Thankfulness 2013: Day Twenty-Two

Following up on the helpers in our lives...I am thankful for inspiration in our DIYing projects!  Honestly, if we didn't have the myriad of shows on DIY Network or HGTV let alone the magazines, websites, and of course Pinterest, our ideas would be much less convenient and productive.  I'd be in the planning phase forever just trying to think of how I want something to change but I'd have no ideas how...or at least very few ideas.  The downside is that I have grand ideas now rather than average and typically easily accomplished (not to mention usually cheaper) options!

Raising a Reader

Anyone know the secret?  People keep telling me that readers make readers.  If you read to your kid x minutes a day, they will love to read later on in life still...

Well, I call BS!  I am thrilled that my daughter seemingly loves books right now.  I have no idea if it will stick though.  I am a reader, but my parents certainly are NOT.  I don't know if I saw any books in our house besides the children's book collection that was available to me while growing up.  My mom has started to enjoy reading some books now that her kids are 16-26 years old.  It pains me to see how slowly she gets through a novel.  I used to rip through novels in what would be more accurate to count by hours rather than days.  I miss that.

Right now, I am lucky to finish one of my romance novels (300-400 pages) in a week!  If you're an addicted reader, you can feel the pain that accompanies the adjustment of pre-kids 2 days tops to a WEEK OR MORE for one book.

So, as a reader, I sincerely hope the amount of children's books that I am consuming in place of my novels will benefit my kids into a long and happy relationship with books in general life.  If not....well, I guess I'll be happy enough if they just realize the importance of proper English spelling and grammar. (Yes, I am 26 and already harping on that note.  I hate the texting language that I see being used in school papers or worse--job applications!!)

And just to show you a partial reason why I'll say I am a reader...here is part of my collection of books (most of which were collected prior to having children for my own personal enjoyment of a good fairytale):

Sadly, this really isn't all my books.  My collection ranges from (tons of) children's books and collection tomes, to a lot of romance novels, to informative Religious texts and commentary on said topic.  A bunch of interesting history books and a handful of old collector (looking) books found in thrift or antique stores make their way into my collection also.  Somewhere in the pile of unsorted totes are a few full of even more books.

Alyssa has her own shelves in her room.  Wyatt's collection has just started.

What it comes down to, is that I hope my kids will love books as much as I do.  If not, I hope they find a hobby that they LOVE.

Reading and Charity

Everyone (well, that I've ever met anyways) likes to see that a purchase they would have made regardless will have some small impact towards charities.  Well, there are various chances to purchase books that will give back to different types of fundraising.

I have seen books published by Avon donating funds to ovarian cancer research.  Learn about K.I.S.S and Teal 2011/2012 here.  Feel free to keep an eye out for this to come around again--I'm sure hoping it does!

There are the books, toys, and more sold at the Kohl's checkouts that donate to Kohl's Cares (see here for details and charities).  This is something that I have a hard time walking out of that store without at least one of them.  Check out some of their Kohl's Cares Merchandise here (kids') and here (women's)!

Today I discovered another chance to satisfy my reading appetite while knowing that part of my purchase (as it was on my To Be Read list already) will be going to a worthy cause.  Author of historical romance novels, Heather Snow, has dedicated a portion of the royalties of Sweet Madness to help our U.S. soldiers and their families via Hope For the Warriors.  Read more here about Sweet Madness and why it ties into this charity.  Follow this link to learn more about the charity itself.

So if you are so inclined to buying romance novels, you may consider checking out this book and if not, maybe you'll make a trip into Kohl's.  Do you know any other titles that are currently running donations like these?  What is your favorite charity/cause?

Mayan Calendars and 2013

It's COMING!!!  The End Of The World is HERE!!!

Oh....huh....oops, false alarm folks.  Go about your business.  Nothing to see around here.

Well, of course we do have a good amount of time to still implode or have impacting meteors or whatnot...but you should probably consider how the Mayan calendar system actually worked before jumping on that bandwagon still.  The basics of it that apply to today specifically are that the calendar being referenced was the Mayan's long calendar which worked on a cycle.  A new age comes at the end of each cycle (think a new shift in mankind's perspective as one possibility) that defines the next cycle.

If you want to simplify what this means to you personally...well, compare today on their Long Calendar to December 31st on your standard 12 month wall calendar here in the U.S.  (I have no experience with other countries' calendars so I can't say for sure which follow the same pattern though I know many do because of the Catholic influences in history).  January 1st still comes along the next day even if you haven't purchased your 2013 calendar for your wall....

So...if you don't already have one...I can't think of a better day this year than the apocalypse to purchase a 2013 calendar!  Do you have a physical calendar around your house?  Wall, planner, pocket, desk?  What is your favorite style of calendar?

Prayers to CT

Prayers to all the families and children affected by today's horrific tragedy.  There aren't enough words to express the shockwave that has hit parents across the nation at this news.

Go hold your kids and tell them how precious they are in your life.  I know most of us will be doing exactly that and thanking whatever god we have that we can.

I Will Remember

Photo Credit: Pacific Historic Parks

Today I went to multiple news websites expecting to see patriotic pictures of a landmark that nearly all Americans have seen every year on this date because today's date would "live in infamy."  Sadly, I was not greeted with words of remembrance or pictures to show that those who died and the survivors are not forgotten.  There were a few articles here and there but none of them a focal point.  I am sad about this.  I am disappointed.  I know that this tragic attack was 71 years ago.  I know there are other things happening in the world today and that we should focus on many things at once...but this truly bothers me today.  In roughly 60 more years will we forget to remember September 11th victims?  Will we allow ourselves to put all tragedies in the past to the point of not even looking at a picture of a monument?  Eventually I suppose it will simply be a notation on the calendar like any other day of honor and remembrance but I hope that does not happen in my lifetime.

Today, please take at least a small moment to remember Pearl Harbor victims and survivors.  Please take a moment and think about the impact this had on our country, not to mention the course of WWII.  I will remember.  I hope you will too.

Social Media Disrespect

I really didn't want to go there...I REALLY did not think I'd feel the need to go there.  Fine, I'm going there!

I am absolutely horrified by the reactions I have seen not only directed at the winner of the presidential race but almost more so at the insults being hurled at voters from across the aisles.  I have never thought I'd be disappointed in knowing some of my friends and family in this way.  I would never have imagined that people I have known and loved and respected would use sweeping generalizations to insult my and others intelligence or morals based on a single (albeit crucial) vote.

Besides those offending social media posts (which thankfully I had no one in my sphere personally inciting violence or wishing death on voters)  I have seen mentions of moving countries.  I'd never be so disappointed in a single race result that it would make me give up on the REST OF MY VOTES.  We have the three branches of government to give us that balance to protect our interests.  BTW--moving to Canada to avoid the 'socialist USA' is probably not the most logical choice...consider a different option for your happiness.

Lastly--I am not in the military.  The President of the United States is my husband's highest boss in this country, not truly mine.  I may not have voted for Romney but I was prepared to respect him as the President and Commander in Chief.  This is what I feel the spirit of an American should do, EMBRACE the President.  You can't change the election results now.  We need to work TOGETHER to get anything done and it has been a very long time since that has been a common goal on most things in government.  I am shocked at the disrespect I saw last night and today directed at the Commander in Chief by military members specifically.  Not only is that generally frowned upon but some of the comments could easily lead to backlash as behavior unbecoming of a military member.

All of this ranting aside, I recognize the freedom of speech and I respect the obvious fact that their opinions and beliefs were on the 'losing' side last night and that would clearly be disappointing to anyone.  I would not wish for my friends and family to simply "shut up and sit down" as I've seen a few people respond with or any of the other disrespectful responses from this side of the aisle!  I would wish them to be more respectful of others though.  I would wish them to realize that their words, though able to be deleted from the Facebook walls, cannot be unread and CAN be hurtful or impact a relationship offline.

Please, I ask you on ALL SIDES to CALM DOWN and BE RESPECTFUL.  Everyone has their beliefs which led to their vote.  Everyone is entitled to this.  No one is stupid, immoral, or a moron for those reasons.  No one should be shot, deported, blown up, or even simply unfriended on Facebook based simply on how they voted  (though constant mockery and bullying remarks are grounds for social media blocking in my opinion)!

Thank you for allowing me to rant here and bearing with me.  Now let's get our Congress to work together and get some things actually accomplished this term that will be good for our nation as a whole please?  Kumbaya anyone?

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Five

Some days you just have to be thankful for something that makes commercials go away...Thankful for my Tivo at the end of this political season!  (This also applies well to the holiday commercials next month!)

Social Media: The blank face.

We all have seen it...someone posts something that is TMI.  Someone posts something that is rude.  Someone posts derogatory messages, jokes, comments, etc.  Social medias have been used and abused and made it that much easier to hurt other people.  Bullying has been taken to the extreme by leaving the school hallways or the workplace breakroom.  We now encounter it web-wide.  We probably have been guilty of some mild form at the very least ourselves at some point.

Kids have their Facebooks plastered with hateful, hurtful posts from that ex-friend or life-long enemy who is jealous or hurt or plainly likes to inflict pain.  Adults have to watch for a wrong step in political opinions or lifestyle choices.  Twitter, Facebook, Blog networks and all these other instant medias have brought the social consequences and reach much broader.

Within the last month alone I have seen personal attacks over political stances, moral stances, religious stances, military affiliations, personal opinions, etc.  People forget so quickly that when they are typing on their computer, there is a face with a heart that can bruise who reads it.

The military community rose up recently against a woman who expressed her opinion in a very public way (her personal blog with public settings).  She expressed an opinion that quite frankly pissed most of us off.  Her post was done in frustration and came off not only judgmental but condescending to a whole group of military wives.  It took less than 36hrs before her husband's Chain of Command was brought into the situation and her husband had to have meetings where he was most certainly lectured heavily over his actions and hers online.  It took even less time to have a nation's worth of military families know who she is, who her husband is, and much of her recent life and that she was now a target of disdain, bullying, and fuming balls of anger expressed in a range of insults, derogatory blogs/facebook posts/tweets/etc., and a very small handful of supportive or at least compassionately worded rebuffs.

Now, that specific instance, I was full of anger and downright ready to verbally draw and quarter her.  Thankfully I wasn't able to because she disabled her comments and so all I could do to join the fray was follow blogs across the military communities and FB updates to people.  I never resorted to hurling insults on her character but saw many and that was depressing to me.  Her opinion did not reflect that she was a cheating military spouse in any way and to have the slurs directly saying that was as out of line as her opinion was against the NG and their spouses.


The internet is dangerous.  We forget that there are people on the other side of that computer screen. We forget that we have obligations to respect people AS people.  We forget too quickly that feelings hurt and that lasts almost as long as the things put out into the world via the internet.  They say it never truly gets deleted and for her, it's true.  Her posts in both original and edited forms can be found on other blogs copied and pasted for the world to peruse even after she deleted her blog.

This is an unfortunate example of the internet's potential danger to not only others but to yourself.  There are more horrifying examples of bullying across the web that ended in suicide even.  I'd just like people to take a minute before posting and find a better outlet for frustrations, for anger, or for excited rantings.  Make sure that what you say is what you should say and not just what you want to say at that precise moment because just like saying something to someone's face, once the words are out there, you can't pull them back.