Conversation starters are usually caused by comparing notes eating at local Maine diners.
Elbow to elbow with the pass the black pepper please courtesy exchange. Not just creating. sharing idle chatter filling the time about the Maine weather either. We pick up and have been a hitch hiker too and add to the memory banks with bits and pieces from those of others roaming the state of Maine.
Telling stories, weaving the tales. About where you live now, have lived in the past. And sharing how things roll here seem to compare to there.
Small Town Maine Is All About Home Grown. Not Found Online Because Not Always Reported About Daily.
Maybe in Maine the outbuildings dominate the house they surround. Carry over from living on a Maine farm or moving into a property that was one in a former life use.
In my day job to pay the bills, the kid’s braces and other expenses, it is not just conversations about the real estate in Maine for sale either. Lots of the other topics than property listings in Maine from A to Z covered.
Cat Nap In Maine. The Snippets, Moments Are A String Of Magic.
And property taxes probably comes up more than any other topic.
Everyone thinking they are too high or that we are not getting our money’s worth.
Working too hard to let go of the currency on this side of the border with Canada. That is worth about .69 cents US compared to where red maple leaf flutter.
If you have never been to Maine, don’t start believing the myths either. About polar bears, igloos, dogsled teams for daily transportation to and fro.
It is not like that in Vacationland. Really.
More about the Maine weather today. The seasons, climate, weather of Maine taken apart for just the straight scoop. Maine weather. By far the most maligned topic of any that we have to correct folks on in a nice, respectful way.
Apply Ice. Playing By The Rules. Living Simply In Maine.
And divorce topics because they happen here in Maine too like everywhere else. For lots of reasons.
And what about worry? I read somewhere that worry is like praying for something you don’t want to see happen. Why would you when it is put in those terms?
So if you stumbled onto this Me In Maine blog post stream realize the hunt and peck in other venues happens daily too.
Because information about small Maine town, living in one is not everywhere you look online. Kinda specialized and purely rural thinking that is simple, real, rewarding.
We take requests for blog post creation on anything Maine.
What would you like to know more about from a local who hangs his hat here and takes notes. Is willing to compare them show and tell fashion with pictures and words.
Too much, too little homework and what happens if you go either way?
And how does the US stack up in the peek at global education today? Stagnant results in education since 2009 is the report I found over and over. When searching the topic to create a blog post on US education compared to the rest of the World‘s spinning globe puzzle pieces.
What got me thinking about education today was snow days school cancellations and why the gradual shift.
How easily they are predicted ahead of time, taken liberally and why when it was not the case looking back at when I was chasing the three R’s. In a class room while the white stuff piled up and not at home killing time inside on a couch grazing on snacks.
Negative People Are Not Mountain Climbers. Get High Up, Surround Yourself With Positive People.
Global warming is not making it ice ice baby colder in Maine.
This year especially has been an open field and water winter in Maine. Good luck ice fishing, playing pond hockey in Maine due to warm winter weather.
A few inches of new snow, no wind, daylight visibility with cracker jack snow plowing in Maine.
But as state and local towns pull back on the road salt, plowing crew details and sanding, maybe school cancellation will be more life and death important in Maine. Learn more about Maine weather.
How important is education to a child always was preached around the family table in the Maine home.
But today, divorce causes split time and more than one table for the important talk.
More than one job to make ends meet or to buy more of life’s goodies hurts. The talks, guidance needed in building the productive citizen of tomorrow. That is self sufficient and gives back to improve their community. That is happy, content, active not lazy.
Less Used In Maine. More Outdoor Channels To Tap Into Instead Of 300 On The Tube And Nothing To Watch Happening.
The push to make education a priority.
It takes setting goals, realistic expectations and discussion on why education is important to all of us in this nation, state, local community. How to preserve it, to learn what society is going through that is harmful and why.
Also frugal use of the money a small Maine community has to stretch to the maximum to get the most bang for the taxpayer buck.
To get educational results locals determine not just pulled by the nose of experts on the west coast.
Somewhere many moons away from a small Maine town. Is new and different always better than tried and tested?
Bring The Family Farm Members. Lots Of Young Families At MOFGA Farmer To Farmer Conference.
But back to homework, the length of school days when snow happens and teacher workshops during the day causes early dismissal. Where to prioritize, how to run the educational part of a child’s school life?
If your child has more emphasis on sports, dance, music lessons around the clock and less on the homework or school day, how is the educational score doing to increase on the World platform comparison?
Home work.
It was our job as a kid growing up in Maine. If kids did not have much of it growing up, hang on when they go on to college. No doubt you have heard, know of college students that flunk out. Not just due to weekend partying that starts too early and never stops in a semester. But the workload, experience with budgeting your time and tackling whatever amount of homework is assigned. Harder if foreign, missing and not exposed to home work back in your home town without it.
Time to play Wii U, Play Station 4, Xbox One, RetroN 5 etc after school and into the evening might be one reason given for no time to do home work. In addition to sports, music, drama, gymnastics, clubs or extra curricular activities.
My hand is up, guilty of jumping on, firing up the Banshee in Xbox’s Halo game when the kids were smaller and in the nest sprouting wings to fly from the coop. But not round the clock or forgetting to eat, sleep, other responsibilities. The game ran its course. We cracked the code. Had enough. Let’s do something, get outside took over. We go outside to play as kids, all our adult life.
Is it the parents can’t help like our Mom and Dad did? Too far out and very different teaching modules to blame that confuse the parents and the kids if their attention span is too short in and out of school? Or are Mom and Dad strung out and just spacey, distracted too?
Dumbing down of society and need to put up the controller, take off the headset and sign off the video games to blame? And over booked schedules, divorced parents trying to be Disney ones? Poor nutrition with empty calories of the wrong stuff that is fast but not healthy food adding to the decline? Overweight meaning too slow to keep up?
Kids, They Are The Entertainment In Small Maine Homes.
Or are kids depressed, unhappy because something is missing but they are not sure what?
Not enough to do around the house because it is not a farmstead complete with chores before and after school to greet youngsters hopping off the yellow bus.
Or “loser cruiser” as some call it who instead get shuttled to and from by adults.
Taking their lunch hours in split shifts to accomplish the rides and zip to and from work. To hit games, practices, pick up and drop offs.
Turn off the big screen television in the media rec room where many in the nation unplug and recharge. Inside artificially rather than outdoors all natural, pure, unfiltered in Maine.
Lifted By The Wind, Powered By Hot Air In Oakfield Maine.
Are kids needing to be entertained and so little for jobs inside and outside the home the reason?
Unless it is fun, arms get crossed and a frown appears. Are kids happy these days and pitching in around the home, feeling responsible, working members of the household? Is flipping burgers for money to buy the prom dress, the school ring beneath a kid today?
I think kids from broken homes, not happy where they reside make teaching today a very big challenge for educators.
Years ago it was blame the kid for poor test or report card results and the teacher, parent were together working to change that. Not Jimmy and Jane have the parent on the side that is quick to blame who leads from upfront in the class. Is that it? Part of it?
Educators, our school teachers are loaded up with their own version of home work. Standards to meet, lawsuits to avoid when behavioral issues distract from the educational the process.
Happy Kids In Maine, It’s Black And White, Kept Simple In Rural Vacationland.
And discipline options are now limited and respect is missing from some of the kids. Because the same condition applies at home. If babied, over indulged, and made to feel it is all about them, not others. If take care of number one kids rules.
Coaxing over and over to please stop doing that with hand wringing pleading. When just a glass sharp edged look with no words, not a finger lifted used to do the trick.
Because Mom, Dad, the teacher were allies. The kid knew it. No way to buffalo or bambussle the parent with what happen today in class or out during recess, on the bus or at practice. Spin did not work and was not tried because of the you wait until your father gets home Momma Bear would remind.
It is no longer just a few weekly activities to compete with school work but instead lots of daily ones tacked onto to busy student schedules.
To compete with home work time. If running the roads, not enough hours in the day and night. To shut off the distractions. Practice moderation. Easy does it. Make the time to study. To put the books, pencil and paper out on a desk or the kitchen, dining room table for home work.
Collision Of Fall Not Done, Winter Just Dropping In A Tad Early. Seasonal Rivalry.
No one is home until the later and later and then the race to get to bed.
Are kids and parents exhausted today with the recreation and just too affluent to be able to fund all the fanfare? Where if some of it was toned down, dialed back a few degrees life could be less hurry scurry and a blur.
All I know is Maine is a rural state, living is simpler and the education happens at home just as much as in the school classroom.
We prepare our kids for the work world ahead of them. They do have jobs growing up, to study, do well in school. To improve and for thinking about where all this leads.
Family meals are sacred in Maine.
No TV, no short order cook taking requests for a variety of meals to feed individually either. Pitch in, this is what we are having, be grateful preached. Conversations about how did your day discussed by everyone around the table. Chores inside and outside the home performed.
Year Round, Maine Lakes, Ponds Get Enjoyed. Used Like The Outdoor Living Room.
Pick up after yourself practiced. Kids not paid for everything done. Certain jobs and use of property expected.
The list growing as the years marked by the number of burning candles at birthday cake and ice cream time increases.
Things bought with the money that is earned are respected, taken care of and what is valuable is not always store bought.
Latch key kids is less apt to happen in a small Maine town.
Most folks living here don’t commute hours to work both ways each day. And some family member is handy. One parent still found at home in Maine. Sacrifices made to preserve that. With belt tightening to have it that way during the childhood years.
In Maine, where the village stills helps raise the child. Every one of them in the small Maine town connection. Kids still have imaginations and use them. Hike and camp the great outdoors. Sample this clean water, fresh air, drop dead gorgeous surroundings call Maine.
How people spend their leisure time in Maine, anywhere.
I have read there are two kinds of people in the world. Vacation and vocation flavors. Small town Maine people are industrious and work hard for everything they have. Like to maintain their properties and to respect what nature provides us. To keep it unspoiled and pure. Teaching their kids the same good stewardship with our air, land and water.
Sunshine Outside In Maine During Winter. We Dress Warm, Head Outside.
So doing both is important. Making a living. Keeping up with the job jar and your chores around a family home. Where everyone pitches in to keep things running smoothly. But also shutting down, taking off frequently. Experiencing all that Maine or points unknown out into that the four directions can provide a person.
Vacations along the way and not waiting until retirement to have all the fun in one session.
That works best. Especially as you read the low age numbers on many newspaper obituaries. Seeing lots of examples of the good, bad, the ugly all do die young.
While I munch on a blueberry cream cheese bagel or nibbling on a Mexican omelet. Chasing a hash brown potato with my fork around the plate greased with hot salsa.
We are lucky in a small town to live in Maine, Vacationland so no need to leave the state to find the fun. It is all around us. Right here in our own backyard. Meow. Hello. Have you sampled the Maine eye candy?
Today is a Sunday morning and time to rise and shine. Tap out a blog post. Take a walk. Finish a book. But tackling a bathroom that needs one tile replace, the rest painted because of some staining due to a little pesky dishwasher leak from last winter. That’s the plan Stan.
Unless I get distracted. Maine’s drop dead gorgeous beauty is famous for causing distractions.
Sample ME. Pick A Place Breathe Deep The Salty Air. Drink In The Sounds Of The Maine Sea. Get Ready To Plant Your Beach Chair Along The Miles Of Maine Coastline.
Overdue on the strap on the utility belt but the completion of the playing Mr Green Jeans or Bob Vila for this little job.
That will provide a feeling of satisfaction once the heave ho is thrown into the small project. And gets underway in earnest. Once the second black coffee works its magic.
Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, of family worship.
But counting your blessings daily. That better be happening every day of the week. Not just at the tail end. And when you are outside in Maine taking in the drop dead gorgeous surroundings, you know this setting is nothing man could or did create. It makes you humble, grateful, centered. Daily time in the spiritual garden.
So much of what we do in a small Maine town, out in the country home location involves barter. No money exchanged but many hands making light work. We are connected, know everyone and reach out to help.
Farm Fresh Locally Sourced Food From Maine. Get Healthy Inside And Out In Maine.
But sometimes the small stuff means go solo. Like multi-tasking, taking a break and just concentrating on one or two things without the help of others. Without rigging up the self inflicted carrot, stick, pony and cart to motivate.
So checking to see what existing paint that could work is already on the shelf. Locating a brush, putting down a drop cloth.
Then off to Sherwin Williams, the place that covers the Earth in paint of every kind and color. Or a local hardware store, maybe Wally World.
Knowing I will meet someone along the way that is doing the same.
Many drawing from a honey do list. And in a small Maine town, banging into others that always makes it social. Mixing business with pleasure happens a lot. We talk, smile, engage with each other unlike a cold impersonal city where look down, look away. Not don’t smile or make eye contact.
You are related somehow to many in the local haunts you frequent in a small Maine. The circles we travel are smaller, more intimate, somehow connected. The longer you log time in a small Maine town. Your circle of friends widens to include pretty much everyone. In time, you will know most of the folks you see if you are friendly, involved in the small Maine community.
Need More Snow To Provide Plenty Of Water For Maine Canoe Circuit Races This Spring. To Fuel The Paddling Adventure.
This winter not quite enough snow in Maine to swish swish down a hill or snow sled across a field, through the woods.
Many waterways are still open and no layer of ice to allow passage or to ice fish. Or play a game of pond hockey outside rather than in a refrigerated arena setting.
But that could all change and we prepare for the day we have ahead of us. Whatever unfolds. Making whatever in the weather forecast fit the way we want to enjoy today. Living in Maine.
In Maine, it’s dress appropriately and get outside always applies. Enjoy the great outdoors is always the order of the day of another day in Maine.
Life is short and getting more out of it. Everyone buzzes about quality of life.
The definition of what is best is up for debate. Some of it is country mouse vs city rodent thinking. A bit of the problem is not being equipped with life skills to not just get through life. But to enjoy it.
Life coaches, to pay for advice and guidance. Because life does not come with an instruction manual or You Tube video. Or as some of my customers call it a Yoo Hoo video.
When in Maine growing up we got the navigation help shelling peas with grandmother on the open front porch swing. Or from Uncle Bob, Grandpa, your neighbor down the back road or two streets over in a small Maine town. Shingling a garage roof.
Veggie Tales, CAP Certified MOGA Organic Food Best Practices Discussed At A Recent Farmer To Farmer Conference.
Fixing a pick up truck stuck brake shoe. Or stacking home heating firewood retrieved from a Maine woodlot. Maybe hands on practical know how passed on from working on a Maine farm chain gang crew of field laborers.
All the village helping us in some way to tackle some roadblock in life. To insert the key, open the door, lift a window and let us proceed armed with knowledge to the next hurdle.
We ate locally sourced food that we grew. Watched grow. And just knew where it came from without empty calories, or lacking nutrition.
Slow food carefully prepared vs something shoved out a drive through, NASCAR quick window.
So home remedies the last blog post for 2015 as we wish all our faithful readers a very Happy New Year.
My mom administered the health cures for what ailed her four boys with brown eyes from a short list of remedies.
Cod liver oil was used liberally. Orally by a teaspoon with sugar. Warmed up and rubbed on our chest during times of cold, the flue. When we were horizontal instead of vertical.
Growing What You Eat, Knowing Where It Came From Is Maine.
I don’t know them all but can still vividly see the amber bottle of cod liver oil. With the yellowish label and remembering it was oily on the outside too. After that first use. Human penetrating oil, a WD 40 or Pam of sorts without the aerosol bursts.
Other home remedies applied Maine country living style?
Coke syrup. Not the nose candy white kind movie stars snort on mirrored coffee tables before hitting the clubs dressed scantily to freeze their clavicle as my Mom would say.
But dark slow moving coke syrup. A flat can of Coke could be a poor but adequate if all you have on hand. To settle the stomach. Queasy tummies that sound like someone was bowling, hitting lots of strikes and spares. When the beeline to the bathroom better be a short, obstacle free high speed highway.
The benefits of coke syrup to take care of clogs like a natural drano. To calm the rolling stomach and quiet the noises. For younguns under the weather, lacking warp drive to tackle at light speed the daily Maine farm chore load.
Maine, One Blue And Green Dream. Wake Up, Get To Vacationland.
Burnt toast also used to settle a stomach.
Eating a nibble or two of saltine crackers with the all important ginger ale sips.
To hopefully keep down a little something before rolling in the cart with chicken noodle soup or egg on toast with visible steam heading skyward.
Injected slowly in the pie hole. Wile parked on the couch under an afghan plaid red, green plaid blanket with the fringes.
Witch hazel applied with a pair of Mom’s loving hands. With generous doses oozing out of a tall blue green bottle. Used to ease the aches and pains laying parked. Witch hazel has oral application value but Mom always opted for cod liver oil to work on the insides plus the double duty outside.
My secretary is 100 percent Canadian red maple leaf waver.
God save the king and queen. She remembers gripe water used to fix gas, constipation, teething, upset stomachs colic ridden babies. Used for over a hundred years according to the research I found online for gripe water. and soothing a crying baby.
Raised In A Maine Potato Field, Orphaned But Adopted By Hills, Rows Of Spuds.
Here are other means to calm the little pink or blue bundle of joy. Soothing sounds help along with other tricks to help the parents, baby get through the night. Massage, a gentle touch combine with the Maine home remedies to break the cycle of feeling out of sorts.
Woodstock New Brunswick Canada is just an easy ten minute hop, skip, jump over the International Border from where I hunt and peck in Houlton Maine.
Other home remedies using basic ingredients and nothing exotic in small rural town Maine growing up?
Dad would take a tablespoon of vinegar on a regular basis. Besides the drink of it from the splash the cucumbers took when they hopped in for a bath straight out of the garden. He preached the benefits of simple vinegar for better health.
From hygiene to a heartburn cure, baking sodaworks well in so many ways too. And my favorite salt added to warm water for a quick method to reduce or eliminate a sore throat. Gargle, reduce swelling. Okay, you can rinse. Salt water for a sore throat works wonders. Has other value too!
The best home remedy living in Maine?
Is the day to day simple approach to living in Maine. Freeing a person up to breathe easy, to enjoy clean air and pure water. The all natural ingredients of unspoiled, under populated drop dead gorgeous Maine. We did not get sick much growing up and it was because of that healthy outdoor living. Instead of being cooped up with toxins lingering inside a too tight, cramped space that suffocates.
Like chickens on a Maine farm that put themselves to bed.
No fuss, no muss. Without formality.
Maine wildflowers require nothing from those that enjoy the natural beauty they create.
More Lupines, No Drive By Shootings. No Gangs In Maine Small Town Rural Living.
Arrangements by Mother Nature, with a hand from the wind, birds, bees, Monarchs and other butterflies. Maybe a hummingbird or two flitting to and fro. But nothing required from man for the eye candy and sweet smells. The sway in the breeze of a Maine spring, summer, fall.
When you and I casual wildflower followers travel the back roads of Maine. To see where they end up.
Tramp a Maine woodlot, a forested tract by a meandering river. Or pull the kayak or canoe up onto the shore of a Maine lake or ocean front island. We all spy with the little eye various colors and types of Maine wildflowers that change with the season backdrops. And that we know what we like best out of the wild bunch. Maybe because a loved one remarked about them and their beauty or inner meaning growing up. To key in our awareness. Dial in the joy that becomes our passion to pass on to others.
Wildflower in Maine nicknames we pulled out of thin air. Probably not the Latin name classification or root for them. Few of us really have dug into the full litany of what is out there today. Or who is responsible for how it got to Maine from another continent or country. We just know what we like, what catches our attention. Stops us in our tracks.
Outdoors, That’s Where People Hang Out In Maine.
Like dandelions. If you are in a competition with a neighbor for the greenest, weed free lush lawn, these yellow flowers that go wispy white to re-seed are not a weed, pest to all. Canned dandelions like fiddleheads exist in Maine.
And like the expression about if you have only lemons make lemonade, something good from the bitter, sour in life.
Dandelion wine is a recreational option for adult juice when the supply at your Maine open pasture land provides an endless supply to distill.
But back to wildflowers in Maine that came from outside Vacationland, the Pine Tree State. And attracting the birds, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, you and me to Maine wildflowers.
It is all about the pollinators of Maine wildflowers. To spread the colors, fragrances and varied shapes and sizes of Maine wildflowers and keep the sensory explosion underway. To aid conventional and organic farming in Maine production too. Pass the pollen please.
Kind, Hardworking People. Small Maine Town Volunteers Are Like The Fresh Tasty Fruit. Adding The Special Home Grown Taste To Communities.
Ever see the Meadow in a can tins of Maine wildflower seed collections onlineor in local Maine stores? And who does get enjoyment when the seed catalog shows up from the mailman? And you dream about what packets to buy. Plant on your knees.
Not sure about UFO’s that dug in the dirt and anything that sprouted from their efforts.
See how many you recognize and enjoy in this collection of Maine wildflower images. Maybe the fact man had no further help than introducing them to Maine adds to the wonderment. Of how they self maintain and please perpetually when many are actually outlaw weeds.
Even a burdock when purple and green juicy can be admired. Before the turn to dry, clingy and hitching a ride on anything that gets close. Like a horses tail, mane that prove to be more difficult to release. Even with a card, pail of farmyard water soak and patient livestock combination.
Maine wildflowers, the ones you plant and manage in your gardens are such a joy.
Fresh, Maine Morning Flowers After Overnight Shower Starts A New Day In Vacationland.
They bring much pleasure and help set the pace. Measure, to introduce and make us realize the change of seasons. And jump start a feeling inside about what a new one in Maine brings.
Which is hope, renewal, a re-visit from an old friend. Lady’s slipper, red, white trillium, all the colors of violets and lupine in Maine.
The bacon and eggs, paint brush, queen anne’s lace, columbine, lobelia, daisies, wild asters, lily of the valley. Potato blossoms of white, purple with yellow horns in rolling fields on Maine farms.
Wild blueberry, strawberry, apple, pink and white clover. The healthy herbs. The Jack in the pulpit, buttercup, touch and forget me nots, morning glory and black eyed susan.
The Maine wildflowers all entertain and beautify. Have a valuable place in the country landscape of Maine. Soothe the soul. Provide ground cover and nectar that please the birds, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and you, Me in Maine.
Getting the most out of it. Not missing the magic moments of the little things happening around you. That combine for the bigger take away of a good life. You are in it for the long haul right? Not lazy, not just expecting things to fall in your lap I am sensing.
So right thinking, how to keep out of the ruts, the set backs, the slide to the dark side.
Rolling Around, Keep Moving To Avoid Bogging Down This Christmas Season. Advice For Droids, All Of Us.
( Did you like the new rolling ball droid BB-8 in Star Wars movie? Wonder if the idea came from someone using a Dyson dirt sucker during a break, mental block in script writing?)
We’ve blog posted on stinking thinking before. Let’s weigh in with Irish author Emmet Fox. See what he brings to the table. Has to serve up this morning for food for thought.
Fox born in Ireland, educated in England and died young in France in 1951.
“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
No disease that enough love will not heal;
No door that enough love will not open;
No gulf that enough love will not bridge;
No wall that enough love will not throw down;
No sin that enough love will not redeem. . .
It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake–a sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. . . if only you could love enough, you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.”
Emmet Fox
Changing the channel is easy when something not to your fancy is served up over the airwaves.
Playing With The Beagle, Chuck And Return Beagle Style.
But what about doing the same with your thinking? What rolls around in your head and heart, down next to your soul?
Fox reminds
“You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell
on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind.”
Consider other approaches, positive ones and see the end result you want. Then push toward that goal rather than hands thrown in the air in despair. Which is defined as the complete loss of hope.
Isn’t Christmas the season of hope? Even with timber of a Hello Kitty, non offensive Christmas tree three decade long classroom display?
The Joy Of Young Children, Youth To Make Life, Holidays Bright.
When you are unhappy, isn’t it easier to find fault around you beyond what you are fixated on at the time?
Maybe when we think more about others in need the stick pulls back on its own. Lifting us out of being offended round the clock dead zone.
Hey, considering it all joy takes lots of fortitude.
But who you socialize with, listen to has a big good or negative impact on our thinking. The filter, lens we use to steer our life. To consider the options in the choices on how we think.
Start your day, end it with counting your blessings helps.
Boost your self confidence, raise your self esteem. The overly sensitive, those with low self esteem frequently get their feelings hurt.
You would think all that negativity would cease fire, experience a healthy truce over the Christmas season. For everyone. That thinking back to a childhood of dancing sugar plums and sounds of boisterous reindeer rooftop hooves would suspend all that. If you had that as a child. If you had kids around to re-create that magic again.
But Christmas is also a reminder of lost ones that you enjoyed celebrating it with years ago. Good memories should sooth and create inner peace. Are you braced for holiday happiness? Why people get depressed at Christmas.
The Pets Socialize As Their Owners Do The Same On A Maine Open Deck. Chill.
A study finds that families who focus on buying and receiving gifts report more stress and less satisfaction during the holiday season. The secret to a happy Christmas involves darkening the door of a local house of worship. Easy does it, not over the top zealous but with moderation. To have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Thinking about all the veterans overseas, serving to protect and away from loved ones this Christmas.
You will be home next year. The loss this year of a loved one makes some just wish the holiday would fast forward and be done already. Safe traveling to and fro for those on the road to get home for Christmas celebrations. Comfort for those spending the holiday in a hospital, medical facility.
Share the sights, smells, sounds of your Christmas past.
Teach children the joy of traditions that should be past down, not forgotten.
Hoping you have a memorable Christmas and Happy New Year faithful blog post readers.
