solely for His Kingdom (smile). This is one thing that I have remained excited and passionate about along with all of my short story and poetry writings.

I have been married now for almost 20 years and pray that through all that Bill and I have been through, God will continue to bless us with another 20 years and prayerfully longer. Our children are something else and they just love their mother! They love their father too, but it is something about a mother I think that makes us so special. God is special and He has truly blessed all of us with riches because we have our health and we have each other.

Be blessed in Him.

Cynthia G. Boyer @ www.momsinslippers.com

Testimony of Sherri C. Walker

I believe in God with all my heart. There isn’t a time that I can recall when I ever believed He didn’t exist once I knew of Him, I might not have understood the full picture, but I did believe in His existence. I have a whole new found feeling just knowing in detail what Jesus did on my behalf and what I have in Him. I know that I am a sinner who is unable to meet the requirements that a Holy God wants, I know there is nothing humanly possible I could ever do to pay for my sin debt other than to accept what Christ did on my behalf as God Has told me. His Holy Word says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man can come to Him other than through His Son, Jesus.

I have more than made my share of mistakes in life and chosen wrong paths to follow but thank God there is Jesus and Mercy that I could be and am forgiven for my transgressions. Although my parents didn’t attend services on a week to week basis my mother made sure that I did attended Church and hear God’s word so that when I grew the word would never depart from me and that I would always know that our God who lives loved and cared about me and that I could always rely on Him, perhaps this is why I have often said I always felt God was there and that it was as if I never not knew he existed. I accepted Jesus as my Savior and he is the Lord of my life (I don’t have an exact date but I can tell you it was in the early years of my life, I am now 45) and I know without him I am nothing, and would be a separated, unregenerate, lost soul forever.

I know that no amount of good works or good behavior would cause the gates of heaven to open up and let me in own my own merit, because my heart is futile, not acceptable unto God. It is only through the sacrificing of His Son that my debt was paid in full, and God has told me through his word, I know you can’t do it, so here is my free gift to you for the taking so you can have a relationship with me and I will carry you and when your last breath is taken here on earth and your dirt body has no more present life in it, you will come be with me forever and shall never die again.

God has blessed me with two of the most loving and sacrificing parents in the world and the even bigger blessing is that are both still in my life, thank you Jesus, Hallelujah!  He also blessed me with a wonderful husband.  We have been together a few months short of 22 years and have three children that are from day to day a blessing to us.

What good news it is to know that God loves us and made provisions for us to spend an eternity with Him, the One who is responsible for our existence, for we were not born by chance, we are His creation. He knew us before the foundation of the world. I am so happy to know who Jesus is and what he did for me and I am so grateful unto My Heavenly Father for making a way for me to be saved and to be with Him for all eternity, nothing could turn me away from God, He is my all and ALL, and all that I need! I pray HE is the same to you….

Sherri C. Walker @ www.woman2womanlounge.com

Testimony of Karla Meachem

I didn’t become a born-again Christian until I was 29 years old. I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, nor was I around a lot of Christian people. All through my life, seeds were planted; some grew, some didn’t. But, praise God He didn’t give up on me! The time that I remember being hungry for something more in my life was just before I had accepted Christ. I was living with my boyfriend (husband now), I was dealing with issues from my past; and I was very tired of living a life of pain and struggle. I knew there was “more to life” than what I was living. At the time, we were living in a community of approximately 2500 people. I was always drawn to one little gift shop on Main Street. It was the only place that seemed to offer me a sense of peace. Over time, the owner would share nuggets of truth with me through our conversations. Little by little, God watered those seeds and drew me unto Him. I remember the night very clearly that I accepted Christ as my Savior. I had wanted the world to stop because I felt so out of control. I didn’t have suicidal thoughts; I just didn’t want to feel pain anymore. It was in that type of desperation that I finally chose to let go of me being in control and asked God to take over.

It was like the world was taken off my shoulders. I felt light, even joyful. I had hope! I knew, without a doubt, that I had made the right decision. I would love to say that it’s been an easy journey, but it hasn’t. But, it has been much easier than doing things alone and in my own strength. “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ~ Matthew 11:30
And, “that is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” ~ 2 Corinthians 12:10
Karla Meachem @ www.empoweringchristianwomen.com

BOOK OF THE MONTH: FISH STICKS, BOOKS AND BLUE JEANS

BOOK OF THE MONTH: FISH STICKS, BOOKS AND BLUE JEANS
by Sami & Caryn Fitzgerald

Fish Sticks, Books and Blue Jeans! is written by 6-year old Sami Fitzgerald along with her mother Caryn Fitzgerald. The book is geared toward kids ages 5 and older. Sami designed it to help children recognize their blessings and be grateful. What a wonderful seed to plant in the hearts and minds of children at an early age.

The lessons are taught through creative exercises and is challenging enough for older kids. The book teaches children to take their focus off of the things lacking in their lives, and focus on what they already have that they may be taking for granted.

Many books have been written for adults using these same basic principles and when Sami realized that there weren’t any written for children, she decided to create her own. I encourage mothers of young children to check this book out, it can be a well needed teaching tool in the home, in schools, and at Church.  For more information about “Fish Sticks, Books and Blue Jeans!” visit Sami Fitgerald’s website @ http://www.samifitzgerald.com/