Sis Boom Ba !!

Community...ours is pretty special.  Last night's basketball game at good ole MCS. was amazing.  The bleachers were full of boisterous fans who were there to support a really good bunch of guys...and their coaches.  There were fans who were barely months old to those who could barely climb to their seats....all with smiles and the best of intentions to cheer on their home team...and cheer they did.  I'm an old cheerleader.  I hung up my pom poms over four decades ago  but I think I could still out-do these cheerleaders...I know Title 9 did nothing for the sport of cheerleading in small rural districts....but holy cow....no smiles, little organization, and mouths that may serve some of them well should they decide to become truckers....(no offense truckers.)  I'm pretty sure that if B.J. Parker were hovering anywhere remotely close to MCS the last few games, she didn't stick around long.  There's a pretty vociferous group of guys (and gals) that picked up the slack and did a great job.  # 1 fan, Todd's Mom (Tammy Langtry), was the official WAVE runner and I even saw some burly, ref monger men mouthing the words to some cheers.  Bottom line is, the cheerleaders need to practice, find some leadership, add some testosterone to the mix and do their jobs.  I really hate to bash any group but pitiful comes to mind with this one.  There are a few gals that "get it" but the majority need to brush up on Cheerleading 101 get their act together for the Arena on Saturday.

On a kinder note:  Congrats to Dylan Powers on achieving 1010 points scored at a sport he loves.  Congrats to Coach Mulvaney on his 100th win and how much fun is a win like that on your birthday. It was also one of the refs birthday and we're sincerely hoping his cards were filled with cash to buy those new glasses he so desperately needs!

See you at the Binghamton Arena on Saturday afternoon.  Go Devils:-)

Don't worry..Be happy!

It's never too late to be happy....really....What most of us would think is success is not even remotely close to what makes most of us happy. When we're in our 30's and 40's we're just trying to raise a family and keep up with our bills....we're not always happy even though we tell ourselves we are. Life is short and nobody gets out alive... A friend always says, "do it", you're dead a long time! We can all improve our happiness:

• Where we choose to live is one of the biggest things that determines our happiness. Neighborhoods with sidewalks, meeting places, and other characteristics that nudge us to socialize tend to make us happy.
• We can be much happier if we are financially secure...Less worry may mean less stuff! Unless it's a car or a house, if you can't pay for it.....you don't need it... (Thanks Buzz for that lesson.) The "thrill" of something new is short lived.The joy of security lasts forever!
• A great morning!  A good night's sleep is a must but a great morning is mandatory.  Eating breakfast can boost your energy for the day and 30 minutes of exercise (any kind) gives you fuel for 12 hours.
• Less TV time.... ( ok, scratch this article I'm referencing!!!!)  It says "The happiest people watch less than an hour of TV a day. Wow...it says pare down to one TV in an out of the way place... I guess mine, randomly spaced every 20 feet, is not what the Dr's ordered.  He explains that advertising and programming are designed to make us want things that make us feel unsatisfied with what we don't have.  Nope!  I'd be unsatisfied if I didn't have TV...It's a weakness I can live with!
• Get a daily dose of friends...You betcha! "If you choose the right social network, bliss can be contagious."  Each happy friend that we connect with helps our happiness flourish by 9%...not 10 but 9...WTH.... but I think they're right!  Happy people make me happy and making people happy makes me happier.....That's a whole lot of self made happy!
• Finding your soul mate helps.  Long term relationships suffer less stress, live longer and have fewer diseases...(please be right)  Marriage isn't always bliss...if it makes you happy...keep working on it..believe me it's always a work in progress.  If you're not happy and you've given it the old college try, move on....Life's short!
• Meet. Pray, Love...lots of reasons why faith can make you happy. My stand is the old saying.."Being in a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than being in a garage makes you a car! I pray nightly, for me, for my family and for my friends.  I never forget to be thankful for all the good things too... I hate for him to think I was a needy, whining prayer!
• Create a sunny escape..make a nook where you can do the things you love, read a book, play music, play a game and spend time with family.. Hello Culture Cottage.
• Peace with a pet..  Owning a pet lowers your blood pressure and calms stress. Often pets relieve stress more than spouses or family. Makes perfect sense to me until they poop on the floor, pee in the car and puke in the kitchen. I have actually been contemplating a small pooch... One that can snuggle with me in my chair, ride with me in the car and travel with me in the motor home.  One that eats a little, poops outside and sheds minimally...I'm thinking maybe a teddy bear:-)
• Tap into your compassion...Giving is good....and it really makes you feel good.  It has been proven that altruism (giving) stimulates the same pleasure areas of our brain in the same way as sugar and cocaine....Now there's some food for thought!  And...it doesn't have to be money you give. .. it can be volunteering, listening, sharing special times and just giving a little bit of you...

                                 When it comes right down to it... You can make you happy!

Simply...plagerism

A few days ago I blogged about the words you choose when speaking to children.  Today I'm borrowing someone else's. I love stories that teach, those that have a lesson.  Here's a wonderful one.
Thanks, Kay, for sharing!

To A Child, Love is spelled

T-I-M-E

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

It's as simple as this: Love is one investment that will never fail you. And to a child, that investment is spelled T-I-M-E.

In the faint light of the attic, an old man, tall and stooped, bent his great frame and made
his way to a stack of boxes that sat near one of the little half-windows. Brushing aside a
wisp of cobwebs, he tilted the top box toward the light and began to carefully lift out one
old photograph album after another. Eyes once bright but now dim searched longingly
for the source that had drawn him here.

It began with the fond recollection of the love of his life, long gone, and somewhere in
these albums was a photo of her he hoped to rediscover. Silent as a mouse, he patiently
opened the long buried treasures and soon was lost in a sea of memories. Although his
world had not stopped spinning when his wife left it, the past was more alive in his heart
than his present aloneness.
Setting aside one of the dusty albums, he pulled from the box what appeared to be a
journal from his grown son's childhood. He could not recall ever having seen it before,
or that his son had ever kept a journal. Why did Elizabeth always save the children's old
junk? he wondered, shaking his white head.

Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short reading, and his lips curved in an
unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as read the words that spoke clear and
sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast in this
very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter
silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried
the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.

Entry after entry stirred a sentimental hunger in his heart like the longing a gardener
feels in the winter for the fragrance of spring flowers. But it was accompanied by the
painful memory that his son's simple recollections of those days were far different from
his own. But how different?

Reminded that he had kept a daily journal of his business activities over the years, he
closed his son's journal and turned to leave, having forgotten the cherished photo that
originally triggered his search. Hunched over to keep from bumping his head on the
rafters, the old man stepped to the wooden stairway and made his descent, then headed
down a carpeted stairway that led to the den.

Opening a glass cabinet door, he reached in and pulled out an old business journal.
Turning, he sat down at his desk and placed the two journals beside each other. His was
leather-bound and engraved nearly with his name in gold, while his son's was tattered
and the name "Jimmy" had been nearly scuffed from its surface. He ran a long skinny
finger over the letters, as though he could restore what had been worn away with time
and use.

As he opened his journal, the old man's eyes fell upon an inscription that stood out
because it was so brief in comparison to other days. In his own neat handwriting were
these words:

Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn't catch a thing.

With a deep sigh and a shaking hand, he took Jimmy's journal and found the boy's entry
for the same day, June 4. Large scrawling letters, pressed deeply into the paper, read:

Went fishing with my dad. Best day of my life.
As parents, we all have many priorities competing for our time, but there's nothing
more important to remember than ~ 'To A Child, Love is Spelled T-I-M-E.'

"A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of
house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, how I entertained myself. . .
But the world may be different because I was important in the life of my child."

Take a moment today in prayer, asking the Lord to strengthen you as a parent.
Ask Him for patience, kindness and understanding with your children and most
of all time to spend with them teaching them God's word. Make every moment count!

Humbling

Well, I am humbled beyond words (which doing anything to stifle my words is an undertaking) by a post addressed to me last week. I am not one to pat myself on the back (mostly because my arms are too large to get even remotely in that area) but I was taken back when I logged on to Face Book and saw a post that an acquaintance shared about and to me:

Sandy you are such a kind soul~I am always reading your posts of encouragement and you are always so happy for your FB friends when they share great news. I see the posts of your donations or gifts for friends~where u never really wanted acknowledgement for your kind deed. I know we don't know each other well but you really are such a special woman!

I admit I do shed tears during corny, chick flicks.  My eyes well up when my granddaughter says "I love you Grandma" for no apparent reason and I sniffle a bit at commercials with mean Joe Green and his football jersey!...............and sometimes I even choke a bit at random Face Book pictures and posts. That one turned my internal faucet on to a slow drip.  I'm a firm believer that we can never say enough kind things.  Maybe it's human nature to be able to verbalize what makes us unhappy, sad or mad but not to, as quickly, be able to say something nice.  I'd hate to think kindness was out of
date:-( One of my Grandpas always said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!"  From his lips to everybody's ears.  We're all in the same boat.  We all have things bothering us whether it be financial, health related or even a challenging personal issue...Nothing, and I repeat nothing feels as good as a kind word.  I can't tell you how many times over the week-end I thought about these kind words. Compassion is an acquired trait.  You can't teach it but you can sure give it and when it comes back, you've hit the jackpot!  This week-end, I was rich beyond words!

 

 

A Word to the Wise

Sometimes , as adults, we're able to filter our words when we are speaking to adults.  (not the easiest thing for me)  That filtering isn't always there when we are speaking to children, but it should be.  Parents Magazine explains that there are few things that really shouldn't be said to kids....

1. Leave me alone - ...........pretty self explanatory........even with the best of intentions, this just tells them that we don't want them around.....
2. Don't label - She's my shy one..He's my smart one (really)...Believe it or not this puts unnecessary and even inappropriate expectations on their very young shoulders.  (They're way more intuitive than we give them credit for.)
3. Don't cry! -  You're really telling them that their emotions are meaningless.  It's often OK to be sad or scared.  (we are!)
4. You're just like your sister - comparing siblings or even friends is just plain wrong.  Individualism is so important. Kids don't need to dress the same, color or write the same, even like the same things....A whole row of identical kids would be oh so boring!!!!
5. You know better than that - well, no. sometimes they actually don't.  A better way of teaching and making your point is "I'd like it better if you did it this way!"
6. I can't believe you did that! - or ( It's about time or can't you do anything right)......pretty self explanatory
7. Wait till your Dad gets home - Eventually they realize that Mom's not going to do anything about it and they stop listening to her!!  (I tell you, they're smart!!!!)
8. I'll give you something to cry about -
   Threats, usually the result of parental frustration, are rarely effective. We sputter warnings like "Do this or else!" or "If you do that one more time, I'll spank you!" The problem is that sooner or later you have to make good on the threat or else it loses its power. Even with older kids, no discipline strategy yields surefire results right off the bat every time. So it's more effective to develop a repertoire of constructive tactics, such as redirection, removing the child from the situation, or time-outs, than it is to rely on those with proven negative consequences, including verbal threats and spanking. I've seen such good results from the time outs followed by a short discussion of why you were put there and what you should change...it works!
9. Hurry up - kids often end up feeling guilty for making you feel frustrated and rushed...There's nothing motivating about these words.
10. Great Job... believe it or not.   It's much better to praise the behavior than to praise the child.  Be specific.  "I love the bright, happy colors you used.  I'm so happy you remembered to hang up your coat. I love that you drew a picture about the story we read this morning."

And then there's one thing you should always say... A lot!  I Love You......no matter what!  I'm sad to admit that I only remember hearing that from my parents after I had become an adult...In fact, only after I had my family. It may have been that our parents and generations before them didn't display their feelings in words. I'm sure I knew my folks loved me but it just wasn't verbalized.........at least at our house.... Today it's said so much Bailee sometimes stops me in mid sentence and says, "I know, you love me!!"  Yep, those are 3 wise words....anytime♥

The rest of the story......

I've always heralded small towns.  I love ours and feel so comfortable when I journey through them on my travels.  This morning I read another local small town story.... (Yep, I read it in the Thursday Post Standard..one of only 3 editions published weekly:-)

Fashion guru Tommy Hilfiger's roots are firmly entrenched in Elmira, New York. Who'd have thought that sharply dressed Hilfiger began his career in Small Town America.  He was always looking for an "exit strategy"...an escape from the small town where everybody knew everybody, everyone went to church on Sunday and everybody went to the local ballgames.  He changed his mind and ,with two classmates, opened a store in Elmira.  His fashions were flared jeans with accessories like candles and incense.....it was the early 70's you know and some were firmly still entrenched in their Woodstock mode.  The People's Place was a hit and he opened more in Ithaca and Cortland....college towns! Ten years later he was on his way to Manhattan to redesign his trademark "preppy with an edge" style fashions. He credits his Dad, Richard Hilfiger with his appreciation of "tweeds, tailored suits, beautiful shirts and very nice ties."  when his dad passed away 10 years later, he acquired a tie from his closet...his "lucky tie" and what still ties him to his roots and his hometown of Elmira, New York.  He shared that his lucky tie "reminds him of growing up in Elmira" and "there being something endearing about it..this feeling of being very, very safe!

                             Sound like something you might be feeling?   Me too!!

Bone Soup?

Well, if chicken soup can be good for the soul, why can't bone broth be good for the....you guessed it, bones!  One of my favorite go to periodicals is the Farmer's Almanac.  It tells me when the sun's coming up, how long the days are, when the full moon will rise and oodles of other practical, nonsensical and often hysterical information.  Today I learned that bone broth is hearty and oooooo so good for our old bones... and believe me, my bones are old...Lately I have aches and pains in my hands, my feet, my shoulders, my back and my ass.....Oh, the pain in my ass is actually better (he's in Florida!)  So Bone Broth looks like a pretty good remedy to lessen the pitfalls of old age.  We're meat eaters around here so bones are not in short supply.  We have a stove, two to be exact . We have water and vegetables are readily available.  Simple ingredients to be bone healthy and then we're actually using every single bit of our purchase or "slaughter"..whichever the case may be. Vitamins and minerals are water soluble and we lose so much when we boil vegetables and meats and just throw the water away.....but not with soup.  Those nutrients are the soup!!!These nutrients are returned to us in a simple, yummy, digestible way! These very same nutrients help build our cells and give us the ability to renew and heal all parts of us!!!

The recipe is easy:

Use a large pot or crock pot
Add bones. (chicken, turkey, beef, lamb...)
Add healthy vegetables including the greens.
Add a small piece of liver ( I know, but you won't taste it and it'll add a huge amount of vitamins and minerals)
A dash of white wine or vinegar will get the gelatin from the bones into the soup
Even add pan drippings
Fill with cold water and simmer..............................................................................
Cook on low for 48 hours   The longer it cooks, the more gelatin gets into it!
The soup will be dark and rich and full of healthy "bone fixer".

What you'd normally throw away

Just plain goodness

Yep, that's liver

Looks delish

Looks way better than medicine!!

Pour through a colander, add a dash of salt and if you wish to freeze it... pour through a strainer and keep the broth for next time.