Have you made any Resolutions for the New Year? Many people look forward to the New Year by make a promise to themselves. I for one tend not to do this. Every time I made one I had a hard time achieving it. However for this New Year of 2010,I will Make one and put it in writing on this blog. Being very careful with how I word it so to be able to achieve it in the coming year. For about 5 years I have been on a yo yo pattern with my weight program. This next year I will try to be on that downward slope to a healthier weight for me. Now it is you turn. Will you put yours in writing? If you wish not to blog it, you can put it here on my blog. Using MckLinky for all to see or my comments for more privacy.
Headed back to Maryland now. We have been in the south for a few days. Visiting Family, my Grandmother is 92 years old and still going strong. I wonder what her secret is? How has she made it to this age? She loved to dance in her younger years, worked as a waitress in many places and walked a lot. One thing she told me yesterday was she did not cook, her husband does all the cooking. Her pantry is filled will beans, soups and greens. Maybe that's the key, eat more beans and greens. One thing she told me was that at the doctors office the clerks came to her and said you made a mistake on your form. When were you born? Is this right? Yes, she said, that's correct 1917. she just does not look like that age. But, then again what does 92 look like? In this photo, this is what Granny at 92 looks like! Have a nice day and live long and prosper and Spock would say.
Over the river and through the woods to grandfathers house we go.......Traffic was really bad. I guess everyone was headed south by land. At times like these I wish I had the power to Orb! Yes and be there in a blink of an eye. So we sat in the grid lock for hours. Left during the daylight got there at bed time. It is usually not that long of a trip. Thinking of taking a different way back. Last week I ask a question what to get the men in my life. Well we got my Dad a digital Picture frame. It takes the place of Scrapbooks. One can still arrange the picture in scrapbook style with words and embellishment. Also gave him a flannel jacket. Thank you for all the suggestions they really helped. How did you travel to love ones, by Air or by Land?
while Dropping on Christmas Day I found this photo. It was on Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. Oh she put it simple so I will not go there. Instead I will tell you my story. I use to smoke years ago. It was hard to stop and at the time I wish I had never started. Now smoke free for 30 years,I am healthier. For medical reason I had to quit. I tried to quit several times before then. However never did succeed at it. Then Thirty years ago I was told I would never have children if I didn't quit. Having had 3 miscarriage by then, my belief was I need to stop smoking. No it was not easy, I gained weight and was very crabby(ask my hubby,he'll tell you). Now with all the New Years resolutions starting up, many people will make a plan to stop smoking. Here's a little helper for you. click on the photo, save it to your desktop or Photo program, Print it out,several times and place it everywhere you will see it constantly. Maybe even print it small enough to put on the cigarette case. Then think about your loved ones, your life, your grandchildren, great grandchildren and your longevity. I wish for you a long Healthy life.
Thank you for dropping by. Y'all have a wonderful Christmas Day and don't stop Believing. We can make the world a better place if we just keep believing and look for ways to Live Healthier.
I keeping hearing this upcycle term. Oh yes it's making an appearance, but is it new. We have re-gifting and recyling, pack rats and just people who can't get rid of anything. You know the old saying " I might be able to use it again in some other way". Well this term Upcycle is that other way. Coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braungart. Upcycle is a process of converting an old material into something of similar or greater value, giving it a second life. By doing this we can reduce the amount of energy used. saving the environment from air and water pollution, and even green house gas emissions. Let's say instead of throwing away those gum wrappers, we create something to use. Remember how we use to fold and make a now named origami type chains. Then turning it into a necklace, bracelet or ring. Yes we never threw away any gum wrappers.(the beginning of the Pack Rat cycle).
How about this..... for only 113.00 one can buy this purse. made from over 4000 candy wrappers. Who knew the skill taught to us kids could make us Real money. This trend is getting big now. We are starting to see the Upcycle stuff in the store this season. I found this bag and many more thing on Shopzilla. So let's get started on Upcycling the items we find no longer needed. You just watch it take off. And for heaven sake don't throw out those Gum and Candy wrappers! We need to teach other children the gum wrapper art. so they can support us! Here's a short video on how to make the Gum Wrapper Chain. Grab the kids and learn the money making art. Who know maybe the TV will be off more, saving even more energy.
I want to take a break from the blog theme and take you to The National Christmas Center in Lancaster, Pa. I Love Santa and at the Village they go down Memory Lane. so, Let's look at some things Santa promoted way back when.
Remember those Green Stamps days? You would collect them from stores when You bought stuff. Then you could cash them in for Stuff.
I received some really good ideas for the men in my life gifts. I want to thank you all for your suggestions. I would tell you which ones inspired me however, the men in my life read my blogs. So they will have to guess and you will have to wait til next week to hear how they like their gift and what a choose. It is really snowing now. That means I will not be able to go shopping today. We are expecting 12-18 inches today. Tomorrow and early in the week I will be shopping. That leaves time for you to continue to make suggestions. Right now I have my Cinnamon Swirl Log cooking. Coffee is on and hot cocoa for my daughter. Our Pellet Stove is fixed and working and the snow is still coming down. Hubby is putting the recycling in the bins. We are enjoying our day at home. Our Daughter will have a lot of shoveling to do when she gets out of bed. The smell of the cinnamon will get her up for sure.
I have been having a tough time shopping for the men in my life. In the previous post I needed help with Dad. Still do, I have not done any shopping. I go but leave empty handed. Only a week to Christmas and I need to get going. Here's the Question:
Can you tell me what you've given your men in the past? To visit more bloggers with questions,An Island Life Link is in the Button and here
A question : What should I get my Dad for Christmas? He told me " unless I can eat it or use it up, don't get me anything". Now we find out he has Diabetes and so the Hershey Chocolate he so love, is out. Since the passing of my Mom almost 23 months ago, he really does not want anything. It has been very hard for me. Mom would always give me clues and he liked doing things in the yard. Me being an outdoorsy person could find some yard things. Now he Tells me the only reason he did things in the yard was to please Mom. His whole live was based on Moms likes and desires. Now we need to find something for him to enjoy. You know it is hard having the medical knowledge that most spouses only live a short time after the death of their partner. I want him to have a long life. So I will be out shopping today with my Blackberry in tow. I will be able to get all the suggestion you leave in my comment section. Please go shopping with me and get me some ideas. One comment might be the thing that lights up his face.
As I posted yesterday with the Pellet stove, Stuff happens. Yes it is still happening.....To continue my story, we are suppose to have our dishwasher swapped out. So this is Number 4 delivery set up. Each time the delivery company go to pick it up they tell them, tomorrow it will be in. Now I am really getting frustrated with this constantly marking days for set up. I have not done the Holiday shopping I need. Now this time I will not setup a delivery date until they know for sure the dishwasher is in.
This experience has not be good. You see there is a feature that the dishwasher is suppose to have, However,Ours does not have it and the company can not understand it. My take is, it is an older model on the showroom floor and the newer ones do not have the feature. so they are willing to replace it with another one. I was very upset with this process, I was cutoff the phone several times before I got someone to assist me. I can not understand what happened to good service. It seems that the customer service here in the USA stinks. But most of all the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Feeling like I have left something behind.....Now where is that hat?
When stuff happens it is usually at and most unfortunate time and it raises my Blood Pressure. Here it was the first night of Chanukah, companies coming over. I needed to start the Latkes and get the table ready. When I notice it was awfully cold in the solarium. checking it out it was the Pellet stove! For some reason the stove had decided to stop working. So I tried to fix it, good clothes on and all. No such Luck! Called the repair man from last years repair, the igniter had gone bad. This time it was acting the same way and it hadn't been a year yet! Randy the repairman said he could not come until the 18th, the last night of Chanukah. Is this and omen? Eight crazy nights and no heat in the solarium, I got out the portable electric/oil heater. Yes I said Oil. Let see... eight nights the temple stay lit with the oil.... eight night my solarium will stay heated with oil, a coincidence ?
Kailani over at An Island life likes to take it easy on this day. We ask a question for our visitor to give their two cents. For more followers click on the Aloha Friday banner. Today is a very busy day. I have to get ready for a party tonight. Oh of course we will have plenty of food. So, Here is my Question for you: Are there any parties planned in your home this Holiday Season?
Thursday, December 10, 2009
I am getting on the Wii again. Yes it is time to get back in the Wii game. Got a new trainer and now I feel it is time to start back up. Exercising has not be a steady thing for me. It seems like I have all these home helps but finding the time is so hard. Will need to set aside a time for 30 minutes of some sort of exercising. The ice and rain makes it hard to walk out doors but I guess I could use the Wii and treadmill for that. So here I go, I'm adding 30 minutes of aerobic work to my daily routine.
(Photo courtesy of Inmagine) My teen announced yesterday that she is going to be old enough to get a learners permit. Yikes, what to do? Hubby and I were just talking about teen driving. I never had a license til I was out of School. Never owned a car until I was 21. I learned from my Dad and Mom teaching me. Had some friends teach me stick driving. I had no accidents. On the other hand, Hubby drove while in school. Drove his family car and other ones he got. He was a crazy teen driver as a teen and had a lot of accidents. I do not think teens have changed that much in the driving skills. There are still distractions just some different ones. So what about others riding in the car of a teen driver? Think of it, a Group of teens together in a Moving thing controlled by a teen...Yikes it scares me!! Not even talking about our Accidents free driving history and great insurance. Add a teen to the mix and what can happen...You loose our insurance or the lower cost and it wasn't even you who had the accident. Just not sure what to do with this teen driving wish. Need to set up some rules and look for another insurance option.
We did well over the weekend. Even with the snow and rain. Today is Sunny and we are delighted, Go solar!Watched "Living With Ed" last night. They were installing a water ionizer. I didn't know the PH of the water really mattered. I will have to look into that. It should make a good post later this week. So here's a question for you. Do you think ionized water is better city or spring water? Love to hear your thoughts.
It's a sunny day today, we love these kind of days. All that solar energy being collected. It is almost High Noon and we have already harvested 10 kwh. We do have some clouds but the wind is moving them quickly through the sky. We are expecting snow this weekend. It will be interesting to see how the Panels do.
Yesterday was a busy day. Ever have one of those days when you hear all kinds of things in your head? Oh yeah..It started Sunday and has been going on since. Now I am not crazy, even though you might think so. It is just that time of the season. I think I should do one thing and then I get this thought that I shouldn't. Well that is just what happened. I was just sitting in church and a thought popped in. So I talked to Hubby about it and we decided to proceed with that thought. Then the next day we called the people and delivered the goods. I received an e-mail that very same day. I thought That's great, they will be able to do that now.....then...another thought...all night long. So in the morning I called and took all the tags that they had. We went out yesterday and shopped, not for ourselves. Now I think it is a healthy things to listen to ones thoughts. It can cause some endorphins to spread thought your body and give you that wonderful Christmas season feeling. Nowadays recycling is the In-thing, a gift of a used coat, clothing or shoes. however what a joy to give to someone in the community a New gift. Not knowing the person, just buying it, wrapping it, tagging it and dropping it off at a common site. We indeed had fun shopping for the unknown person. Get into the Season Spirit and find a gift tree in your area, pick a few tags and take your family shopping.
It the first and time for an update. We have been doing well with the Cloth/reusable bags. I think it is starting to be a habit. Still working hard on turning the house into a green home. More about that later. Our solar has been up and running for 12 days. We have saved 564.2 lbs of CO2 and Produced 331.9 kWh in that time. Now we have had some overcast days and the days are getting shorter. This all will effect the amount of kWh produced. As the day start to getting longer, after the December Solstice, we will see a high number. How are you doing?
Have you made any Resolutions for the New Year? Many people look forward to the New Year by make a promise to themselves. I for one tend not to do this. Every time I made one I had a hard time achieving it. However for this New Year of 2010,I will Make one and put it in writing on this blog. Being very careful with how I word it so to be able to achieve it in the coming year.
