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Grandma's Ninja Training Diary: The Anniversary That Lives in Muscle Memory

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Today would have been our 56th anniversary. We never got to celebrate our 50th — COVID locked the world down, and then 2021 took Carl with it. The grand plans we had for that golden milestone evaporated into hospital protocols and masked goodbyes. Life doesn’t always give you the ceremony you earned. But ninjas adapt. Ninjas restructure, reorganize, recalibrate. Ninjas keep moving. And this anniversary belongs in the Grandma Ninja series because Carl was part of the training long before I ever called myself a ninja. He went to every single one of my sessions with trainer Brittany. Every one. He’d sit there like my personal cheering section, amused, supportive, and absolutely determined not to be recruited into anything that looked like effort. If Brittany tried to rope him in, he’d grin and say, “You must stay up late at night thinking up the next marvelous torture.” Meanwhile, I was sweating through hours of drills — because it does take hours to go from flabby government wor...

Publisher's Pride: Books on Bestseller Lists - Nothing So Broken (Richards)

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    Chris Richards' book,   Nothing So Broken , reached  #74 in Vietnam War biographies and #160 in disability biographies. Book description:  In the shadow of loss, a path to healing begins. Chris Richards grew up in a small New England mill town, where life was tough and loyalty ran deep. At just 19, his world was shaken when a close friend was left permanently disabled by a devastating accident. At the same time, Chris’s father began to show troubling symptoms linked to his service in the Vietnam War—unseen wounds that would slowly unravel the man he once knew. The weight of watching two people he loved unravel under the strain of trauma and physical decline left deep scars—ones Chris carried silently into adulthood. For years, he buried his grief and fear, never imagining that one day, facing his own crisis, he would turn to their stories for strength. This powerful and moving memoir explores the enduring impact of trauma, the quiet power of resilience,...

ADD, Hyperactivity, and ADHD

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  ADD, hyperactivity, and ADHD describe related but distinct ideas. ADD is an outdated diagnostic term, hyperactivity is a symptom , and ADHD is the current medical diagnosis that encompasses several different presentations. Food can influence behavior in a small subset of children, but the evidence is far more nuanced than early popular books suggested. A structured breakdown helps clarify the differences. 🧠 What ADD, Hyperactivity, and ADHD Each Mean ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) ADD was a diagnostic term used before 1994 to describe people—often girls and adults—who had attention‑related symptoms without hyperactivity. It is no longer an official diagnosis. People once labeled “ADD” are now diagnosed with: ADHD, Predominantly Inattentive Presentation This includes symptoms like: Distractibility Disorganization Forgetfulness Difficulty sustaining attention “Spacing out” or daydreaming There is no hyperactivity component, which is why many girls and women were ...