THE BLOG

Giving Thanks for Alcohol-removed Wines

by MO and Heather Lowe

As we prepare for our journey's home to family and friends, launching into old cookbooks for the dressing recipe, we are inclined to savor a sip of wine. Planning for Thanksgiving can be an epic challenge of making things "just right."...

Labor Day Weekend 2024 something got me, but let’s back up and start at the beginning. I am 6 ½ years sober and a sober coach. Alcohol has nothing to do with holiday weekends anymore.

The days of last chances to soak up summer and get wasted in pools and boats are long gone. In part because I am so...

I had 6 days of company. I helped host a crowd of 15 and also hosted a crowd of 13. I had an open door and a week-long combination of family and friends passing through. Loved ones traveled to Illinois from Colorado, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. There were people aged six to 77. Three dogs. Beautif...

It is 2016. I am on a sober experiment, maybe 14 days in, and it is the 4th of July. We are out of town, spontaneously visiting friends. One of them works in hospitality and got us a beautiful hotel room in a nearly sold out city. When we check in, there’s chilled champagne for us, a sweet note, and...

The details are very foggy, but I have a drunken Easter story. 

For the life of me, I can’t think about why I would have been without plans or my family on Easter, but one year it happened. Maybe I chose it? Or maybe some Easter celebrations were held on different days? I have no idea. I really ...

I thought St. Patrick’s Day was my favorite holiday. 

I look good in green. I like corned beef. I was raised on beer.

One look at me and you would swear I was a jolly Irish soul. 

I am 5 years sober. 

After decades of drunken shenanigans involving day drinking and green beer, it turns out ...

I was talking with a client last week and she mentioned the weekend might be hard. 

Why? 

Because it’s Labor Day, a three day holiday weekend, and the end of summer.

It hit me that I hadn’t even thought about that. 

I did have a trip out of town for my Aunt’s Funeral services at the ...

There was a moment this weekend where I picked up a glass of whiskey,

so I could wash the table underneath so we could play cards after dinner. 

I put my nose in and smelled it.

It smelled so good!!! 

It gave me a warm, boozy, fuzzy feeling just to sniff it.

I knew I would love the burn going d...

My first sober Cinco de Mayo was something to anticipate and get through.

Something to white knuckle and endure or tolerate.

Cince de Mayo was another milestone drinking holiday that I was about to do sober for the first time.

Similar to St. Patrick’s Day.

I always drank on these occasions...