Thursday 13 #7 — Thankful for God’s Comforts

 

Happy Thanksgiving To All!!!

Thank you for coming back to Thursday Thirteen. On this day of giving thanks I let you know about 13 things I am thankful God gave us and which comfort my spirit and soul. You’ll notice a major theme with water.  All photos from Flickr’s public files.

1. Lakes
2. Beaches
3. The smell of a redwood forest
4. Rain taping on a window or on my face
5. Birds singing
6. Cuddling up in a comfy chair with a warm blanket and a great book next to a fire while the rain taps its music on the window pane
7. Hot tea
8. The sun creating rainbows through a church’s stained glass windows
9. Early morning fresh air
10. Being perfectly still and quiet, watching nature unnoticed
11. A brook or small cascade gurgling
12. The cool softness of moss
13. Morning dew

 

Don’t miss my posts about Black Friday and Holiday Shopping.
Thanks to the Internet we can have our cake and eat it too:
Let’s shop all the Black Friday sales WHILE we stay home in our pajamas!!
Now that’s a good reason to TGIF!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

WFMW — Household Tip for Eggs

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!

Sometimes a recipe will call for only an egg white or only an egg yolk.  Don’t throw out that good leftover!  Just freeze it and add it to your next omelet or scrambled eggs.  If you make sure they don’t get freezer burn, they will last quite a while, but I like to use them as soon as possible.

For more Works For Me Wednesday participants be sure to visit Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any of my previous household tips, just click below.

Black Friday Holiday Shopping

Bookcases at the Breaking Point?

Organizing Household Binder 

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Sales, Deals and Savings

The morning after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year here in the United States and it even has it’s own name, Black Friday. While most people go shopping at ungodly hours like 4 to 6 a.m., I usually stay snug in my bed just so I don’t have to fight the crowds. This year we can have our cake and eat it too. With our store, infinitygoods.com, being an Amazon Affiliate, I was told of a special Black Friday opportunity. If you link to my store on Friday, November 23, 2007 between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, you will be able to stay home in your PJs and take advantage of special affiliate sales. No crowds, no bumper to bumper lines in the parking lot, you won’t even have to get showered and dressed before the sun is up, yet you can still shop to your little heart’s content and enjoy all the Black Friday sales, deals and savings. At infinitygoods.com we normally carry selected items of interest to families, but on Black Friday we’re linking to the entire Amazon Web site so that you’ll be able to save on all the sales, deals and savings available to Amazon Affiliates. So be sure to go to our store on Friday. It will definitely be worth your while because there will be hourly deals from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST along with thousands of products on sale for a limited time. There will even be gift wrapping for only $.99 per item to make the busy holiday season that much easier for you.

It works for me and it will work for you too. For more Works For Me Wednesday participants visit Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any of my previous household tips, just click below.

Don’t Waste Those Eggs!

Bookcases at the Breaking Point?

Organizing Household Binder

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

In the meantime, Infinity Goods wishes you a great Thanksgiving

and a happy holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Cloning Pioneer Rejects Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep, is abandoning embryonic stem cell research, finally admitting it does NOT work.

Embryonic stem cell research, also called nuclear transfer and therapeutic cloning research, requires destroying the embryos.

According to the Associated Press, “Tens of millions of dollars have been spent worldwide on therapeutic cloning research in the past decade, but nobody has made it work.” Embryonic stem cell research has only caused cancers in humans.

Even Dolly and a few cats cloned had numerous medical problems, premature aging and premature death.

Wilmut told London’s Daily Telegraph, “I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer.” He will be researching a method inspired by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University.

Wilmut says that method does not require human eggs or the destruction of human embryos, which, he told reporters, many people are against.

According to AP that has “become a major stumbling block for funding and regulating research.”

It is “easier to accept socially,” Wilmut says.

The new method, called fibroblasts, slips four genes into mouse skin cells. According to AP, the altered cells behave similarly to embryonic stem cells.

Adult stem cell research has been far more successful but has been overshadowed by advertising and political campaigns in support of embryonic stem cell research.

Related research, which is also successful and not only used in the lab but also in human trials, is pig cell research. Scientists and medical doctors have successfully used pig cells as a solvable scaffolding for a patient’s own human cells to grow and replace organs and organ parts such as bladder, heart valves and wind pipes.

The horizon looks just a bit brighter today as Wilmut abandons embryonic stem cell research, opening the door for more scientists to admit it does not work and for the gratuitous slaying of embryonic human life to stop.

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

SSSS — Training Hearts Blog Oozes with Christian Love

Super Simple Spiritual Sunday is a carnival list of blogs, posts or websites which are spiritually encouraging. To join in or to find other participants, visit Heart of Wisdom.

I’d like to share with you a blog I just discovered yesterday, but found to be a real blessing.

Training Hearts is a blog written by a Christian homeschooling mom named Tamara. Her blog oozes with thoughtfulness, generosity and Christian love. You’ll find lots of encouragement, Bible verses, household tips, homeschooling resources and ideas, prayers, and lots more.

Her readers love her and reward her with lots of comments.

You’ll want to visit again and again because her blog will give you a nice warm and cozy feeling. You even get to pick what her blog looks like with the theme picker.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives do I give it to you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

John 14:27

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Bookcases at the Breaking Point? Join Paper Back Swap.

I meander through blogs one click at a time and I found what seems to be a great Web site for all of us bookworms. I periodically lighten the load on my bookshelves by taking lots of boxes to my local charity and start the process all over again by filling up those shelves quicker than my wallet appreciates. I know all of you fellow bookworms can identify.

Well, I’ll still give to charity of course, but I’m going to give Paper Back Swap a try and see if I can’t give my wallet something to cheer about for once.

Basically you sign up your unloved books (hardbacks too) for adoption at Paper Back Swap. When a fellow PBS member wants to adopt your book, you mail it to them and you can adopt someone’s unloved book. It’s an even trade book for book. The site is free. Even with postage, which PBS tells us is $1.59 for a paperback, that’s still cheaper than buying from a used bookstore.

They claim their members are the best part about their club.

Co-founder Robert Swarthout says, “What started as a trading system has turned into a social community of readers that share so much more than books. Our members transcend miles and become best friends through club communications, discussion forums and coffee-time chat rooms.”

There’s also a writer’s corner called The Eclectic Pen and a recipe corner, too. They claim to have a large selection of homeschooling books.

They have almost 2 million books available and have been recommended by Good Housekeeping, Wired, Real Simple, Martha Stewart.com, The Today Show, CNN, Nasdaq’s Marshall Loeb, ABC News, and numerous more media sources across the country, so they should be a reliable site.

I’m going to give it a try, and if you already have tried them, please let me and my readers know what you think.

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium Opens Today — See It!

 

We had the chance to see a screening of this magical movie a few months ago when it was still a work in progress, and were bewitched by its wholesome entertainment with super acting, an empowering message of hope and its unpretentiousness despite special effects.

It could have been easy to bury the story or the very interesting characters with all the fancy, flashy special effects a la Star Wars. They did not throw in violence or sex or bad language to earn themselves a PG or better yet a PG-13 rating.

This movie is rated G, yet adults will enjoy it just as much as children because it is multilayered. On the surface, it’s about an old man (Academy and Golden Globe Awards Winner Dustin Hoffman) who turns over his toy store to his manager (Golden Globe Winner Natalie Portman — Padmé Amidala of Star Wars). If you look a little deeper, it’s also about friendships (also with Golden Globe Winner Jason Bateman of “Arrested Development” and introducing a talented 9-year old Zach Mills), living your dreams and finding the power or magic inside each of us. And if you look deeper yet, you’ll have a hard time finding a better treatment on the topic of death.

It’s about death, but it won’t make the bereaved cry. It won’t scare young children because it’s really about LIVING! The topic is that well-handled.

I wholeheartedly recommend this movie for the entire family from oldest to youngest. You’ll walk out of the theater with a smile on your face and a skip in your step.

You can view or download paper airplane directions from the official movie website. The PDF files are in the spirit of the movie. There are also educational materials at Walden Media.

Walden Media also made the movie adaptations of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “Because of Winn-Dixie,” “Holes,” “Hoot,” and “How To Eat Fried Worms” — all winners in our family’s book. And be on the lookout for the upcoming (07/11/08) “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D” with Brendan Fraser of “George of the Jungle” and “Mummy” fame. We saw the work-in-progress screening of this one, too, and this new story using the classic as a backdrop gets our family’s three thumbs way up.

Walden Media‘s site offers downloadable Educator Guides, coloring sheets, contests and sweepstakes for all their movies and books.

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Only One Week Until Thanksgiving

 

It’s only one week until Thanksgiving, here in the United States. I found these pictures in Flickr’s public files, courtesy of Dailyville. These Pilgrims were at the living history museum in Massachusetts wearing period dress from 1627. They interact with visitors while working on their daily chores.

 

 

Here’s a photo of the Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth), Massachusetts, a recreated village where visitors can stroll along and see the Pilgrims go about their daily lives. The Pilgrims landed in 1620 and the museum depicts the year 1627.

Infinity Goods wishes you a great week while you go about your own daily chores preparing for our annual feast and day of Thanksgiving.

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

Thursday Thirteen #6 — My Interests

I am sharing with you 13 topics which interest me and are important to me. They are in no particular order, because most of these would all tie with each other. These are topics
you see and which will recur on my blog. To see more participants in this carnival or for
details on how to join, visit Thursday Thirteen.

1. Computers/Internet/Blogs/Technology/Science
These sort of overlap in many ways. I’m forward thinking and I’ve been using computers
since before my teen years, back in the days when people were saying it was a waste of
time, and it wouldn’t last. Wait, aren’t a lot of people still saying that? Well 30+
years later, I’m still interested. I remember asking for a calculator as a Christmas gift
when I was in Kindergarten. The people selling them were flabbergasted that a child would want one and thought no child would ever need one. This “pocket” calculator, the smallest on the market at the time, was about the size of a small paperback!

2. Fine Art
I was an art history minor and an art minor. I seriously considered switching it to my
major, and often wonder if I didn’t make a mistake. I draw, paint, photograph, make
ceramics and do a lot of new media paintings — that’s every stroke hand-painted by me, but instead of using paint, I use computers. Museums and galleries recognize new media, but the average person out there still claims the computer makes the paintings. Not so! This would be the equivalent of saying oil paint and brushes are the artists making the artwork. Computers do not make art. Paint and brushes do not make art. The people, the artists make art, regardless of which tools they use.

3. History/Biographies/Autobiographies
As much as I like the future, I also like the past. We can learn from our past and our
past can help us understand our present. I’m very much interested in people and their
lives which is why I like history and also what leads me to the next item.

4. Psychology/Sociology
I’m interested in people and what makes them tick. I’m also interested in science, so
psychology helps me understand the individual and sociology helps me understand the groups and societies we live in. In college my sociology professor had wanted me to switch majors to either sociology (he hoped) or psychology (which he admitted was related and thought I would like too). I ended up with an additional certificate in psychology, but I never switched majors to either psychology or sociology.

5. Cross-stitching/Crafts
My grandmother taught me how to cross-stitch and I spent numerous hours watching her even before she taught me how to do it. I find it very relaxing and as I like art and to create, cross-stitching and other crafts are just related to that.

6. Reading/Writing/Journalism/News/Books
These are all intertwined. As a professional journalist, writing and reading are just my
life. I just could not live without reading. I have to learn at all times and reading is
the best way for me to do that. I have been wanting to write since early childhood. I
have attempted not to write for a living, but life was just too miserable without a pen in
my hand or a keyboard at my fingertips. I’m a published journalist, but I would love to be a published author using either my journalistic skills to write non-fiction or even writing a
novel. I’m one of the crazy participants in National Novel Writing Month. Any publishers
out there interested in my writing voice?

7. Religion/God
I believe in God and shout it from the rooftops, but won’t attempt to convert atheists as
belief needs to come from inside your heart and soul. I worked for my parish for several
years and wanted to work there until retirement, but an evil man came into our midst,
getting rid of staff and clergy, swiftly putting a financially viable parish in the red,
and destroying the work of the last 40+ years. Some will turn away from God because of
him, but the destruction he brings is not of God. Destruction can never be of God.

8. Education
I love to learn, my husband and I have both taught, and since we have a son, education is very important to us. He went to private schools for several years and while that was fine, we found something better through an excellent public school system with an independent study program. Forget all the stereotypes of homeschooling and of public school. That’s not what it is. It’s more a combination of when people had private tutors teach their children, the one-room schools and parents nurturing their own children. The program is what it is thanks to our son’s wonderful teachers, especially the founder, Resa Steindel Brown. If you want a glimpse at what it’s all about, read her fantastic book, The Call to Brilliance: A True Story to Inspire Parents and Educators. You can also read about his science teacher in my blog posts here and here.

9. Family
Family and extended family is extremely important to me. It is where we receive and give love and support. Here on Earth, not counting God in Heaven, it is the one most important thing and it just doesn’t get more basic than that.

10. Movies/Plays
I don’t watch much TV, but I love a good movie or play. While it can’t replace a good
book, it’s still a story, whether real or fictional, and I love to be entertained. I
prefer comedies, especially for movies, because I don’t know about your life, but my life
is enough of a drama as it is. I just don’t need other people’s too, especially the made-
up ones. I really like adventures too, because this way I can escape to some fabulous
world and live vicariously. I would like science fiction, but most don’t meet my quality
standards unfortunately.

11. Hiking/Walking/Swimming
I enjoy being in nature and these are the most fun forms of exercise for me. These are not boring to me. I enjoy the scenery. Running would be too fast and strenuous to enjoy the
scenery. These are also quiet and since I despise noise, anything with bouncing balls,
whistling referees or echoing gymnasiums just would not work for me.

12. Cooking/Gourmet Food/Reading Cookbooks
Yes, I read cookbooks. I actually read cookbooks more than I eat or cook. As a teen my
mom would tell me that I read cookbooks instead of eating. I also love to cook when I
don’t have a full-time job. If I’m working, then cooking is no longer a pleasure and
something that I do for the family that I love. It becomes a chore and a race to put
anything on a plate in front of starving eyes in less than half an hour from the time I run
through the front door. But when I am not working, I will use all my knowledge from
reading all these cookbooks and all my creativity and use cooking as another art-form. I
also like real food. I am against eating engineered chemicals, dyes, artificial products.
I like wild salmon, trout and other fish, I like real butter on all my foods and especially
my popcorn. And you really don’t want me to get started on cloned meat, or cloned
anything, because I’m really against that!

13.Travel
I don’t travel enough. I would love to travel 365 days a year, but that’s simply not
possible. I put roots down with a family and a house. Once upon a time I contemplated
becoming a foreign correspondent, a travel writer and even a pilot or a stewardess, just so
that I could travel, but I will just have to be satisfied with having been to Germany,
France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Arizona,
Nevada, Georgia, … Oops, that sounds like another Thursday Thirteen! 😉

Just click on Mister Linky to add your Thursday 13 link and see the other participants who linked here. And please don’t forget to post a comment. Thanks!

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.

WFMW — Organizing Household Binder

I love to organize with binders. One of my favorite binder is my household binder.

In a regular school binder I put in sheet protectors and add all my household warranties, receipts, and manuals like the ones for my washer/dryer, my dishwasher, my air conditioning, my roof, my blender, etc., etc., etc.

In that binder I also keep information about who installed them or who repaired them, such as business cards of my plumber, bug exterminator, roofer, electrician, etc.

If a friend recommends a service provider, I add it in too, along with the name of the friend’s name, the date and any comments.

It’s not information we need often, but when we need it, we need it fast and we need to know exactly where to find it.

When I add something to it, I take a minute to look through for any obsolete papers which can be thrown out.

When it comes time to move, I can give all the appropriate paperwork to the new owners and I add my latest coupons for the local pizza and Chinese takeout for an easy moving day dinner.

I first saw this system used when I was a teen and my parents purchased a new home. The housing developer gave them just such a binder with all the appliance manuals, recommended service providers, local schools, phone numbers for cable, utilities, newspaper, etc. and my mom and I liked the idea so much that all these years later, we still use it.

I think Realtors could use this idea too.

It really works for us! It keeps our homes organized.

For a list of this week’s other participants, stop by Rocks in My Dryer.

If you missed any on my previous Works For Me Wednesdays and household tips, just click below.

Holiday Shopping List

Holiday Decorating Tips and Ideas

Trading Card Storage

Freezer Solution

Large desk calendar inside guest closet

Child’s haircut without tears

Homemade bread stuffing

Plastic colander bath toy drainer/holder

Reuse plastic grocery bags in the car

How to increase Web site traffic?

16 Blog/Web site tips

Toy storage

• Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.

• Want to know why I’m participating in both? Click here.