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Custom Family Portrait in Russian Nesting Doll by LuvinEveryMinute
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I really like the glasses on these ones. I wear glasses too.
family
Tea Chest for Zack
The linen tea chest gift comes filled with our choice of 8 flavors of the wrapped sachets, 4 sachets each.
Curated from Harney.com
One of the things my nephew, Zack, has especially liked was a tea chest. I forget who gave it to him now. It ended up being something his family used and I think he left it at home when he moved away for university. I wondered if he would like one which he really can keep for himself now. I found this on my first try of looking for a tea chest.
Decorate Cookies for Day of the Dead
My sister would love these. She decorated her whole face as a skull last year for The Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos). They actually call it the sugar skull. You have probably seen it somewhere by now.
The Day of the Dead is not about Halloween or zombie movies. It is a real event in Mexico, a long time tradition.
Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday celebrated October 31, November 1st and November 2nd in connection with the Christian days for All Hallows Eve, All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day.
Family gather to remember and pray for deceased friends and family members. Traditions include building private altars to honour the deceased. The altars are decorated with sugar skulls, flowers and the favourite food and drink of the departed family and friends. Gifts and/or possession of the dead are left on graves. The living will spend the day (and possibly the evening) at the grave. They pack food and have a picnic in the cemetery.
Day of the Dead is not a grim holiday. Other cultures may not understand that this is a family holiday, a day of remembering and giving thanks for the people who have been important and valued in our lives. Pagans have a very similar holiday, Samhain, which is also based on remembering the past and celebrating the harvest in the present. In North America we call this Halloween, but it has lost most of the original meaning behind the holiday.
Prompt for December 4 | Project Reverb
20/20: Hindsight is the one thing we never benefit from in the present. Is there one moment you wish you could do over?
via Prompt for December 4 | Project Reverb .
No. I don’t want do overs of anything unless it’s a single great moment. Even then, things are always better in the moment than the second time around. You can’t have the same reaction twice, especially when you already know how things are going to end.
Do you read the end of a book while you are still reading it? Life is like that. At times we would like to know how it ends, do we accomplish everything, or anything? How do family and friends do with their own lives? So many questions to ask and yet having the answers leaves us without all those questions.
I think we need those surprises, questions and all those moments of suspense and even fear. If we had a book of our lives to read from how dull that would be. To already know how your every moment will be…. Wouldn’t that be sad to just be waiting around for things to happen instead of wondering what will happen next?
I'm in the 7%
Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old. This is something we should all read at least once a week!
“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.
My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Change the way you think.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. Release your children when they become adults, its their life now.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye
16. Take a deep breath It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22 Just because you believe you are right, doesn’t mean you are. Keep an open mind.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. Your job is to love your children, not choose who they should love.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come…
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield…
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”
Its estimated 93% won’t forward this.
If you are one of the 7% who will, forward this with the title “I’m in the 7%”. Friends are the family that we choose.
A few things I need to get off my chest: Not a rant | I Will Dare
A few things I need to get off my chest: Not a rant | I Will Dare .
My blabby comment after reading Jodi’s post:
40 is actually pretty nice. I’m feeling a bit sick about the approach of 50 (though I’m only 46, 50 is like a dead weight I can’t get out of my head).
Grey hair can be salvaged. I waited until I realized pulling out the grey strands was making me look like a lunatic. I was actually using the mirror in the car one day, while parked on the street. People were looking at me. It wasn’t a good thing.
So I started colouring my hair. You could skip the steps of DIY colouring and go right to getting it done at the salon. I didn’t. But, I’m stubborn that way. I had it done at the salon about two weeks ago for the first time. It is different than the DIY jobs I have done myself. I always seemed to miss some area, even when I was careful and watched myself do it in the bathroom mirror. Also, with long hair I think it requires two boxes of colouring to really cover all that hair. I was too cheap to buy two.
The salon is expensive but I got it done this time because I have two family weddings to attend. One was this month and the other October. My brother and sister are getting married, not to each other. There is something to make you feel old! I’m the oldest sibling but now I will be the only unmarried one. (I’m divorced, so not a complete old maid).
Anyway, 40 is not so bad. You might even like it! I was kind of fond of being 42, the answer to life, the universe and everything. For that one year you too can be the It Girl of the Universe.