Tuesday 18 October 2016

Mormons

In the past year I have spoken with a number of young people at the door or over the fence. They are Mormons from the U.S. that come through our neighbourhood from time to time. I enjoyed interacting with them but lately they have not rung the doorbell. I wish they would because I have a link to a You Tube video I want them to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBpTQmBo2Ik

Saturday 23 April 2016

One In - One Out

Laugh for the day.  I was explaining to my youngest son of my one in-one out rule to keep clutter at bay.  Get something new and something old has to go.

He smirked and said to me, "Ah, good thing you didn't have the one in-one out rule when us boys came along....but then, again, I would have been in the best position, being the youngest."

Tuesday 19 January 2016

They said the girls would come....

Feeling slightly less out numbered now :-) and so blessed to have gained a daughter with a heart for the Lord.



Wednesday 2 September 2015

Death is not dying....

 A friend shared this link - what a beautiful testimony! Grab a cup of coffee - Rachel's talk is 55 minutes.

http://deathisnotdying.com/

Wednesday 13 May 2015

Food For Thought

 "Becoming Minimalist' (Joshua Becker) posted this information on his blog:

"Most of us know we own too much stuff. We feel the weight and burden of our clutter. We tire of cleaning and managing and organizing. Our toy rooms are messy, our drawers don’t close, and our closets are filled from top to bottom. The evidence of clutter is all around us.

Today, increasing data is being collected about our homes, our shopping habits, and our spending. The research is confirming our observation: we own too much stuff. And it is robbing us of life.

Here are 21 surprising statistics about our clutter that help us understand how big of a problem our accumulation has actually become.

1. There are 300,000 items in the average American home (LA Times).

2. The average size of the American home has nearly tripled in size over the past 50 years (NPR).

3. And still, 1 out of every 10 Americans rent offsite storage—the fastest growing segment of the commercial real estate industry over the past four decades. (New York Times Magazine).

4. While 25% of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park cars inside them and 32% only have room for one vehicle. (U.S. Department of Energy).

5. The United States has upward of 50,000 storage facilities, more than five times the number of Starbucks. Currently, there is 7.3 square feet of self storage space for every man, woman and child in the nation. Thus, it is physically possible that every American could stand—all at the same time—under the total canopy of self storage roofing (SSA).

6. British research found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily (The Telegraph).

7. 3.1% of the world’s children live in America, but they own 40% of the toys consumed globally (UCLA).

8. The average American woman owns 30 outfits—one for every day of the month. In 1930, that figure was nine (Forbes).

9. The average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually (Forbes).

10. While the average American throws away 65 pounds of clothing per year (Huffington Post).

11. Nearly half of American households don’t save any money (Business Insider).

12. But our homes have more television sets than people. And those television sets are turned on for more than a third of the day—eight hours, 14 minutes (USA Today).

13. Some reports indicate we consume twice as many material goods today as we did 50 years ago (The Story of Stuff).

14. Currently, the 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe account for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent (Worldwatch Institute).

15. Americans donate 1.9% of their income to charitable causes (NCCS/IRS). While 6 billion people worldwide live on less than $13,000/year (National Geographic).

16. Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education (Psychology Today).

17. Shopping malls outnumber high schools. And 93% of teenage girls rank shopping as their favorite pastime (Affluenza).

18. Women will spend more than eight years of their lives shopping (The Daily Mail).

19. Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items.The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list (The Daily Mail).

20. Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on nonessential goods—in other words, items they do not need (The Wall Street Journal).

21. The $8 billion home organization industry has more than doubled in size since the early 2000’s—growing at a staggering rate of 10% each year (Uppercase).

The numbers paint a jarring picture of excessive consumption and unnecessary accumulation. Fortunately, the solution is not difficult. The invitation to own less is an invitation to freedom, intentionality, and passion. And it can be discovered at your nearest drop-off center."

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Cinnamon Spread

Homemade Cinnamon Spread has just three ingredients - easiest ever to make. And better than the store bought stuff that has BHA, artificial flavour and sulphites mixed in.

Here is the recipe - my boys devour this stuff

Cinnamon Spread

1 cup butter (get the real stuff - better for you)
1/2 c. DARK brown sugar (I use 'Rogers best brown sugar')
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Whip together. Done