My Pretty Flowers

I gave most of my flowers to Thing 1 and her husband when I moved last fall, and divided the ones I kept into window boxes to hang on the house. The window boxes are built and painted, but they aren't hung yet. It would be nice to get them hung yet this year, but who knows if that will happen! I'm at the mercy of others when it comes to hanging them because my house is brick. If I don't get them hung this year, I'm hoping I'll get them hung next spring. Until then, they are sitting on my patio table (and patio) ... and they are SO pretty! I can't wait to see them on the house!

Thing 2 Has Been Feeling Slighted

First, I didn't mention her in my blog post about Middle Child Day, then yesterday, I didn't give her credit for the smoothie recipe, and she called me out on it. I told her if she sent me a sad face using one of the silly SnapChat filters, I'd make it right. She kept her word, so I'm keeping mine:

1. Thing 2 is a middle child. But let's be honest here ... as a middle child, she's used to being forgotten and invisible, so just another day at the office, right?
2. Thing 2 told me how she makes a smoothie.

There ... the record is now formally set straight!

It Tastes Better Than it Looks

It's fruit, coconut water, and spinach, and it's surprisingly good! I fixed one this morning before work and drank it on the way in ... then I walked into this frigid building and realized I had made a mistake. From now on, I'll make my smoothie as a reward when I get home from work in the afternoon, when it's hot, and drinking a frozen drink doesn't send me into hypothermia!

Ice Cream for Breakfast!

Seven-year old Jackie would be so jealous!

Amazing Corn Maze

Photo courtesy of Corn Dawgs

Corn Dawgs, in Loganville, Georgia, creates an elaborate corn maze every year. Past years have included American Sniper Chris Kyle, Duck Dynasty, the band Florida Georgia Line, and Larry "Chipper" Jones (I have no idea who that is!). This years maze is a dedicated to police men and women. On their Facebook page, they stated, "A tribute to the men and women in uniform that risk their lives everyday to keep us safe. Thank you for all you do." I sincerely echo that sentiment.

View From One of the High Schools

It would be prettier if there were no parking lots and or industrial plants, but it's still pretty. You can see a little of the river in the second picture. From the cafeteria, the twin bridges are visible, but I didn't snap a picture of that.

TV and Childhood Obesity ... Bah Humbug!

There are a lot of articles about the link between watching television and childhood obesity. Most say just one hour of television a day doubles the rick of a child being overweight. I don't believe that.

When my kids were growing up, they would watch several hours of television every day, and they were all much closer to being underweight than overweight, and my son didn't have an ounce of fat on him! They'd watch tv after breakfast, then go play. When they got hot (or cold), they'd come inside and watched tv while they cooled down or warmed up. When it was too cold outside, they'd play inside.

I think there is more of a link between what a child does when not watching television and obesity rather than how much television they watch ... and the type of food and snacks they eat.

My weekly trips to the grocery store included buying chips and cookies. Once they were gone, the kids had to snack on real food, like cheese or yogurt or fruit. If they didn't want any of the nutritious snacks, they had to wait until I went to the store the next week.

I never limited their television or snacks. Food was neither a reward or punishment. They learned that if they ate the junky snacks too quickly, they'd have to eat the healthy ones. Despite their lack of junk food late in the week, they all survived childhood. When it came to playing, they had a lot of options. They had a big backyard with a basketball hoop, swings, trapeze, ladders, and a tree house. They had bikes, roller blades, sidewalk chalk, jump ropes, and hula-hoops. They had Lego's and blocks, baby dolls, board games stacked to the ceiling, and books from our frequent trips to the library. If they ever got bored, I tell them they could always clean their room, vacuum, mop, etc., and suddenly, they weren't bored anymore! At the very least, they quit complaining about it because I always had a ready-list of things for them to do.

Bottom line is, anything to excess is bad for you. Kids need a variety of foods (even junk food), and a variety of things to play with. Playing is how kids learn. It grows their imagination and spawns creativity. Unless a child has an illness or medication that makes them gain weight or prevents them from losing weight, it's a parent's fault if their child is obese. Snacking on junk food in moderation is fine. If you limit the amount of junk food in the house, the kids can't eat too much of it. If television or video games become a problem for your child, then you limit them. Take the kids for a walk or take them to the playground. Most kids will be thrilled to spend an afternoon at the park rather than watch cartoons.

I'm certainly no parenting expert, but some things are just common sense.

Scientists Discover Consuming Caffeine After a Concert Causes Hearing Loss

Greedy scientists pining for grant money for ridiculous studies, applied for ... and received ... money to study if drinking coffee after a concert damages your hearing. And guess what? That money wasn't wasted ... they discovered drinking coffee after a concert does damage your hearing! What are the chances, right?!!

To come to this ground-breaking discovery, they exposed a group of female albino guinea pigs to sound equivalent of a rock concert for one hour on two occasions. They gave half of the guinea pigs 25mg of caffeine for fifteen days. The other half received only water to drink. After eight days, the water-drinking guinea pigs hearing had recovered almost completely, while the caffeine-addicted guinea pigs still had difficulty.

I found the most interesting part of this article was when I was trying to figure out how they came to the conclusion at the caffeinated guinea pigs were having trouble hearing. I guess they're keeping that nugget of wisdom to themselves, so if you have a guinea pig and wonder if it is hearing okay, you're going to have to figure out a way to do that yourself!

They stated that avoiding coffee or soda after a concert or particularly noisy encounter, you could be doing a lot of damage to your ears. Honestly, I find this study hard to believe. I have three kids who produced more noise than a Rolling Stones concert ... every day. All. Day. Long. If that kind of noise coupled with caffeine consumption caused hearing loss, there wouldn't be a parent or teacher anywhere in the world who could hear!

Wearing High Heels Can Lead to Cancer? Bull!

I recently read an article that said wearing high heels every day can raise your risk of cancer. Poppycock! If high heels caused cancer, I would have died a long time ago ... along with Victoria Beckham! I don't wear high heels every day, but I wear them most days ... and I have since I was fourteen years old. The article listed a host of ailments high heels can cause (bunions, hammer toes, etc.), and I have none of those.

Helen Sewell, a communication coach in Britain said high heels are costing British businesses £260 million a year in sick leave. She said "Wearing heels has a serious impact on your ability to think properly, your ability to breathe properly and your ability to deliver an executive presence."

Oh, give me a break! The only time high heels have impacted my ability to think properly is when my feet hurt because there is no padding in that shoe for the ball of my feet, but a set of gel inserts solves that problem instantly. I've seen too many women in high heels deliver an "executive presence" to give her theory any credence. It sounds to me like Ms. Sewell either can't walk in high heels or she's tall and doesn't want anyone shorter to appear taller.

But it was Dr. David Agus, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California that came up with the real malarkey ... that there may be a link between stiletto's and cancer. He did concede, however, that wearing heels doesn't cause cancer, but he did say they unwittingly hinder your bodies own natural cancer-fighting abilities by shutting down our "DNA repair shop" to concentrate on the inflammation caused by wearing heels.

Dr. Agus said, "If your heels hurt or limit your movement, if you find your feet ache or throb at the end of the day, then stop wearing those shoes."

Not wearing shoes that hurt your feet is good advice, but if your heels hurt, perhaps you should just buy shoes in the proper size (instead of stuffing your size 11 feet into a size 7 shoe), get a some gel inserts ... or ... if you can afford it, buy some really expensive designer shoes that cost more than your car. Me? I can't afford a pair of shoes that cost a couple thousand dollars, so I just buy the right size shoe and some gel inserts ... and my feet are as happy as can be ... and I get to wear pretty shoes!

Gorgeous Picture Frame

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

I was working at a local high school recently and had to use the restroom. The hall floors were being waxed, so the only bathroom accessible to my location was the staff bathroom on the first floor in the office by going down a back stairway. There was a picture on the wall in the restroom that caught my eye. While I liked the picture well enough, it was the frame that I was drawn to ... it was gorgeous. And, in my opinion, a little fancy for a bathroom!