Mariah Dolenc

Mariah Dolenc: Woman, Thinker, Writer, Creator

4 Ingredient Savory Pumpkin Slices

I bought a little pumpkin and got all sorts of goodness out of it. It was only 1,5 kgs (3lbs), but from that I made these savory slices, pumpkin oatmeal cookies, and a frozen pumpkin protein shake. Amazing! We Americans love our pumpkin-flavored-anything as soon as the holidays hit, but I always hated the idea […]

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5 Ways To Find Inspiration

We all need a pick-me-up from time to time. Some of us are characteristically happy, some of us have to make a conscious decision to be so. Even if we’re generally happy people, life is not perfect and wonderful for everyone all of the time. When we are feeling down, it’s best to do something […]

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Family And Internationals

This weekend Lexie came to town. She arrived on Saturday in time for our Thanksgiving dinner and left today, Monday, late morning. It was short and very sweet. When I moved to Slovenia I left all my friends and family back home in California. Since then, I’ve made friends. I’ve made good friends. Even though […]

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What Kids Say

Olivia is now the age that she is saying the most hilarious things. Good and bad. Some include, “Holy cwap!” “What the devil?” “Mami! Come here NOW!” “You did a great job, Mami.” It’s hard to keep a straight face when these words come out so passionately of a 2-year-old’s mouth. Sometimes I laugh hard […]

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A Proper Thanksgiving Meal

Today we celebrated our proper Thanksgiving dinner. I have to say, of all the years we’ve done it here, this was the best. It just went so smoothly, everything turned out perfectly. Even the things that could have been a disaster went by miraculously well. The first step: The Turkey As I’ve mentioned, in Slovenia […]

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Date Night

Tonight Luka and I went out for a date. It was a last-minute opportunity that we took advantage of. We almost said, “Nah, we’ll stay home and get something done.” then it was, “Wait, are we crazy? Of course we’re going out!” When you’re parents you need to seize every opportunity to spend a little […]

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Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving… in America. Here in Slovenia it’s just Thursday. It’s just another day. I opened this writing challenge talking about Christmas, but Thanksgiving is really the holiday that comes first for us. Since Luka’s family never celebrated it, it was really up to me to make it happen or not. My first Thanksgiving away […]

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Is Beauty Only Skin Deep?

Beauty. It’s an industry, it’s a description, it’s sought after, frowned upon, criticized, glorified, it’s a lot of things. What do we teach our kids about it. It may be different for boys and girls, but they both need lessons on it. Raising a daughter, this has come to my mind a lot. I’ve put […]

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From Now ‘Til Christmas

I’ve decided to start writing a daily post from now until Christmas. Why? The short version is that I want to push my creativity. Forcing myself to write more is one way (and right now seems to be the least complicated way) to do it. Another reason is that I have so many learning moments every […]

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The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Child

As parents we think a lot about what we want our children to do or not do. We make a lot of rules, we have a lot of talks and take actions all around their behavior. Why? Hopefully it’s because we believe that how we shape them now will make them into good people later. The […]

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