Nov 26, 2011
I’m so excited! I just uploaded this great new recipe software from ZipList. It’s an online and mobile recipe box and grocery list service.
What does that mean for you? My recipes will be streamlined. Easy to read. Easy to print. If you want to create your own online account at ZipList, they’ll digitally store any recipe you want. You can go from site to site to site and collect your favorite recipes. You can change them up, make your notes, keep track of what groceries you already have on hand.
It’s a pretty nifty thing.
So over the next few weeks I’ll be reposting some of my most popular recipes with this new format. I’ll even add one or two new ones.
And yes. I think I’ll include the Holiday Doo-Dads.
Now doesn’t that just make your day?
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote.
Nov 25, 2011
I “met” Jenn from …so this is love… through BlogHer and NaBloPoMo. I love her writing style. I love her stories. I love that she loves my blog back. It’s a mutual admiration society between the two of us.
A few days ago, she posted this great little essay she titled “Free Falling”. With her permission, I’m sharing it with you because, well, because it’s just worth sharing.
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The other day, I took a kid that I work with to the playground.
I promptly challenged him to a swinging contest.
As my legs started pumping, and I gained speed and height, I begin to feel that feeling.
The one just as you are swinging high. The wind is blowing through your hair making your cheeks red and your eyes water. And you stop for a split second before you come back down. The drop in your stomach. The lump in your throat. The pulsing of your heartbeat, felt in your brain. The silmultaneous feeling of excitement and dread.
The feeling that you are about to plummet. The wondering if anyone will be there to catch you, if the chains on the swing will hold you. The excitement of the unknown. The free fall. The leap.
I remember days when I was younger. The leaps I took off of the swing from that very moment, at the highest point – pretending that I could fly. The forward rolls into space, perfecting the landing.
I am far too adult to try such a thing now. Fear has replaced much of that adventurous spirit. Some would say common sense, but I believe it’s mostly fear. Because of all those times when I fell perfecting the landing, both literally from swings and figuratively from other life experiences – they have left me cautious about much of the world around me.
But those times when I landed perfectly? The times when I closed my eyes and jumped, believing that I would be okay? They stand out in my mind, my heart, my soul. They are the most important times.
They were so worth facing the fear, letting go, and free falling in the unknown. I need to do more of that.
As for the swinging contest? I let him win.
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Click here to check out her blog. Sometimes her husband posts too. Their stories are real, honest, heartfelt. Sometimes fun, sometimes deep. Always worth reading!
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
Nov 25, 2011
Dear Black Friday Retailers…
You disappoint me. I used to get up early. I mean, early, to shop with a friend. It was fun, exciting. Special.
But this year you have invaded my holiday. Many of you have opened your doors at a ridiculous hour. Causing your employees to choose between sleeping or celebrating. All so you can line your pockets and your CEO’s get a bonus.
Will these hourly employees see a bonus? Will they even get a raise? Will the Seasonal Employees keep their jobs after the New Year? Prob’ly not.
Do you care that most have family functions? Obviously not.
You offend me with your so-called “Holiday Spirit”. Christmas is not, repeat: not about the money. At least it shouldn’t be. But you think it is. You think it’s only about the money. Don’t pretend you are doing me a favor by dramatically lowering prices one day a year.
If your super low sales prices can sustain you through your “holiday season”, I don’t understand why you don’t keep the prices low all the time. Then perhaps people would shop more regularly. Then perhaps you would have regular income and could afford to hire more permanent help. Then perhaps those people would pump their paychecks back into the economy. Then perhaps the economy would recover more quickly.
If you can afford to lower prices the day after Thanksgiving, why can’t you lower prices on May 10th? Or August 5th? That would be doing me a favor. Or is it that you just don’t want to?
Don’t pretend you’re doing me a favor by opening up so early. Keep your doors closed til 4 a.m. Friday. Let people have the chance to enjoy time with their family and loved ones and get the sleep they need to work a ridiculously busy shift afterward. Let people have a day off without worrying about cutting their visit short, or worse, not being able to travel at all due to time constraints. That would be true “Holiday Spirit”.
It is mean, hurtful, and insensitive to take a beautiful holiday like Christmas and use it for your personal financial gain. Worse, you’ve now encroached on Thanksgiving.
But since you’re not worried about offending me, I guess you won’t mind that I won’t be shopping at your stores any time soon. I’ll be celebrating on Small Business Saturday: my locally owned and operated stores that care enough about their staff to close on Thanksgiving, and to offer good discounts throughout the year. Sure, they’re understaffed and don’t have ten thousand of the same item to sell within the first three hours. But they do have something you don’t: My business.
Insincerely yours,
Molly Jo
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote!
DISCLAIMER: I wrote this post on Wednesday. On Thanksgiving Day, my daughter and I arrived at my mom’s down the street to find my brother had driven down to surprise us for the weekend. He recently moved five hours away and is in search of a Home Goods Store. So on Black Friday, we will be riding along with him to the closest location, which is 45 minutes away from here. I can’t convince him to come back down next week to avoid Black Friday, or even shop somewhere else. I don’t plan to spend any money, and we’re not leaving at the crack at dawn. In fact, we’re just going “along for the ride” so to speak, in an attempt to spend more time with him before he leaves… and drive Mom crazy with our over-talking, loud-laughing, sibling banter. And maybe a Christmas sing-along or two. … He’s already been warned that he’d best not get me to compromise my anti-spending stance… but if he wants to spend money on us, hey. That’s his call. Welcome home, Bro. ;)
