Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Tamara Belinc

Maude Womble of Tullahoma never realized retiring at the age of 82 would lead her to another career — one as an artist.

When the day care center where she worked closed, her children talked her into retiring.  “I had to have something to do,” she said. “I’ve worked nearly all of my life.”  She didn’t want to do “public work,” she said. Instead she found something enjoyable she could do at home.  “My daughter, Tammy, brought me a paint-by-number kit,” she said. “I thought if I could do that, I could draw and paint.”

Although she has never had art lessons, she soon found she didn’t need to paint by numbers. She developed her own colorful, primitive style of painting that has attracted many admirers. Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Tamara Belinc 

Donna Hill and her brother, Randy Jenkins, have always shared a special bond, but now they share even more than that — stem cells.

Donna volunteered to be a stem cell donor after Randy was diagnosed with a type of cancer called multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma, a progressive disease of the blood, is a cancer of the plasma cells, an important part of the immune system that produces antibodies to help fight infection and disease. Cells destined to become immune cells, like all blood cells, arise in the marrow from stem cells.

Randy was diagnosed after complaining of pain in his shoulder. His only other symptom was a nosebleed, but Donna said he didn’t think much about it. “He was going in to have surgery for a torn rotator cuff,” Donna said, “but blood tests showed he had cancer. They told him there was no cure, and he had only three days to live. We were devastated.” Read More »

Article by Make The Days Count Contributor Jennifer Snelling

Have you ever had the overwhelming feeling that not only is there not enough hours of the day, but that you’ll never in your life be able to accomplish all the designs you have in mind? Sometimes it seems there are so many things to do and remember that a task or goal that seems important one day only to fall by the way for days or even years at a time.

For those of us that have many day-to-day responsibilities to fulfill – not to mention accomplishing our short- and long-term goals, it can be hard to stay on track. How can we avoid losing our concentration on our aspirations while still focusing on the matters at hand? How do we keep from feeling completely overwhelmed with it all?

There are three pieces of advice that have stuck in my mind over the years. Read More »