Good Morning, Happy Friday and Welcome to the Weekend! This is the 1st Friday I’ve had off since the snow storm a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been making up the snow days, which is a nice option to have. Things have gotten behind here at home, which I admit makes me feel overwhelmed and like I want to just pretend it doesn’t exist and do other things instead. As soon as I get this posted though, I have to get busy. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, visiting with my daughter’s family for a belated birthday get-together, and I have some serious Little Man R time to enjoy! At this stage of his life he is growing so quickly that I feel like I am missing out on so much!
Verse of the Day
March 8, 2019
The LORD will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
Thoughts on the Verse of the Day
One of my hardest challenges as a parent is knowing that I can’t ultimately protect my children from some hurts and heartbreaks. Some of that pain is necessary to help them mature and grow. Some of it is just the agonizing result of living in a fallen world. But, we can be fully confident that if we share the Lord with them, if they give their lives to his will, nothing can steal them from his ultimate victory, care, and reunion with us and with him. Knowing how we love them, imagine how much the Father loves us and longs to bring us to that place of safety in his house! Until we get home, isn’t it comforting to know that he is watching over us and those we love, now and forevermore?
March 09, 2019
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…
Thoughts on the Verse of the Day
Having Jesus as our Lord does not mean that we bulldoze over others with this important eternal reality. Gentleness and respect are the character traits of those who have Jesus as their Lord. After all, Jesus loved others enough to die for them. Jesus even asked for those who crucified him and those who mocked him as he died to be forgiven. Having such a Lord means we have prepared a response when we are given and opportunity to share the basis of our hope in him. Those around us may not appear interested, but many are seeking for something they have not yet identified. Let’s be ready when their time is right to meet Jesus!
March 10, 2019
God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Thoughts on the Verse of the Day
More than titles, these two names of Jesus are the pillars around which we can build our new lives in God’s Kingdom. Jesus is Lord! He is our Ruler and King. He is our Master and Teacher. Our hearts are yielded to his will and open to his leading. We hold no rival to Jesus in our hearts and lives. Jesus is the Christ! He is the Messiah, the promised Savior of the Old Testament. He is the one of whom the prophets spoke. Ruler and Savior, Master and Messiah, Jesus is God’s gift to bring us home. Jesus is the one who went to the Cross to bring us forgiveness, redemption, and salvation. The Crucified One is both Lord and Christ.
Food for Thought
It snowed again yesterday morning, so I drove to work with it falling along the way. The trees looked like they were coated with icing, and I admit, I smiled all the way to work. I don’t apologize for it – I love the snow, no matter how many days of it we already had, or how miserable it makes some people. Here we are, daylight savings starts this weekend, and we are still getting snow! I’ve never seen this before in my life. What puts a smile on your face, even though it makes other people complain?
March 8 –
Be Nasty Day – I can only imagine that the person who created this celebration was in a really bad mood when they thought it up! Or MAYBE they worked with someone who was perpetually nasty, so it put them into a nasty mood too. Sometimes we have good days, sometimes great ones . . . and others we wake up in a bad mood and the day follows along the path with us. I hope for you that you aren’t celebrating this one, just learning about it from afar. If you DID wake up on the nasty side of the bed, try not to pass it on . . . OK?
Middle Name Pride Day – How many of us know someone who never tells their middle name, and only goes by an initial? I never understood that. Of course, I like my middle name. I’m sure it would be different if my parents had come up with something ridiculously awful. Today is the day for everyone – whether you like your middle name or not – to shout it out and share it with others. Your parents took time and trouble to come up with that name – and it may have special meaning to them. My middle name is Dawn – and I was named after my father . . . Don! Simple enough. Interesting trivia – the most common first letter of middle names in the United States is “D”, which is funny, since my middle name, my husbands and my mother’s all start with D! One thing I read that I thought was interesting was that it’s all about rhythm and because of the syllabic flow, many middle names are single syllable to go with two syllable first names. That explains why so many women get the middle names Ann or Lynn. Same goes for single syllable first names usually get two syllable middle names! And it’s true – I did the same with both of my kids without even realizing it. One thing that is very true pretty much across the board – parents (mother’s especially) have a tendency to shout the first, middle AND last names of a child when they are in BIG trouble. My gosh, that is SO true!
National Proofreading Day – Oh my goodness, this is a pet peeve of mine, and definitely a day that needs to be observed! Pay attention! Today is about proofreading all of your posts, letters, documents . . . something that not nearly enough people do these days. Have you read posts lately? For crying out loud! They look like they have been written by a bunch of illiterates, if what we see on Craig’s List and Facebook are anything to go by. It’s horrifying. Proofread people! Take a moment and LOOK at what you’ve typed before you hit send. It isn’t difficult, especially with spell check! Go for it – check your work before you show it to anyone else. Your old English teachers would be proud. Sorry . . . this is really a hot button one for me.
National Retro Video Game Day – Well, this one is interesting to me in that I can find several places that reference that it is celebrated today, but not who started it, why they started it, or any details about it. So, I’ll ask you this . . . what was your very favorite retro video game; and what is the first one you ever remember playing? The first one I ever played was Pong. Does that date me or what? I also remember my brother having a little Tandy computer from Radio Shack when we were kids. There was a game on there, called Hunt the Wumpass. I never played it myself, but I can remember him playing it, and looking back I know it was very basic, but for then, it was pretty awesome. Game systems began to hit the market, and progressively got more advanced and the games became more complicated. Of those old ones I think I liked Pac Man and Frogger the best. Ahhhh the memories.
March 9 –
Barbie Day – Happy Birthday Barbie! On this day in 1959 the first Barbie Doll went on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City. She was 11 inches tall, with long, flowing blond hair. Being the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features, she created quite a sensation . . . which is obvious since she is still so popular today. The woman who was behind this ageless toy was Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, Inc. with her husband. She saw her young daughter ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women and realized that there was an important place in the market that would allow for little girls to imagine the future. Barbie’s appearance was originally modeled after a doll named Lilli, which was based on a German comic strip character. Lilli was marketed as a racy gag gift to adult men in tobacco shops in Germany, but she later became very popular with children. Mattel bought the rights to Lilli and made its own version, which Ruth named after her daughter, Barbara. Mattel began sponsoring The Mickey Mouse Club in 1955 and became the first toy company to broadcast commercials to children. (Gee, now we know who to thank for all of those long Christmas lists from the kids!) Mattel used TV to promote their new toy, and by 1961, the enormous consumer demand for the doll led Mattel to create and release a boyfriend for Barbie. She named him Ken, after her son – which if you think about it is a little creepy – but so is the Ken doll. Barbie’s best friend Midge hit the market in 1963, and her little sister Skipper debuted in 1964. Over the years Barbie has generated huge sales, and quite a bit of controversy. On the positive side, many women saw Barbie as giving an alternative to the traditional 1950s gender roles. She had different careers, from flight attendant, to doctor, to pilot and even astronaut. She was an Olympic athlete and at one point a U.S. Presidential candidate. Other people thought that her never-ending supply of designer clothes, cars and Dream Houses taught kids to be materialistic. What caused the most controversy though, was Barbie’s appearance. Her tiny waist and large breasts (it has been said that if she were real her measurements would be 36-18-38), were thought to give girls an unrealistic and harmful example, which in turn fostered negative body image. Seriously? Get real people! The negative body image more likely comes from magazines, airbrushed FAKE images, and Hollywood – with all of their stick figure actresses. I can honestly say that my friends and I played with Barbie all of our lives and not one of us wished we looked like her. Utterly ridiculous. I’m happy to say that in spite of the criticism, sales of Barbie-related merchandise continued to rise, topping 1 billion dollars annually by 1993. Since 1959 there have been more than 800 million dolls in the Barbie family sold around the world, and Barbie is now a global icon. One article I found did have me giggling a little. Apparently not ALL Barbie dolls were a raging success and had to be pulled from the market. There was a time when they decided that it was time for Barbie to grow up and start having a family, so they came out with a pregnant Midge. Midge had a magnetic belly that you could pull off and inside was the baby that the little girl could help “birth”. That one didn’t stay on the market long. Then there was the ill-planned and short termed “Oreo” Barbie. There isn’t anything wrong with Mattel going into business with Oreo, but they sadly enough chose a dark-skinned doll for the campaign . . . and apparently the outcry was deafening. I can see why! There were 12 ill-fated Barbie’s, but the last one I’ll tell you about, and the one I think was really quite funny, was Skipper growing up. They decided that Skipper needed to become a teenager, so if you twisted her arm she grew an inch taller and developed breasts! Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard when I read that! It wasn’t a popular choice with parents, as they felt it taught little girls to focus too much on growing up and not enough on just being a kid. I’m betting that anyone with any of these three dolls in their collection has quite a valuable item on their hands. I wish I still had all of mine, but unfortunately, they were lost in a fire. I had the Disco Barbie and the Disco Ken – they were hysterical. You held them by their legs and wiggled them and their upper bodies wobbled back and forth. They were funny! I LOVED Barbie growing up, my daughter loved Barbie and I hope that many generations of children will continue to love Barbie in the decades to come.
Genealogy Day – Today is a day to give recognition of family history and a great time to look back into your heritage. There are many people that use researching their genealogy as a hobby.
As described in Wikipedia: Genealogy (from Greek: γενεά, genea, “generation”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The pursuit of family history tends to be shaped by several motivations, including the desire to carve out a place for one’s family in the larger historical picture, a sense of responsibility to preserve the past for future generations, and a sense of self-satisfaction in accurate storytelling.”
I have some family members who have really gotten into digging for our roots – I’m not one of them. Oh sure, I’m interested and would love to have it in front of me with all of the background work all completed, but I just don’t have the patience or the time to devote to it. I really appreciate though, all the people who do take the time because finding out where we come from often tells us where we might be going, or at least why we are the way we are.
Get Over It Day – This is an interesting holiday and is just simply about “Getting Over It”. Getting over what you ask? Well, it was created by a man in 2005, who was having a difficult time getting over the loss of his girlfriend. Essentially this day is meant to help people get past their troubles but do it in humorous way. It can mean getting over anything that is causing you to hold a grudge, be angry unnecessarily, or make a bigger deal out of something that it is worth. It is also meant to be a day to remember that others in the world certainly have it worse than we do, so we should feel a little humbled by that, and just “Get Over It”.
International Fanny Pack Day –- Oh my, how many of us spent a portion of our teen years giggling at people who wandered around with fanny packs? They were typically older and wore white socks with black shoes. Today we celebrate International Fanny Pack Day and give a nod to the tackiness of the frightening fashion mistake that fanny packs are/were. They have been called the belt pack, hip sacks, waist bags, bum bags, or buffalo pouches, and became a sensation in the late 1980s, mostly by soccer moms and dads that didn’t care if they humiliated us in public. I know they serve a practical purpose, but so do backpacks, purses and deep pockets. Thank goodness my Dad never got a wild hair to get one!
Panic Day – AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! OK, now that I have it out of my system – it is PANIC DAY! Try to stay calm. Breathe in . . . Breathe out . . . Whew – I’m fine now. Are you? Hopefully everything is going well in your life and you don’t have any reason to panic, but if troubles are looming on your horizon, try holding off on hitting the panic button. . . if you can’t though, well, today is as good a day as any to just let loose and PANIC!
March 10 –
Check Your Batteries Day – This celebration serves a practical purpose! It is highly recommended to check the batteries on your smoke detectors on the days the clocks are changed. Testing them and making sure the batteries work could save your life and the lives of your loved ones. I don’t know that I need to go into more detail than that . . . this one speaks for itself.
Daylight Savings Time Begins (Turn clock ahead 1 hour @ 2:00 a.m.) – Everyone already knows that we changed the clocks today and jumped an hour forward. Though I admit that it’s nice having a little extra daylight at the end of the day, losing that hour of sleep hurts! These days our phones and some of our clocks adjust their time automatically, but if your house is anything like ours, there are plenty of other clocks that need to be changed manually. It gets confusing sometimes, the clocks are changed in one room, but not another, so mentally I have to figure out what time it is from room to room until I get them all changed. I wish we could be like most of Arizona and just do away with the time change. It really doesn’t serve a practical purpose anymore, so there’s no real reason to mess with our sleep!
International Bagpipe Day – In the world of celebrations this one is fairly new! The very first International Bagpipe Day was on March 10, 2012. It is celebrated in England at the Morpeth Chantry Bagpipe Museum in Morpeth, just south of the Scottish border. The first one had 20 members of the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society and Tyneside Uilleann Pipers taking part in the festivities. Visitors were treated to performances from four nations, playing small pipes and bagpipes. As soon as it was over the audience was already looking forward to the 2013 event. Attendance has been up each year since then, with the enthusiasm growing each time. I love listening to bagpipes – they always leave me feeling a bit sad though. There’s such a mournful sound to them.
International Day of Awesomeness – Today gives us the chance to celebrate everyone because though “no one is perfect, everyone can be awesome”. I don’t have any idea how true that is because I see many people every day that fall far below the awesome scale . . . except of course in their own minds. All you have to do is turn on just about any news channel to find out just how NOT awesome people are . . . but I guess that didn’t matter to a guy named Kevin Lawver, because he declared the need for an International Day of Awesomeness in 2007. Apparently, he was working with an intern who suggested that the office should celebrate Lawver’s awesomeness, to which Lawver replied that there should be an International Day of Awesomeness. Sounds sort of like an adolescent crush conversation . . . “You’re really cute.” “No, YOU’RE really cute.” “No, you are.” “No, YOU are.” Whatever floats their awesome little boat, I suppose. Lawver posted his idea to Twitter and apparently the rest is history. You know the funniest thing about this day? It was set up on Chuck Norris’ birthday. At least they had a sense of humor!
International Find a Pay Telephone Booth Day – How about a show of hands for anyone who has seen an old-fashioned telephone booth in the past year? How about the last five years? They are not easy to find any longer. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I actually saw one. When I was a child you could find one pretty much anywhere, it was how people communicated when they were not at home. They were in hospitals, malls, restaurants, stores and on nearly every street corner. It’s a bit sad that my grandchildren aren’t likely to ever have the chance to use a telephone booth, or even know what one is. If you see one, take a picture and share it with me! I won’t be leaving the house today, so there won’t be any way that I’ll see one myself.
Land Line Telephone Day – Do you still have a land line at home, or like so many people, have you ditched the land line in favor of just using your cell phone? I understand WHY people disconnect their land line, since most people either text or use the cell phone anyway, but I like having that land line connection for various reasons. In case of a power outage that is extended beyond the life of my cell phone battery – provided I had it charged in the first place – a land line will still be available in case of emergency. Honestly these days it rings rarely – if I don’t answer my cell phone the kids will call the land line. Mom and my in-laws call the land line. Everyone else who calls it seems to be a telemarketer. Since I hang up on them every single time, you’d think they’d get the hint and stop.
Salvation Army Day – The Salvation Army “officially” started their work in the United States on March 10,1880. Commissioner George Scott Railton and seven female officers landed in New York City, after they were sent here from England by Salvation Army founder William Booth, to begin their ministry in this country. Truth is, The Salvation Army’s Lieutenant Eliza Shirley had already arrived in the United States in 1878 to join her parents, who had immigrated to America earlier in search of work. She held the first meeting of the Salvation Army in America, in Philadelphia, but it wasn’t officially commissioned by William Booth. The Salvationists were received with enthusiasm, and Shirley wrote to General Booth asking for reinforcements. None were available until 1880 when an official group was sent to do their good work in America. Commissioner Railton may get the credit for pioneering the work in the U.S., but Lt. Shirley laid the groundwork.
US Paper Money Day – It was on this day, in 1862, that the United States issued its first paper money in bills worth $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1,000. I was a little surprised to find that there wasn’t any paper money before this, but after I thought about it, it really shouldn’t have. It wasn’t that simple though. There was a form of paper currency in America since at least 1690, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued some, and other colonies followed suit. Up until that point coins and bartering were common – like trading a chicken for a basket of vegetables – but there was a lot of trade between the colonies and coins weren’t all that common. In response to this the colonial governments printed notes that were supposed to be redeemable for silver and gold. When someone went to the bank and the bank was able to give the precious metals in exchange for the paper, everyone was happy. When the bankers couldn’t redeem it, people lost faith in the money. During the Revolutionary War, the need for money was great, and the Continental Congress decided to issue federal currency. These dollars were called Continentals, and they were backed with “anticipation” of future tax dollars. In the simplest terms, this money wasn’t backed up at all, and this didn’t give the people much trust in it. When there isn’t trust in the money, it loses its value, and if it loses its value, it ends up being just paper. And look at us now! Wow, maybe we should have stuck with bartering.
This Day in History –
Mar. 8, 1983 – President Ronald Reagan calls the USSR an “Evil Empire”.
Mar. 8, 1999 – Baseball great Joe DiMaggio dies.
Mar. 9, 1862 – Ironclad ships the Monitor and the Merrimack battle in the Civil war.
Mar. 10, 1862 – The U.S. government issues paper money for the first time.
Mar. 10, 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell places the world’s first telephone call, to his assistant in the next room.
Food Celebrations of the Day –
March 8 –
National Peanut Cluster Day – Old-fashioned peanut clusters were simple: some peanuts covered in chocolate. These days, the chocolaty-cluster idea works with lots of goodies. I just went to the kitchen and whipped out about 8 peanut clusters. I had a bar of the no-sugar milk chocolate (Simply Lite is the brand) from Trader Joe’s, melted it with a little butter, stirred some peanuts into it and they are now chilling in the fridge.
- Roasted Pecan Clusters
- Peanut Butter-Potato Chip Clusters
- Coconut Clusters
- Easy S’more Clusters
- Easy Peanut Clusters
- Chocolate Cherry Clusters
March 9 –
National Crab Day – Early crab recipes called for tiny amounts of the meat because crabs were so tough to harvest and shell. Nowadays, crab meat comes fresh, frozen, canned or even imitation — no cracking required! I love crab – I didn’t eat it growing up, but I definitely enjoy it now. I love it cooked and cold, dipped in butter, as a dip, crabcakes . . . yum! There are so many ways to enjoy it! Take a moment, do a quick search to find a recipe, and enjoy!
National Meatball Day – There are so many different kinds of meatballs, made of every different kind of meat, and even a huge variety of meatless versions! They are a beautiful ingredient for different sauces and flavors that are nearly endless. Some meatball recipes go back generations and others are brand new, created out of a moment of spontaneous inspiration. What are YOUR favorite ways to enjoy meatballs?
March 10 –
National Ranch Dressing Day – I really like ranch dressing, though I don’t eat it very often. I’m not even sure why I don’t. Maybe it’s because there are others I like even more however, I DO like to use ranch dressing as a dip for vegetables, deep fried mushrooms, zucchini or pickles. Yes, I said pickles, and if you haven’t tried them you are really missing out. You can make your own delicious Ranch Dressing without a mix, which will make it a healthier option over the ones you buy pre-bottled that are filled with various chemicals, additives, flavorings and dangerous GMOs.
I need to get up off my chair and get busy. I’m getting sleepy and if I stay here, I’ll just doze off and there’s too much to do for that. God bless, you have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you Monday!
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Celebration list sources:
www.verseoftheday.com www.brownielocks.com www.holidayinsights.com www.thenibble.com www.foodimentary.com