27 Guests for Dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving and all big holiday dinners are a lot of work: planning, buying the food, cleaning your home, inviting others to share dinner with you, the actual food preparation, the 15 minutes it takes to eat dinner and then the clean up and dishes and then sitting down for 30 minutes, then, jump up and prepare dessert and serve it and then clean up from dessert. And, with all that....how much did you spend to accomplish that big dinner. I usually have 16 to 27 family members that come to my house for that meal. So in round numbers, it usually costs me in days past about $400.00 to do that meal. One Thanksgiving, no one came to dinner and so we went out to eat at a local restaurant. It was so nice. We ate what we wanted and no prep time, no cooking time, no cleaning time and we saved about $350.00. No brainer...let's eat out! I loved that too and then I bought deli turkey slices and pumpkin pie and rolls and we had leftovers too.

One day as I was writing in my journal about Thanksgiving, I was writing about all the effort it takes to make a meal like that and all of a sudden...like a flash in my brain...I discovered that I liked planning, cooking, sharing and cleaning up. It was such a surprise to me to discover that. So now when I find myself thinking I don't like this or that....I really look at the situation and try to discover within me if that's really how I feel or if I just like to hear myself complain.

Once again, being positive and being with family and serving others, will lead you to happiness. We don't all have to be the same to enjoy each others company. We should enjoy each others differences and we don't have to be the same to be friends or family. Enjoy Thanksgiving and give thanks! And, remember from whom all blessings come and thank Him as well.

Happy Veteran's Day!

At this Veteran's Day, let me take the opportunity to thank all our veterans for their service to our country. Used to be that only the older citizens were veterans but today we have veterans of all ages and genders because of the present wars we are conducting. Men and women that serve our country deserve our honor, praise and acknowledgment that they have gone far above the call of duty in order to protect us and our way of life, resulting in loss of life, ravaged bodies and ill health and even if our vets have escaped physical problems, there's still the mental and emotional issues that plague our soldiers. I would hope that those in authority would see to it that our veterans receive all the good medical, mental and rehabilitation needed to get back into the work force with some advantage.

As we lived through the Viet Nam conflict, I was so disappointed that when our veterans came home, they were boo-ed and were the brunt of the faction in life that hated the war and took it out on them. I don't believe that war is ever popular but it had never been so openly and dishonorably voiced like it was then in our country. We had a lot of our citizens doing demonstrations against their own country and others that chose to go to Viet Nam with some half-baked idea that they could fix the whole thing with their visit....such as Hanoi Jane. We do make a lot of mistakes in our lives as we grow up but some mistakes are so heinous that it may take forever to absolve that person for their lack of patriotism into just plain being a traitor, having never been brought to justice by the American people.

I am so proud of our citizens today that separate the dislike for the war from the soldiers that serve in it. I hope that our citizens are becoming wiser and more compassionate about everything but especially with our servicemen and women that serve in the military.

We grew up in a time of draft and our servicemen and weren't given a choice to serve or not. My brothers and my husband had no choice so a lot of them chose to serve their time in the military and get it over and then go on with life. I like the volunteer military more than the draft. My brothers served in different regions of the world. One brother served in Japan and that was in the 50's when WWII hadn't been over very long. One brother served in France. One brother stayed state-side. My husband served during the Viet Nam conflict and he had the opportunity to serve in Turkey on a hardship tour and he volunteered for a dangerous secret mission into the Soviet Union. He was assigned a tour in southern Germany in the 60's and I was able to accompany him there just 22 years after WWII.

So, in conclusion.....things are not always fair or right. But we are proud of our servicemen and women and the job they are doing. Keep up the good work and God bless you.

Affirmations Everyday Keeps the Blahs Away

I've talked a lot about being positive. It's not always easy to stay in a positive mode but it really is important. Negative comes so easy to most people and positive is usually something that needs to be learned. Well, let's start learning it today....

I mentioned in one of my articles that putting on a mechanical smile makes a difference. It really does....so I'm thinking that we can set ourselves up to be successful with a few mechanical practices. I, personally, believe in prayers...but whether you do or not these mechanical steps will help set yourself up for success. If you don't do prayers, do affirmations. Affirmations are an outward expression of a positive statement or declaration of truth. When we lived in Arizona, I knew a teacher that started her class everyday with having the children stand and do affirmations. Like: "I am a good person....I can do anything....I am happy.....I will do good today.....I learn well....etc., etc. Things like "I won't bully people" is a negative statement and should not be used in that way. You can change that statement around to be positive, however, like: "I will be respectful of others and of myself", or something like that. You don't have to be in front of a mirror but wherever you are, think of your good traits and phrase them in a positive statement. If you come up with at least 5 to 10 statements and start your day, every day with them...you'll see a change for the positive in no time. You might even make statements about something that you hope to be true, eventually, such as: "I have a good marriage....I love my husband...I am wealthy, etc., etc. Now is a good time to sit down and write 10 things that is positive about yourself....then, write another 10 things that you want to be true. After some changing and refining, come up with 10 things that are the most important positive statements that are true or you hope to be true. Then, every day, repeat those 10 things out loud, in front of a mirror if you can. This is an activity to improve your attitude, self-esteem and to make your life better.

This is meant to help rid yourself of those negative feelings and thoughts and with that in mind, when someone crosses swords with you in this life, it is important to forgive them....not for their sakes, but for yours. Those negative feelings hold you back from being the best you can be and sours your outlook on life....none of which is positive. Life is meant to be happy but that means that when bad or difficult things happen, you need to take that experience and use it for good wherever you can, thus learning about life and becoming better for having had that negative experience.

I had a job with a utility but after 7 years, they down-sized and I was out of a job, out of health insurance, out of a retirement, out of the good friends I had made while there. That was hard....but, I had wanted to be at home being a homemaker and so now I could do that. It took me a long time to look at my work experience and see what I could learn from it....as a whole, I had so many wonderful things happen from work. I learned to wear seat belts, which saved my sons life. I learned to work on a computer and learned the programs very well and that serves me now as I want to work on genealogy or just be on facebook. I found that working with the public in my job was a rewarding experience as I worked with people to clear up their contracts with this utility. I had a supervisor that was superior and caring and made life working there wonderful. Out of bad things can come good things....if you look for the good and even if it takes a few years to see the answer, it will be there for you to find.

Being positive is one of the most Christ-like things we can do in life because that is a reflection of Him. It is also one of the most important things that we can do to be happy. The secret to life is learning to be happy, serving others and doing it all with love.