What's so hard with 'yes' or 'no' . . .?

I think our society has come to such a level of wanting to be nice and tolerant, they have lost sight of being practical and straight forward in their approach and social interaction with their fellow human beings. Things might improve if people had a mandatory class in good manners in their formative years.

Thanksgiving always reminds me of this. One year, we invited a friend to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. We asked a month ahead of time so he had time to figure out his schedule. We waited and waited for his response. Finally, a day or two before Thanksgiving, we asked this person directly if he was accepting our invitation or not. He said, "Oh, I decided to accept another invitation last week." I often wondered if he was afraid of hurting our feelings and thought that just not responding would be a better course of action.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident and I have heard from other people who has experienced this. Two years in a row, we felt sorry for a student unable to get home for the holiday and offered an invitation. Should have learned our lesson the first time. The first year, she didn't bother to turn us down until almost the day before and we found out later, she 'got a better invitation'. This year, she never got back to us and we discovered she had accepted an invitation a week prior to ours. She KNEW at the time we extended our invitation that she already had other plans! Makes you wonder if we were a 'just in case' invitation, she didn't want to say no, or she just has horrible manners.

My children have always moaned and groaned when I insisted they send thank you notes or immediate replies to invitations. I'm hoping the early training makes them appreciative and well-mannered as they go on in life.

My favorite non-response concerned a niece. She had turned eleven or twelve and we decided to send her a 'grown up' Christmas gift - her own hair dryer. About five years later, it came up in the conversation with her mother who said that her daughter had been SO thrilled with the gift and wore it out using it. She absolutely loved it!

Not to worry, however. We are getting better at selecting out holiday guests these days. Two years in a row, we invited a family with six delightful young adults who promptly accepted our invitation and showed up for Thanksgiving! We felt very blessed with the company! And those other people? Well, they don't know what they missed and we can only pray they get more blessings out of life than they are currently extending!

Don't Follow the Crowd . . .

I'm pretty good about eating right during most of the year but those candy canes and chocolates that start appearing around the holidays can often sidetrack me! It is interesting that when I've avoided candy and cookies for awhile, eating one isn't that terrific BUT my mind tells me that I used to like it so try another one! Before I know it, I've stored a few dozen cookies around my waistline.

What frustrates me when I let my guard down around the cookie jar is that fresh fruit tastes so much better yet my tastebuds get lured into the holiday season all too easily if I don't watch out.

Given this weakness in my otherwise stellar (!) personality, I'm making sure I keep the makings for green smoothies around the house to forestall temptation with something equally tasty but much better for me.

One of my children and I LOVE green smoothies and don't even mind the vibrant green color anymore. It is amazing how spinach, pears, kiwi, apple, and broccoli can taste so good blended into an icy drink. One of my daughters prefers an orange, carrot, cranberry smoothie which I've never passed up, either. We used to treat ourselves to the popular juice places that provide you with a fruit smoothie in exchange for quite a sum of money considering you are paying for much ground ice. I checked the calorie count on them and discovered it was much cheaper and healthier to make smoothies at home. The calories were lower, too.

I can't believe the holidays are upon us even as I face the cooking and baking of the next few days. Good thing I have that stash of cranberries put away because I think I'm going to need a few homemade fruit/vegetable smoothies to see me through.

A black market venture . . .

Except for canned, it is difficult to find fresh or frozen cranberries during the time after Christmas. Unfortunately, my family has a definite, year-round craving for the little red berries. I love cranberries with a beef and gravy meal. My husband wants cranberry muffins more often than during the holidays. My son likes chocolate cream pie with a cranberry glaze topping.

This year, I'm hoping to extend our cranberry fields forever! Costco is selling large bags of the fresh berries. I'm double bagging them in freezer-proof bags and plan to indulge when everyone else is looking to summer and watermelon! Okay, we have jumped the gun a bit on our stash and have almost use a whole bag on said chocolate cream pie, muffins, and cranberry sauce for a beef and gravy dinner. I'm not TOO concerned as we have a few more weeks of holiday eating and I plan to raid Costco for a couple more bags.

Just remember that when the summer heat arrives and you find me enjoying a cranberry smoothie, I MIGHT share some of my stash . . . for a reasonable price!

Getting hungry . . .

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. It is a simple one where people get together and eat. No need to shop for gifts, send flowers, or take pictures with Santa. You cook, visit, and eat! We usually have a Thanksgiving-type menu on other days of the year but turkey and all the trimmings seems to taste so much better when shared with a full table of friends and family.

I just got back from shopping. We are looking forward to having eleven people sitting around our Thanksgiving holiday table. I love to cook and enjoy going after a shopping bargain so it is a win/win scenario for me. I have been fixing Thanksgiving dinner since I was around twelve and love the whole process.

Preparing for Thanksgiving also points out our blessings, too. I have learned to never complain about not having enough room in the cupboard when I have to stock up. A crowded cupboard means God provided most adequately for us this year. We should be grateful and enjoy it.

Although, I pretty much do a straight forward menu for Thanksgiving, I always come up with an extra item or two to enhance the meal. This year, there will be a coconut custard pie joining the pecan, pumpkin, and apple pies. Bread stuffing is a positive staple at Thanksgiving and I could face eviction from the family if it didn't make an appearance. This year, however, I'm thinking about adding a dish of cornbread sausage stuffing. Bread and butter is kind of overkill with all the other food but, I'm thinking, cranberry muffins wouldn't be too much, right?

I hope everyone is anticipating a good holiday next week with family and friends. Remember to be also grateful for our freedom of Faith and the best government in the world because these things often hang in balance and we can't guarantee the same in the future.

Where do our donations go . . .?

There is a second collection this Sunday or next for the annual Campaign for Human Development. Before you even think about dropping a single coin into this collection basket, check out the link from RealCatholicTV.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n_YseZ7Cog

In addition to using our Catholic money for ACORN, in past years, the money we put into the collection has also been used for Pro-Abortion, Pro-Homosexual, Pro-Contraception, and Pro-Prostitution groups. Our Catholic money is being funneled to liberal, left wing agendas that go against our Catholic teaching. Money has also been used to promote Democratic concerns which go against our beliefs and morals.

One suggestion has been to drop a 'No, Thank You!' note into the collection basket for this collection. Perhaps an outpouring of objection will enlightened our priests and bishops to take a second look.

How clean is YOUR desk . . .? and other thoughts.

"If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?"
-- Laurence J. Peter

"Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies."
-- Edgar Watson Howe

"I have often depended on the blindness of strangers."
-- Adrienne E. Gusoff

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear."
-- Mark Twain

The first quote is certainly our government right now . . .!

"The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
-- Ronald Reagan

"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult."
-- Charlotte Whitton

"I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me."
-- Noel Coward

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."
-- Niels Bohr

Who's sorry now . . .?

On more than one occasion, our current president has apologized for the United States. I don't know if he thinks this will make friends and influence enemies but he certainly doesn't do it in a humble way. It now looks like he should be doing the apologizing.

He made a much-heralded trip overseas to demean himself by asking for and expecting the next Olympics to be bestowed on the United States because HE wanted it that way. I think the powers that be enjoyed calling out in the FIRST round that Chicago was in no way going to get the Olympics. There were more pressing events going on at the time yet the president made this special trip over specifically for receiving this expected 'gift'.

The anniversary of the end of the Berlin Wall was today. Although my mother wasn't in Berlin, at the time, she was visiting in German when this happened twenty years ago. She wept because many relatives she hadn't seen since the Wall went up, were now free to go about their lives as they chose to do so. My grandmother died in East Germany. I have many cousins I never got to meet because they lived behind the Wall. It certainly meant something to my family when this event played out so dramatically. Definitely one for the history books!

Our president turned down an invitation to be there for the occasion! Travel for an olympic beg-fest, yes. Travel to honor the fall of communism, no. And, what good is a vice president who doesn't take up the reins when the president is too busy?

This president owes the German people an apology. He owes all the people who lived without family during the time of the Wall, an apology. He owes the United States an apology for embarassing us in front of the world.

Mixing ideas with your own . . . quotes!

I especially liked the last one as you meet so many people who are just passing through this life without any ambition, original thoughts, and real hopes for the future. They seem to live for the moment without any quality. Kind of makes death a highlight of their life when God provided us with so much to enjoy and be thankful for in this world. It isn't always easy and you can make it worthwhile! : - )

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience."
-- Mitch Hedberg

"Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody."
-- Franklin P. Adams

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius."
-- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"Is there life before death?"
-- Graffito

Seems to apply . . .

This quote kind of reminded me of the recent health care legislation:

"All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse."
-- Benjamin Franklin

What happened to Democracy or is it Demo-crazy?

What a greeting to a beautiful Sunday morning . . . Headlines blaring that the House has passed the first step in health care reform by a margin of five votes! I read an article on-line by the Wall Street Journal and they were running a poll. The vote was 69% AGAINST this type of health care reform! Most of the polls over the last few weeks have run in the same direction. What is wrong with our government representatives who have decided to use the votes that got them into office to propose their own, personal agenda? And, once again, the feminazi, Pelosi lied as I don't recall we had 72 hours since yesterday to read the proposed Bill. They are in the middle of putting a huge burden on the future salaries of our next generation yet show little remorse or forethought as all these people voting this into law will not have to be under the proposed plan.

I hope everyone takes note and lets their representative and senators know that the vote they are casting now will effect the vote we cast come their reelection years.

You have to wonder what is wrong with Pelosi and any other woman in office who agrees to a bill that could include abortion paid by everyone's taxes and rationed treatment for the elderly. Don't they have any womanly feelings for preborn children? They all have children yet they advocate the outright killing of them?

We have to be vigilant in this because IF this totally passes into law, the full effect won't be felt until AFTER obama's hoped-for reelection and then POW! They plan on this lull to see that he IS reelected. To me, this seems unconstitutional to MAKE everyone have the SAME insurance.

We do have prayer on our side because I get the feeling (trying not to judge here!) that many of those who voted last night don't deal in the Godly spiritual. Prayer is still a fight we can engage in and they can't outlaw that . . . although they may try!

Flipper, call home . . .!

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese."
-- Carl Sagan

"A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure."
-- Segal's Law

Blending the seasons . . . to much . . .

I know the various stores are anxious about the economy but it is always so sad to see them rush the holidays ahead of time. It takes away the anticipation.

When I was growing up (just after the dinosaurs left the earth!), Christmas items started appearing in the stores a week after Thanksgiving. We didn't have time to lose the upcoming joy because of weeks and weeks of seeing Christmas products line the shelves right next to the day after sale on Halloween goodies.

I used to mark my childhood time by the store shelves. These days, the holidays practically pile on top of each other and blur our eagerness because we have already been watching the celebration wants and necessities gathering dust for weeks now.

Nothing much one can do about the current ways of the world at large. Guess I had better line up my New Year's champagne, cut out some Valentines, and get to hiding those Easter eggs. Time's a wasting!

Current quote . . .

"As an American I am not so shocked that Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize without any accomplishments to his name, but that America gave him the White House based on the same credentials." - - Newt Gingrich

My favorites . . . especially the last one . . .!

"It had only one fault. It was kind of lousy."
-- James Thurber

"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people."
-- Orson Welles

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless."
-- Thomas A. Edison

"Food is an important part of a balanced diet."
-- Fran Lebowitz

Good thought for All Saints' Day . . .

Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps,
if you are not willing to move your feet!!!!