I am excited about New Year’s Eve this year. It will be the first time in many years that my family will be together to celebrate bringing in the New Year. We plan on watching the ball fall in New York City on TV.
We planned to eat ribs and kraut. In the North, the tradition is eating sauerkraut on New Year’s Eve. In the South, the tradition is eating collard greens and black eyed peas. These traditions are for bringing prosperity and good luck.
A friend told me about a program called FreeRice donating rice through the United Nations to help World Hunger. No one should have to be hungry in this world. Unfortunately, many of us are not able to donate a lot of money. However, we all can help by playing a word game, which increases your word knowledge, to donate 20 grains of rice for each word you get right. You can see the totals so far since October 2007. The United States has not reached its goal yet. For every $100 pledged by United States, 17 cents is pledged. The United States is the second lowest in pledges compared to 21 other countries. The International Aid stated:
Only six countries have not yet set up a schedule to give 0.7%. These are Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United States. To raise the $195 billion a year, these six will need to reach the goal.
These six countries are all democracies. All that is necessary for them to reach the 0.7% goal is for enough of their citizens to show their support.
Sources: UN Millennium Project, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), The End of Poverty (Jeffrey D. Sachs), Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Let’s help others in need of food by playing this word game. Playing this game few minutes everyday can make a big difference in someone’s life. Sending a simple printable letter to President George W. Bush to honor the agreement made and signed in 2002 at the Monterrey Conference and the Johannesburg Summit to make concrete efforts towards giving 0.7% of our national income in aid to poor countries. Thank you everyone for participating!
May we all have a healthy and prosperous New Year.
Tomorrow we are starting to take down Christmas in the house. Snow is predicted on and off all week. So this should be a great time to work on packing up the decorations and ornaments.
I want to start the New Year off with a sense of purpose and determination with my new organization skills. This will help with managing my diabetes better and taking better care of myself. After spending near this whole month sick with different infections, I learned a few more things about myself.
I need to accept that I am not perfect and to be patient with myself and others more. Need to be more truthful with myself about my diabetes.
I have been blessed more than I realize sometimes this past year, even though it has been a tough one both physically and mentally. Gaining friends from around the world. Most of all, thankful to be ALIVE!
2008 is going to be great!~Thank you for reading my blog post! Comments are always welcome.
I have been searching for affordable healthcare insurance for myself and my family. Advantage Healthcare Quotes offers ways to save money on healthcare insurance. Obtaining an online quote is easy and simple to do.
Comparing different insurance companies for medical insurance quotes for cheaper rates for various policies is important. As a diabetic and having other health related issues, I am on Medicare. Medicare does not cover some of the cost of my doctor visits and some of my prescriptions, even though I have Medicare Parts A, B and D.
Supplemental insurance is a necessity with the high cost of healthcare. The information that I read about might allow you to receive cash benefits for pre-exisiting conditions. That is great to know as I have had diabetes for over 11 years.
A friend of mine told me about this wonderful opportunity to make money blogging through Blogsvertise. Bloggers can earn extra money from their blog. Advertisers can generate buzz and build links. I looked over the information provided for bloggers about making the extra money and how it works.
Advertisers want you to blog about their websites, products and services. The requirements seem to be pretty easy! Blogsvertise pays you through your PayPal account. Signing up was quick and easy too! Blogsvertise notifies you immediately with an email for confirmation.
The current payout rate for Blogsvertise new accounts is between $4 – $25 per entry. I am praying my blog is approved.
Spock is a new search engine for finding people. You can find famous or infamous people, friends or a lost loved one. Spock uses social networking sites, blogs, biography pages, news and more to search for information on people. You can build a network with trusted friends to share relevant people.
Other famous people like, Josh Groban, Jessica Alba and Paris Hilton are among some of the people you can search for in Spock. Tags are bits of useful information about people. You can search a person by name, email addresses, tags, age and gender. You can add new musicians who may not be getting the PR they deserve, a local hero, a Pastor who reaches out to your community, a doctor that treats you or your family, or yourself. You can promote yourself, your blog by adding your own information. Being a member of Spock, allows you to add tags, related people, news, websites, names and pictures.
Just think of the possibilities! You can use Spock to add you and your business partner. This can help your business get a jump start. Trying to get the word out about a non-profit that is important to you? Add the Executive Director and the Board Members.
Another great benefit of being a member of Spock is that you can vote on individual pieces of information, tags and pictures. Your opinion is important as it helps rank a person or information or pictures. Spock Power enables loyal Spock users with rewards and prevents spamming on the voting.
Spock uses tags which are short words or phrases to help search for pertinent information on a person. They make up the way you search and the way members can help add to searches. I searched the name of a famous woman who was the first woman prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated on Thursday, December 27, 2007. I was pleased with the search results I obtained from using Spock.
Finally feeling better. Attending family member’s Christmas parties has been fun. Seeing relatives that I have not seen in a year. The kids have grown so much, hardly recognized them.
I finally got all my Christmas gifts wrapped and all the cards off in the mailed. Everyday, as I open my mailbox, I receive so many Christmas cards or packages. Some with pictures of nieces and nephews, great niece and great nephews, it is always a thrill to see them and how much they have grown. I received another card with pictures of a very special friend, her husband and young daughter. Even two dear friends have sent me gifts. I had to take a peek at one of them. Thanks, Brenda and her husband!
Going to another family Christmas party tonight. I have sampled small portions of some of the treats at the family parties. Keeping a good eye on my blood sugar level. One of the relatives ask me if I was feeling okay, not knowing I have diabetes. I asked why and she said you sure are missing out on all the great desserts. I told her I was a diabetic and also watching my waistline. So many of the relatives are very overweight, some have diabetes, they were eating lots of pie, cake, cookies and other treats. I knew better than to raise my blood sugar too high and too fast from eating too much.
Last week when I went to the doctor, I had lost weight from the last visit to him two months before. Last year, I lost weight during the holidays too. It is all the rushing to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Don’t know whether I will 14 pounds like last year, but it will probably be a close second. I have gotten in a size smaller in my jeans, which feels great. Will have to work on getting in some time to walk at the mall during these winter months.
Going to church for the Christmas service. Have to go to a different church as my church is not having a Christmas service. Pastor is home from the hospital after having two surgeries. He is not doing well and has lost 15 pounds since he has been home. Please keep Pastor John in your prayers. Thanks!
Merry Christmas everyone! Praying you get what you are wishing to get. I am praying for good health, peace and goodwill toward men.
Yesterday, I stopped in Dollar Tree Store to pick up some batteries after picking up my prescriptions. It was the only item I needed. The lady in front of me turned to speak to me. She saw I only had the batteries in my hand and offered to let me go in front of her. I thanked her for being so kind and smiled towards her. She smiled back. Being nice goes a long way especially during the holiday season.
We continued to talk as we waited in line for the cashier. She asked me if I was feeling okay. I must have looked surprised at her question. I asked her why, she said you look sick. I simply told her I hadn’t been feeling well lately and had been to the doctor.
It is always amazes me when people can “see” you are sick. However, when you have a chronic or invisible illness, people don’t “see” and don’t understand. It reminds me of a story called “The Spoon Theory” I read from ButYouDontLookSick.com magazine. It helps get people to understand what people with chronic or invisible illnesses deal with on a daily basis.
So do a random act of kindness starting today. It may be a neighbor who is elderly or sick, or someone in a store that you can put a smile on their face too. It made me realize that I need to do more random acts of kindness. It can give you a more positive attitude towards life.
Have not been able to shake the sniffles for a week. Thought it was just allergies till the coughing spells came on. I know as a diabetic that I should have gone sooner to the doctor, but thought I could work through this. My blood sugars started yo-yoing again also. My energy level has been up and down. Thought my CFS was acting up too.
My doctor said I have an infection in my sinuses, bronchitis and a kidney infection. Wow I triple whammy. He gave me prescriptions for an antibiotic, Cipro, to cover all three. In addition, he prescribed a cough syrup for me. Finding cough syrups for diabetics can be hard to find. Most over the counter cough syrups contain lots of sugar. I use to take a sugar free brand that was over the counter but my drug store doesn’t carry it anymore. Unfortunately, Medicare doesn’t cover the cost of the cough syrup that was prescribed.
So off to bed I go after taking my antibiotic and drinking a small amount of orange juice for Vitamin C. I did talk to my doctor about how much orange juice I could drink. He also recommended tomato soup, which is high in Vitamin C.
The last two days I have been working to get the rest of my out of town families’ Christmas gifts wrapped and boxed and finish my Christmas cards. Each year I keep making promises to myself, I would get started early and not run into this situation of rushing to get their boxes and card in the mail. As I stood in line at the post office today with my final boxes to mail, I listened to other people’s comments about their waiting till the last minute to mail their packages.
The post office staff was very courteous, but you could tell they were tired from going so fast all day long. I could relate to them as I was tired from rushing all day long.
I did take time today to have lunch with a dear 88 year old friend. Each year for the past 8 years, we have had a Christmas lunch together and exchange gifts. I admire my friend’s endurance and strengths. She is still a ball of fire. She manages to get up at 4 AM to bake dozens of cookies, attending church meetings and clubs she belongs to and then go home and make more batches of cookie dough. She flies each month for a few days out of town to visit relatives. She belongs to a close nit family. She had to stop driving 6 months ago and her family and myself drive her to do errands. She is amazing women. She has been recognized by the Kiwanis for the Unsung Hero award. At the rate she is going she will probably out live me. She tells me that the secret to long life is staying active. Well, Betty, no grass is growing under your feet, that is for sure.
This evening, I finally felt a sense of relief of all the stress I have been under. I felt great to sit and talk to my daughter this evening in a relaxed manner. We talked about many things including my diabetes. She has been concerned about me and the way I have been lack on taking good care of myself. She promised to help me with some of the housecleaning during her Christmas break from school.
I am looking forward to the family Christmas parties this weekend. Getting to see relatives I haven’t seen in a year. The temptations of all the holiday party food is going to be very hard as many of the family bring lot so sweet. Will have to be careful with what I eat that will affect my blood sugar. I just wish I was able to go see my Mom for Christmas as I miss her so much and she just celebrated her 86th birthday last week and I could not be there.
What a busy day I have had. My daughter had to be at work by 8 AM. That meant I had to get up early, no sleeping in for me. Seems like it has been weeks, since I last got to sleep in. Got back home to start my day with still writing Christmas cards. Writing notes to relatives and friends about how the year has been. Also, wrapping some presents to be mailed.
As I was driving to the post office, it started to snow lightly. After I was in the post office for a few minutes and 3 other customers came in behind me, one commented about the snow coming down outside. I turned to look and it appeared to be coming down like a blizzard. I drove home very carefully. I checked my blood sugar before eating my lunch. I was pleasantly surprised that it was 112 after skipping breakfast. I know I shouldn’t skip but I got busy and forgot, because I was not hungry.
After about two hours, it started to rain. I was unaware of it turning into slushy ice. When my daughter called me to come get her from work, that is when I discovered the slushy ice on my sidewalks. I had to use my snow shovel to remove the slushy part a little at a time, then add Ice Melt to the surface. I took my time doing this as I am afraid of breaking my leg again or the other one. Falling on ice is no fun. When the surface is slick and you have nothing to grab onto, it makes it very difficult to stand. You can only slide your body on the ice till you can get something to grab onto if it is not covered in ice. I asked my postman what he put on his boots to keep from falling. He told me about Stabilicers. They have a flexible sole with cleats to grip the ice and snow. I am ordering myself a pair.
I did drive very carefully to pick up my daughter from work. I passed several fender benders on the way. People who live in the North should know by now to slow down in these icy conditions when driving. People following too close seemed to be the main reason for these accidents I saw.
My youngest daughter is working on getting her permanent driver’s license. She has been driving for near a year on her learner’s permit license. Due to her Bi-Polar, she also experiences panic attacks. She has been seeing a psychiatric doctor for medications. We have been working on getting her medication levels balanced for her. When she is ready, she will get her driver’s license. I talked to her today about being a responsible driver during the icy driving conditions. She told me she was glad I was driving today as she was not sure she could drive in these conditions yet. A friend of hers called this evening to tell her of his accident and going off the road and hitting a tree. The boy was okay, but his car isn’t.
Parents do have a responsibility in being an example to their children. Teaching them the correct way to drive and act accordingly even in unsafe driving conditions.
