That was not fun. And to those of you who got that um… inappropriate post in your email or RSS reader, I am very sorry. Looks like it’s all fixed now, thanks to the amazing people at Host Gator. I love them. I’m not even a big fish in their pond. I just have a baby gator account but they fixed me right up. I’m sure if it was terribly complicated I would have had to hire someone to fix it but it was such a nice surprise to get the email this afternoon – We’ve restored your account, please upgrade to the newest version of Wordpress. (Oops. OK. Sorry.)

Thanks Host Gator! I heart you.

(FYI – It’s important to to keep your Wordpress installation updated to the most recent version. Most upgrades include patches to security holes.)

I’m not a very good letter writer. I misspell things, have poor handwriting, decide what I wrote is stupid, and take so long to write things that the first part is out of date by the time I finish! I almost never get a letter mailed out. Thank goodness for computers and email! I’m still not very good or consistent but it sure is easier.

My grandparents don’t have a computer, though. We tried. My dad owned a computer store and made sure they had everything they needed. Everyone taught them how to make it work, send and receive email etc. They tried it for a while but it was just too much for them. They prefer a nice typewriter, thank you very much. They never heard from me.

Then my aunt found Presto. This is an amazing product/service. AMAZING! I really wish I had thought of it, but since I didn’t, I am so glad someone did!

Presto is an email service with a printer. That’s it. Several times a day it will connect to the internet, retrieve any email that has been sent and print them out. Pictures, too! After the initial setup it’s all automatic. No dialing, no logging in, no viruses and no spam because only emails from pre-authorized email addresses are accepted. You can even specify the font size and style so the emails are easy to read.

You (the technically savvy one) can monitor ink levels online and arrange to have refills sent when needed. Or Presto can send them automatically when the ink levels reach a certain level. This way you don’t have to worry about your technically challenged loved ones driving all over town to find ink only to come home with the wrong kind. They’ll send paper, too if you want.

I still don’t write my grandparents as often as I should but it’s certainly better than the nothing (yes, nothing) they got from me before.

You can read all the details on their website. Amazon sells the printers for just $50. The service is $15 a month or $150 a year.

Weddings are so often serious and somber. This one is a celebration!

I asked for your help with something a while ago, and boy did you ever step up! We were able to send 200 sets of warm clothing and almost 300 diapers to the children in the NanYang orphanage. I received some pictures of the children in the children wearing their new clothes and wanted to share them with you.

I don’t think these babies really care if they have new clothes but I bet they’re happy to have warm clothes!

And the toddlers?

I bet she’s a stinker.

I wish I could bring them all here to live with me.

But I can’t. It breaks my heart if I really think about it.

Instead I’ll think about what we can do for them. What we can do is try to help make their lives in China as safe and happy as possible. Thank you for your help in doing that.

Here’s what the thank you note from the orphanage workers said:

The children who come here are not lucky, but with the love and concern from the donors, their lives have been brightened. The donors are like the sunshine in winter which sends out warmth to the kids here.

More pictures will be coming. They don’t have a digital camera so the pictures have to be developed and scanned and sent back because the scans are in a weird Chinese format and scanned again and sent and… it takes longer than we’re used to.

Works for Me Wednesday

Before I say anything else I want to make it clear that I don’t know anything about losing weight. I’m just a mom who finally figured out how to lose a few pounds. Not a lot, and not all of them that I need to lose, (just ask my Wii fit) but a few.

#1  -  I stopped listening to the experts.

It’s not that I think fitness and weight loss experts don’t know what they’re talking about, or that I don’t think it’s important to understand the facts and new information when it comes to eating and exercising. I just can’t do it all.

I’m a perfectionist. I don’t do everything right all the time, I just don’t want to do anything unless I can do it perfectly. So, when I read about all the things I’m not supposed to eat (sugar, white bread, white rice, bad fat, processed food) and all the things I’m supposed to eat (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, good fats, a bazillion different minerals and vitamins) and how I’m supposed to exercise (every day, in the morning, before eating, with weights, on a treadmill, uphill, downhill, for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 120 minutes for the rest of my life) I feel like I have to do ALL of that. I can’t!! I can’t even keep track of it all. Do you know how hard it is to find whole grain bread, that’s really whole grain, (not fake whole grain) that doesn’t have sugar as one of the first 5 ingredients?!?! I don’t think there is such a thing. Except for maybe Ezekiel bread, which tastes like cardboard.

I decided to stop trying to do what the experts said I should do and just concentrate on doing what I could do.

#2  -  I did what was easy.

I made the decision many times to start working out. Usually my plan was to work out every day. I tried Tae Bo, Pilates, T-Tapp… I tried running but I really hate running. HATE it. I started hiking the mountain near my house once. I really enjoyed it and stuck with it for quite a while but things changed and I wasn’t able to fit it into my routine anymore. I was trying to do what the experts said I should do and usually hated it, dreaded it and had a hard time making it work with my life. Every day when I woke up I groaned in my head at the thought of having to do whatever exercise I had chosen for the moment.

Eventually I just quit.

This year I decided I would just walk for 20 minutes 3 times a week. Just 20 minutes, just walking, just 3 times a week. I don’t mind walking. I have a treadmill and, because I like to hike, I decided to max out the incline on my treadmill during my 20 minute walk. It was a little harder, but not something I dreaded, and 20 minutes was something I could easily fit into my schedule.

After a month or two I found myself looking forward to my walk after work so I started doing it every day. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. Then I decided I could run for a minute. Just a minute. And then I ran for a minute twice. And then I ran faster for half a minute. I enjoyed challenging myself and my body. Honestly, I have to work now to not let exercising take over my life. I could easily work out for almost 2 hours (with a few breaks to catch my breath) between the treadmill and some DVDs I have. I try not to do that, though, because I don’t want to start doing something I can’t maintain, and I don’t want working out to take priority over my family.

I could have just as easily decided to walk to my neighbors house and back if that was all I could bear the thought of. I just started doing something, but not so much that I hated the thought of doing it every day.

I don’t LOVE working out and there are certainly times when I really don’t want to do it. Sometimes I just don’t do it, And other times I decide just to do my 20 minute walk.

#3  -  I stopped trying to lose weight.

It’s not that I didn’t want to lose weight, but that’s not what motivated me to start this time and stick with it.

I’ve never made a real all-out attempt to lose weight. I’d given it some half hearted attempts, but after a few weeks, when my clothes didn’t start falling off and the scale wasn’t moving, I gave up.

Then I started taking the stairs at work. I work on the fourth floor and had to get to work early so I could catch my breath before I had to get on the phones. I hated those stairs but made myself take them because it was such a little thing, and when I was a stay at home mom I was jealous of all the people who could take the stairs like the fitness expert said. This was my chance.

I made the decision to start walking because I wanted to be healthier. I wanted to be able to take the stairs without needing a 5 minute recovery period. So when I didn’t lose weight right away it didn’t matter. I wasn’t failing. The scale wasn’t proof that all my hard work was wasted. Eventually the scale moved and I had to buy a belt, but that was just icing on the cake.

#4  -  I don’t get hungry.

I eat every time I feel hungry. I tried not snacking at work but came home so hungry that I inhaled several hundred calories of junk food within 20 minutes of getting home. So now, Even if it’s an hour before dinner, I’ll eat something small if my stomach starts to growl. I try to keep protein bars in my purse. I bake bran muffins to bring to work and keep around the house.

I try to eat healthier foods when I’m hungry. I find my craving for junk food isn’t as strong if I keep myself full on healthy food. I feel hungrier sometimes after eating some fruits and vegetables, so while I do try to eat more of those, they don’t really work for me as a “keep myself from getting hungry” snack. I know that carbs a supposed to be bad but I feel full longer if I include them in my meals.

#5  -  I eat foods I like.

I’m not eating pizza every night with cheesecake for desert and chocolate cake for a midnight snack. But if I want a piece of cheese cake, I’m going to have it. The funny thing is, once I started working out I started thinking about my food differently without even wanting to or choosing too. I would pick up a candy bar and think about how long I have to walk to burn those calories. “Is this worth an hour of walking?” Sometimes it is and I enjoy every bite. Sometimes it’s not, and even if it’s just a couple of M&Ms, it’s easier to say no. And sometimes it’s not worth an hour, but is worth 20 minutes, so I’ll have a couple of bites and leave the rest.

I also don’t make myself eat yucky food just because it’s healthier. Those protein bars I keep with me all the time? They’re the yummy ones. Some of those things are pretty nasty. I don’t eat those. I will by low fat versions of some foods IF it tastes as good as the full fat version. I eat regular yogurt because the light stuff has fake sugar in it. I hate fake sugar. I buy low fat mayo, ranch dressing and sour cream because I really don’t notice a difference in taste.

BONUS RULE

I stopped trying to do what worked for other people.

I used to read stories about DVD’s, exercising schedules, diet plans etc. that worked for people. They lost tens and hundreds of pounds and several sizes. If it worked for them, it can work for me, right? WRONG. I was forgetting that these people are different than me. They have different attention spans, different tastes, different schedules, different obligations. What they did, I might not have time to do. What they eat, I may hate. (Like those instant shake things. No wonder people lose weight when they drink those! I felt sick to my stomach the rest of the day!) And what they think is a fun exercise, I may consider a form of torture.

The same goes for this list here. Maybe you need something much more structured. If you need tasks to check off and rules to follow, that’s ok. What I really want you to get out of all of this is that you have to find what works for you. Just try something. If it doesn’t work for you, it’s ok. Try something else until you find something you don’t hate.

Today is April 7th. The Name Your Dream Assignment ended 4 days ago. I want to say a huge

THANK YOU!

(Sorry, I can’t figure out how to make it huge…)

to everyone who voted, forwarded emails, posted on their blogs and twittered or tweeted or whatever it’s called. (I’m sorry. I still don’t really get Twitter. I think I’m too old.) There aren’t words to express how much each vote means to me.

My idea was ranked 136th out of over 2,500. Not bad, but not enough to be presented to the judges. That means I’m going to have to do this the hard way, without a $50,000 check.

Keep watching here for updates, or shoot me an email or leave a comment and tell me you want to receive updates on the project and I’ll send you an email anytime I have news.

Thank you so much for your support everyone!

And if you know anyone with experience starting or running a non-profit, grant writing or anything else that may be of help, please let me know. I could use all the advice I can get!

** IMPORTANT**

You do need to register to vote but can opt out of any marketing emails by NOT clicking the box at registration. In order to vote you must click on the confirmation link that will be sent to your email address and THEN come back here and click on the link again to actually vote.

I am entering the Name Your Dream Assignment contest sponsored by Lenovo and Microsoft. In this contest people describe what their dream photo assignment would be and, if they win, are given up to $50,000 to make it happen. The winner doesn’t get to keep any of the money. It all goes to making their dream a reality, up to $50.000.

Here’s my idea:

YOUNG PHILANTHROPISTS

I want to show kids that they can make a difference in the world, make them aware of different causes through the stories of other children and give them a way to help.

I would like to visit children and their families who have benefited from the help of charitable organizations. I want to document what their lives were like before and what they’re like now, after receiving the help they needed.

I’ll use the pictures and stories I’ve gathered to create a gift catalog that people can give to their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, friend’s kids – any kid they know, or even those they don’t know. This catalog will be a kid friendly book full of colorful pictures and stories about life in other countries. It will show where other children sleep, what they eat, who takes care of them what games they play and what toys they play with. They’ll see, without being told, that these other children’s lives are different than theirs, harder.

American kids aren’t selfish and uncaring. They’re just so far removed from the suffering in much of the world that it’s hard for them to comprehend how much different life is in other places. They don’t understand how lucky they are to have been born here. Not lucky because they have mp3 players, video games and computers, but because they have a family to care for them, a solid roof over their heads, a soft place to sleep, clean water to drink and a full belly. All things many children don’t have.

I know American kids will be excited to help other children when they understand the problems, and that they can make a difference.

I don’t want to make them feel guilty that they have so much. And this won’t be a book that says, “Look at how poor and sad this kid is. You should feel bad for him.” Many of the differences aren’t bad really, just different. They will be told, though, that there are some basic needs these children aren’t getting. Maybe there is no clean water in her village or his family can’t afford the books he needs to go to school. Suddenly these aren’t grown up causes; they’re children, just like them.

Included in the price of each book will be a gift certificate that the child can spend on whichever cause touches them the most. When they make their choice that money will be forwarded on to the appropriate organization. Later, the child will receive a thank you card with pictures showing how their gift was used. They’ll be able to see how they changed the life of another child thousands of miles away.

Can you imagine the adults these children will grow up to be if they learn at a young age how great it feels to help someone else? And if they understand early on that, even when we don’t have everything we want, compared to most of the world, we have so much? This project won’t just be impacting children in far away lands, it will be impacting children right here.

So here’s what I need from you.

First,  vote for my idea by clicking on the link or on the big black button on the right. When you get to the site click “Pic It” to the left of the title.

Please vote as soon as you can. The top ideas have already had a few days to gather votes so it’s really important that I get a lot of votes quickly.  I need move into the top 10 so more people will see my idea and vote for it.

They will require you to register on the site. After you register they’ll send you a confirmation email with a link that you have to click on to confirm that it really was you that registered. THEN log in, come back here and click on this link again and vote!

Second, please forward this post to everyone you know. I mean everyone – family, friends, coworkers, hairdresser, babysitter, kid’s friends (or their parents) soccer parents, people from church, neighbors… Just click the “share This” button at the bottom of this post. You can even write down the website so you can give it to people you see during the day but don’t email.

If I can manage to stay in the top 20 until April 3rd my idea will be presented to the judges who will determine the winner. This is such a great opportunity to make a huge difference.

THANKS!

What are you still doing here? VOTE!

Katie and I went to the Chinese Cultural Center with my mom, my sister and my niece Gracie. There was a woman there today making Chinese pancakes.

For each new pancake she brushed the inside of the molds with oil then put a scoop of pancake batter in each one.

The thing she was cooking on (like my technical vocabulary?) was gas powered and you could see the fire underneath.

When the pancakes were cooked on one side she put a dollup of filing on some of them – coconut, bean curd or custard. We all got custard.

Next she took the other pancakes out of their molds and placed them raw side down, on top of the filled pancakes. She cooked them a little longer, flipping them every once in a while, until all of the batter was cooked.

And then she gave them to us and we ate them.

These were so simple – just custard filled pancakes – but so good!

Inside the grocery store they sell pork brain for $1.99 each!

The only reason I’m pointing this out is so I can tell you a story.

My sister doesn’t speak Chinese so when she and my mom went to China to pick up Gracie they had to rely on their tour guides to interpret everything – including menus. They didn’t have any problems – the food was great and the people were friendly. One night in particular some really yummy looking dumplings were placed in front of them. My mom picked one up as their guide was telling them what it was.

“It is pig mind.” he said.

Pig mind. I love that.

My mom didn’t want to be rude so she ate it. She actually prayed that she would be able to eat it without gagging or making a face. It turned out to be surprisingly good and she was tempted to eat another one. She was afraid that it was only good because God was answering her prayer, though, and she didn’t want to press her luck.

My sister, on the other hand, hadn’t understood what the guide said and she and Gracie ate the rest of the plate – 11 in all! To this day she says she would probably eat more if they were put in front of here. They were that good.

Pig mind. It doesn’t sound as bad when you say it that way.

Ok, I mean it this time. I’m really going to be better about posting on this blog.

For real.

I promise.

I really had good intentions when I started it. I meant to put all my great ideas on here with lots of before and after pictures. I keep forgetting to take pictures though, and that perfectionist part of me insists I have pictures for everything. I hate blogs without pictures.

When I do remember to take pictures it takes so long to crop and edit them… heck, most of them haven’t even made it onto my computer yet. By the time I get home from work and get dinner made, eaten and cleaned up I’m beat and don’t want to look at the computer. I always think I’ll get to it on the weekend but obviously that hasn’t happened. That would be because of the lazy part.

I’m really motivated now, though, because Oprah keeps stealing my ideas and I want to start posting them before she gets to them so that you don’t think I stole them from her. I wanted to post about the Kindle – the most amazing thing ever for anyone who reads – and before I even started writing about it Ms. Winfrey goes and has a whole segment about them and sells the dumb things out for 3 months.

I also wanted to make sure you all knew about Heritage Makers. I discovered them a few years ago and think they offer the most amazing present you can give ANYONE. Again, I procrastinate and Oprah features Heritage Makers as one of her favorite presents ever in O Magazine.

I have a post almost ready to go discussing Peter Walsh’s book, It’s All Too Much. I know he’s been on The Oprah Show before, but it had been a while, until recently, when he took my idea of publishing your kids artwork with Shutterfly or another similar photo book company.

I’m also putting some ideas to encourage everyone to be cheap this Christmas and make it more about memories than things. But of course, Oprah does a whole show on it.

I’m still going to post blog about these things because I’ve got some additional information and ideas that Oprah hasn’t stolen, but from now on, I’m going to really try to post here when I have an idea and not wait until I have everything perfect because I know now that Oprah is hot on my heals ready to steal all my good ideas.

Make sure to subscribe either through e-mail or RSS feed so you don’t miss anything.

PS
I know Oprah didn’t really steal my ideas. She doesn’t know me and as far as I know can’t read minds and certainly wouldn’t want to read mine if she could. I really did have these ideas before her though.

This is my niece, Gracie. She’s 4.

This is my sister, Jennifer. She’s Gracie’s mom. She adopted Gracie a few months before her 3rd birthday.

Gracie was born in China. She was born with a cleft lip and pallet. Because of this, she was put on the waiting child’s list with an American adoption agency. These lists are made up of children with special medical needs, developmental delays or children who are older and therefore harder to place because many adoptive parents want infants.

This is the picture of Gracie Jennifer saw on the waiting child’s list. She knew right away that she wanted to adopt her.

Before Jennifer left to get Gracie from China, she sent a care package to the orphanage. Along with toys and special treats for all of the kids there, she sent a few disposable cameras. She wanted the orphanage workers to take pictures of the people and things Gracie was familiar with so that she would have pictures when she grew up of her home before she was adopted.

For quite a while after Jennifer and Gracie got home, Gracie couldn’t talk. She seemed to understand English but because of her cleft palate she physically couldn’t talk. She’s a very smart girl though and was very good at communicating without words. One day they were looking at the pictures that the orphanage workers took and came to this picture.

Gracie pointed to the bed, pointed to herself and then put her hands on her arms and shivered. Jennifer thinks she was saying that that was her bed, and it was cold.

Gracie’s orphanage is in one of the poorest provinces in China. There is no heat in the orphanage and not always enough clothing, medical care or even food. In spite of this, Gracie was well taken care of when she was in the orphanage. From almost the first moment Jennifer met her, Gracie was a happy, well behaved child. This is a testament to the orphanage workers who took care of her and loved her while she was with them.

We all love Gracie and can’t remember or imagine our lives without her. We can’t help but think sometimes, about what her life would have been like if Jennifer hadn’t seen her picture on that adoption agency’s website. And our hearts break when we remember that there are so many other children who are in China right now, loved, well taken care of, but without a family of their own, without enough food to eat, and without a warm bed to sleep.

Wanting to help some of these children left behind, Gracie’s family decided to make a donation to the orphanage where Gracie spent the first 3 years of her life. Initially they wanted to donate enough money to provide some much needed heat for the orphanage but the orphanage director said that they needed cloth diapers more than anything. They didn’t have many and there wasn’t always time for them to dry after being washed before they were needed again. The family sent over 900.

The orphanage director mentioned that they desperately need warm clothing for the children and formula for the babies. There are currently over 100 children at the Nanyang orphanage and a set of warm clothing costs about $10. Formula is $3.50 a bag. Each baby goes through 10 bags a month. I’m not sure how many babies they have.

We would like to make a large donation to the orphanage to at least make sure all of the children have warm clothes to wear this winter. Love Without Boundaries will make sure the right products get to the right orphanage.

Would you like to help? If so, click on the button on the bottom of this page to make a donation through PayPal. (You don’t need to have a PayPal account to donate this way.) Any donation, no matter how small, will make a difference. My PayPal account is set up as Travel Agent Community so don’t be worried when you see that.  You will see PAYPAL**TAC on your credit card statement. If you would prefer to send a check, email me for my address.

THANKS A BUNCH!! I’ll keep you updated on the progress!