Retirement seminar

I just got home from the second session of a four-hour seminar about retirement. Not "how to retire" but about values regarding retirement and the psychology of retirement. This was an ALL (Academy of Lifelong Learning) event at the Bellingham Senior Center. About a dozen of us signed up for this class, taught by Helen Solomons, an interesting woman of indeterminate age who gave us some fascinating things to think about.

Almost everyone in the room was fully or partially retired.  I learned that the four generations around these days have totally different ideas about retirement, what it is and how it will play out. First, the pre-Boomers (born 1900-1945). That's me! The 75 million of us are loyal, used to scarcity, have faith in our institutions, and are patriotic.

Next come the 80 million Baby Boomers (and there were some in the seminar), born 1946-1964. Many hard-working, career-driven Boomers are in management positions today. They believe anything is possible. Following them are the Generation Xers (1965-1980): only 46 million of them, but they distrust institutions and personal relationships and have introduced a challenging dynamic into today's work place.  And the final group, the Generation Yers (or Millennials, born 1981-1999) are smart, pragmatic, realistic, optimistic, idealistic, and techno-savvy. And there are 76 million of them.

Every generation has a different idea of what retirement is (or will be for them). The pre-Boomers thought that if they played by the rules, everything would be okay and they would be taken care of in retirement. The Boomers wanted to fix the world, since they were the first generation to grow up with TV and saw Watergate, Vietnam, and the human rights movements develop. They believe anything is possible. But the Gen-Xers don't think they will ever be able to retire, while the Gen-Yers think they'd better start saving for retirement, since they've already turned 16.

In the room I heard from people who were forced into retirement and hated it, those who were voluntarily retired, some who wished they could have more meaning to their everyday lives, and those who LOVE retirement. Helen showed us that successful retirement contains a few constants:

1. Having a reason to get up every day.
2. Having a healthy spouse.  :-) :-)
3. Maintaining or developing meaningful relationships.
4. Having a sense of humor.

I think those were the most important things, I might have missed a few because I was busy writing and listening to the others. Helen told us that if we are interested in learning more, get the Second Edition of The New Retirement: the Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life by Jan Cullinane and Cathy FitzGerald. So! Next book on the list.

Have you read it? Are you happy in retirement? Or will you even be ABLE to retire?
:-)

Kids Door Decorations

Since I love to decorate for the Holidays our kids wanted to make more decorations for their rooms.

This is what they have on their door everyday {just beads and wire to form the letter}.

This is what we did for Easter. We found a picture in the Oriental Trading Magazine that was a sticker. I just used a template of an egg and traced it into a wreath on wood (but you could use posterboard) and cut it out. They had fun painting them for today's craft.

Mall Scavenger Hunt

Since it was raining today this was a perfect activity for the indoors. We went to the mall for a scavenger hunt. We divided up into groups each having 45 minutes to find the items on the list. At the end everyone received a prize(gummy bunny teeth) but the winning group got a little bigger prize (whole pack of "egg" gum).


I had all the boys so this army man was perfect!

Rules: All items were 1 point except on a few. Only 1 item per store.
List of Items: credit card application, perfume sample, mall map, store catalogue, sale flyer, discarded receipt, clearance sticker, hanger, hair salon price list, food sample, gift card envelope, disposable toilet seat cover, sample of lipstick, shoe box, business card-3 points extra if name is Jeff or Tim, shopping bag-3 points extra for the largest one, paper napkin-2 points extra if there is a logo, blue eye shadow-3 points extra if each member of the team is wearing it.
Bonus -10 points: sing "itsy bitsy spider" with someone walking around, take a picture of everyone wearing a hat or purse, all the kids in the group take a picture with a mannequin.

After we would find something on the list we would give them a little "Thank You token"(a piece of paper that says thank you with a smiley face).

FYI tip: Some of the stores didn't believe in us doing this and were a little rude. Let's hope they were just having a bad day.

We did get to see the Easter Bunny though-what a surprising treat!

Birds of a feather

Judy over at The Road to Here has a guest post by Suzie Gilbert who wrote a book about birds called Flyaway. She has a question and answer thing going on with her, and I asked Suzie to mention how she feels about feeding birds, since I am still wondering about the propriety of my feeding of the wild birds. If you want to ask some questions about birds, please head on over there and join in.

This goldfinch (click to enlarge) has changed colors and is now in his yellow breeding feathers. I've watched the male goldfinch change from dull yellowish-brown to this color (and he will be even brighter as the weeks go by). I have quite a few goldfinch at my upside-down feeder and the nyjer sock, but I also have chickaees who head over to the suet feeder or to the black oil sunflowers. They continue to amaze me, they are so bold and cheeky.

I swear this guy is posing for me. He is just the cutest thing. He yells at me when I forget to shake a few seeds onto the tray for his pleasure. The chickadees have also begun their spring two-note song that sounds to me like, "pick me, pick me." Then there are the raptors that are attracted to my feeders, not for the food, but for the well-fed little birdies like these! My juvenile Cooper's Hawk has been joined by a mature Sharp-Shinned Hawk, much smaller (about the size of a pigeon). This is not a great picture, but it shows his red eyes and his coloring.

And lastly, for those of you who love eagles, I've been watching the hatching of the Hornby Island eagles' nest. There are two eggs, and Mom and Dad have been watching over them. There are two cameras, a closeup that is amazing, and one a bit farther away. Last year I watched Mom and Dad Eagle in another nest feed three eaglets and watched them fledge. This one is sponsored by Wild Earth TV in British Columbia. The link to the cameras and the chat room is available here. The website also has some short segments on the sidebar showing the parents turning the eggs and repositioning them. Enjoy!
:-)

Recipe "Rater" Cards

I love to try new recipes-it adds to my life as a mother! Our kids are really good about trying everthing. The rule in our house is that they have to try at least one bite. If they don't like it, they don't have to eat it but then they get to fix something else to eat. Its only been a few times that this has happened. Which is a good thing. But I wanted to get my children's input on the recipes I try so I made these cards to Rate the Recipe.

{Close Up}
I just made this on my computer(with some free clipart) and then laminated it for durability and so that the special crayons would wipe off. I bought the "wipe off crayons" at a School Supply Store. If you have older kids you could use dry erase(I don't trust my 3 1/2 yr old with these! He has too many "masterpiece" walls)


They can color in their opinion and when I have seen it, they just wipe it off with a tissue. We will just put them on our kitchen table for easy access.

Super Simple Meat

Yesterday I tried my own recipe so I'm glad it actually turned out! I cooked "bone-in country style pork ribs" in my crockpot (on low) for 6 hours. I dumped a whole bottle of BBQ sauce (hickory maple), 4 beef boullion cubes in 1 cup hot water. That's it! It pulled apart wonderfully and had great taste. {Sorry for the lack of picture}

Soaring regards: Jean Keene

I received the book that Cary Anderson promised to send me about Jean Keene, the Eagle Lady. I've taken a picture of the book's title page, and his words, "Soaring regards" really hit me. She was a wonderful and very colorful person who deserves to be remembered forever.

The book begins with some absolutely stunning pictures of eagles and of the Homer Spit where Jean lived alone (well, sort of, she did have a lot of eagle friends) for twenty-some years. And then it tells the story of her early life, which is also covered really well on her Wikipedia page. The American Bald Eagle Information website also has a page devoted to her dedication to the eagles.

I was fascinated by the pictures in the book, glossy high-definition pictures of eagles in flight, eagles in huge numbers waiting to be fed, and some majestic head shots of this beautiful bird. Cary Anderson has also included a breathtaking picture of the Aurora Borealis.

Anderson has told the action-packed story of Jean's life and left a legacy for all to enjoy. I highly recommend this book to you, and if you do order it from him, I don't see how you could possibly be disappointed. His website, Eagle Eye Pictures, has portraits you can order, pictures of eagles, reptiles, and other wildlife, including some portraits of people.

Jean lived a full life, passing away at 85, after a career that included being a trick rider in a rodeo, being one of the first female long-haul truck drivers, owner and waitress at her truck stop restaurant, until she found her true calling as a friend to the eagles. From the time she moved to Homer in 1977 until her death in 2009, she hauled an estimated 500 pounds of fish every day from winter to early spring to the Spit to feed them. They go off on their own for summer and fall.

From the Homer Tribune Top Ten Stories of 2009:

End of Eagle Era - Eagle Lady Jean Keene, arguably one of Homer’s most famous citizens, died Jan. 14 at the age of 85. Friends and photographers around the world mourned her passing, but the eagles she devoted her life to feeding continued to roost around her Homer Spit home. That sparked concern from wildlife officials on whether the eagle-feeding should end so abruptly. After much public input, debate and discussion, the Homer City Council voted to let Keene’s assistant continue the feeding as a way to wean them off free fish lunches. Council then enacted a ban on eagle-feeding into law, taking effect March 29. (Photo by Cary Anderson)

 I wonder what they did when they returned in late 2009 and she was gone. She had a favorite eagle, Betsy, that she speculated had spent part of her life in captivity, because Betsy was "uncommonly tame" and would perch on a fence just a few feet away of her. I like to think that is Betsy in the picture above.

Fly free, Jean, and I will think of you soaring with your eagles forever. I will see your spirit in flight with them whenever I see one.
:-)

Palm Sunday

Today, Palm Sunday, marks the beginning of Holy Week in the Christian Church. I wasn't raised in any particular religion, my mother having been a lapsed Catholic and my father never in any at all, as far as I know.

But I, during my quest to find my own path, have followed different paths of the Christian faith at various junctures in my life. The first overtly religious path I followed was as a teenager while my parents were living in Georgia. I joined the Episcopal Church and after a while, all of my siblings joined the church also. I loved the pomp and circumstance of the "high" Episcopal Church, with a choir and a priest (Father Shipps) who visited my family at our home and became a friend. I was just eighteen and had recently graduated from high school with no particular direction in my life. As I got more and immersed into the religious life, I flirted with the thought of becoming a nun and looked around for the convent with the coolest habits. (At my age that was the most important criterion for a suitable convent.)

Well, I didn't join any convent, and I went on to become pregnant out of wedlock soon after and was forced into a marriage I didn't want. That was what you did in those days if you got pregnant. Then motherhood and marriage became the center of my world, and my husband was what we called a "Holy Roller" at that time.  I went to one of their Sunday observances and promptly stopped going to any church at all. My faith, however, never left me and I eventually joined the Unitarian Church, which was Christian without any of the ceremony, and I learned a great deal during that time in my life.

During my forties, I became quite religious again, and by this time I was living and working in Boulder. I discovered a Catholic convent just outside of town, the Abbey of St. Walburga, and would spend Holy Week there, praying and meditating in solitude. You could stay in a little room outside of the main convent and either have your meals brought to you or join the nuns for your meals. They were eaten in silence with one nun reading passages from the Bible, and the whole week was just bliss to me, being surrounded by the peace and tranquility of the convent.

On Thursday of Holy Week, the nuns would wash the feet of those of us staying at the convent. It was quite a moving ceremony. And I learned that Holy Saturday, the one full day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, was the most hushed and silent day of them all. And then on Sunday morning, the joy and delight of all the nuns, who had stayed up all night to bake cookies and make Easter eggs, was so evident. Nineteen nuns lived there full time, and I toyed with the idea of doing what I began in my teens, but I didn't.

However, even though I don't attend church regularly, prayer and meditation are now part of my life, and sometimes I think of the nuns at St. Walburga and wonder how they are doing. They had a profoundly positive effect in my life.
:-)

Focus Centered Easter

I got this book last year at Seagull and it is Wonderful! It goes thru the last week of Christ's life before He died and resurrected. It has lessons, activities & scripture reading. I am so excited to use it again this year. I'm going to be starting it tomorrow.

I love Easter because its truely all about our Savior and it helps to remind me of all that He did for each one of us. The other stuff is fun but its all "egg-tra"!

Personalized Book of Mormons

Can you tell I love to personalize things? I think it makes each family member feel so special. In our family we read the scriptures in the evening before the kids go to bed. We keep them in the living room for easy access. We read 1 page (each of us reading about 2 verses) and it seems to be just enough to keep attention while yet, still being uplifted. So we all know who's is who's we personalized our Book of Mormons.

Just hold all the pages together and use stamps to stamp family members name(and any other designs).

Since we only read 1 page sometimes we forget what side we are on so I made these bookmarks with our Family Mission Statement and whatever side the Statement is facing, is the side we need to read. This has saved us so many times. {Not that its a bad thing to read read the same page}. At the bottom of the bookmark we each signed it and put our "pinky" print. (we do "pinky promises")

Tulips and more

As I mentioned yesterday, on the way home from our hike we stopped by the RoozenGaarde tulip gardens, which were just green leaves when we visited them three weeks ago, and now they are heading toward peak viewing. (You can click any picture to enlarge, well worth your time.) Just give these tulips another week, and you won't be able to come by here on a sunny day during the weekend without sharing these views with thousands of spectators. RoozenGaarde has more than three acres of tulips all by themselves, and we passed farms with names like "Tulip Town" on the way.

The grounds are perfectly tended, with every conceivable variety of tulip to enjoy. That's Peggy and Ward in the background, and you can see by their clothes it wasn't warm. There was a light mist of rain in the air most of the time we were there, but every once in a while the sun tried to break through.

I captured these two unnamed ladies with their lovely umbrellas taking in the sights. To park and go inside the gardens, a small fee is charged, which will help to defray the costs of planting these tulips every year. In the picture below, you can see several more stripes of different varieties of tulips in the background. You will have to enlarge to see that easily.

 Not only were there tulips, but the hyacinths are in full flower, too. There were also some other tiny blue flowers I couldn't identify, until I found this on the RoozenGaarde site:

Many early and mid tulip varieties are now in bloom, in addition to all of the daffodil and hyacinth varieties. It would be unfair not to mention the Muscari (amongst other specialty flowers) as the little blue flowers are making an outstanding contribution to some of our most picturesque plantings. RoozenGaarde’s 3 acre display garden has been planted with more than 1/4 million tulip, daffodil, crocus, hyacinth and iris bulbs!

Some of the tulips are so different from anything I've seen before that if they didn't have the regular tulips leaves, I wouldn't know for sure what they are. This variety looks so much like a peony I was confused at first. It's called "Double Price" (not knowing if they are just especially expensive or why they have that name).

Some of the acres and acres of tulips are so intoxicating that I just couldn't figure an angle that might show you how gorgeous they are. I decided I'll make a special Flickr set of just flowers and put all 50 of the pictures I took up there. They will be linked on the right-hand side of my blog once I get that done. And to finish off this post, I thought this tulip looked as beautiful as any rose I have ever seen!

As you can see from these last two pictures, I was blessed to have the raindrops giving these beautiful tulips another dimension that you just can't ever get on sun-drenched days. There is perfection in all of our myriad weather delights here in the Pacific Northwest, including the rain.
:-)

Personalized {Magic} Carpets

Since our children are little and have extra energy during our Family Home Evenings, I figured that maybe having a personalized Magic Carpet would help(at least for the lesson). I am so excited to use them on Monday Night(even though they have already tried them out)!


1-I called around to a few of our local carpet supply stores and asked for the "discontinued carpet samples", they let me have them for FREE (I did have to go back 5 times to keep checking-so worth it though!).


2-In the corner there was a plastic name plate. I just used a really sharp box knife and got as close to the name plate as I could to cut it off.


3-I got similar colored fabric(discounted home furnishing fabric-its thicker) to match the carpet. Cut 4 strips of fabric([2]3 1/2 inch x17 & [2]3 1/2 x 27 inch).


4-Using your glue gun, glue along each edge attaching the strip of fabric. Press down on the fabric, to make sure it adhered. Do all 4 sides and then flip over.


5-Hot glue front side edges. NOTE: I didn't sew any seams!


6-Around all 4 sides cut 1/2 inch slits.


7-Ruff it up by rubbing your hand across back and forth a few times (really fast).


8-To personalize it for each family member, cut a 3 inch wood circle "button". Sand edges really well so its not too sharp.


9-Cut ribbon pieces into 3 1/2 inch strips. Fold in 1/2 & glue to the back side.


10-Finished back side of "button".


11-Using a long thick needle and thin matching ribbon pull thru (using pliers) the carpet.


12-Tie up the button, with double knots.


13-Use a sharpie marker to write the family members' name.


14-All done & ready to use! I will use these for Family Night but I'm also excited to use them for General Conference also.

Goose Rock

Today fifteen Senior Trailblazers headed back to the Deception Pass area (we were there only three weeks ago to hike another trail) on our way up to Goose Rock. The weather yesterday in the Bellingham area set an all-time March 24th record for warmth -- with full sun -- but today was another story altogether. In the Pacific Northwest, you can't ever expect sunny skies day after day. As we left the Senior Center at 8:00 am, it had already begun to rain.

By the time we got to I-5 heading south to Deception Pass, the weather was becoming progressively worse: rain coming down steadily, and three cars-full of us still determined to do this six-mile hike anyway. But by the time we reached Deception Pass, the rain had slowed to a fine mist. All of us were ready for rain and figured if it became really bad, we could turn around and head for the nearest pub.

It stayed either almost dry or lightly raining as we took a meandering route to the top of Goose Rock, with some up and down (a total elevation gain and loss of around 1,300 feet) and a comfortable temperature. I always have a good time, even if the weather isn't perfect, because of my interesting companions. Nobody grumbled about the weather, and everyone else seemed to be having a good time too. Although when we reached the top of Goose Rock and took a gander (sorry, I couldn't help myself), there was not much to see because of the light mist in the air.

Here's Fred looking around for a good spot out of the wind to have lunch. There would have been a spectacular view (I was told) if the weather were better, but once we hunkered down and pulled out our lunches, we were pretty comfy for the time being. Not much rain fell during our hike, but I slipped on one of the slick rocks and banged my elbow and knee, not too bad. Since I already had a very bad fall on one of our hikes (in October last year), everyone said I had just made my 2010 spill and didn't have to do it again. Several people asked me on the way down if I was all right and I assured them I was just fine. We take care of each other; they were ready with numerous Ace bandages in case I needed one, and we joked that it would make a great picture to have me swaddled in them from head to foot. I declined for the time being. :-)

On the way back to the trailhead, we elected to walk along the beach, and I lagged behind taking some pictures and looking down at the beautiful rocks. By the time we returned to our cars, it was still rather early, so four of us headed back by way of the RoozenGarde tulip festival. I took an amazing number of pictures, and here is a teaser shot of some of the spectacular tulip gardens there (click any picture to enlarge).

Tomorrow I'll show you some more tulip pictures, and I was thrilled with the shots I was able to get. When you don't have sun, you compromise by having pictures of raindrop-covered tulips that I hope will intoxicate you as much as they did me.
:-)

Does HFCS make you fat?

Most of us are aware of the controversy surrounding high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) being used in so many of our foods. There's a Wikipedia page with lots of information about it, but this article from Princeton University was just released on Monday, with some alarming information about HFCS. At least, I found it to be so, because I was of a mind that all sugars are equal in making us gain weight. But if these results are correct, it's just not so.

To summarize, studies showed that rats with access to HFCS gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same, and that weight was mostly around the abdomen. From the article:

"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, at least under the conditions of our tests," said psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."

The researchers published their results, which were replicated, in the March 18 edition of the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior. The reason behind this effect of HFCS is not yet understood, but they speculate that the difference "may relate to the fact that excess fructose is being metabolized to produce fat, while glucose is largely being processed for energy or stored as a carbohydrate, called glycogen, in the liver and muscles."

I snagged this graphic from the Wikipedia page. The green line is HFCS consumption. Even if you were to work hard to keep HFCS out of your diet, it's really difficult if you eat much processed food, because it's a cheap sweetener used in sodas, cereals, fruit juice, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. The article says that today Americans, on average, consume 60 pounds of it per person every year! And we didn't start using it until it was developed in the mid-1970s.

Read the article and see what you think. Or, if you want to delve deeper, the Wikipedia link addresses many of the other controversies surrounding HFCS, like the fact that it contains mercury, which appears to come from the manufacturing process itself. Or that it became a sucrose replacement to feed honeybees in the United States, which might have something to do with bee colony collapse that started a while ago (that's just my conjecture).

Anyway, in my mind I think it would be wise to try to reduce one's consumption of it until more is known, especially if you want to lose weight. I found it in some of the foods in my pantry when I went looking after reading this article. I always want to know whether what I am paying good money for is actually good for me or not!
:-)

Saying/Quote Board

A while back I used up some left over molding to put this saying above our family picture.

I just painted it black and then "aged" it with some walnut stain. Then added a 1x2 for the top ledge. I love that you could put this board idea anywhere in your home. So Simple!