Thumbs up – Hats Off Local Businesses Shine

Provident Ponderings-- April 2012

Last weekend, when our little grandson was practicing pull ups on the bathroom towel rack, he ripped it right off the wall.  Steve had initially attached it to last forever, but hadn’t counted on it being used for physical fitness.  Anyway, a repair job ensued.  Our son-in-law once commented that our downstairs bathroom is the smallest room he’s ever been in with the most variety of wall finishes!  Of course, he’s right, but I loved concocting all its shades and variations of green.

Hence the problem of getting the right shade of green for the repair job.  When Steve took the sample down to Redds True Value, they did a laser scan to read the DNA of our swatch, got a color reading and dropped in a variety of unexpected colors into a quart can.  I don’t know how it all happened, but they got a perfect match on the first try. The miracle of technology—is alive and well in Blanding, and the service can’t be beat. Kudos to Redds paint department!

That experience reminded me of two other long ago occasions when we had shopped all over Provo and Salt Lake, wasting time, patience, and money trying to find a cherry pitter.  We returned home only to discover it right here at Redds.  Since inception they have been willing to stock tools, appliances, and equipment uniquely used by San Juan County citizens.

Not one to easily learn from past experiences, I repeated the futile effort again when we wanted to smoke a turkey and needed Norton’s Sugar cure salt.  Again we wasted time quizzing a half dozen clerks in the big city, only to discover it was here all the time at Clark’s.

Clark’s, San Juan Pharmacy, Edge of the Cedars, and the Blanding Visitors Center have also been very generous in promoting and selling Blue Mountain Shadows over the past 20+ years.  Without their help we would have been hard pressed to distribute this local magazine effectively.  There are many things local businesses do to support our community that critics don’t realize.

Sometimes when I hear people criticizing local businesses, I don’t think they realize how regularly owners are asked to donate and support the 101 worthwhile projects that local people organize.  It’s especially hard when there are so few businesses.  These are not once-in-a-while requests, but have been ongoing since Blanding has had students.  I’ve often wondered how they keep in business, especially when locals begrudge price markups that pay for transportation and jobs in this isolated community.

Next time you read a SJHS sports schedule, Kigalia program, or you or your neighbor wins a prize, consider who made that event or donation possible.  If we want better services, commodities, and choices, we need to utilize, appreciate and support our local businesses.  After all, you never know when you might need a particular color of fabric, a great Dutch oven, a piece of wood cut, or Fels-Naptha soap.

The Name of the Game is Connecting to People

Recently while quilting with eight other ladies at what may possibly have been the last quilting bee in Blanding, we began reminiscing about the “good old days.”  Eventually the topic turned to games we used to play when we were young, with families and friends before computer based technology started fragmenting lives and reducing interaction with real people. 

With TV, movies, and songs becoming even more violent, vulgar, and intentionally immoral, it seems like now would be a good time to push rewind in the dance of parenthood and pull our families back to some of the tried and true rituals of friendly interaction. 

Paradoxically, while the quality of TV programming has spiraled downward, the amount of time spent hooked to electrical entertainment has skyrocketed.  Recently I witnessed a young man playing a game on his cell phone while at a church meeting.  It seems startling ironic that such an activity would take place in a worship service, but it does illustrates the addictive nature of technology that so readily attaches to the natural man and woman.

According to Chicago child psychiatrist Dr. Eitan Schwarz, “When parents give children unsupervised access to media, they’re basically turning that job over to strangers.”  Emerging research regarding “media-soaked kids” reveals that technology can short-circuit healthy development.  Studies show that the more time kids spend watching TV, the less time they spend socializing and learning. Adolescents who play solitary video games become isolated in other ways, too.

The Media Violence Resource Center reported that the video game industry made $20 billion in 2010 thanks to the 300 million video games that were sold.  Unfortunately, most of these games are saturated with violence which desensitizes participants.

Sarah Coyne, an assistant professor of family life at BYU targets portrayal of violence as a red flag for families.  “Violence is everywhere—it’s in fictional TV shows, in our news programs, and even in our kids’ cartoons. There’s a general desensitization going on.”

And she’s not kidding. “According to the Media Violence Resource Center, by the time the average U.S. child starts elementary school, he or she will have seen 8,000 murders on television. For every 10 minutes of playing video or computer games, boys between the ages of 8 and 18 will see between two and 124 acts of violence. In video games rated as Teen or Mature, players will see more than 180 violent acts every 40 minutes, or 5,400 violent acts per month (The Delights and Dangers of Media, Brianna Stewart).

Personally I miss those good ole days, without technology’s siren call, when the most violent thing we saw or did was throwing snow balls at each other, or crashing dominoes. Our family played lots of games, especially during those long Idaho winters.  Pit, Dominoes, Canasta, Pinochle, Pool, Ping Pong and Scrabble were some of the favorites.  I love the memories they conjure up of having fun with my parents and siblings.  There are many in our community who also miss the family games of earlier days.  Maybe as they reminisce about their favorites, you’ll find something fun to do with your children and grandchildren, and build memories around the table instead of watching TV.

Eve Lyn Perkins recalls a game which, “may sound silly but we used to have the most fun playing it.  My mother, Lelia Kartchner, was the best and she loved this game.  We’d sit in a circle and chant the following: “There was an old lady with a stick and a staff and you must neither smile nor laugh but say right now, I will.”  All the time the circle chants, the "Old Lady" walks around the circle trying to make someone smile or laugh.  Then the old lady stops in front of someone and asks them to do something like sing a song or stand on their head or something crazy that will make them laugh. They must do it without smiling or laughing; if they can’t, then they become the old lady. It was really hard to keep a straight face. My mother was good at that too, all the while she had us laughing our heads off.”

What are these boards, and how are they used?

Joe Lyman: For some reason I was just thinking last night about the many pleasant-- though competitive hours we spent playing Carrom.  I began wondering if there were such things as carrom boards any more so I went on the internet and sure enough they are alive and well for only 40 bucks.  I almost ordered one.  I wonder if my grandkids could adapt to something “real.”  Carrom was a poor man’s pool table.  We didn't have the Q sticks.  We just flipped the white carrom with our finger and became very skilled at pocketing the red and black or green ones.  I don't know if there were rules or we just made up our own. For some reason I think my grandkids might enjoy the experience -- maybe even marbles.

Kay Jones: I remember playing Pollyanna with my dad.  We didn’t have Home Evenings, as such, way back then, but I loved to play board games with him.  My mother had poor hearing, so she didn’t play with us, but those memories are special.  When I moved to Blanding, My in-laws, Alma and Marion Jones, introduced me to Rook.  We spent many evenings playing that. 

My kids played ‘Kick the Can’, Red Rover, Red Rover, and Annie-I-Over at our home in Blanding. 

Sylvia Shumway also played the same game, calling it  "Andy-I-Over.”  We’d throw the baseball over the house and yell "Andy-I-Over" and people on the other side of the house had to guess where it would roll down the roof.  If they caught it, they would run around the house and tag the other person with the ball, or toss it at them.  If they were tagged, they went to the other team. I also remember:

Fox and Geese. Tramp a very large circle in the snow and divide it into pie shaped sections with a safe zone in the middle. Only one person could be in the safe zone at a time. One person was the fox and the others were geese. They all had to follow the paths made in the snow, while the fox would chase the geese to tag them, then that person became the fox.

Mumbly peg. Two people would stand opposite each other about 4-5 feet apart, with their feet together on the lawn and one would toss a pocket knife near their feet. The knife had to rotate with a specific toss so it would peg into the lawn. The opposite person would have to step where the knife landed. Then would peg it back to the other person who had to step where the knife landed. The stance would get wider and wider until someone would lose balance and fall over. The other would be the winner.  

Of course we had games like Marbles, Hop Scotch, Jacks, Hula Hoop, (all of which I was the champion). Kick the Can, Red Rover, Musical Chairs, Jump rope and Double Dutch.

There were the board and card games too: Clue, Monopoly, Tiddily winks, Cootie, Chinese checkers, Sorry, Parchese, Go Fish, Rook, Old Maid,

One of my favorite activities was to spend the summers playing at West Water. I used to play cowboys with my sister. I remember all the plants and animals that we don't see any more. Horny toads, lizards, salamanders, bats, toads, rattle snakes, pollywogs, tad poles, water horse hairs, water spiders, pop ‘em reeds, wild water cress. Playing at White Rocks was so fun. It was a huge sand stone rock where everyone carved their initials. It has since eroded away. Only a bit of sand is left.   

Carol Richmond: My favorite was playing kick-the-can with the whole neighborhood most summer nights. My dad and I would play Monopoly every Sunday afternoon. 

Kay Shumway: My friends and I played Monopoly and Rook mainly.  About once a year we would play Monopoly until the sun came up.  I remember adults getting together to play Rook.  However, it is important to add that my friends and I spent a lot of our time hiking in the canyons close to town.  We also had chores to do, such as milking a cow twice a day, and feeding the pigs and chickens.  I am usually surprised, when I am out in the mountains and canyons of our area, at how few people I see there.  This is especially true of young people.

I remember playing marbles at recess during my years in elementary school. We had a special marble or steel ball bearing (a steelie) for a taw. We also played Stink Base in elementary school.

Debbie Christiansen:

As kids we played Fox and Geese, making snow paths in the winter and chalk paths in the road in the summer.  We also had some mean hop scotch matches in our neighborhood.  We played Sardines in a Can - sort of a reverse type hide and seek.  We played Devil on the Whitehorse.  Red Rover was always a big neighborhood draw - we would have 10 to 12 kids on a team.  Charades was always lots of fun.  We had some neighbors who had a dice game named after them, it was "Noble" - each table had a set of dice with the letters N-O-B-L-E and a Wild card side. You played in teams and it was a fast paced game where every 5 minutes the team on the table that won rotated up a table - the goal was to maintain being the "winning team" on the #1 table - loser on the #1 table went to the last table.  I remember thinking it was so cool that the family had their very own game.

Pete Black Some of the games I remember involved traveling long distances in a car—(Times haven’t changed in this way, if you live in Blanding.)
1.  Choosing a color of vehicle and see who could get to 25 first with their color.
2.  Completing the alphabet from road signs
3.  Seeing how many states we can come up with from license plates.
4.  Paper, Rock, Scissors
5.  We would roll down the windows and yell as we went through the tunnel in Price Canyon.  This was not a game but always a highlight.
6.  Asking Mother and Dad "are we almost there" was always fun.  I think when we went to Salt Lake, we used that from about Monticello on.

What can I say….There are some games that never change!

Readers: If you have other games you’d like to add, or instructions, please go to  providentponderings.blogspot.com and add your comments.

Ways to Show Your Love

Provident Ponderings –Feb. 2011

February is a time for Valentines and for expressing and showing love.  From the simplest gesture to an extreme adventure, couples and friends are thinking of how best to show they care. Since this is a provident living column, these suggestions will be ones that are inexpensive, yet speak volumes.

Find out your partner's preferred "Love Language." Do they want to hear words of love? See acts and service that bespeak love? Or feel affection and know they are cherished?  Some people feel loved by receiving little gifts.  Or maybe a combination of the above ideas will melt away past emotional distance and resentments.  Real love is not based on your preference but your partner's.

Speak your love. Clear communication will let your partner and your children know how much you love them. Mention specific traits and deeds you especially love about them.  The more specific you are, the more they know you’ve really noticed.

Show your love through your actions, such as preparing a luxurious bath, doing the dishes, planning a special activity, or writing a poem. Choose an action that you know your partner will appreciate. Doing things begrudgingly sends negatives vibes. 

Spend time being present with your partner or child. Turn off the phone, the TV, computer, i-pad, and the radio and sit together where you can talk, look at each other, plan, dream and listen.  Talk about your dreams together and where you two are going in life. Ironically, technology, with the power to connect long distance, often drives huge wedges in families and destroys spousal closeness.

Listen when wives and daughters need to talk — without offering solutions.  Women need to be heard as well as listened to.  Ask questions, clarify when you don’t understand, but don’t lecture or state the obvious.  Before giving a suggestion, ask if they want one.  Most likely they won’t, they just want to vocalize what they’re going through.

Read out loud together at night from a book you’ll both enjoy. Take turns reading.  Talk about it.

Ask about the details of his/her day or work, even some of the boring minutia.

Show genuine pride in even their smallest accomplishments. Praise them in front of your children, or friends.

Find a balance with your work and home life. Don’t let work take precedence over your relationships.

Be an old-fashioned gentleman. Hold the door. Help her with her coat. Offer your seat, or to carry something heavy.  Practice these same manners with the elderly, infirm, and young.

Enroll in a class together — It might be exercise, pottery, family history, or marriage enrichment.

Ask the question, "What can I do for you today, honey?" 

 Learn to have the last word in arguments, by sincerely saying, "I'm sorry.

Going Green this Year

Provident Ponderings  Jan. 2012

Many of us give lip service to “green leafy vegetables” but shun choosing to let them cross our plate or palate.  There is probably no other single category of food that could change our lives for the better this year, than adding generous portions of “greens” to our diet. 

One of our sons regularly blends a maxi-potion green drink using a healthy dose of a variety fresh fruits and vegetables:  kale, spinach, broccoli, mustard greens, Swiss chard, melon, and berries. By using them copiously in his daily “green drink” it has made a difference in his physical health. Right now Quent uses mainly Spinach or Kale for greens as that is what is growing in his garden. He added, “Frozen mangoes and green grapes taste really good when mixed with Kale.  We also have a lot of oranges on our tree so I’m doing a lot of Kale/oranges.  Berries are supposed to have good anti inflammatory properties so I’ll use a lot of blueberries and strawberries.”

 Another Green Venue

Recently I started sprouting seeds again in an effort to get the necessary “greens” for optimal health this winter. The nutritional value of sprouts is remarkable as they contain a greater concentration of vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, phytochemicals, anti-oxidants, nitrosamines, trace minerals, and bioflavonoids than at any other point in the plant’s life – even more than when the plant is fully matured. They also contain chemo-protectants which work against toxins, resist cell mutation and invigorate the body’s immune system.

If you consider most produce, loses nutrition each day it sits, the benefits of eating sprouts takes a decided triple leap into top spot as the most beneficial food around. Even though sprouting may seem sort of a “new age” thing to do, its nutritional value was discovered by the Chinese thousands of years ago.  With Google at your fingertips you can quickly become an expert on sprouting, as well as finding sources of all types of seeds to use.

Benefits of sprouting

1.    Growing sprouts is economic. Seeds can multiply 8-15 times their weight. Depending on what you grow, you can spend as little as 25 cents for a pound of fresh sprouted indoor-grown organic greens. I usually sprout 1-2 tablespoons of small seeds at a time.
2.    Growing your own sprouts in your home is ecologically sound. No airplanes, fuel or oil was consumed to deliver this food to you. No synthetic fertilizers or petroleum-based pesticides. 
3.  Sprouts are fresh, LIVING foods. There is no loss of nutrients sitting in warehouses or on grocery store's shelves. Even after you harvest your sprouts and refrigerate them, they will continue to grow slowly and their vitamin content will actually increase. Compare this with store-bought vegetables and fruits, which start losing their vitamin content as soon as they’re picked and often have to be shipped a thousand miles or more in the winter.
4.  Another benefit to sprouting seeds and nuts is that it removes the enzyme inhibitors which are chemicals in nuts and seeds designed to preserve the life force within. Enzyme inhibitors are what keep the seed or nut in a dormant state until it is ready to bring forth the plant or tree within.  That is what sprouting does.  Sprouting takes the seed out of a dormant state and releases all sorts of nutrients and beneficial enzymes that are only accessible through sprouting. The nutrients and enzymes released from sprouting vary, depending on what you sprout.
5.  In addition to being highly nutritious, sprouted nuts and seeds are more easily digested by the body, making the nutritional content more usable by the body, Tests have shown that the nutrients in seeds and nuts are anywhere from 50% to 400% greater after sprouting or soaking. According to Rita Romano in her book Dining in the Raw, millet and wheat contain over 5 times the vitamin C when sprouted and the vitamin B content increases substantially as well. Sprouted nuts, seeds and grains are best consumed raw. Heating them above 116 degrees begins to destroy the healthy enzymes and reduces the nutritional content.
6.  Sprouts will stay fresh & hearty for a week or more when refrigerated, if you rinse them every day or two. You can even give the green sprouts an extra hour of sunlight after rinsing to keep them at their nutritional peak.
7. Seeds are also a wise commodity to have in your food storage.

Six Rules For Sprouting Seeds:

·        Rinse often, an easy task a child could do.

·        Keep seeds / sprouts moist, not wet.

·        Keep seeds / sprouts at room temperature.

·        Give them plenty of room to breathe.

·        Don't put too many seeds in any one container.

·        Keep them covered - no light.

I use plastic sprouting trays that are available on-line or at food storage or health food outlets. But when I first started I used a quart bottle. For a quart-sized jar, start with 1 1/2 tablespoons seeds inside the jar, screw on the fine mesh lid (for draining purposes) and partially fill the jar with warm water, not hot. Swirl it around to clean the seeds, then pour the water out. Refill with warm water to cover at about 3 times their depth & let soak overnight. For the next 3-4 days it’s just a process of rinsing and draining and watching them grow.  

Using Sprouts

There are many ways to use sprouts.  I’ve even used them on sweet potatoes, and cheese cake! Here are more common uses:

·        Add to tossed green salads

·       Use in coleslaw, or as a topping for soups (cabbage, clover, radish)

·        Delicious in potato salad (mung bean, lentil)

·        Add to wraps and roll-ups (alfalfa, sunflower, radish)

·        Add just before serving stir-fry along with other vegetables

·        Blend into fruit shakes, smoothies or vegetable juices (my current favorite)

·        Replace celery or onion with sprouts in sandwich spreads

·        Mix with soft cheeses for a dip or in cheese balls (mung bean, radish)

·        Top cheese sandwiches, or tuna with sprouts; use instead of lettuce

·        Add to omelets or scrambled eggs

·        Combine in rice dishes or sushi 

·        Go wild, go green this month!

Christmases Remembered and Shared

         

Last year was one of our best Christmases ever. It wasn’t because all the kids and grandkids were here, or that the presents were expensive and beautiful, or that we lost weight instead of gained it. It was because our children took the time to write their memories of Christmases past. They also shared traditions they have established in their own families. Our daughter then designed a book using everyone’s hyperbolic tales -- even sneaking old photos past our unsuspecting eyes. The gift was wonderful and so appreciated.

            The cover featured our oldest five boys holding a gigantic icicle that Steve had broken from the north side of our poorly insulated home. We read and reread the book together, laughing, and sometimes crying. It was such a wonderful gift. We also learned a lot about those winter jaunts the boys used to take, which often ended up with snowballing some unsuspecting victims, or sabotaging the neighbors’ doors, so that a pile a snow fell when they answered the doorbell.

          But another thread in the stories were the Christmas/winter traditions we did year after year with our children. These included: Dad-designed scavenger hunts for special gifts, sleigh riding down the 4^th reservoir hill, delivering “thousands of donuts through three feet of snow,” trips to the mountains for trees, delivering 12 days of Christmas treats to special families, buying Christmas presents from the DI collections in the South Chapel gym, doing programs at the nursing home, breaking piñatas with friends, opening one present Christmas eve (usually PJs), acting out the Christmas Story and eating hootenanny hotcakes Christmas morning,.

It was wonderful to read their recollections of what we had tried to orchestrate as parents. I believe that traditions are the glue that hold families, and communities together. They are shared experiences, which if repeated year after year, come to be not only enjoyed but expected.

Author Susan Lieberman makes this observation about traditions in her book, New Traditions: Redefining Celebrations for Today's Family: “Family traditions counter alienation and confusion. They help us define who we are; they provide something steady, reliable and safe in a confusing world.” There are many families in our community who have had those results through their consistent efforts in establishing worthwhile traditions.

Dan and Glenna Webb’s family were raised with many wonderful Christmas traditions. Their daughter Roxanne shared some of them: “We’d go Christmas Eve caroling after spending the whole day making candy and dipping chocolates, then returned home for chili and hot chocolate then more singing around the Christmas tree followed by Dad reading the Christmas story out of the Bible. Then, of course, the evening would not be complete without Mom telling the story of the little dog named Scats.”

     Gayle Shumway recalls Christmas traditions she loved: “When the kids were little and we had a fireplace, they would write a letter to Santa and (after mom and dad read it) they’d put it in the fireplace where the ashes would go up the chimney and fly away to Santa.

Blanding has a tradition of Christmas morning caravans. We would open our presents, put on our new clothes and take our favorite gift to “show and tell” and proceed to Grandma's house to eat waffles, strawberries and whipped cream, after we opened our presents. Then off again we’d go to visit relatives and friends to see what Santa brought to them and usually have a treat. As we traveled between houses we would see other families, sometimes still in their PJ's; we would wave excitedly to each other as we celebrated the day in the Blanding Christmas Caravans.

We now have a box of Nativity costumes for Christmas Eve. The children dress up and pose as we read the Christmas story from the Bible. We also draw names within the family for gift giving and we opened those presents on Christmas Eve.”


  Claudia Shumway Orr remembered celebrating Christmas in Blanding:  "When I was young my parents, brother and I were the only ones at home. My mother always read from a book " A Story to Tell", a story entitled "The Christmas Legend. As I got older and had children she always managed to read it to them sometime during the Christmas season. When our children were old enough to participate we started the tradition of reading the account of the Savior's birth in Luke , interspersed with Christmas carols, as the children acted the parts.  We still have the same tradition each Christmas Eve with our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We meet at our home and have dinner first then the nativity story,  then we hand out presents.Sometimes someone in the family will feel creative enough to write a play for the kids to perform, but it always portrays the nativity as it is written in Luke. The younger children seem to love doing it. We usually have to coax  the older ones but they always come through for us."

It’s never too late to start a Christmas tradition, and the effort is worth it. Let this be the year!

Hoarding Addictions: How to Straighten Up and Come Clean By Janet Wilcox

“What in the crap is this? And why did she/he save it?”  

Thus begins another Halloween Horror story.  However, this Nightmare on Elm Street may actually be on your street, or in your own house or garage.

You’ve probably uttered such questions yourself.  Your children will likely have the same outburst, at some future day when they have to clean out your house after you die –- unless the tradition of hoarding is broken.  If you don’t want to hear your name taken in vain, take strides now to purge and organize your paper trail and possessions, before you leave this mortal existence.  I can promise if you don’t, your kids will be so burdened by your belongings, they won’t even cringe when they throw things away.

I remember when my dad died.  He had saved at least 30 years of bank statements, income tax records, and receipts.  I did find a few other things of value in those boxes, but most people won’t take the time to sift through the stacks; they’ll just toss everything out.  Photos abandoned in basement boxes tell no stories and will not be valued.  You need to keep truly valuable things separate and well identified.

Need more motivation to declutter?  Then simply rephrase the aforementioned question, “Why in the heck, am I saving this?”  If you’ve never used it, never read it, haven’t worn it for more than 4 years, or it has no meaning to anyone else, it’s probably time to get rid of it.  Picture your garage, front hall closet, pantry, basement, extra bedroom.  My guess is that they are bulging over with things that haven’t been used in years.  Like Audrey II, the man-eating plant, “stuff” starts taking over and your home becomes a “Little House of Horrors” as your junk grows exponentially like the national debt.  Does Fibber McGee’s Closet ring a bell? 

The excessive and potentially space robbing stacks of printouts, files, newspapers, and magazines are especially insidious.  Line upon line, they encroach and steal the open, peaceful spaces of our homes, sometimes turning our living space and hallways into a maze instead of a restful haven.  Wikipedia states that “compulsive hoarding may impair mobility [i.e. blocked hallways] and interfere with basic activities, including cooking, cleaning, hygiene, and sleeping.”  Defining traits are “the acquisition of, and failure to discard, a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value.  In addition, living spaces are sufficiently cluttered so as to preclude activities for which those spaces were designed.”

With the great blessing of the Internet where everything is just a click away, there is no need to save 30 years of Ensigns, Newsweeks, and National Geographics.  There are schools, teachers, congregations, or recycle bins that can use them, and you in turn can come out from under this burdensome stack of paper.

Fabric Addictions

Personally my favorite guilty pleasure is my fabric stash.  Over the past 30 years, I’ve cleaned out cupboards and got rid of “real junk” in order to have a place for all my cloth.  Then I bought containers, and boxes, for the ever expanding great deals, that I never had time to sew.  Thus I joined the 20 million other quilting addicts in the USA whose stash became a passion.  I love Cathy Miller’s song “100 Ways to Hide Your Stash” and have used many of her suggestions.

In a recent documentary Why Quilts Matter, the 2010 Quilting in America Survey reported that the average quilter has $3,677 worth of fabric stored!  Now, this is starting to sound like a serious addiction!  Fortunately, while serving on the Navajo reservation a few years ago, I had the chance to reduce my “materialism” by emptying many cupboards, and sharing boxes of fabric donated my quilting friends.  We put the fabric to good use, teaching others how to sew and quilt.  There are many little church congregations in the Four Corners area who would truly benefit from the fabric that lies unused in people’s homes.   If that doesn’t work for you, then Miller has another antidotal song entitled, “The 12 Step Plan for Quilters.”

Technology Tricks to Reduce Clutter

I had an “ah-ha” experience with my own hoarding in 2010, when I started creating a media show for my 50^th class reunion.  Most of the pictures I needed were provided by digitally savvy classmates, who knew where their pictures were and how to scan them.  But I still needed a few more mementos of the good old days for the show.

I pulled out my old “high school treasure box” and discovered some amazing things: dance programs, newspaper clippings, a basketball schedule of the ’59-‘60 season, a cardboard tinfoil crown, graduation tassel and certificates, and dried corsages.  It’s true—I was a true-blue & gold hoarder who had a sentimental attachment to my high school memories!   I knew none of my kids would care a whit about nostalgia, so I scanned each item, then tossed them away and was quickly able to empty out half of a file cabinet drawer. 

When it comes to sentimental clutter, technology can be your salvation.  You can get rid of “things” and still keep them digitally and look at them whenever you want.  Your computer and scanner can become your best maids when it comes to “cleaning house.”   I’d encourage those of you overly attached to your possessions, to take pictures of each item, or scan the documents and save them digitally. Then throw or give away the things that encumber you.  This is an important step in hoarding recovery.  It is a great feeling to be unshackled from “things”, but you should make a back up copy.

The other blessing when you break the hoarding cycle, is the potential benefit you can pass on to others.  By recycling or regifting useful items, or donating to DI you can bless others.  You can also put them on your giveaway corner or donate to yard sales.  Stuff can be a “regift” that can bless both the giver and the receiver, as well as the giver’s children!  There are many in our community who could use your extra quilts, coats, clothing, cooking utensils, tools, books, boots, and “stuff.”

Winter time is perfect for diving into cupboards, closets, and drawers and honestly asking: “Do I need it?  Do I use it? Will it be valuable to others in my family?  If you can’t answer affirmatively to these questions, then get rid of it.  For those of you who hoard stacks of papers, the Blanding Post office now recycles paper, so you have a place to drop them off and it will still do some good.  And whatever you do, don’t keep cardboard/tinfoil crowns for 50 years!

Five Facets of Life: Parent Leadership in Times Such as This --- by Janet Wilcox

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.”
        - Robert Fulghum—

As with any corporation, or organization, monthly evaluations are essential to on-going success and progress.  Such should be the case in a family organization.  Linda and Richard Eyre, leaders for over 20 years in family dynamics, suggest that parents sit down with their spouse (or someone else who knows and loves your children) once a month (or whenever is feasible) and talk about how each child is doing in their "five-facets" of life:

1) Socially – Can they function in society, talk to others, interact appropriately, and correctly use manners?  If not, what adjustments can parents make in teaching such things?

2) Spiritually – Do they have a belief in God, rely on him, pray to him, and seek for inspiration in making decisions?  So they see themselves as dual natured – as both a physical and spiritual being? What activities in the family help reinforce these activities and concepts?

3) Mentally – Are they working up to their academic capabilities? Are they progressing and learning to sue both right and left brain thinking skills on a regular basis? 

4)Emotionally – Can they appropriately express their frustrations, anger, successes, and feelings?  Have you taught them to use their words?

5) Physically – Are they healthy, physically active, and engaged in doing, not just watching?  What family activities could be added to encourage this?  What activities hinder this?

 At the end of each set of questions, you must ask: If they aren’t, how can I as a parent help them?  

And most importantly – check yourself on these same five facets.  How are you doing?  Remember your children and grandchildren are watching.  

Parents are the coaches of the next generation.  Their game plan and practice sessions with each child, will affect the caliber of their team's success as they face the challenges of life!  Anyone who minimizes or discredits the role of parents in raising responsible children, is either a simpleton, in denial, or uninformed.