Christmas Magic Extended

That Elf on a Shelf,

That Elf on a Shelf,

I really like that Elf on a Shelf!

While visiting my mom and dad last evening, the subject of The Elf on A Shelf came up.  My daughter in law, Kadee, is using this method to keep little Madi (4) in check.  Apparently, this elf reports to Santa every night on your childs behavior and comes back in the morning to a different place in your house.  Part of the fun is that, you can have a girl elf or a boy elf.  If you want a girl elf, you have to buy a skirt separately.  So, a skirt was bought and the elf is a female. 

Madi has named this elf 'Lucy' and Lucy is my mother's name.  Kinda makes it special, huh?  When Lucy decided to sit in the Christmas tree, Madi said, 'Silly Lucy'.  Cute huh?  If you know four year olds, they can be very cute when they come up with their own observations of life.

When in another room than where the elf was at, Madi told her Papaw Dave, "Lucy can't see me but she can hear me!".

Kadee reports on facebook the whereabouts of Lucy and takes pictures.  Now she has a following and everyone is tuned into this little magic.

Many, many years ago (I can't believe I said that!) when we lived on Haines Road in Xenia, my mother had two elves in a table centerpiece.  She received this table centerpiece from someone and if I remember correctly (I can't believe I said that too!), this centerpiece was of black metal, greenery, and maybe a candle in the middle.  The elves were attached to the centerpiece and were in a sitting position, facing out.  I remember the elves becoming detached from the centerpiece and would become part of Christmas decorations in later years.  Being the thrifty person that I am, they were handed down to me and I used them to decorate for Christmas for several years. 

At that time, I didn't use them as a 'elf on a shelf'.  But it would have been a good idea!  My memory fails me again as I can't tell you what happened to them.  I think I threw them out.  

Now I wish I had them back! 

I don't know about anyone else but this is my first Christmas with the Elf on a Shelf being a part of the magic of Christmas...and Kadee is not the only one. 

My friend Keri is having a whole lot of fun with the Elf on a Shelf on facebook.  Keri's grandson has one named Buddy and I think Buddy lives at her house.  I'm not sure if Keri is using Buddy to keep her grandson in check. 

But I do know one thing, her Elf on a Shelf texts Santa, he does not go to the North Pole to report on behavior.  Of course his phone must be attached on his belt in the back because I don't see it in the pictures.

And she is having a lot of fun with Buddy.  You see, her Buddy does naughty things...the flip side to this magic.  Apparently, there's a another set of people who report on the naughty things that their elves do.    

Keri also has a set of vintage elves that she named 'Snap, Crackle & Pop!'  And they have parties while she sleeps.  She says the laughter keeps her awake at night!

No matter what you do with your elves, they are adding a whole new dimension to decorating for Christmas, keeping the magic of Christmas alive and allowing us a reprieve from the same old, same old holiday routines.

I'm going to go shopping for my Elf on a Shelf this weekend.  I'll keep you posted! 

28 Days to December 21, 2012!

Having insomnia and watching 'Countdown to Apocalypse' on the History Channel was not the right thing to do. 

Yesterday, I was given a $25 off coupon if I spend $50 and it expires today.  Yesterday, I was hell bent on spending it to get a new sweater to wear to my new job. I made arrangements with my mother to pick her up and go shopping.

After watching this show, I'm not so sure that's what I should do. I'm crazy to think of going shopping when all I should be thinking of is survival.

I was thinking of all the ways I was not prepared to go 'off the grid' if our electricity should be blown by the solar flares. 

My husband thinks about this stuff constantly.  Just today, he bought ammo for his guns and was looking for a replacement ax handle for his ax.  I said, "you just bought a log splitter".  He said, "it's only good as long as we can get gas to run the engine.  This would take me back to the primitive days.  I'd be able to cut wood myself instead of relying on a machine."  Ok, I get it and I appreciate his way of thinking...but I until now, I didn't obsess over it. 

This show changed me.  In the middle of the night, I am a changed person.

I need matches, candles and dried food.  I have a manual can opener to open those cans of food that are in my lazy susan. 

But what will I do with all the food that is in my freezer?  My guess is that I'd have to cook everything at once and make it like jerky and munch on it later?  A whole side of beef?  

My husband has been after me to let him get a wood stove.  We used to have a wood stove in previous houses and I remember us getting sick when we started burning wood (from allergies) and the dust from the wood and the fan would be a bear to keep up with. 

I have now decided that he needs to put one in and do it very soon.  We have 10 acres of woods...there's no reason not to burn wood.  

What else do I need to be concern with?  Oh yeah, water.  We have a cistern that we keep full with water for when we have the cattle.  We can fill it up and use that.  But that's only good for 2500 gallons.  Hey, it's a start.  

What else will I need?  Clothing.  I have dress clothes and a few utilitarian clothes but not much.  Long underwear?  I have none!  I need long underwear and sweaters and new Rocky boots! 

I guess I'll have to go shopping with mom this morning and go get the sweater I was thinking about.  I'm going to need it this winter...and I'll be one step closer to 'going off grid'. 

 




 

I'm Busy, But I Am Feeling Very Grateful...

To those of you who have noticed that I haven't written in a while...yes, my life has been extremely busy. 

To make a long story short...in 2009, I was part of a massive layoff of 8000 people at ABX Air in 2009.  I collected unemployment for 8 months and then found a part-time job with the Yellow Rose Bed and Breakfast in Greenfield, Ohio.  This job allowed me to start-up a business using the owner's money.  Who would not want to do this?  This job was supposed to be a temporary job until the owners could move to Ohio from Texas.  In early 2012 it became apparent that they were making the move and it would probably been complete sometime this year. 

Keep in mind that since the layoff I had also been applying for full-time jobs in my area that anything remotely to do with any three of my careers which were office administration, or software development/analysis, or now my newly acquired skills of  property management and business management.  I was not getting any calls locally, but lots of calls that required me to move.  Moving is not an option.  
 
So I got ready and prepared myself to do something else.  I decided I would try my hand at making bath soaps.  I had always wanted to do this because for several years I have been buying and using all natural, hand crafted bath soaps and always wondered if I could make them.  I started in June and it was so much fun that after making several batches, I had to start selling the stock so I could keep trying new ideas. 

It was also during this time that I started this blog.  I was active in this blog during the month of August and then the busy-ness set in!

Enter the Farmer's Markets. 

I signed up for Greenfield Farmer's Market and really liked talking with people and explaining the process of making soaps with all natural ingredients.  I didn't sell many, but I was slowly getting a following and best of all, I was meeting and making new friends.  A few weeks into the Greenfield Farmer's Market, I was asked if I wanted to try the Fayette County Farmer's Market.  I did just that and had even bigger sales which just fueled my fire even more.  Phenomenal!  

I figured I'd eventually do a Facebook page and design my own website...maybe even sell online or through Etsy.com.  These were 'winter' projects that I had in mind as the weather was too beautiful to be spent at the computer. 

At the end of the Farmer's Market, I was asked if I'd sell my wares at the local Greenfield History Day event, and the Greenfield CraftaRama show.  I had already signed up with the Jingle Bell Bazaar in Hillsboro and shared a booth with three other friends, who were also crafters, and was looking forward to that.  Then I got the big idea and signed up for a two day event in Sabina called 'Christmas Around Sabina Town' with local friends who recycled silverware into jewelry (B4 Creations of Greenfield Ohio.  They have amazing creations!)  At this time, I was making nine kinds of soaps and several lotions and lotion bars.  I had even talked with three local stores about selling my soaps.     

Enter the job interviews. 

After three years of applying for full-time jobs and not getting a bite...I finally got, not ONE, but TWO job interviews within one week!  One of them actually hired me and I'm now an account executive with the Wilmington News Journal selling retail advertising for the newspaper and for the online website.

So, if that didn't throw a monkey wrench into my plans!  

Thankfully, I limited myself in the craft shows and did not sign up for anymore.  The main reasons were that  I wasn't sure that I'd have enough stock to sell, it was all happening really fast and I wanted to pull in the reins and start focusing on where I could sell my soaps during the winter months.  If making and selling soaps was going to be a long term thing, I wanted to do it right and I wanted it to last for several years.

I've been at my new job for four weeks and am really thankful that I have it.  I enjoy going out and meeting all the advertisers and helping them with their advertising needs.  It's a whole new career for me and a lot of fun!   

Today, is the most perfect day to give thanks!  I will be making Thanksgiving dinner for my family.  I'm so grateful that I will have my parents, children and grandchildren with me today.  I'm thankful that I have a full-time job after many years of searching.  I'm thankful that I have learned to make soaps and that I have found ways that I can sell them to keep up with this new hobby.  I am extremely thankful for my husband, who supported me during this trying time and allowed me to do what I needed to do. 

So needless to say, I'm feeling very blessed!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I've been taking a tax refresher course twice a week since September...to prepare myself for the upcoming tax season with H&R Block in Greenfield.  Sheesh!     

      

Goodbye September!

Rising early and reflecting on this last day of September, I am reminded of the many things that I love about this month.  It’s the month of the Labor Day holiday, the Highland County Fair, the month that many families seem to have settled into their school schedules and Friday night lights, the fall solstice, the harvest, Greenfield’s 2^nd Oktoberfest and the month that we begin to see many trees turning colors in their annual descent into dormancy. 

I spent many days of September organizing my home for the winter, making soaps and lotions in preparation of the upcoming Christmas season, cleaning the garden, selling my soap products at farmers markets, and taking walks with my husband.

This month I celebrated Loreli’s, my first grandchild, 8^th birthday, attended Grandparent’s day lunch with her at her school, celebrated my own birthday making banana blueberry muffins with my second grandchild, Madi, who is four, and I will learn the sex of my third grandchild later today in a “reveal party”.

I spent a few minutes at the Trading Post in Bainbridge, browsing through some antiques (which is a rare event for me) and came upon a vintage wooden Colgate shipping soap box (sans lid) which I knew I had to have and promptly bought for myself as a birthday present.  (To view an image of this box, see http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/11104018_colgate-barber-shaving-soap-shipping-box.)

I spent many mornings in September drinking a new green tea flavor combination which is inspiring me to create a new scent fragrance in my line of soap and lotions to be formulated soon.

I spent a few hours with my father, designing a wooden display rack for the shops which will sell my soaps this winter.  The prototype that he built is almost perfect!  I’m so grateful for his talent and his willingness to build things for me.       

I spent many days of September training Brenda, who is taking over the position of innkeeper of the Yellow Rose Bed and Breakfast and is the perfect for the job.  I also had a job interview, which seem to occur once in a blue moon, and put in many applications for employment.  I designed and successfully launched another website for a restaurant in Washington Court House.  I even started refresher classes for the upcoming tax season.   

I spent a few hours in September reconnecting with old friends, forming new relationships with people that I hope will continue. 

I learned in September that my health problems that surfaced in July, are related to my thyroid and totally fixable with an adjustment in medication.  Contrary to that good news, it was also a month where I spent many days of September praying for a family that is dealing with cancer in a person who is much too young and praying for her strength.  I am feeling very blessed with healthy parents, children, and their families. 

With the end of September, comes the anticipation of a new month and hopeful new beginnings in October.  I am looking forward to wearing jeans and sweaters, apples and apple cider, at least five more family birthday events (goodness!), our annual Halloween hayride, fall drives to view the changing colors, the Fall Festival of Leaves in Bainbridge, maybe participate in a trick or treat event, launching a new monthly email blast for the Yellow Rose Bed and Breakfast and that new fragrance formula of soap. 

100 Must Read Books

A while back, there was a list posted on Facebook of the 100 must read books.  I remember scanning this list and thinking I probably read about five; and of the five, I remember the content of none. 

Mentally, I placed this on my bucket list of things to do before I die.  I never wrote it down, just sort of ‘penciled’ it in, so to speak.  Well, I remembered the other day that I don’t have this list and I’d better get it before it disappears. 

I recently finished the book, ‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen, and I was pretty sure that this book may have been on that list.  While reading this book, I became angry at myself for taking the time to read a book.  I simply could not put this book down to participate in my normal life.  There were other things I needed to get done.

So, I’ve been thinking long and hard about this particular bucket list item and decided that I could not possibly accomplish this feat.  I would have to live like a hermit to do this monumental task.  There was just no way.

Yet, I needed this list so I would have it, in case something happened in which I found myself with a lot of time and no pressing need to participate in normal life.  Imagine that.

To find this list, I did an internet search and I found not one universal list, but several of them.  There was the ‘BBC, The Big Read, Top 100’; ‘Harvard Book Store, Top 100’; ‘Modern Library, 100 Best Novels’; ‘Time, All Time 100 Novels’; and there was even The Art Of Manliness's "100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man’s Library"; and many more!    

How confusing is this?

So I glance over the lists and find many of the same titles on all of the lists.  But the novel I just read is only listed one list, BBC, The Big Read, Top 100.  Should I adopt that list since I’ve one down and many more to go?  I think so!         

It did bother me that I could not find the original list I had seen on Facebook.  I decided to add ‘Facebook’ to my original search criteria of ‘list 100 books to read’.  At the top of the list was the BBC list, the one that has ‘Persuasion’ listed as novel #38.  Alright!  I do have the list!  Click here to see BBC, The Big Read, Top 100. 

Scanning over the list to see how many I books I really have read, I feel a little better.  There are 11 books that I have read.  Many were requirements of high school and college literature classes and that was ions ago.  I don’t remember them, so I’m going to have to go back and read those again so that I could talk intelligently about them should I ever be asked. 

NOT! 

I’m moving forward and going to start book # 12.  If…I ever find that time where I don’t have anything to do and won’t feel guilty for taking the time to read a book. 

       

Smiley Faces

Next month marks the 30^th anniversary of the electronic lexicon of the horizontal smiley face.  The symbol, at that time was a colon, a dash and the right parenthesis, was first posted by a Carnegie Mellon University professor, Scott E. Fahlman.  He posted to an online electronic bulletin board on September 19^th, 1982 during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.  It was used to convey humor and/or positive feelings with a smile.  Click here to view this information. 

Today, we now have ‘emoticons’ to convey our emotions available in our emails, chat sessions, and our social networks.  Most emoticons consist of a bright yellow face with black print for the face.

However, the picture of the smiley face starts much earlier than 30 years ago.  According to Wikipedia the first appearance of the ‘happy face’ was recorded on film and can be seen in Ingmar Bergman’s 1948 film “Hamnstad”.  Later in 1953 and 1958, the happy face was used in promotional campaigns for motion pictures ‘Lili’ and ‘Gigi’, respectively.  Of course, this was way before my time!  Click here to view this information.

All this started with the message, to ‘have a happy day’, which mutated to ‘have a nice day’ and ‘keep smiling’. 

Personally, my first memory of the big yellow ‘smiley face’ or ‘happy face’ as it was called back then, was in the early 1970’s while on vacation with my parents.  They bought a Winnebago motor home, which to me, was a big deal back in those days.  I suppose that my parents got full use of that thing because for several years we took many vacations.  My parents were adamant about vacationing two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the summer.  The two weeks in the spring was always welcome because we (me and younger brother) always got out of school at least one week, and of course, the other week was ‘spring break’.  The spring trip was always to Florida.  The two week vacation in the summer was wherever my parents wanted to go and they would mix it up each year.

Anyway, it was during one of these trips, we were cruising on the highway…well actually Dad was cruising, we were just riding and I assumed one of my many positions on this Winnebago.  This position was a couch in the very back of the Winnebago which made into my parents bed when we finally settled down for the night.  I would sit on this couch and watch the world go by from the rear of camper.  While everyone was driving forward, I was looking backward.  One of my favorite things to do was to watch others drive up to our camper, move to the passing lane, and proceed to pass us up.  You see, we were on vacation, and not in a hurry. 

It was actually kind of a boring day, we were on our way home and I was watching the cars go by.  I could not tell you which trip this was or which state we were in for there were many trips across many states.   What I can tell you that one man’s action resonated in my mind for many years and I have not forgotten. 

I must have looked really gloomy.  We did not have tinted windows in the motor home as they do now, so he must have seen my face bright and clear.  In the short time that he was in that passing lane, he picked up a bright yellow plastic lid with a smiley face printed in black, and waved it at me!  As you can imagine, he caught me off guard, and it brought a big smile to my face, which was what he intended! 

In reciprocation, I’m sure I brought a smile to his face.  He, being the driver, actually had to duck his head down to peer through the passenger car window to look up at me to see my reaction.  The thought that he took the time to bring a smile to someone else, a total stranger, stuck with me all those years. 

  

These bright yellow lids came from what I believe to be Maxwell House coffee cans.  My mom and my older sister could not remember these coffee can lids, but because of this memory, I sure do!  It was a novelty marketing gimmick and I remember saving them but I’m sure Mom threw them out at some point. 

Since that day, I never pass up an opportunity to make a total stranger smile on the road whether it be waving to kids in the back of a motor home, waving to the Amish children in their buggies, opening the door for the next person coming through in a public place or helping someone who is struggling with placing an awkward item into their car.  It just takes one small action on the part of one person to bring about a lasting memory.          

So, Happy 30^th Anniversary to the electronic smiley face…in many people’s minds, you go back further than the electronic era!  : )

       

Geraniums in the Sand

Last Saturday morning, early, when I couldn’t sleep, I decided that it was a good time to start a blog.  The blog had been on my bucket list of things to do.  I’ve always wanted to write but never took the time to sit down, concentrate and really write.  There were always places to go and things to do.  My head was always full of other stuff and never could get it clear enough to focus on writing.

There are other items on my bucket list, but for some reason, none were as compelling as this one.  For one thing, most things had to be done in the daylight, or during normal hours, not in the middle of the night while it was still dark.  I always imagined myself, getting up early, fixing coffee, walking around the house a bit and then, sitting down to write.  But this early?  It’s 4 am! 

What’s wrong with me?  I hate getting up early!  I was always the one who got up at the last possible minute to get ready to go to work.  I loved sleep!  Now that I don’t have a work schedule, sometimes I get up in the middle of the night.  But the best part is, after about an hour and a half of reading, I can go back to bed and continue my nighttime slumbers, which I usually do and let me tell you…that is the best sleep!  So, for this reason, I’m not fixing coffee. 

Anyway, I was hoping this ‘starting a blog’ thing was going to be easy because I wanted to get back to bed.  I entered ‘www.blogspot.com’ on the address bar on the computer and away I went.  

One of the first questions I was faced with was what do I name the blog?  Oh geez…now I wished I had made that pot of coffee.  But I got a glass of milk and some crackers and walked about the house.  I still had the desire to go back to bed. 

I looked out the window and the solar lights that I had outside were illuminating the geraniums I had planted earlier in the year.  Gosh, those are the most beautiful flowers, and the hardiest, I thought.  I always plant geraniums because they are so forgiving.  They are subtropical plants and seem to love when it’s hot outside.  During the times when I forget to water them, they seem to grow bigger and more beautiful bringing about multiple stands of flowers that started from one little plant.  This one had two stands but I’ve grown them before when they have had six or more stands of flowers.  I thought…they are so beautiful and so hardy…I bet you could grow them in the sand. 

Geraniums in the Sand. 

I thought about geraniums for a while.  Planting them in the sand would be cleaner than dirt and I’d have to fertilize them to give them the nutrients they needed.  I looked up Geraniums in the Sand on the internet to see if it could be done.  Never mind that I was in the middle of establishing a blog, my attention deficit disorder had kicked in.    

In my research, I stumbled across a poem, ‘Red Geraniums’ by Martha Haskell Clark.  I read it and thought about the poem for awhile.  I….love….this poem!   It’s about having dreams but staying planted if your dreams are not realized and thanking God for what you do have.  Click here to view 'Red Geraniums'.

Geraniums in the Sand.

After reading ‘Red Geraniums’, my mind wandered to another poem, ‘Footprints in the Sand’, by Mary Stevenson.  My paternal grandmother gave to me one year, as a Christmas present, a framed print of ‘Footprints of the Sand.’  This was in the 1980’s right before she passed away.  This is a special poem about having and keeping your faith in God.  The thought of her selecting this print for me, makes me smile.  I read it often and think of her.  Click here to view 'Footprints in the Sand'.

Geraniums in the Sand.  I could not get away from those words. 

My attention finally got back to the question of what to name my newly created blog.  I had decided that after all of that research and thought, the name had to be, ‘Geraniums in the Sand.’

I was so excited about the name that I never went back to bed.  I finished setting up the blog and posted my first story.  Bucket list item accomplished!