Tag Archives: Postaday

Recycling Christmas Cheer throughout the Coming New Year

Posted on by Standard 2

Of the left-over items from the holiday season, CHRISTMAS CARDS may present the most perplexing puzzlement of all.

leftovers2

Christmas cards have become somewhat of a societal anomaly, after all. Where letters have transitioned into e-mails and passing thoughts get texted without enough thought, Christmas cards are one of the few remaining print expressions that actually still (most often) travel through snail mail – frequently from those who we’ve not truly heard from in ages past, despite potential social networking opportunities that often reveal very little beyond “it’s complicated.”

Perhaps because they’re a little more festive or maybe because we try to imagine the people opening their postal boxes, then opening our cards, we take a little more time in their preparation. After choosing a card (or making one) that conveys our personalities (or maybe our children’s growth), sometimes we buy fancy colored pens that glitter, or make a trip to the post office to buy season-appropriate stamps, or tuck a special thought or a little gift inside. Whatever the case, the recipient is left to understand that he/she was “special enough” to have been gifted with this extra effort.

Therein lies the quandary – what to do with this special endowment once the holiday season has passed. When the halls are no longer dutifully decked – and the house is no longer a jolly wreck…when everything around you appears sterile once more…what do you do with the remaining evidence of others’ thoughtful Christmas spirits? Do you just throw them into the trash – to be carried off and tossed onto a garbage heap? How very un-green (and red) of you!

Christmas Left-overs for Fun Recycling at our Home

Christmas Left-overs for Fun Recycling at our Home

How about some GREEN Christmas Card Re-Cycling Ideas that will continue to spread Christmas Cheer instead?

  1. Okay, here’s the most obvious “re-cycling” idea. Choose some of your favorite cards and cut out pieces to make your own homemade Christmas cards next year. Don’t do it on your own though – how does that spread any Christmas cheer? Have a little card-making party. If you want to wear silly sweaters and do it with your BFF’s, fine. But instead of setting yourself up to say, “I thought we’d never come back from that one” (yes, that was an eye roll)…What if you included some young, glue-sticky hands in your fun? Invite the creative energy of kids to join you (e.g., youth group, boy or girl scouts, children’s church, foster kids, mission trip kids – wherever you might be able to get involved). You may have to hold onto these cards for several months, but by fall, these children could be making cards to give to special people and brighten their days. Up the ante by having the kids send (or deliver) the cards to folks in an elderly residential home or to soldiers. Look beyond yourself and share the spirit from beginning to end.
  2. Re-cycle the blessing back to the individual(s) who originally blessed you. Place your pile of Christmas cards into a basket. Each night (or once a week – you can set your own reasonable time schedule), pull a card from the basket and resolve to pray for the name(s) on the card. Not only will you be blessing the sender of the card, you’ll be sneaking in another blessing for yourself once again. The card that keeps on giving…
  3. Take your re-cycling efforts a step further. Mail that card back to the original sender, letting that person know you prayed for him/her. (Or if you are not comfortable with that, then just follow my lead from here.) Enclose a special note to the person(s) whose name(s) is/are in that card, letting that person feel the special touch of Christmas at an unexpected moment. You may not even know what’s going on in that person’s life; but I’ll bet he/she could use a blessing. How’s that for spreading cheer throughout the year?
  4. Combine any of the above ideas for a whole new dimension of bless-ed fun! Help some kids cut out cards to make new seasonal cards. Can you imagine Santa saying “Hoppy Easter”? Or sending a partial card with a note to your friend, explaining the other parts of it were prayed over &  sent out with a special note to someone in the armed forces or in an elderly living facility?
  5. Create a collage of the fronts of Christmas card clip-outs onto a board and shellac it for a family member who either can’t be with you for the holidays or can’t be with you throughout the rest of the year. Send it to them as a writing/laptop board to remind them of your cheery love throughout the time you all are apart.

Come up with some new ideas of your own – and share them here for the rest of us to enjoy!

And may your year be full of Christmas blessings!

-just jody

Related articles:

Half-Empty a Pessimist Does Not Make

Posted on by Standard 4

jodyism_16_generational_half_empty

Today’s WordPress Daily Prompt was: The Glass, asking the age-long consideration:

Is [your] glass half-full, or half-empty?

Why, Yes, Thank You!!

 

A Few Related Articles – follow this link for a few more:

Daily Promot: Is the glass half full or empty? | AnxiousElephant

The Bipolar Journey of my Hypothetical Glass | The Magic Black Book

Daily Prompt: The Glass « Mama Bear Musings

729: Daily Prompt: The Glass – “It is half empty” | SEVEN Hundred 50

Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved

Posted on by Standard Reply

Life can often be cold,

leaving you feeling bare and exposed.

Those are the times you must resolve

to “man up” and overcome-

Juxtaposed!

Resolved

________________________________________________________________

This post was made possible by two of the greatest sports I know. Thanks, guys!  I had fun taking these two shots one day after we’d gone on a post-game hiking/creek dipping field trip with their team. No matter that we were well into the summer months and the boys had worked up a sweat that day on the ball field, when these two climbed out of one of our favorite mountain creek swimming holes, their teeth were chattering! (They, of course, didn’t mind hamming it up a little for me and the camera!) 🙂

It’s also part of the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge on Resolved. Follow this link to see many more who have resolved to share their photography on the subject.

_____________________________________________________________________

Related Articles:

Recycling Christmas Cheer throughout the Coming New Year

Posted on by Standard 2

Of the left-over items from the holiday season, CHRISTMAS CARDS may present the most perplexing puzzlement of all.

leftovers2

Christmas cards have become somewhat of a societal anomaly, after all. Where letters have transitioned into e-mails and passing thoughts get texted without enough thought, Christmas cards are one of the few remaining print expressions that actually still (most often) travel through snail mail – frequently from those who we’ve not truly heard from in ages past, despite potential social networking opportunities that often reveal very little beyond “it’s complicated.”

Perhaps because they’re a little more festive or maybe because we try to imagine the people opening their postal boxes, then opening our cards, we take a little more time in their preparation. After choosing a card (or making one) that conveys our personalities (or maybe our children’s growth), sometimes we buy fancy colored pens that glitter, or make a trip to the post office to buy season-appropriate stamps, or tuck a special thought or a little gift inside. Whatever the case, the recipient is left to understand that he/she was “special enough” to have been gifted with this extra effort.

Therein lies the quandary – what to do with this special endowment once the holiday season has passed. When the halls are no longer dutifully decked – and the house is no longer a jolly wreck…when everything around you appears sterile once more…what do you do with the remaining evidence of others’ thoughtful Christmas spirits? Do you just throw them into the trash – to be carried off and tossed onto a garbage heap? How very un-green (and red) of you!

Christmas Left-overs for Fun Recycling at our Home

Christmas Left-overs for Fun Recycling at our Home

How about some GREEN Christmas Card Re-Cycling Ideas that will continue to spread Christmas Cheer instead?

  1. Okay, here’s the most obvious “re-cycling” idea. Choose some of your favorite cards and cut out pieces to make your own homemade Christmas cards next year. Don’t do it on your own though – how does that spread any Christmas cheer? Have a little card-making party. If you want to wear silly sweaters and do it with your BFF’s, fine. But instead of setting yourself up to say, “I thought we’d never come back from that one” (yes, that was an eye roll)…What if you included some young, glue-sticky hands in your fun? Invite the creative energy of kids to join you (e.g., youth group, boy or girl scouts, children’s church, foster kids, mission trip kids – wherever you might be able to get involved). You may have to hold onto these cards for several months, but by fall, these children could be making cards to give to special people and brighten their days. Up the ante by having the kids send (or deliver) the cards to folks in an elderly residential home or to soldiers. Look beyond yourself and share the spirit from beginning to end.

  2. Re-cycle the blessing back to the individual(s) who originally blessed you. Place your pile of Christmas cards into a basket. Each night (or once a week – you can set your own reasonable time schedule), pull a card from the basket and resolve to pray for the name(s) on the card. Not only will you be blessing the sender of the card, you’ll be sneaking in another blessing for yourself once again. The card that keeps on giving…

  3. Take your re-cycling efforts a step further. Mail that card back to the original sender, letting that person know you prayed for him/her. (Or if you are not comfortable with that, then just follow my lead from here.) Enclose a special note to the person(s) whose name(s) is/are in that card, letting that person feel the special touch of Christmas at an unexpected moment. You may not even know what’s going on in that person’s life; but I’ll bet he/she could use a blessing. How’s that for spreading cheer throughout the year?

  4. Combine any of the above ideas for a whole new dimension of bless-ed fun! Help some kids cut out cards to make new seasonal cards. Can you imagine Santa saying “Hoppy Easter”? Or sending a partial card with a note to your friend, explaining the other parts of it were prayed over &  sent out with a special note to someone in the armed forces or in an elderly living facility?

  5. Create a collage of the fronts of Christmas card clip-outs onto a board and shellac it for a family member who either can’t be with you for the holidays or can’t be with you throughout the rest of the year. Send it to them as a writing/laptop board to remind them of your cheery love throughout the time you all are apart.

Come up with some new ideas of your own – and share them here for the rest of us to enjoy!

And may your year be full of Christmas blessings!

-just jody

Related articles:

A Resolute New Year

Posted on by Standard 6

New years resolution

Need a worthwhile resolution for the New Year?

Resolve to save a life for just $10. 

No More Malaria Gift Link

No More Malaria Gift Link

Eventually, the life could become your own.

__________________________________________________________

One of this week’s WordPress Daily Prompts was this:

Franz Kafka said, “we ought to read only books that bite and sting us.” What’s the last thing you read that bit and stung you?

The last recent thing I’ve read that’s bit and stung me is that nearly 1 million people are dying annually from being bitten by malaria-infested mosquitoes, a large majority of them being children. And, truthfully, that really does bite! 

We’re not talking fictional horror here. We’re talking about precious little faces that are very real to me – little ones who have survived a war-torn world only to face continued daily threats that could realistically be wiped out if enough people cared to make a difference. The cost is even ridiculously low. And, yet, few people are willing to respond. In further honesty, that reality stings.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s the BUZZ:

Malaria is not a disease that only occurs in third world countries.

It’s not a disease that’s been eradicated.

As a matter of fact, my own grandmother suffered from the malaria parasite here in the United States. Once a person acquires malaria, it can be treated, but there is no cure. Outbreaks may occur throughout that person’s life, with malaria being responsible for many deaths, particularly in children under the age of 5.

3.3 billion people live in areas where this disease is a constant threat. 

The “elimination” of malaria within developed countries, such as the U.S. and European ones, does not mean that it no longer exists. In the U.S., this “elimination” definition went into place circa 1950, through the impact from spraying and improved drainage. Yet, malaria still has the capability of affecting residents even of developed countries. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates approximately 1,500 cases in the U.S. annually.

Outbreaks generally come from either mosquito-borne transmission, “airport” malaria (whereby mosquitoes survive from one country to another on a plane), congenital transmission (mother to child, during pregnancy or birth), and blood transfusions. Don’t fool yourself into feeling too safe. The CDC also explains that there are still ample numbers of the same types of mosquitoes around who created malaria problems for us within our past century.

In under-developed tropical/sub-tropical countries, malaria can run rampant. The largest worldwide malaria burden is in Africa, where 90% of malaria-related deaths occur. The CDC explains the reasons it is difficult to contain the disease there as:

  • an efficient mosquito that transmits the infection,

  • a high prevalence of the most deadly species of the parasite,

  • favorable climate,

  • weak infrastructure to address the disease, and

  • high intervention costs that are difficult to bear in poor countries.

Prevention efforts include spraying, mosquito nets and education. Treatment efforts include getting medicines to the medical clinics and communication efforts to get people to them. Our nation, along with others, have assisted in funding many of the spraying efforts, and I’ve read articles recently explaining that if such efforts get reduced, we will go back many years in our worldwide efforts towards eradication.

The Imagine No Malaria campaign was put together by some strong and dedicated partners – partners that have no need to skim your money off the top before it goes to meet greater needs – including the United Nations Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The World Health Organization, the people of the UMC, and others. No one is a stronger partner than those individuals willing to give to this effort, though.

I can’t imagine that $10 is too much to ask to save someone – particularly a young child – to either save a life, in general, or to greatly improve a person’s quality of life.

Will you resolve to make that difference?

Related:

Daily Prompt: Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution that you kept?

Christmas Surprise?!

Posted on by Standard 2

Slow as Christmas

Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise!

Last Year’s Christmas morning brought quite a surprise with it – 

something I’ve never seen my entire life on Christmas Day as a Southern states girl.

WE WERE AWAKENED TO THE EXCITEMENT OF…

A WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!!

White Christmas

White Christmas 2

Related articles:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Reflections

Posted on by Standard Reply

Sometimes my Reflections are of the personal “me” kind –

Who I Am

Who I Yet Wish to Be

Where I’ve Been

Where I Yet Hope to See

Reflecting on Where I would Frame my Home

Reflecting on Where I would Frame my Home

All These Dreams Are Locked Up Inside of Me

Self-Reflection of the Narcissistic Kind?

Self-Reflection of the Narcissistic Kind?

When I can reflect beyond myself –

Only Then Am I Truly Free

To Become…So Much More Than Me

***

Others’ Reflections can be viewed here.

***

Growing Wisdom Teeth – Take it From Me

Posted on by Standard 4

One of the daily prompts this week was: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve given someone that you failed to take yourself?

One of the most worthy pieces of advice that I try to dispense to myself to follow is this:

Never follow another’s advice if that individual hasn’t tried this suggestion out on/for him/herself first. Then assure that individual is trustworthy when you ask how things worked out. 

Do-overCase in point.  My youngest son is in the unfortunate position of having two older and seemingly more life-experienced brothers who enjoy doling out unsolicited advice to him about “women.” He’s found that some of this advice hasn’t served him so well, though. For instance, recently, when young friends of the female persuasion asked him and other male counterparts to go to a middle school dance, he and his friends quickly came to learn that, “I’ll get back to you – I’m keeping my options open” didn’t have the mundane explanatory effect they had anticipated from the advice that had been given.

Here’s what I do consider to be a worthy piece of advice that I wish I’d followed in younger years:

Total Package?Recently, my friend’s beautiful, thin teenage daughter was distraught because her boyfriend told her she probably needed to run some extra laps. As my friend and I were commiserating about why women allow themselves to be torn down in this way, I dispensed the following advice to the daughter (that I wish I’d taken for myself when I was her age and dealing with jerks who felt it necessary to tear down others’ self-esteem to make themselves feel better):  I told her to thank her ‘self-declared gift to women’ for his suggestion and then make one of her own that, while she was out running extra laps, he should think about going and swimming a few – and he should be sure to keep his mouth open while giving out his advice – preferably while his head was under the water. (I can now – later in life – defer to my opening statement on this one, as I learned to become fairly proficient at telling suck-the-life-out-of-you suitors to ‘go take a hike’ at an exponentially faster rate throughout the years.)

And here’s a piece of advice that I haven’t yet tried, but think it’s worth a shot. This is for women who find they have been designated as the official ‘Changer of the TP’ in the household:

TP ChangeLadies, the reason your men don’t change out the empty toilet paper rolls is because they perceive them as too soft and safe to be categorized as a manly project. Here’s your helpful hint to get the job done: Simply adjust your dispenser so the inner spring comes flying out at a ridiculously high velocity and indeterminate angle, whereas personal protective equipment would be required to minimize the chance of injuries. If your man perceives this challenge to be dangerous enough to take out an eye (or perhaps even a testicle), then he’ll deem the t.p. roll worthy of being changed.

Let me know how these work out for you…

For more pieces of advice (good, bad or otherwise), visit the Daily Prompt here.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Thankful!

Posted on by Standard 7

I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.  -I Corinthians 1:4

Family members returned, just before Thanksgiving, from Ligitolo, South Sudan with which our Church District is in Covenant. I was privileged to help go around to various churches in our area, as well as speak to people from our community, helping to explain how they could visually demonstrate their prayers for the people within this ‘newest country community’ to see, by tying colorful prayer cloths to a netting as they sent up their prayers for them.

Here is a picture of the missionaries presenting these visual prayers as a way to express one kind of support they receive daily from the commitments made by those who lovingly tied on each of their cloths.

Now, look at the response given by the people in this small village of South Sudan. They, too, wanted to send up prayers for the people of our District – not only prayers of thankfulness, but to let their brothers and sisters in the states know they were also praying for them.

Here, you can see them gathering to place their own prayer cloths onto the net.

Isn’t that just like God? Often times, when we think we are blessing someone else, we are, in fact, casting a net that will spread many blessings. Blessings that have a way of coming back to us. Why? Because you can’t out-give God. The Bible tells of a story when fishermen had worked hard all day by themselves, but had caught very little when doing so. Then Jesus showed up in their midst. When Jesus told the fishermen to cast in their nets, they doubted – nevertheless, they obeyed. The nets came up so full that they were overflowing and bursting at the seams.

Funny how much fuller our lives tend to be when we listen and obey the Word of God.

Here are  a couple of other photos from this past trip that remind me to be continually thankful.

The Hope Kindergarten School is thankful because their area has HOPE once more.

This is Wani Silent. As a worship leader, he is anything but that! Our family assists in sponsoring this young man, who believes he wants to become a preacher – to lead the people in their thankfulness and praise.

Praise the Lord! Praise him with trumpet sound, praise him with lute and harp! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!  -Psalm 150:3

***

How do you best express your own thankfulness?

To hear how others are thankful, or to share your own version of thankfulness, visit the Weekly Photo Challenge page.

Wearin’ ON the Green

Posted on by Standard 4

Heading to the Play-Offs
Goal-Driven
Getting an “Adda-boy” from an Older Teammate
On Par
Run for Fun
Catch the Green Spirit!
Now You’re Catchin’ On!

 

Go Green!!

(Specifically, get ON your Green with Sports Participation – whether it’s a green jersey, a field of green, or if you’re green but willing!)

Below, my son (far right) gets to come out showing his pride with his Green Team.

Headed to the Playoffs

Here he is, breaking loose and flying down the green, due to help from his awesome teammates:

Goal-Driven

Catch onto The Benefits of GoingGreen (with Sports Participation):

Promotion of a Healthy Lifestyle with Good Nutrition and Exercise Choices

Environment that Promotes Goal Setting towards Achievement

Elevated Self-Esteem and Others’-Esteem with the Incorporation of a Team Encouragement Mentality

Environment that Learns to Deal with Conflict Management Fairly (through Rule-Setting) and Respectfully (through Authority Management of Coaches, Referees, Umpires)

Learning to Diplomatically Deal with Disappointments in Life (loss against other teams, delays in development or due to injuries)

Learning to Reassess Responsibly and Practically

There are also Practical Warnings that must be heeded here:

Though all of the above points serve to point out how sports participation build character, when taken to the extreme, any wrongfully-enacted point can do damage to a child’s character just as easily. Examples include:

A coach (or parent) who drives forward with a goal of winning at all costs will ultimately damage self-esteem and a child’s ability to form lasting relationships.

Athletes who are pushed to take supplements that can have negative health effects or allowed to continue playing with injuries are not going to learn healthy lifestyle choices.

Sports participation should be emphasized as PART of a holistic educational approach, with the understanding that everyone has their own talents and interests. Children should be allowed to experiment and choose based on a balance of these. Extra-curricular programs can allow students who do not make school teams to continue on with a sport of interest; while even natural athletes shouldn’t feel forced to play something in which a talent may be evident, but interest is not.

Competition should not be OVER-emphasized OR UNDER-emphasized. Children must understand how to lose and win honorably and respectably/respectfully. Awards are goals for which we can strive, but also serve to teach us to applaud those who reach a little further to achieve them. Participation awards should be carefully considered and sparingly disbursed, as they can actually serve to water down the meaning of achievement and sportsmanship.

There is nothing more inspirational than…

to watch an athlete respectably lose and then remain to joyfully cheer on his or her opponent with that same level of respect. Whenever I witness this, I always walk away feeling as though I witnessed a rare champion who is going to go far in life.

Feed the Green in You!

President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition Participate in Programs Page

To see how other bloggers are “Wearin’ Green” this week, go to the

Weekly Photo Challenge: Green.