Each New Day

I was just reminded again of what great neighbors we have! Upon learning about my grandmother’s death, my neighbor two doors down just delivered a sack of food for dinner. Her grandmother died last January, and she can relate to the feelings of loss. She sent a really nice note along with lasagna, rolls, cookies and brownies, and even some snacks! It is great to have such good neighbors!

Living at sea level, I guess I’ve never had an occasion to hear about this. But my friend Montucky lives and hikes in the mountains. His blog is where I learned about this unique, short lived phenomenon. Here is how Montucky explains it on <a href=”http://montucky.wordpress.com/”> his blog </a>:

“The weathermen on the news stations here are mentioning that it will be relatively cold for the next week or so, but if we get tired of it we can always drive up into the higher elevations where it will be warmer. It’s a period of temperature inversion, where warm air moving over at high altitudes traps cold air down in the valleys, keeping them much colder and foggy. Above the inversion layer (currently around 4,000 feet) it’s clear and sunny.”

If you want to see great photos to go along with his explanation, be sure to check out his blog!

It seems lately that I have been hearing a lot about Dr. Seuss. It seems in his simplicity, he had lots to teach us. Here is what I learned today in an article by Seth Czarnecki at QualityHealth News:

“Dr. Seuss once said to “be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

I agree!
                                            

I have a recipe for a very easy berry cobbler that we all love. It calls for frozen berries, cake mix and Sprite. That’s it! My whole family loves it and I don’t mind making for them. The other night I wanted to use up some whip cream before it spoiled so I thought I’d make the cobbler. But I did not have any Sprite. I have been trying to think of something that would be a little healthier to use on the cobbler. I have started making my own cake mix and whip cream, but just did not know what to use in place of the soda. So I mixed up some fresh lemonade to see if that would work. It worked great! Maybe even better than the Sprite! It was super yummy!!

I just came across a website who is looking to capitalize on today’s climate of change. It is about Reinventing America and offers many observations and ideas on how to make some much needed reforms. There is a lot there to peruse and to think about. I do not agree with all of the ideas presented, but I do think that the author is correct in stating that there needs to be some serious change, not just rhetoric of change. He includes some of the most stark areas of change needed today: values, finance, education, health care, and the simplicity of the American lifestyle. There are some great ideas to look at, to mull over and to share with others, particularly those in Washington. Perhaps making change begin at home will over time help those at the top to recognize what the people want and need!

I heard on TV last night that Dr. Seuss is credited with originating the word “nerd”. I’d never heard this so I looked it up online today. Here is what I found:

“The American Heritage Dictionary in fact credits Dr. Seuss as the originator of the word nerd, which made its first appearance in his 1950 book, If I Ran the Zoo: “And then just to show them, I’ll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!”

-taken from the infoplease website at http://www.infoplease.com/spot/seuss1.html

That cracks me up! I guess the guy was an all around genius!

My neighbor next door is doing a science project in which he needed a graph to display along with the project. I knew we had done one years ago, but had forgotten how. So my mom told me to check my Microsoft Office for and Excel spreadsheet. On the tool bar there is a chart wizard which will take the info you put into the spread sheet and turn it into a graph! She had to walk us through it over the phone, but we ended up with a great looking bar graph for a ten year old’s project!

As I have not been committing to this blog daily, I’ll just list today some of the things I have learned over the course of this week:

-I”ve learned how to edit text within a blogger blog post
-My daughter informed me that if you dissect a snake (no thank you!), you can see the places where legs were before the snake lost his legs
-I’ve learned my “sleep number” and some info on sleep number beds
-I’ve learned that many teens keep the same “cool habits” that my son does
-I found a medicine that is supposed to help prevent/stave/ shorten the duration of the flu
-I’ve learned (am learning) to relax and take care of my knee
-I’ve learned the importance of the Sit and be Fit program for those with limited mobility

We got a Pizza Hut gift card for Christmas. We don’t often order from there, but tonight were pleasantly surprised to find a new “healthier” version of pizzas available. They have a Rustica Pizza available with a whole wheat crust. The Italian sausage is said to be all natural. It includes roasted peppers and sliced tomatoes and spices. It was really pretty good. They are also offering all natural pepperonis too.