Environmental Working Group

Check out this website: http://www.ewg.org/ Environmental Working Group has a lot of great information about health and the environment. I read this site periodically and always find something interesting!

Happy Music

Do you have a kind of music or a song that makes you happy? I have lots. One of those kinds of music is vallenato. No, not the old stuff (although some of that stuff is good too), but some of the new vallenato is great. Carlos Vives was the first artist I know of to start off this style. Recently artists like Fonseca and Fanny Lu have been popular. I don't know why, but this music makes me think of flowers and sun, and makes me want to dance.

The Roads Most Travelled

While it's easy to see the positive and negative effects of immigration on the United States, people don't often stop and think about the point of view of the immigrant...what they might have left behind, what they may have gone through to get here, or what their lives might be like here. It's not often we stop to think that these people all have names and stories. In today's post I will not attempt to solve these complicated problems, but simply to share these beautiful images with you. I think the realization that we in this country live as the elite, and that the great majority live drastically different is a significant motivator to simplify. I urge you to take a look at these photographs, and imagine for a moment these people and their stories. Imagine yourself in their shoes, what would you do, what choices would you make, what would your life be like? Because after all, there is no "us" and "them," we are all people with families, joys, and heartaches. No matter what side of the border you find yourself on.
http://www.kpbs.org/static/flash/don-bartletti/BoundToElNorte.html

On Happiness

Robert Louis StevensonPoet, Novelist & Essayist ( 1850 - 1894 )
How to Be Happy
1.Make up your mind to be happy. Learn to find pleasure in simple things.
2.Make the best of your circumstances. No one has everything, and everyone has something of sorrow intermingled with gladness of life. The trick is to make the laughter outweigh the tears.
3.Don’t take yourself too seriously. Don’t think that somehow you should be protected from misfortune that befalls other people.
4.You can’t please everybody. Don’t let criticism worry you.
5.Don’t let your neighbor set your standards. Be yourself.
6.Do the things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.
7.Never borrow trouble. Imaginary things are harder to bear than real ones.
8.Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish jealousy, enmity, grudges. Avoid people who make you unhappy.
9.Have many interests. If you can’t travel, read about new places.
10.Don’t hold postmortems. Don’t spend your time brooding over sorrows or mistakes. Don’t be one who never gets over things.
11.Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.
12.Keep busy at something. A busy person never has time to be unhappy.

I'm surprised how much time has passed since this was written and yet, such good advice.

Happy Birthday!

I'm so thankful for the many blessings in this last year. Watching my daughter grow, my husband, our health, friends, so much great stuff. What a great year this has been!

Vacation Highlights

Trip Highlights
- Two new words "hi" and "agua"
- Long walks (oh, how I dream of warm weather)
- Climbing, running, and sliding at a family fun center
- Chili taking mini-walks with grandpa. (She's never really had many opportunities to walk outside before. By the time she started walking, it was already too cold.)
- Visiting my grandma and grandpa (Chili's great-grandparents)
- Shopping for shoes- I hate it, but I was in need of some, and it helps to have someone else with when you have a little one
- Getting my hair re-cut. It looks so much better now.
- Chili giving and getting lots of love to/from grandma and grandpa, I think they enjoyed the hugs too
- Checking out the desert vegetation, very different
- Chili enjoyed walking on the small rocks that were people's "lawn"
- Having time to read about gardening, I am reading Square Foot Gardening and dreaming of spring Walking with grandpa.

Checking out the "agua."

Chili making friends with the "woo, woo." It was so cute how she got her face right up to his and said "hi."

Vamos de vacas!

No, nothing to do with cows...In Colombia, people use "vacas" as an abbreviated way to say "vacaciones." I haven't heard people from other countries use it in that way, though. Usually "vacas" just means cows. We (just Chili and I) are headed to Arizona for a week of fun in the sun with the grandparents. No cows included. At least none that I know of.