By Denise K. James If you keep up with home and design trends, you’ve likely seen that open-concept floorplans aren’t the final word anymore. We still love them, sure, but there’s something to be said for different rooms with different vibes. There’s the living room for snuggling with a blanket and a book. There’s the […]
Tips for adults and kids By Denise K. James Summer has always equaled down time, but these days, it’s not just long bike rides and baseball games. Social media takes up a lot of time for both kids and adults. Whether you’re reaching out to a friend for whom you have a little more time, […]
Work hard, vacation hard By Denise K. James Ready to relax this summer and catch a few rays away from the office fluorescents? Using sun protection shields the skin from harmful ultraviolet rays. But in the past decade, the number of invasive melanoma cases diagnosed annually has increased by 46.6 percent, according to the Skin […]
By Cory Sekine-Pettite This is a concept with which we’re all familiar, but perhaps some of us know it by different names. Essentially, just like Mother Nature comes to life after a long winter in its annual renewal, many therapists, wellness coaches, and other mental health experts suggest that we should take this as a […]
By Cory Sekine-Pettite On this page in the Nov/Dec 2025 issue, I wrote about burnout and the fact that I was taking a long vacation for the first time in years. Well, since returning from that trip, I spent the last two months of 2025 producing multiple publications here at New South Publishing (Yes, I […]
By Cory Sekine-Pettite In the January/February issue of Cobb In Focus from this year, I wrote on this page about the importance of a proper work/life balance. I reported that Americans not only receive the fewest vacation days each year (compared with the rest of the world), averaging just 11 days, but only half of […]
By Cory Sekine-Pettite By the time you read this, the apple orchards in North Georgia will have opened to the public. Making the short drive to Ellijay to pick apples is a family tradition for many in our state, including me. For years, my wife and I have enjoyed the annual trek and we’ve often […]
By Cory Sekine-Pettite According to a recent report, Georgia ranks as one of the worst states when it comes to mosquito populations and the health risks associated with disease transmission from mosquito bites. The study collected rainfall data, temperature, mosquito species, and West Nile virus cases in the United States from sources such as the […]
By Cory Sekine-Pettite According to the latest data from the Western Monarch Count (a service of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation), butterfly populations across the United States have declined 22 percent over the past two decades. Of particular concern is the decline of the Monarch Butterfly population, which has dropped 96 percent from just […]
By Cory Sekine-Pettite Anyone who knows me at all knows that I love to shop — a pastime that apparently is rare among men. I enjoy the process — seeing the items up close, touching them, checking the quality, trying things on, etc. I also like spending time in bookstores. Of course, I typically gravitate […]