Uh, say what? Only 40%?! Well, I guess if I drank beer it would have been higher. *sigh* Still, I guess 40% is better than none, especially this month!
You’re 40% Irish |
You’re probably less Irish than you think you are… But you’re still more Irish than most. |
With hurricanes, flooding, tornados, mud slides, fires out of control, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?
*****
Well now, that certainly is food for thought! lol
Have a wonderful weekend! And remember, today is the day to March Fourth and conquer your world!
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these and I figured I was due for another one. Going through my pictures for February, I realized that I hardly took any. Perhaps that Winter blah thing settling down on me. Anyway, from the stash I did manage to take …
In January I managed to catch something really cool. I saw it as I was saying goodbye to my husband in the early morning as he was leaving for work. That’s Venus at the top, and toward the left is Saturn, and near the lower right, about halfway between the flagpole and the edge, barely visible in the picture but clear to the naked eye, is Antares.
The coffee table centerpiece for January.
It was really foggy one evening, so we went on a “fog walk,” and I saw this along the way. I don’t why but it struck me in an odd way so I took a picture.
I made more soap.
Took another picture of the full moon. I love doing that, it’s so pretty to me. This would be the Wolf Moon.
Gave my tallow another wash to reduce the smell and prep it for soap and balm making. It looks so nice and neat in the cakes there! I have about 15lbs total here.
My daughter dressed up as one of her Destiny characters, using what items she had on hand and could get to quickly. Not bad for “a little something I just threw on!” lol
I painted my terribly too short nails. I cut them after the holidays and then they all seemed to break, so I had to cut them down even more. I painted them so I wouldn’t have to see how horrible they look being so short.
The February centerpiece. Boy, did I ever putz out on that one. I guess I never got around to putting the Valentine’s decorations up. *facepalm*
The February “Snow Moon.” It was all cloudy and looked really cool.
My husband heard about something called Geocaching, so he checked it out and learned there are a couple of places that participate, near enough for us to walk to … so we did!
Painted my nails again. I was feeling a little on the blue side, lol. No, not depressed, but for some reason I can’t explain, blue is really appealing to me right now. They’ll be green soon enough with St Patrick’s Day right around the corner.
We have just one more day of school and the kids are sooooo ready for it to end. I am too. For some reason, this quarter has just seemed so hard to get through, and I think for my husband at work, as well. The new year feels like it got off to a bit of a rocky start and I think we’re all feeling a little beat and ready for a break. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if my husband ended up taking a “mental health day” sometime while the kids and I are off school.
I am so ready for Spring!
I’ve been “on the Internets” for a long time now. I’ve interacted with a lot of people and seen a lot of things. So it was with a bit of trepidation when my husband and I decided to allow our son to play an online game on the system we got the kids for Christmas.
Yes, we’ve talked to both the kids about online safety, we’ve laid down the rules, and they’ve honored them without hesitation. They know, and trust, that we’re looking out for their safety. Plus, the console sits right in the middle of the living room in full view of everyone.
The Xbox, however, has this really cool app that you can add to your Android and you can do all kinds of things from the app (even use it as a console remote when the console’s on!) when you’re not on the console … like use the messaging service.
My son’s met a number of people while playing his favorite game. Some of them have been kids, clearly, and he’s used the “chat hat” to talk to a couple.
Lately though, (like the last few weeks) this one character has popped up that I’m about 90% certain is not anything like who they’re claiming to be, and am pretty certain is a predator of some sort. There’ve been a lot of red flags.
First, they don’t have a mic to talk, but want my son to use his so they can hear him. They text, he chats in response. Not fair in my book and I’m about to call a halt to that tactic. He doesn’t even know if this person is male or female, adult, kid, or Martian. Flag.
Second, they supposedly share the screen name with a sibling, so “sometimes it’s my brother, sometimes it’s me.” Seriously? Microsoft allows you to have multiple people in your online family, so why would you have to share a screen name? Flag.
Next, it was, “What’s your real name?” Some people elect to allow their real names to be seen online. My kids are not allowed to do that. She (They claim to be a 17 y/o girl) made up a name for my son, then kept asking him for his real name, so he made one up. Flag.
Then it was, “I know we haven’t known each other very long but I think I love you.” FLAG.
Last night, it became, “I think I’m bi.” FLAG FLAG!
My son asked why they thought that and this person responded, “Because I was watching something bad and then I started touching myself.” Oh hell to the FLAGFLAGFLAG!
I am aboutthisclose to telling him he has to unfriend this person – at which point I know they’ll come back under a different screen name and try to start the process all over again, and my son will resent me. My son wants me to trust him, and know that he’ll not do anything stupid, like get emotionally attached in any way or reveal anything personal. My son’s a good kid and he’s pretty mature for his age. I do trust him on a lot of levels. But this is a new arena for him, one I’m familiar with, and he needs to trust me, too. I’ve given him all kinds of suggestions on how he can respond to this person’s messages, things like, “You should talk to your parents or a pastor or school counselor,” “I’m not looking for an online romance kind of thing, I just want a gamer friend,” and “I’m not comfortable talking about these things, let talk about something else.”
The online community can be a wonderful thing – I should know, I met my husband there! But it is also full of a lot of dark elements that I don’t want to touch my kids in any way, shape, or form. I want my kids to learn to interact with people, and also to know how to be wary, and savvy. Those things only come from experience. So I have to guide them, help them navigate this world. People get suckered all the time – even grown-ups! We simply HAVE to be careful and distrustful, as much as we’d like to give the benefit of the doubt.
In the meantime, my son knows I’m shining a flashlight on this character and keeping my eye on how things develop. He knows what to look for, and he knows he can come talk to me and his dad about anything that happens.
As I’ve read through blogs lately, the past couple of months or so, it seems to me that a lot of folks in the blogging circle I travel around are struggling to cope with some serious health issues themselves, or have loved ones who are. Health issues are so frightening! It’s like your own body is betraying you! I pray for each one of you when I read about what’s going on with you.
There is no magic wand I can wave that would take away illness – boy how I wish there was! And I know no one really wants to get comments on their own blogs that are nosy in “have you tried this or done that?” Health care is personal. It can be hard to draw the line between those who are well-meaning and just want to help, and wanting to keep your own treatment private. I get it. I do.
So in trying to find that fine line between wanting to help, and respect people’s privacy, I thought I’d put together a post of my own, sharing some articles I’ve read about cancer, depression, and the Ketogenic diet. I feel like I would be a really crappy friend if I knew of something that might help in some way, and didn’t say anything. There is a lot of encouraging news coming out now about using diet as a part of treatment. While there is nothing that works 100% for everyone, this diet seems to help a lot of people with a lot of things, so I wanted to pass information about it along.
I’ll just leave this stuff out on the table here, and if anything looks interesting, help yourself!
Be well.
<3 *hugs* ~Vanessa
Ketogenic Diet Halts Tumor Growth | The KetoDynamic Antidote
Ketogenic diet starves cancer to death says scientist Dominic D’Agostino | Examiner.com
Ketogenic Diet May Be Key to Cancer Recovery
Ketogenic diet beats chemotherapy for almost all cancers says Thomas Seyfried | Examiner.com
Ketogenic diet fights depression, bipolar disorder and aids weight loss | Examiner.com
Your Brain On Ketones | Psychology Today
Long-term effects of a ketogenic diet in obese patients
”Beneficial changes in the brain energy profile have been observed in subjects who are on a ketogenic diet (28). This is a significant observation because cerebral hypometabolism is a characteristic feature of those who suffer from depression or mania (28)”
Your Brain On Ketones | Psychology Today
Eating Fat Improves Mental Health, Study Finds
Ketogenic dieting eliminates my major depression, but why? : keto
Taken to its logical conclusion, these facts suggest that a ketogenic diet would be a fantastically effective treatment for depression.
Conclusion: dietary carbohydrates are the major cause of clinical depression, and a ketogenic diet presents itself as an ideal treatment.From Low Carb for Health: Carbohydrate Intake and Depression
