Not a Normal Thursday & the Last Day of November

Some more testing for Kendall and catching up some on some household to do's.

Buenas noches!

Wellness Wednesday

#WellnessWednesday Challenge: Practice radical self-acceptance of what is, and excited anticipation for what's coming. In doing so you release yourself from trap of "never good enough," which at its root, is about earning your own love and acceptance. Because the truth is there is nothing to earn. You are enough. Not because of what you did, or said, or looked like, or felt, but because you always were. Owning our story of "now" and accepting that at this moment we are whole and enough is the bravest thing we can do, and the most freeing. As Carl Rogers said, "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change. "

Buenas noches!

Cool things

Analysis: How could the Agung volcano in Bali affect global temperatures?

What Kerouac's Wilderness Teaches Us About Parenting

Giving Tuesday

A Dentist appointment and nice steak dinner for Giving Tuesday.

Buenas noches!

WHY PHILLY IS AMERICA'S GREATEST (AND WORST) CITY

Cyber Tae Kwon Do Monday

We are exhausted!

Buenas noches!

THE BEST CYBER MONDAY DEALS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TODAY

First Advent Sunday

Church, Sunday School, some leave cleaning and then continued rest and relation (especially when we should be doing work :-I)

Buenas noches!

Cooking for Engineers is a godsend for those who love to cook.

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Best Chocolate in the U.S.

Good Reads

Tae Kwon Do Tamale Saturday

Tamales with friends. Lots of great food, friends and of course, tamale making :-)

Buenas noches!

Project Gutenberg offers over 54,000 free eBooks

Black Friday

We stayed at home all day to recover from all the great food from Thursday and catch up on sleep. I shopped a bit online but only mde one purchase. I made a roast chicken, homemade mashed potatoes and green beans.  Dessert was a package received the the mail from the Abuelos with our family dessert - Hungarian Wedding Cake.  Kendall had eaten the top row before I was able to get to it.

And an Angel marathon.

Buenas noches!

Thanksgiving!

A fun day celebrating with Adrienne, Carlos, Kalel et al. No photos since we were having too much fun!  And FaceTiming with the Abuelos at Tia Lisa and Tio Steve's. We watched a Beat Bobby Flay marathon - I love that Kendall enjoyes watching cooking shows with me :-)

Happy Thanksgiving - we are grateful for family!

Buenas noches!

HOW TO ATTEND PHILLY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE WITHOUT TEARING YOUR HAIR OUT

Turkeys Are Twice as Big as They Were in 1960 For decades, poultry breeders have transformed the genomes of turkeys, creating ever-larger birds.

What The Industry Knew About Sugar's Health Effects, But Didn't Tell Us

14 Experiences to Gift People This Holiday Season

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Whoo Hoo - Day Before Thanksgiving!

After raising funds, planning meals and grocery shopping these representatives of White Clay School delivered Thanksgiving dinners to St. Rocco's Mission in Avondale!

1/2 day of school and work, a quick grocery stop and we are on vacation :-)

And Planes, Trains and Automobiles...Easily excitable Neal Page is somewhat of a control freak. Trying to get home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his wife and kids, his flight is rerouted to a distant city in Kansas because of a freak snowstorm, and his sanity begins to fray. Worse yet, he is forced to bunk up with talkative Del Griffith, whom he finds extremely annoying. Together they must overcome the insanity of holiday travel to reach their intended destination.

How “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” redefined Thanksgiving

Buenas noches!

Mentor Match Tuesday

Kendall is officially matched to his mentor JJ from the Garage, a lively discussion about expectation for each of us and the Diane, the Program Coordinator, and paperwork is signed. Bonus is we still were able to get a piano lesson in and watch 'This is Us.'

Buenas noches!

Can You Eat Frozen Dinners for Five Weeks Healthily?

Science: Very Good Boys Could Keep Your Heart Beating Longer Dogs, you're all doing amazing.

18 UNFORGETTABLE COUNTRIES WHERE YOU CAN ROLL BIG ON LESS THAN $50 A DAY

This man is about to launch himself in his homemade rocket to prove the Earth is flat

What Tim Ferriss Learned from 100-Plus Elite Performers The podcast star and bestselling author sent the same 11 questions to more than 100 of his dream interviewees. He shares their answers in his new book, 'Tribe of Mentors.'

A Guide to the Ultimate Backcountry Thanksgiving

Confirmation Monday

Enough said! And Kendall's school video about doing chores to make money to donate to his school to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for those in need.

White Clay Commercial

Buenas noches!

THE 31 BEST SUSHI RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA

Church Sunday

Church, Sunday School then church again for the kids Thanksgiving service participation and finally a congregational meeting. We also managed hair cuts today.  Kendall did a great job helping me with our canopies in the back.  I should have pulled them back and tied them but wind today pulled them down we needed to figure out how to reel them in. We did but we have some clean up work to do.

So we watched Herbie: Fully Loaded: Maggie Peyton wants to become a NASCAR driver but her overprotective father, Ray Peyton Sr., won't hear of it. A former racer himself, Ray wants Maggie to take a lucrative TV sportscasting job and leave the driving to her crash-prone brother. When Ray Sr. takes Maggie to a junkyard to pick out a car, she has no idea that the little Volkswagen Beetle -- named Herbie -- she takes home will change her life.

Buenas noches!

Gentle East Tae Kwon Do Tournament Saturday

Breakfast at Good Shepherd and a shout out to Mr. Mike for making Kendall a masterpiece of an omelet for him so he is read for the tournament.  He ate his omelet and some food off my plate!

A long afternoon due to some scoring technical difficulties but the highlights included Tag Team Tae Kwon Do (Four teams of 2 battled for spots 1 to 4 - lots of fun to watch) . And 3rd place but a good match nonetheless.  Kendall's opponent scored more points and Kendall needs to work on his stance.

And I bleached his uniform when we got home since it was noticeable that I washed it with some colors on previous washes  :-I

Buenas noches!

Happy Friday!

And this evening we saw The Cristina Pato Quartet at Longwood Gardens. We were excited to see the performance of the internationally acclaimed Galician bagpiper master and classical pianist, Cristina Pato. She was fabulous and she thanked everyone for spending their Friday night with a bagpiper - LOVE!

Longwood Gardens had some Holiday lights illuminated already and their chrysanthemum displays wee just incredible! And I couldn’t keep a straight face our selfie since Kendall purposely ran his fingers through his hair before I snapped the photo 😊

Buenas noches!

How the Zombie Fungus Takes Over Ants’ Bodies to Control Their Minds

9 Apps to Make Travel Easy

Thank You Thoughtful Thursday

Research has long pointed to gratitude as being a major indicator of health and happiness. I have decided our family will reserve a ten minutes every Thursday for the art of the handwritten thank you note. 

We may write in any language they wish, with the option of face-to-face delivery or the U.S. Postal Service or even international as an alternative to Skype. or FaceTime. I want to cultivate the idea of expressing thanks for small gestures, cherished memories or to someone they didn’t know on a personal level. 

I appreciate the endurance of the notes, or the feel of paper in hands that I want to pass on to our family. And it is important and valuble to take the time in activities that demand reflection. Writing by hand will take a bit of time (and I am sure artwork will added). Rubbing out marks with and eraser show, but so does the genuineness of the message. The four corners of hold bourndaries and including phrases like “dear” and “love” are heartfelt and can mean everything to the receiver.

What are you thankful for this Thursday?

Buenas noches!

50 BOX-OFFICE BOMBS THAT ARE ACTUALLY GREAT By THRILLIST ENTERTAINMENT Published On 11/15/2017

The World's First Human Visualization Platform

Finding Your Dream Job Has Never Been So Easy Want a job in the outdoor industry? Check out these resources.

2,190 MILES ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

Theatre Wednesday

A half day for me to have a blower installed in our fireplace so we can warm up the house naturally. Thanks to Yokasty for taking Kendall home from school. Dinner with Pam, Deb and Linsday at Kendall's favorite restaurant, John's Pizza. Our favorite waitress arrived after we ordered so Kendall scored a personal size stromboli (not even on the menu) and lunch for tomorrow.

We always love the holiday panto at People's Light and it is a family tradition. This year is Aladdin: A Musical Panto  When young Aladdin, now a gamer,  and his animal pals find a mysterious lamp, the adventure begins. We cheered the heroes as they rescue Princess Mai Tai, flew on a magic carpet, and plotted with the beloved Dame, Widow Twankey, to save their village of Paolistein from the clutches of the evil villain Fuv (master creator of interactive multiplayer narratives and simultaneously evil incarnate) as he gathers and seeks to control all information on everyone.

Buenas noches!

GratiTuesday

Piano (late to the lesson but it all worked out), some cleaning/organization and some Rob Brezny musings... And This is Us on TV.

YOUR IMAGINATION
Your imagination is the single most important asset you possess. It's your power to create mental pictures of things that don't exist yet and that you want to bring into being. It's the magic wand you use to shape your future.

And so in your own way, you are a prophet. You generate countless predictions every day. Your imagination is the source, tirelessly churning out images of what you will be doing later.
The featured prophecy of the moment may be as simple as a psychic impression of yourself eating a fudge brownie at lunch or as monumental as a daydream of some year building your dream home by a lake or sea.


Your imagination is a treasure when it spins out scenarios that are aligned with your deepest desires. In fact, it's an indispensable tool in creating  the life you want; it's what you use to form images of the conditions you'd like to inhabit and the objects you hope to wield. Nothing manifests  on this planet unless it first exists as a mental picture.


But for most of us, the imagination is as much a curse as a blessing.  We're often just as likely to use it to conjure up premonitions that are at odds with our conscious values.


TINY CHANGES
"True life is lived when tiny changes occur," said Leo Tolstoy. I agree. It's rare for us to undergo rapid, dramatic transformations in short periods of  time. That's why it's delusional to be forever pining for some big magic 
intervention that will fix everything. The best way to alter our course is  slowly and gradually, by conscientiously revamping our responses to the  small daily details.

Buenas noches!

The Importance of Doing Absolutely Nothing

Monday Already?!

Confirmation and that's about it :-)

Almost forgot, Arsalan introduced me to Poke Bros Hawaiian Fresh Fish where you make your own bowl.  Delicious, reasonably priced and I have promised to take Kendall there :-)

Buenas noches!

How flawed science helped turn chocolate into a health food

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Saturday and Sunday Diversions

Some Tae Kwon Do and Kendall headed off to JYG - Junior youth gathering 2017 A journey through the Reformation, and what it means for you today at  Refreshing Mountain Camp, Lancaster, PA Kendall was the only boy attending and give him a lot of credit for doing so.  I am hoping we can link up with another church who has a larger boys group for Kendall.

And myself, what did I do while I was childless?  Well, Clark and I watched a movie and went to be early then I jumped a the chance to go to a Young and the Restless meet and greet with Lindsay in New Jersey on Sunday.  So thanks to my Sunday School co-teacher, Cindy, and Lindsay for the best mom day off ever!   Lindsay and I met Gina Tognoni (Phyllis) and Jason Thompson (Billy) - it was alot fun catching up with Lindsay driving up and back and listening to the actors answer questions about acting and the The Young and the Restless.  I wish Mom was with me since she loves Y&R and was the one that perked my interest in it.  

Bonus was I made it home in time to pick up Kendall.

Buenas noches!

TGIF

We are glad it is friday and some good advice below!

Buenas noches!

Thoughful Thursday

An evening to discuss adding to our family. Our hearts and home are open

Buenas noches!

I’m doing a freezer challenge this week!

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