Thursday, November 29, 2012

Take a Whiff

Take a peek at any of the magazines on the rack right now, and they're all full of gift guides to help you out with your Christmas shopping. Chances are, one of the things they highly recommend is some kind of smelly something, like a nice new fragrance for your significant other. In fact, research shows that perfume and cologne sales enjoy a huge spike during the holiday season, when people in high buying gear. It got me thinking...smells are important.
Smells have strong emotions and memories and associations attached.
Smells are, in a way, the Rorschach test of the nose.
Think about it. 
You encounter a smell, and you're instantly transported to another time, another place, another feeling.
What comes to mind when you smell cookies baking?
What do you feel when you smell your mother's perfume?
What do you remember when you smell baby powder?
Sometimes, its just a flash of thought that we don't even register. A memory will slip in and out without us even pausing to savor it, to look at it and feel something.
And we should.
After all, who we are is shaped by our pasts, our memories.
So take a deep breath and smell something.
It doesn't necessarily have to be roses.

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Writing on the Wall

I was listening to the radio this morning, and I was amazed at what I heard. 
Well, I guess I shouldn't say I was amazed so much as dismayed.
Dismayed, disheartened, and...a little worried.
One more things seems to be under threat of distinction in the face of this thing we call technology...
Cursive.
They're actually trying to decide whether or not we should be teaching our children cursive in schools anymore, or if it's just too archaic.
Archaic––or inconvenient?
Think about it.
It takes a lot of patience to teach a child cursive. Sometimes it even takes patience to READ cursive. So if we eliminate that aspect of writing altogether, we don't have to worry about finding patience for it. 
But where does it end?
Soon, we'll no longer even be putting pen to paper. Every mode of correspondence will be relegated to an electronic device, and handwriting will become a completely lost art.
What else will we be sacrificing in the name of technology?
We'll lose handwriting, true, but what we'll lose with that is something much deeper...
We'll lose a part of ourselves, of our own individuality. 
Of a connection.
Who else but your mother has your mother's handwriting?
When you've lost your grandfather, won't you still have a little piece of him––of his history, as well as your own––if you have a note or a letter or even just a scribble written in his hand?
I think we need to be careful.
Ink isn't simply ink. 
Words aren't simply words.
And handwriting isn't simply something to be cast aside.

Friday, November 23, 2012

It's On-Board

So the Holiday season continues...and now you're having to think about Christmas vacations that stretch a couple of weeks...How will you keep your kids' brains from turning to mush during all that off-time?! Keep them busy and learning––and make it fun! Long car trips can still be entertaining without ever turning on the DVD player. Rock it old-school style with a KleenSlate paddle. KleenSlates have a double-sided dry erase board that provides hours and hours of doodling fun. It even has a dry eraser marker with an eraser tip snapped right into the handle. The markers are non-toxic, low-odor, and the points don’t push in. For shutter-bug families, KleenSlates are a great way to hold up captions in travel photos. And while you're en-route, handwriting practice is made easy with lined sheets. Use the little grey calls and come up with car games...your KleenSlate will come in very handy! For more info, visit www.kleenslate.com  

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Your Stuffing is Showing

Ahhh, Thanksgiving Day.
It's evening, and by now, most of us have consumed the Meal of the Day and cleared all evidence away. There is, of course, the occasional wander into the kitchen to pick at the leftover contents of the fridge (but only when nobody is looking)...but by and large, we're all set for the rest of the night. 
Than again, the pumpkin pie on the counter might be feeling a little bit lonely in a couple more hours...
So what, other than consuming the much-awaited-meal, did you do today?
Did you visit with family and friends?
Did you make a thousand phone calls?
Did you set up camp on the sofa and watch special "holiday programming"?
Did you boot up the computer, crack your knuckles, and prepare yourself for all the Black Friday sales starting online today?
Did you take a disco nap in prep for getting out of bed at o-dark-thirty for the impending insanity at the mall?
In all of it, did you stop and remember to say Thank you? 
Thank you to the God who gave you food, family, home, health, and money? 
Thank you to the people in your life for being there? 
Thank you to all the people who work at those crazy sales everyone waits all year for?
Thank you to the people who protect and serve so that we can breathe a little easier every day?
What are you thankful for, this year, especially––and are you showing it?
Take a lesson from the turkey––let your stuffing show.


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Watch Your Veggies!

The holiday season is getting into full swing, which means not only gift-giving, but travel time. And, for those of you out there with children, both of those provide the perfect opportunity to hit the DVDs...Here are a few view-worthy picks from the creative minds behind the Veggie Tales––

VeggieTales: The League of Incredible Vegetables

It was a bright and sunny day in Bumblyburg until Dr. Flurry came to town...This chillin' villain wants to freeze the entire city in fear! A job like this is too big for LarryBoy to handle alone, so he turns to "The League of Incredible Vegetables" for help! Thingamabob (Bob the Tomato), S-Cape (Mr. Lunt), Vogue (Petunia Rhubarb), and Ricochet (Junior Asparagus) are up for the task but find that their own fears could land them in Dr. Flurry's deep freeze! Will they remember to turn to the One who is bigger than all their fears before the whole town ends up on ice? Find out in this heroic new VeggieTales episode with a lesson in handling fear! 


CollectionVeggieTales: The Ultimate Christmas 
This awesome set contains VeggieTales’ entire Christmas collection. Now your family can enjoy classic holiday shows The Toy That Saved Christmas, which teaches your children a lesson in giving; The Star of Christmas, an illustration in how to love; Saint Nicholas, a fun story in joyful giving; It's a Meaningful Life, a wonderful lesson in being content; and The Little Drummer Boy, a story about hope, love, and forgiveness. Keep everyone singing after the stories are over with the VeggieTales: Christmas Sing-along Songs DVD and 25 Favorite Christmas Songs! CD.

For more info on both, visit http://www.veggietales.com/

Monday, November 12, 2012

A little note of thanks...

So it's Monday...Again. But it's not just another Manic Monday. At least, it shouldn't be. After all, today is the day we're supposed to stop and reflect and thank those wonderful men and women who keep us safe. Those people in uniform who protect us and have defended our way of life and the freedoms we often take for granted. Like the right to vote. The right to pray. The right to make our own decisions about what we wear, who we marry, where we live, where we work...What would we do without our military? Take a few minutes and say thank you to the men and women who serve. Post a Facebook note, pick up the phone...do something as simple as smile. Let them know that they have your respect and your gratitude. 

This may seem like just another Monday, but this is also the beginning of a brand new week. A week full of possibilities that might not have existed without the sacrifice and service of those men and women.

Thank you.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

I Voted

So were you at the polls? 
Did you dance around the living room or stew unhappily after hearing the results of the election? 
Are you celebrating the next four years or dreading them? 
I don't know what's going to happen over the course of this Presidential term, but I know that it's supposed to be a very important time in history––not only for our country, but for much of the world.
And with the global economy and international relations being what they are, with such a big world now having become so small through the mind-bogglingly unifying abilities of technology, it's no wonder these next years will so greatly shape things.
It's little scary. It's a little exciting. And it's a lot out of our control.
As much as I, Control Freak Extraordinaire, hate to admit it, it's very, very much out of our control.
But maybe that's a good thing. 
We're so flawed, and sometimes it seems we become increasingly flawed. Which means that, if any one of us were in control, we'd screw things up even more.
So remember that you don't control things and try to learn to trust.
There's someone much more important than any president watching over things, and He knows what decisions need to be made. He knows when to make them, and how to make them.
Trust and listen.
Maybe then you'll truly feel like dancing.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Soup's On!!

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly not a lover of winter. Sure some of the sweaters can be super cozy, and the whole boot thing is a fun way to mix things up, a few sartorial happy additions does not a lover of winter make. Even if your idea of winter would only rate on some people's radar as tropical (I speak of the Florida winters that make people from Minnesota smirk). Well, you try living down here for awhile and see what happens to your cold tolerance. I guarantee you, sixty degrees will become as welcome as the Abominable Snowman. 
But. I digress....
Even the bitter cold of winter can have a few silver linings, and it's definitely the prefect excuse to break out the bread maker and Dutch oven. And here, thanks to the wonderful publishers at Robert Rose, are two fantastic cookbooks that will help keep the winter blahs away...For a little while, at least...


300 Best Soup Recipes
This fabulous book delivers with hundreds of recipes that will make even Seinfeld's Soup Nazi look like an amateur. Whether you're preparing dinner for your family on a busy school night or an elegant dish for entertaining guests, you'll have the perfect solution for making use of that soup spoon. And this comprehensive book has more than the soups you grew up loving...they've even got DESSERT SOUPS! Didn't see that one coming, did ya? By Carla Snyder & Meredith Deeds (Visit http://www.robertrose.ca/)


300 Best Bread Machine Recipes
Trick out your bread machine and make it one of the most valued small appliances in your kitchen...this book features all the information you need about baking bread using older and newer bread machine models. There are a great variety of both traditional and innovative recipes––including low-fat, international, sweet, savory, and even gluten-free recipes. These are breads taken to a whole new level! They've got cake recipes, pretzels, and bagels...Heck, they've even got some pasta recipes for making the machine pull double-duty! By Donna Washburn & Heather Butt (Visit http://www.robertrose.ca/)