Doesn't it sometimes feel like all you EVER do is work? You get up in the morning, get in a quick dose of work (responding to important emails and checking the news in your industry while you're still drinking your first cup of coffee), get the kids off to school, head in to work, work, eat lunch at your desk while you work, work some more, come home from work (maybe catching up on some work-related reading as you commute), eat dinner, put the kids to bed, then hop on your computer and work some more before finally, bleary-eyed and confused as to who you really are and what you really care about anymore, you hit the sack for a few (too few) hours of shuteye. Then your alarm goes off, letting you know it's time for you to get up and do it all over again.

Ugh. I'm getting depressed just thinking about it. And it turns out I'm not the only one.

Happy winter solstice, fellow Earthlings! Today is the shortest day of the year. The days have been getting so short lately, 5 p.m. was starting to feel like the middle of the night. But that all changes after today. The light is coming back: Starting tomorrow, the days will start growing longer.

Did you know that winter solstice can also be good for your health? For most of us, New Year's is a chance to take stock of our lives and set new goals. But for me, winter solstice seems more fitting. It's a chance to slow down in the middle of the holiday madness. And I like getting in sync with the seasons. Find out how celebrating winter solstice can help you get 2012 off to a fresh, hopeful start.

The holidays can be a ridiculously stressful time: managing family, party-going, party-hosting, shopping, gift-giving, tipping, cleaning, cooking, decorating, baking … the list of to-dos, to-deal-withs and to decide-abouts goes on and on. Plus, you've got to keep your family's regular day-to-day life on track as well. It's not like the whole world just stops to give you time to prepare!

Relax. Take a deep breath. Here are a few easy ways to de-stress your life this holiday season:

You know, I always figured the question of who has it better, working moms or stay-at-home moms, was one of those unanswerable questions like which came first, the chicken or the egg? or if a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? (I recently contributed to an eBook, Welcome to My World, in which the to-work-or-not-to-work question is debated, but not resolved.) But it turns out that, at least according to a new study, there is, in fact, an answer: Working moms have it better.

At the very least, according to this new study, published in Journal of Family Psychology, working moms are healthier and happier than stay-at-home mothers, who reported much higher rates of depression.

If anti-abortion activists are to be believed, women who get abortions are setting themselves up for a world of emotional pain and mental illness. They've argued for years that terminating a pregnancy leads to trauma and depression. Now, a large study commissioned by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and funded by the U.K. Department of Health is setting the record straight: Women who have abortions are at no greater risk for mental illness than women who give birth.

The one caveat is when women already have a history of mental health issues and when they've been pressured by their partner to terminate the pregnancy. Duh. Otherwise, the research -- which assessed 44 studies from 1990-2011, examining data on hundreds of thousands of women at least 90 days after an abortion -- concludes definitively that having an abortion isn't going to automatically make a woman lose her mind. Whodathunk?!

You know that look that people give new moms who are clearly having a hard time? That tilted head with the poor you pout. After I gave birth, I got that look -- a lot. People lowered their tone when speaking to me and asked me if I was OK -- a lot. Looking back, I was a mess. But what working-mother-of-a-newborn-colic-baby-with-reflux-who-doesn't-sleep-ever isn't, right? I was tired, I was angry, I was gaining weight, I was crying, I was forgetting everything. People started asking me do you think maybe, maybe you have postpartum depression. Even the OB was suggesting I should just talk to someone. What was actually happening to me is that my thyroid levels were dropping, causing symptoms like depression (as well as a whole host of other physical things like constipation and hair loss, fun!).

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving already. It seems as though I blinked and 2011 flashed right before my eyes. We're at the final days of November and then it's home stretch ... right into the New Year. Where has the time gone?

I turned the big 2-5 this year -- and I definitely grew up more than I ever thought I would. Hands down, I'd say this has been the most lifechanging year of my life, and it's around this time of year that it's best to reflect on how far we've come. Hopefully what I've learned will stay with me through 2012 and make me a stronger person.

I can spend hours reminiscing about old times and how I'd love to go back -- but I wouldn't be the person I am today without the life lessons I've learned along the way. So if you need a break from the turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, check out the 8 lessons I'm most thankful that I've learned.

I'm always doing this: I'm rushing around getting ready for work, making sure my son remembers to pack his library books, trying to find those shoes I like, running into the kitchen to take my vitamins, and then suddenly ... POOF! I've completely forgotten why I'm there in the kitchen! (The vitamins, you're in the kitchen to take your vitamins.) I always thought it's because I'm an airhead, but actually this is a real thing. It's not just me!

A psychologist at the University of Notre Dame has discovered that walking through doorways causes memory lapses. And it's not even about long distances, either. It's literally crossing a threshold that can give us temporary amnesia. Apparently you place tasks or decisions in a little map in your mind. When you leave a room, that decision can stay behind. You've compartmentalized it. So now that you know why you forget things, what's a multitasking mom to do? Move to a one-room loft space?