I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this blog and what I want to do with it. I admit that I am finding myself mentally fatigued and bored with posting every day, so I haven’t been. My pleas for people to interact and comment have gone mostly unnoticed. There are a couple of faithful readers who do say something every so often, but for the most part I have been greeted with silence. And that’s OK. I know we are all busy and have our own lives. The fact that anyone takes the time or trouble to read, quite frankly, still makes me feel humbled and grateful so, until I come up with something concrete to do with it, I figure if there are some fun daily celebrations, I’ll share them. I’ll probably share food celebrations since we all have to eat anyway so it’s something everyone has in common. Mostly though, I think I will just blather on about what I find to be worthy on that particular day and time. It may be something we’ve done in our family, or a rant about something I’ve read in the news. I may just wax poetic about coffee or grandkids. Whatever it is though, it’s all a part of life, and that is something worth celebrating. With this in minds, let’s get this Monday off to a great start! I figured I would share a bit of my weekend with you, and I’d LOVE it if I could hear about what was great about yours! This is where I am asking for some interaction, whether here or on the Facebook page.
If you remember last week I told you that my Hubby recognized the difficulty I was having with the bed in our RV – it was in the corner and I had to crawl on my knees to get up to it and down from it. With my knee injury I just can’t easily crawl, as any pressure sends my pain levels through the roof, so getting in it to sleep, or struggling out to use the bathroom in the night, was a bit frustrating. I could do it, it just wasn’t awesome. He bought one with a bed we could get around (to say walk around is a stretch – sidle is more like it) and that has amazing potential for custom changes to make it the perfect home on wheels for us to take on vacations. This past weekend was our inaugural trip in it, and it was a HUGE success. I love this RV! This may not mean much to many of you, but I’m tall, and as such my legs are long. I can stretch my legs all the way out in front of me while we are going down the road! This is HUGE! I loved that so much!
We went to a park that is less than an hour away, figuring that if there were any difficulties it would be close enough for AAA to tow it home for us. Oddly, even though I’ve passed this park many times throughout my life, I’d never been there before. It’s a great park! There was quite a bit of road noise for the RV spots with power, but a walk down to the beach or to the lower tent sites made it far enough away to not be a problem. There were trails to walk, a beach to visit, swings for kids, a baseball field, basketball court and tennis courts. The park crew kept it impeccably clean and the other people camping were all polite and kept things pretty quiet. We were able to relax by the fire, take walks in the woods, enjoy great food and drinks, and just breathe for a couple of days. Sitting by the campfire, creating beautiful, delicious meals together, going to sleep when we want, waking up when we want and just stepping back from projects, chores and responsibilities is so refreshing.
All of this brings me to the point I wanted to make. Most of us celebrate big holidays, often we have fun with the informal ones that I have been posting about for years, and we all have to eat, so food celebrations just make things interesting. However, life isn’t a silly little celebration. It’s every breath we take, everything we do, the time we spend working, playing, with family and friends. It is finding something beautiful about every single day, even the days that feel gloomy or sad. Camping, getting away on a road trip with my Hubby, hanging out with my parents, my kids or my grandkids, baking something delicious, or sitting and listening to the rain in the quiet of the early morning – these are all parts of life worth celebrating, cherishing and repeating over and over again! Get outside and breathe in and out, take in the fresh air (if you are in the country – if you live in a pollution afflicted part of the word that might not be a great idea), even if you have mobility issues, get moving! I got myself out there and took a couple of side trails yesterday and had so much fun. My knees are not thanking me today, but the rest of me really enjoyed it! Feel the breeze on your skin, the sun on your face and rather than running from the random summer shower, embrace the feeling of the rain as it kisses your nose. I am already starting to plan our next getaway together because we all need that time away from the drudgery to keep sane in every day life.
I’ll still cover some of the fun/daily celebrations, do a post about the monthly and weekly celebrations, but I want to focus on life. Every day, or at least a few times a week, I will be hanging out, finding something to celebrate, even on the days when I feel like crap, hiding inside my head and not wanting to do anything but complain. Even on those days, or maybe especially on those days, it’s a good thing to focus on the positive and find something to celebrate.
Verse of the Day
June 10, 2019
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Thoughts on the Verse of the Day
The Bible uses the term “shepherd” for all kinds of good leaders. But only One is the quintessential Shepherd. He shows us that the heart of godly leadership is sacrifice not status, service not selfishness. We follow this Shepherd because we know he values us above his own life.
www.verseoftheday.com
Alcoholics Anonymous Founders Day – In 1935, an unplanned meeting in Akron, Ohio between two men, both of them termed “hopeless” alcoholics, began a program of recovery that has helped millions find sobriety and serenity. Bill W. was one of those men. While he was fighting his own battle against drinking, he learned that helping other alcoholics was the key to maintaining his own sobriety. This principle would later become step twelve in “The Twelve Steps” of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill W. was a stockbroker from New York, and had traveled to Akron, OH on May 12, 1935 for a shareholders meeting and proxy fight, which did not turn out his way. At the time he had been sober for about five months. After losing the proxy fight, he found himself alone in a strange town, feeling depressed, and he felt himself being drawn to the bar in the Mayflower Hotel where he was staying. While fighting desperately to maintain his sobriety his immediate thought was that he needed to find another alcoholic. There are conflicting versions of exactly what happened next, but the result was that Bill W ended up meeting with an Akron surgeon, to be remembered forever as Dr. Bob. Dr. Bob had struggled for years with his own drinking problem. The effect the meeting had on Dr. Bob was immediate, as he tells it in his own words, and soon he also put down the bottle – June 10, 1935, never to pick it up again. A bond formed between the two men that would grow into a movement that would literally affect the lives of millions of people. Starting in an upstairs room at Dr. Bob’s home, the two men began helping alcoholics, one at a time. It took four years to get the first 100 alcoholics sober in the first three groups that formed in Akron, New York and Cleveland. In 1939 they published the group’s “textbook” and the publication of a series of articles about the group. The development of A.A. from that point on was rapid. Membership in Cleveland soon grew to 500. By 1951 A.A. had helped more than 100,000 people recover from alcoholism, and by 1973 more than one million copies of The Big Book had been distributed. By 2000, the number of copies had reached 20 million, and by 2010 more than 27 million had been purchased. Since that time the fellowship has continued to grow and is now worldwide. Dr. Bob died on November 16, 1950 and Bill W. passed away on January 24, 1971. The legacy they left behind continues to touch the lives of millions.
Ball Point Pen Day – On this day in 1943, brothers Laszlo and Georg Biro filed a patent for what is now one of the world’s most common writing instruments. Other people had tried to design a self-inking mechanical pen that rolled on a ball, but without much success. The Biros perfected the design, named it the Birome and opened up a pen shop in Argentina. In 1945 the pens went on sale in the U.S. at Gimbel’s in New York, for $12.50 each (that would be $145 now, if you take inflation into consideration). The store sold $125,000 worth on day one, and Bic, which bought the patent, has sold 100 billion-plus since 1950.
Food Celebration of the Day –
Corn on the Cob Day – Etiquette experts claim the correct way to eat corn on the cob is to butter and season a row or two at a time and then eat them, typewriter style. I can’t say I agree with that method. I like to butter it all up, put a little salt on it and deal with the messy, drippy thing all at once. It’s delicious! Of course, these days you have to be careful about where you get your corn if you are trying to avoid GMO’s – genetically modified – so I only get corn from this one market where I took the time to ask where they get their corn, then I called the farm to investigate whether or not they use genetically modified seed. They do not! The corn is sweet and delicious every time. It’s amazing and awesome in salads, hot off the grill, in corn bread. Use your imagination, some salt and butter and enjoy!
National Black Cow Day – Root Beer floats are amazing, right? As a matter of fact, I’m pretty excited that this food holiday is today because it sounds delicious. I can pick up some Enlightened low carb ice cream and some Zevia Root Beer and have a guilt-free dessert tonight! Did you know that they used to be called Black Cows? No! Really! They were! A Black Cow was originally made with vanilla ice cream and root beer, though now it is sometimes made with chocolate ice cream and root beer, or sometimes cola. I’m not sure how that would taste, and I’d hate to waste expensive special soda and ice cream on something that MIGHT be good. I’ll have to give that one some thought. Anyway, in August of 1893, Frank J. Wisner of Cripple Creek, CO invented the Black Cow. He was looking out the window and thinking about the line of soda waters he was producing for the citizens of Cripple Creek when he had an idea. There was a full moon shining on Cow Mountain, which was snow-capped at the time. The sight reminded him of a scoop of vanilla ice cream. He hurried into his bar and put a spoonful of vanilla ice cream into the children’s favorite flavor of soda, Myers Avenue Red Root Beer. He tasted and it and knew it would be a hit. He called his new treat, Black Cow Mountain, but kids shortened the name to Black Cow.
National Iced Tea Day – I love iced tea. There’s something about an icy cold glass on a hot summer day. This time of year, I try to keep a pitcher on hand most of the time. Iced tea can be enjoyed plain, sweetened (or not), with lemon, with mint, any way you’d like! No matter how it’s fixed, it’s refreshing. The wonderful thing about tea is that it has many health benefits! Since ancient times, people have used tea for a wide range of medicinal uses. Tea has been known to assist with the avoidance of heart disease, to help with cancer or tumors, with stomach ailments, sore throats and colds, and to be soothing and relaxing – to name only a few. So where did tea start being iced, rather than just hot? Well, in 1904 English tea plantation owner Richard Blechynden set up a booth to sell hot tea at the St. Louis World Fair. It was a sizzling hot day, and the fair visitors didn’t want anything hot. They wanted something to quench their thirst . . . something cold. He dumped some of his hot tea into ice and served it cold. It was an immediate hit and was the first known use of iced tea. I have always enjoyed iced tea, but the tea I grew up with was slightly sweetened with a tiny bit of sugar. I was SHOCKED nearly into a choking fit the first time I tasted Southern Sweet Tea. BLECH! I realize that a lot of people enjoy it, but I’d rather eat sugar straight from the spoon than to over sugar my tea that way. To each his or her own though. Some people absolutely love it. My personal favorite is tropical green tea sweetened slightly with a teensy bit of stevia. Just a bit though, so I can completely enjoy the tropical fruit flavors in the tea.
Ready or not, it’s time to take Moose on his walk, then get myself to work. I’m sure we are all in that boat together, or most of us are anyway. If you are doing something more enjoyable, take a couple of moments to soak it in and enjoy it for the rest of us, ok? Gotta run! God bless you and I’ll see you soon!
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Celebration list sources:
www.verseoftheday.com www.brownielocks.com www.holidayinsights.com www.thenibble.com www.foodimentary.com