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Transitioning to Motherhood, Part 2

Our interview today is a continuation of the conversation we began last week with 4word women Courtney and Meghan about making the transition to motherhood. Courtney is currently a full-time mom to her six-month-old, Ethan, and Meghan’s first baby is due in early August. We recommend that you…

Maternity Leave

How do you answer questions about returning to work after having a baby? This week a reader we’ll call Gloria, wrote in with just that question: I've just had my third baby. I guess you could say I have maternity leave down to a science.  I have family…

Transitioning to Motherhood, Part 1

This week begins a two-part interview series around the topic of working motherhood. Courtney Howard (pictured left) hails from Los Angeles. She met Diane through her board work on the Salvation Army’s National Advisory Boards. She’s pictured here with her six-month-old, Ethan. Our second interviewee (pictured right) is…

Home for Dinner

The COO of Facebook leaves work every day by 5:30 to have dinner with her kids, and she thinks you should too. How great is that? I love so many things about this clip. First, it's refreshing to hear women talk frankly about their balancing choices.  Note that…

All about self-management

This week, we interviewed Kathy Peel, an author, speaker and expert on family management, about a topic you might not think is part of managing your home: self-management. -------------------- 4word: What is self-management and why is it important? Kathy: Managing everything in your life is really about managing…

Prayer and Happiness

Would you say you’re pretty happy? Research shows that only around 50% of Americans would answer yes. This was true in 1972, and the percentage has remained roughly the same since, despite dramatic increases in our average standard of living and gross domestic product per capita.  So, we…

A Loving Conversation About “Working” Moms

Why so much anger over “working” moms? A CNNpolitical strategist named Hilary Rosen made a comment about Mitt Romney’s wife Ann that touched off a firestorm of talk about work and motherhood. In short, Rosen claimed it was inappropriate for Mitt Romney to laud his wife as a…

Staying Power

This week, we’re introducing you to Kim Butler, a friend of Diane’s who works as Director of Leasing for Hall Financial in Frisco and The Arts District in Dallas. Kim talked with us about the benefits of being a long-term employee at your company instead of changing companies…

Sponsorship; the Key to Work Success.

Is it okay to use relationships to get ahead at work? I’m not talking about anything illicit or even romantic. Just whether or not it’s ethical to trade on friendships, or even build friendships with the intention of using them to your advantage. According to the research, most…

Praying for Left to Tell

Several weeks ago, we posted about a film project called Left to Tell that our friend Mary Beth is working on. The film documents the story of Immaculee Ilibagiza, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and the amazing power of forgiveness. Mary Beth is mobilizing 1,000,000 people…

God and Finances

Are you sick of hearing about money yet? Since we spent the past two weeks looking at long-term financial planning and learning to communicate lovingly about money, I thought we’d round it out with a look at the spiritual side of money management. It’s so much more than…

The Power of a Good Female Friend

Ladies, meet Hala Saad. In addition to running her own marketing business, she is Executive Producer at Vision Communications, an Arabic television outreach. She lives in Dallas, where she met Diane at a Bible study. Hala talked with us about the impact the impact of her female friends…