September 2008

Georgia On My Mind

Here we are, in the heart of Georgia. Macon to be exact.  I’m exhausted from driving, house  hunting, talking, and just generally from everything today. I need time to myself. But we’re here.

Tomorrow is another day.

Teach Us To Pray

Prayer does change things. It does heal the heart, the mind and the spirit. I’m sharing some of my thoughts and beliefs about prayer in the next few weeks. This is not an attempt to convince or convert anyone. Simply my explanations and hopefully this and other articles will shed some light for those of you with interest. In these tough days in our country,  I think its important that we pray.

Lord, teach us to pray
It’s been a long and cold December kind of day,
with our hearts and hands all busy in our private little wars.
We stand and watch each other now from separate shores;
we lose the way. Joseph Wise

I was born a Catholic, baptized as an infant and raised in an Italian Catholic family. I was blessed to be able to receive a primarily Catholic education. I grew up, married in the church and had a family. I left my abusive husband and in so doing, I left the church I had grown up in.  While I eventually found a new church home and community and gained a much better perspective on the Bible as a whole, there are certain prayers, actions and beliefs I cling to. Perhaps they bring comfort from familiarity.

In particular, I find that the prayers I have kept with me all of my life that have helped me the most are the prayers that are connected to the rosary.

I have been studying the rosary for basically all of my life and have been very involved in the practice of meditative prayer. The beads of course do nothing but keep track of which prayer you are praying. They are not magical or have any special “powers”. They are, however, quite beautiful.

The word rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses, the rose being one of the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary. If you were to ask what object is most emblematic of Catholics, people would probably say, “The rosary, of course.” We’re familiar with the images: the silently moving lips of the old woman fingering her beads; the oversized rosary hanging from the waist of the wimpled nun; more recently, the merely decorative rosary hanging from the rearview mirror.

After Vatican II the rosary fell into relative disuse. The same is true for Marian devotions as a whole. But in recent years the rosary has made a comeback, and not just among Catholics. Many Protestants now say the rosary, recognizing it as a truly biblical form of prayer—after all, the prayers that comprise it come mainly from the Bible.

The rosary is a devotion in honor of the Virgin Mary. It consists of a set number of specific prayers. First are the introductory prayers: one Apostles’ Creed (Credo), one Our Father (the Pater Noster or the Lord’s Prayer), three Hail Mary’s (Ave’s), one Glory Be (Gloria Patri).

Catholic Answers has a great article on the complete meanings of the prayers and symbolism of the rosary.

I welcome your conversation and interest in catholicism and I’d love to talk to you and hear your thoughts on prayer.

Budget Busters Top 10 Redux

Ok, so you’ve been trying to save money. You’ve changed your spending habits, and you’re really not a really big spender. So, where is all that money going?

I had a bad case of bloggers block this week, so I decided to do some (financial) housekeeping. Here’s what I found in my stack of weekly receipts :

Cigarettes: Average $4.54 per pack, one pack a day, 7 days a week, costs $1650 per year not to mention major health costs and implications.

Bottled Water: Average $1.00 per bottle (non major brand*). Purchased at the local convenience store, one bottle per day costs $365 per year. *major brands can cost upwards of $3 per bottle

Soft Drinks: Average $1.50 per bottle. One bottle per day will seperate you from $548 per year.

Manicures: Average $21.00,* * add in a pedicure everyother week at $20 Keeping fingers and toes in tip top shape can set you back $806 per year.

Lunch Out: Average $10.00 buy lunch out 5 days a week rather than brown bagging and you’ll spend a mindblowing $2600 per year.

Coffee and a Newspaper: Average $1.50 per cup and $.50 per paper. (Don’t even think about going to the local Java shop) Catching up on the world and getting an extra caffine kick during the work week will cost you a whopping $520 per year.

Car Wash: Average $15 for basic car wash, twice a month, you’ll shell out $195 annually. Opt for a full detail and you’ll spend upwards of $400.

Drinks After Work: Of course drink prices vary by location and bar, but order just two bottled beers, inc luding tip for your bartender and you’ll part with $4000 or so a year. Add in the occasional munchie tray and you’re spending over $5000. This ain’t your mama’s pretzles and beer here.

Pizza: Order a large pizza with the works delivered to your house once a week, including tip and you’ll spend $468 per year. Get the Door…. !!

And Last, but not least:

Credit Card Interest Charges: Making the minimum payment on about $6000 worth of Credit Card debt at an average interest rate of 13% will not only take you the next 21 years to pay off, but will cost you almost $4,800 over the life of the debt.

So Lets do the math here. Eliminating these 10 little budget busters completely will save you a whopping $11,152 plus or so per year! Not too shabby!

Now about that $700 Billion Dollar bail out…

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

And none of what you see!

 

 

 

More Favorite Things

Today My Favorite Things will be packing a bag and moving over to Birds Eye Views. You can catch all my faves there. But before we go, I’m going to tell you about two of my newest favorite things.

I got “turned on” to Cactus and Ivy by my BFF. She’s forever finding fabulous things and this time she hit a home run. She insisted that I try these products, so I did some due diligence, found out about the company and read more on the owner and her philosophy. All I can say is wow!

Cactus & Ivy does not, nor will we ever test our products on animals.  We are a member of Caring Consumer and The Leaping Bunny Program.  After joining the Caring Consumer program, we decided to remove all animal byproducts from our ingredients.  We have replaced beeswax with candelilla wax and we no longer even use honey.  Each opportunity brings change and Cactus & Ivy wants to change with it.  So in addition to Cactus & Ivy products being ”cruelty free” we are actually now “vegan” too.

That was enough to make me seriously want to try these products. I’ve been blessed with skin that’s less than cooperative with some of the additives that commercial products contained, so an all natural alternative was just what I was looking for. I contacted Lisa about her products and before I knew it she’d sent a gorgeous care package.    My two favorites are:

The Cran Citrus Polish is a fantastic sugary scrub with cranberry seeds and orange peel, it makes you smell delicious and feel as soft as silk—perfect at the end of a hard day. And it comes “gift” wrapped in a pretty organza bag with a lovely little scoop! One other thing I just love about this stuff is that the guys love it too! The citrusy smell isn’t “girly” so they feel comfortable using it.

Another of my faves is the mint “flavored” Lip Service Lip Balm .I’m tossing the chapstick. This pepperminty scented, flavored lip balm is so soothing to chapped lips, just a little tingly and super emmolient. Its like a spa treatment for your lips.

Lisa has loads of other wonderful products over at Cactus and Ivy. From soaps and body washes to moisturizers and even room reed diffusers. Drop by, tell her hi! And absolutely, give these products a try!

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