Read and react. As one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, Haiti’s people are especially vulnerable in the wake of such a severe natural disaster. As many as 100,000 people may have died in the recent earthquake. Sometimes I read news articles about such disasters and just think, “Aw. That’s sad.†But [...]
Things I Need to Do More Often
Don’t sweat the small stuff! I’ve had a problem with this in the past, but I’m getting better and better at letting things go, especially when they really don’t matter in the grand scheme of my life. For example… There is a lot of dust, crumbs, and dog hair on my kitchen floor. Normally, [...]
Hi friends! I am going to take the night off from food blogging (all my eats were pretty unexciting, except I had 1 million cups of tea to stay awake). I need to disconnect. But, I wanted to leave you with an interesting passage from a book that I am slowly reading called “Don’t [...]
Inevitably, it happens to all of us – we spill water all over our laptop, the cat pushes it off the desk, a virus eats away the memory. Sooner or later, your computer will have a meltdown. My first computer meltdown happened in 2004. I lost all my music and photographs, which was so sad. [...]
Use Skype to stay in touch with friends and family. I feel a little slow to the party, but I just discovered Skype. In case you haven’t heard of it, a Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet…. FOR FREE. Yes, free. All you need is a [...]
Try new recipes. The other night, the Husband came home from clinical with a grocery bag in his hand. He held it up and proudly said, “I got my first gift from a patient today!†The patient had given us well over three dozen Key Limes. “They’re organic,†the Husband said. “Can you make a [...]
Look on the bright side. When I was younger, I was an overwhelmingly negative person. I generally thought the worst would happen, assumed other people would rip me off, and I said "I can't" more than I'd like to admit. I held a lot of grudges. I was actually pretty mean to a few [...]
Get my booty out of my office chair and do a desk workout! I sit for a very... long... time during the work day. It's quite common that I'm sitting at the computer from 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM and beyond. Humans aren't made to sit still that long! Every now and then, [...]
Post an Operation Beautiful note. I bet you have a pen and a piece of paper nearby! And you've probably got a camera or phone with a camera in your purse. What are you waiting for?! Operation Beautiful is a random act of kindness that you can do RIGHT NOW. Post it in the [...]
Meditate. (I can thank Operation Beautiful for the fact that I'm not in the least bit embarrassed anymore to post photos of me sans make-up.) I used to be really, really scared of "meditation." It sounds complicated and voodoo magic-y. But meditation really isn't that hard at all, and the benefits are extraordinary. I [...]
Try new hairstyles. I almost always wear my hair down. It's long, it's straight, and I don't do anything to it besides a mandatory post-shower brush. As a result, it looks the exactly same every day -- like this: I think I'm somewhat afraid to do stuff with my hair. I fear I'm going to [...]
Pay for the next person in line. This is a easy and relatively inexpensive Random Act of Kindness that I've started to do lately. As I go through a toll booth, I hand the collector an extra buck and pay for the car behind me. I also do it when I'm entering state parks [...]
Stop avoiding the chores I "don't like." I HATE unloading the dishes. So, I avoid doing it. I stack dishes in the sink, I hand wash other dishes, I even blog about not unloading the dishwater.... all in the pursuit of not actually unloading the dishwasher. This is bad. And it's indicative of something [...]
Eat bagels. Especially: Poppy seed. Sunflower seed. Everything! In the "no carb" craze (I am so glad that's over), I used to shy away from bagels. And I have NO IDEA why. Bagels are amazing! Soft and squishy, filling, comforting... bagels rule! And they make a fabulous afternoon snack when your tummy [...]