Thanksgiving decorating ideas
Is there a better time to go all out and become traditional than a day like Thanksgiving? You have already gone to the bother of cooking a traditional feast for your family. Why not set the table to match? This can be done the day or two before the big event and when you begin setting all the delicious food onto that lovely table, you may be glad you went the extra step.
Where do you start? You start with a traditional table cloth. This would be a real table cloth made of material or lace. You can choose one that is the color and pattern you like. Simply wash it, dry it and place it on your table. If you do it in that order, there is no need to iron it (sorry mom, most of us still hates to use that iron.)
Next, think about your plates. Do you have a nice set of matching plates that you never use? Could this be the China set you got for your wedding day? This is the perfect occasion to get these out and use them. Of course, for the smallest visitors, you may choose to give them some of your less expensive plates to use and you can even place these visitors at their separate table to keep from breaking up your beautiful theme.
After you dig out the plates, look for your best napkins and glasses. Wash all of this, dry carefully and place on the table. Finally, the fun part begins. This is taking a drive to your nearest flower shop and choosing one nice autumn theme boutique for your center piece. Make sure it is one that will hold up until Thanksgiving and isn’t too big. You don’t want the flower to take up the entire room.
Once you get the flower home, place it in the middle of the table. For now, you can even place a couple of gold candles beside it for ambience. The candles can be moved on Thanksgiving to make room for the food. The flower can also be moved to a side table, if needed, to make extra room for your food.
Consider lending your talents to other homeschoolers
If there is one thing I learned about homeschooling, it's that each educating parent has their own set of unique talents. When parents get together every so often, they can use these talents for the good of more than just their own children. Their children will also benefit from the talents of others.
My daughter's best friend has a mother who taught elementary school for over 9 years before retiring to homeschool her own daughter. She is currently holding an election class for 5 homeschoolers plus her daughter. My daughter is having a great time learning about the upcoming election process. The election class is only running a period of 6 weeks total, so it wasn't a huge time commitment, but it did present a unique learning opportunity for those 5 kids.
I'm the mom that doesn't mind getting a bit messy. This means the homeschoolers my daughter is friends with come to my house for pumpkin carving and painting, cooking baking at Christmas, and egg dying at Easter. Again, not a big time commitment.
Even homeschooling grandparents get in on the fun. One grandmother taught at a Christian school for 25 years. She now gives free literature lessons to homeschoolers. It is just a matter of parents and grandparents coming together to see what each can offer. Maybe one parent enjoys planning field trips, and another has experience in the drama department. Perhaps a grandparent can offer piano lesson or home economic instruction.
Try reaching out to the homeschooling families in your area to see if any families will be interested in exchanging talents.
Three pretzel snack recipes you are sure to love
Pretzels are pretty cheap to buy in bulk, which makes them perfect for using in snack recipes for my kids. Of course, they would get bored if I just gave them pretzels, so I like to jazz the pretzels up with the following recipes.
1. Pretzel Snack Mix: Place a cup of pretzels in a mixing bowl. Add ¼ cup of nuts (your choice), 1/8th cup raising, and ½ cup of rice cereal. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small pot. Mix in 1/8th cup of honey and 1/8th cup of brown sugar. Stir until slightly thick. Poor over the pretzel mix. Stir all of the ingredients together. Wait for the butter/honey/brown sugar mixture to cool before snacking on the pretzel mix.
2. Chocolate Covered Pretzels: Lay waffle style pretzels on a baking sheet. Place a chocolate kiss on top of each pretzel. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until the chocolate begins to melt a little bit. Remove the pretzels from the oven and top with a mini-marshmallow. Cool in the fridge to stop the chocolate from melting any further. Serve to the kids.
3. Pretzel Raft: Soften some cream cheese ahead of time. Roll out a Fruit Roll-Up that is blue in color and set it on a paper plate. Place a graham cracker on the Fruit Roll-Up and cover it with the cream cheese. Press pretzel rods over the cream cheese to form a raft. Now it looks like the raft is floating in blue water.
Tips: You can cover the chocolate kiss in the second recipe with an M&M, a Skittle, a peanut, or any other food your child likes to eat.
The many uses of a pumpkin
I love fall and seeing pumpkins everywhere I go. Perhaps its their vibrant orange color, or the fact that they signify cooler, more comfortable weather with upcoming family holidays. If you love pumpkins as much as I do, you may want to use them for more than just carving. Here are a few more uses for your fall pumpkins.
1. A painting craft for younger children. Younger kids shouldn't be allowed to carve pumpkins, but you don't want them to feel left out. Giving them a set of paints to create a face for the pumpkin is a good compromise. This year my daughter painted an Angry Bird face on hers.
2. To hold your the stuffing for your family dinner. After you clean out the inside of a small pumpkin, you can bake it for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees without the lid. Next, fill it with your favorite stuffing and cook another half an hour or so with aluminum foil covering the opening to the pumpkin. Serve hot. Tip: I love to use chicken broth instead of water when I make my stuffing.
3. As a decoration: Pumpkins make great decorations for fall. You can put them on your fireplace mantle, in the center of your dining room table, or on the steps that lead up to your front door. You can even clean one out and set the candy for the trick-or-treaters inside of one.
4. As a birdhouse. Although the birds will soon be flying south for the winter, you can make a temporary bird house out of the pumpkin. Clean the pumpkin out, cut some holes in the outside of it so the birds can get in, and fill the bottom of the pumpkin with bird seed.
Free Sample: Chocolate Cream of Wheat
I enjoy a nice hot bowl of Cream of Wheat on a cold fall or winter morning. We also always keep a box on hand for use during illnesses. Cream of Wheat seems to be nice and easy on the stomach, which makes it perfect for consuming during a cold or after a stomach bug. Anyway, Cream of Wheat has now come out with a new flavor-chocolate. In order to get more customers for the product, Cream of Wheat is offering a free sample of their new chocolate Cream of Wheat.
Each day during the entire month of October, Cream of Wheat is offering the first 10,000 individuals who fill out the form on their Facebook page to receive a free sample of their chocolate Cream of Wheat. When I logged on at 10 am, they were down to 3,527 free samples so make sure you request the sample before lunch or you will likely have to wait until the next day.
Only one free offer per household is allowed. All you have to do is “Like” the page and fill out the form. The form requires your full name, mailing address, and email address. There are also two boxes you could check if you want to receive future emails. I left them blank though. Finally, you'll have to fill out a quick survey, which doesn't take long at all. Then you click “Submit” and you'll get a confirmation email with a unique number that lets you know your request is being processed. According to their website, your sample should arrive within six to eight weeks.
Get a Payless gift card half off at Saveology
If you are not currently a member of the website Saveology, you should be. Joining the site is completely free. There are never any hidden charges or fees associated with joining the site, or with buying any of the special deals. New subscribers are eligible to take advantage of an awesome deal—get a $15 Payless gift card for half the price. There is no trick or catch to receiving this deal. You just have to be new to the site.
Each day Saveology has a new deal that you can take advantage of. These deals are usually only available for a 24 hour period, so make sure you sign up to receive email updates. Then you'll be notified of the newest deal to see if it is something you'd like to take advantage of.
The website only issues one warning—that you rent the offers details before making a purchase. Many of these offers have an expiration date. You don't want to purchase a gift card that expires in three days if you have no plans to get to that particular store in time. You will need a credit card to make the purchase, but the website uses a secure server for receiving payments.
The Payless offer fine print says that you can use the gift card both online and in the store, and it has no expiration date. It does say that you'll need to wait a full 24 hours after purchasing the gift card before you can use it. There is a limit of one gift card per household, but feel free to share the offer with family and friends so that they too can take advantage of this awesome deal.
Free Sample: H2O Overdrive beverage
I am always on the hunt for new products to try. I was excited this week to discover that H2O Overdrive is offering a free bottle of their new beverage that is said to keep you hydrated. The website does show that the product's claims to hydrate, increase stamina, and boost recovery have not been evaluated by the FDA. You'll have to read all of the ingredients on the product to decide if it could be of benefit to you, but from what I see it is filled with vitamins and minerals. Vitamins A, C, D, E, several B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, selenium, and much much more are all inside this drink.
The drink 148 calories, zero of which come from fat. If you feel that you don't get enough nutrition from your diet, then this looks like a good beverage to add to your day. Of course, participating in sports can take a lot out of a person, so this drink might be what you want to have on hand at the end of a soccer match or a football game.
In order to receive a free bottle of H2O Overdrive, you'll need to head to the company's Facebook page and click the “Like” button. Next, you have to fill out a short form. The form requires your full name, full mailing address (or else they won't know where to send your samples), and your email address. You can then pick which flavor your want to try. There are currently three flavors to choose from: Tangy Tangerine Freeze, Lychee-Lemon Rush, or Jostaberry Grape Explosion. Click the “Submit” button once you have all of this information entered.
The Stink of Corruption in Media
It’s no surprise that news stations spin their programming in order to promote whatever political agenda that their owners happen to believe in. They have an interest in keeping people believing one way or the other and see it as a rightful exercise of their power and control. But now it’s being shown that news agencies will go even further than just being biased - they’re willing to sell their coverage to those who can pay their price.
The exposed culprit is CNN, one of the supposedly “reputable” news networks. The scandal revolves around CNN reporting on the human rights abuses in the country of Bahrain. There is a popular uprising in Bahrain and the government there is keen on not letting the world know the truth of the matter - that they are brutally abusing their citizens much the same as those in Syria did before the revolution there began.
It’s (now former) CNN journalist Amber Lyon who had the courage to blow the whistle on this one. She had been working on a documentary report about the troubles in Bahrain recently and even though her story showed the human rights abuses going on first hand, the end result was a product that was edited and spun at the request of Bahrain’s government.
The stink began when Lyon was airing some coverage that showed the events in Bahrain. These are things that she and her crew risked their lives to get recordings of. But in addition to not being allowed to air this news on CNN International (and thus limiting the audience), the government of Bahrain called CNN and complained that the report needed to be completely off the air.
Lyons was so upset with the developments that she walked on CNN, telling them that if they were going to let other countries pay to manipulate the news that those in charge should at least have the courtesy to let viewers know who the sponsors were.
We’ve always known that the news is corrupt to some degree, but this case just spells it out. If you are powerful enough you can simply call a TV station and tell them to produce whatever story makes you look the best. And if you don’t like what they have to say, write a check and have them pull it. The ethics of journalism seem to be fading rapidly and it spells out a serious danger for the future.
Police Shoot Naked, Unarmed 18-Year Old Student
After writing my post the other week about the shooting death of a one-armed, one-legged amputee, I thought that police couldn’t sink any lower in their blatant disregard for human life. As it turns out, I was wrong. This last week, a campus policeman at the University of South Alabama opened fire on a naked and unarmed 18-year old student, killing him in cold blood.
The report is that the naked teen was on LSD, charging the officer and threatening him. The incident was caught on a surveillance camera as well, showing that the officer in question came out of the campus police station with his gun already drawn. Unfortunately, the most crucial part of the conflict occurred off-camera, so the truth may never be fully known.
Of course, how much threat could a naked man be? Aren’t the police supposed to be trained in hand-to-hand combat, as well as having a variety of non-lethal weapons on their person to deal with such emergencies? Does the first defense an officer resorts to need to be the one that’s fatal? Does this speak poorly of the training procedures or of the people they recruit into the police force?
Many people are asking those same questions and there is a protest being planned by other students to take place in front of the university police department - the same place where the student was shot. In addition, an investigation is being made into exactly what happened, two investigations in fact. One is being conducted by the police department and the other by a lawyer working for the family of the deceased.
Whatever the end result of the investigation, it is still an atrocity that police feel they have the right to discharge their weapon in anything other than a life-threatening situation. If they don’t have the ability to figure out what “life-threatening” means, then they really should be looking for other work - work where innocents are not put in danger because of their faulty judgment.
Zetas Cartel Leader Gunned Down on Accident
It looks like there may be a resounding victory for the Mexican government in its seemingly endless struggle against the drug cartels. The leader of the Zetas cartel, Heriberto “The Executioner” Lazcano is dead at the hands of government marines. The Zetas are currently the largest and most powerful cartel in the country and this blow to their leadership may help in bringing them to a quicker end.
Lazcano was one of the most wanted men in Mexico, so much in fact that the U.S. had offered $5 million for his capture. What makes the story even more interesting is that the killing was unknown for some time, as no one knew who he was. The marines responsible were trying to search a group of suspicious people at a baseball stadium, but the standard procedure turned to violence when the people started throwing grenades. The marines fired back and killed a few people, one of them being Lazcano. They might never have known it was him if not for the fact that some armed men later broke into the funeral home where the body was being stored and stole it. Police then decided to check the body’s fingerprints and discovered the truth.
This comes at a time when the drug wars are heating up rapidly. The city of Progreso, where the firefight occurred, has gotten so bad that they can’t even keep a police force there. No one will offer to work in law enforcement and thus government marines are expected to keep the peace.
This one lucky break has the potential to be devastating to the Zetas or reinvigorate them. The next in command is a man named Miguel Angel Trevino and he’s known for being even more brutal and violent than Lazcano was. There’s a chance that there will be a struggle over the power vacuum left by the former leader’s death, which would not only keep the Zetas busy for a time, but would also significantly reduce their numbers in the ensuing violence. Hopefully it tends toward the latter, as retaliation from a stabilized Zetas could be very bloody.