shine

BINGO

I'm heading out tonight to Bingo with some friends, the last time we went I was surprised at the number of younger people there, both male and female. I have always considered it to be an "OLD LADIES" game. New research (Bingo is good for you) has said that Bingo is one of the most beneficial activities for the elderly as it involves being with other people as well as keeping alert monitoring numbers being called out to see if they won a prize. Although this would work with younger people too. Everywhere you look today Bingo is in our faces thanks to advertisers, it started of with Bingo games in newspapers and then online, and now even on our phones. I can't figure out what the huge draw is for it. Yes I enjoy it, but I go for the company and the laughs, not for the winnings, although those are very slim. 


I just did a search of news stories on Google over the last 24 hours and 5360 stories came up...... that is just amazing considering what else is going on today in the world, Earth Quake in Christ Church, Civil Unrest in Libya.

Bingo here in the UK is played on long slim sheets like this and I've seen some women play 4 or 5 books at a time......

























Yet in the USA they play on square cards like this

Bingo was original only played in our church halls, but in the 80's saw a huge increase in private Bingo clubs.  The game's history can be traced back to 1530, to an Italian lottery called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia," which is still played every Saturday in Italy. From Italy the game was introduced to France in the late 1770s, where it was called "Le Lotto", a game played among wealthy Frenchmen. The Germans also played a version of the game in the 1800s, but they used it as a child's game to help students learn math, spelling and history.

When the game reached North America in 1929, it became known as "beano". It was first played at a carnival near Atlanta, Georgia. New York toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe renamed it "bingo" after he overheard someone accidentally yell "bingo" instead of "beano". He hired a Columbia University math professor, Carl Leffler, to help him increase the number of combinations in bingo cards. By 1930, Leffler had invented 6,000 different bingo cards. [It is said that Leffler then went insane.]

A Catholic priest from Pennsylvania approached Lowe about using bingo as a means of raising church funds. When bingo started being played in churches it became increasingly popular. By 1934, an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly, and today more than $90 million dollars are spent on bingo each week in North America alone.




Wish me luck tonight. 

Letters to my kids

One of the first things I did when I found out I was pregnant with my son back in 2005, was sit down and write him a letter. Since then I write my kids letters on a regular basis and store them in their memory boxes for them to read when they're old enough. I like to share the funny things they've did or said with them and I hope they will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.  Our two are not short on love, they are told and shown it a hundred times a day, but the love that pours out into the letters is different, it captures the moment for them to look back on and read in the future, here is one I wrote to them this week, hope you like it.

To My Kids - Ten Little tiny fingers and Ten little tiny toes.

I swear seems like only yesterday I had your little fingers wrapped around my finger. When I held you your head snuggled into my neck and your feet curled into my stomach. I held you with just one arm and never grew tired of the small amount of weight. Oh how I loved to snuggle and cuddle with you.

Now when I hold you your head never snuggles but instead is always pulled away looking around to never miss a moment. Or trying to escape to go begin another adventure with your princesses or your star wars toys. Your feet no longer curl gently and rest on my belly but instead hang almost clear to my knees. I’m lucky if I can last ten minutes holding you as that small weight has been multiplied just a few times over the years. You both are growing up way to fast for my liking and yet I know I can't do a thing about it.

Strong and determined your personalities have been shinning through and showing glimpses of the adults you are growing into and the little babies you are leaving behind. You are both so very different in so many ways yet I can still see how Sarah-Jane will copy her big brother James in a lot of things, especially if it involves getting around mummy or daddy. I love the ‘looks’ you guys give when you are getting yelled at. It’s a classic ‘I know I’m too cute for you to really get mad’  and true that is hard to argue with.

Please try and slow down and don't grow up so quick, impossible I know.  I've had a blast these last 4 years and wouldn't change a single thing, love you guys.  Love Mum xx

'Make You Feel My Love'

This song is one of my all time favourite songs, I love the lyrics and when I first listened to it they seemed like they where written just for me. It was while watching a film called Hope Floats starring Sandra Bullock that I first heard it, that version is song by Garth Brooks and is pretty good, but Adele is just better, mainly because she is a woman, and I think its a song for a woman. What do you think, listen to both versions and see which you prefer.

Be My Valentine

I love this recipe, its easy and works.. Recipe for Love Ingredients: 2 Hearts Full of Love 2 Heaping Cups of Kindness 2 Armfuls of Gentleness 2 Cups of Friendship 2 Cups of Joy 2 Big Hearts Full of Forgiveness 1 Lifetime of Togetherness 2 Minds Full of Tenderness Method: Stir daily with Happiness, Humor and Patience. Serve with Warmth and Compassion, Respect and Loyalty I've always loved Valentines Day, not sure what the reason behind it is, it may be the fact I'm a hopeless romantic. I was recently going through some old school books and came across a small book covered in hearts, inside it was filled with rhymes and verses that my friends and I had wrote out back in high school. Boy did some of them make me laugh. These day's I write love letters and poems all the time, to my husband and my kids, I don't need to wait on a special day. They make me feel special and loved every day.  This Valentines Day me and the kids are visiting my Sis so my poor Hubby is home alone,(probably the best gift I could give him is 48 hrs peace on his own) not that he would admit it..... I promise to make it up to him when I get home.

Why Mothers Kiss Their Babies | Birthing Magazine | Birth Unlimited | Calgary Alberta

WHY MOTHERS KISS THEIR BABIES BY: Judie Rall After a baby is born, it is natural to see the mother kissing the baby. One would think this is simply because of the emotional bond that has formed between mother and child. While this is true, there are also other very compelling biochemical reasons why it occurs. These reasons reinforce the understanding that our bodies have inner wisdom which we seldom recognize or trust. Just as our bodies know how to give birth even if we don’t have intellectual knowledge of the process, our bodies’ biological systems also have reasons for the complex social interplay between mother and baby. It just goes to show that, more than ever, we should trust our mothering instincts. Five Senses When an animal gives birth, you will notice that the mother spends a lot of time licking her young. This exposes her five senses to the young so that she knows the taste, smell, feel, sound and sight of her new baby. In this way, a mother claims her child as her own. When a human mother births a baby in an environment which allows her immediate and free access to her child, you will notice that over a period of time she performs certain behaviours called “claiming behaviours.” She will caress the child, explore the softness of the baby’s skin, and probably count and fondle the unique little fingers and toes. She probably marvels visually over how much the baby looks like her or her husband or another family member. She will notice the colour of the hair and eyes and other physical features. She hears the baby’s cries and learns to distinguish them from all other cries. As she leans down to kiss the child, she undoubtedly smells the scent of her new baby and through the actual act of kissing; she comes to know the taste of him or her. Just like an animal mother, she has now exposed her five senses to the baby so she attaches to him or her. She now feels he or she is her own. It is not unusual to find that women who are deprived of the privacy required to create this immediate bonding right after birth often say they feel a distance between them and their baby. Health Benefits Claiming behaviours such as kissing provide not only emotional, but biological attachment. There is a very real health benefit for the baby who is kissed. “When a mother kisses her baby, she ‘samples’ those pathogens that are on the baby’s face. Those are ones that the baby is about to ingest. These samples are taken up by the mother’s secondary lymphoid organs like the tonsils, and memory B cells specific for those pathogens are re-stimulated. These B cells then migrate to the mother’s breasts where they produce just those antibodies that the baby needs.” says Lauren Sompayrac, author of How The Immune System Works. We talk a lot about breast milk and how it conveys antibodies to the infant helping to prevent illness. However antibodies made for the mother while pregnant are not what the baby needs. He or she needs antibodies for the environment around them that they are in constant contact with now. Kissing her baby is a very important activity beyond its obvious pleasurable and attachment- promoting value. It helps mother claim baby, and helps her body determine the antibodies baby needs in the breast milk. So mothers, kiss away on those babies!

Ravenous for Food? - Dayna Macy - Heal Your Life

Ravenous for Food? - Dayna Macy - Heal Your Life

FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, I’ve turned to food for comfort.
I am ten. My parents have had another fight. My father packs his bag and says he’s leaving. He grabs his suitcase and walks toward the door.

I lie on the floor for a few moments. Then I pick myself up and make my way to the kitchen. I open a can of black olives and put one on each finger of my left hand. One by one I eat them off each fingertip. When all five are gone, I pop another five onto my fingers, and repeat the process until I’ve eaten them all.

But I’m not done. Next I heat up a package of 15 frozen assorted mini-pizzas in the oven. I eat the plain cheese, my least favorite, first; then the sausage; then the pepperoni. I’m stuffed, and I finally feel safe.

∞ ∞ ∞

From 18 to 26, my weight stays a stable size ten. Through college, where I fall in love with a long-haired boy, and during which time my brother has a mental breakdown and my father has a heart transplant; through graduate school, through a move to Switzerland for a romance, through my father’s death at age 56, and through several years of living in New York before moving to California. Still not the size four of my skinny, flat-chested sister, but good enough.

∞ ∞ ∞

It’s love. We lie in his bedroom in San Francisco and watch the fog hovering low, like some soft, downy blanket. I’m now 30. I know one day we’ll marry. I can’t quite accept that I am meant to be this happy, and though I don’t understand it, I’m willing to take a leap of faith.

We celebrate our happiness with much food and drink. When we get married, I’m 33 and wear a size 12. If Scott notices, he doesn’t say anything.

We cut our wedding cake: apricot eau-de-vie with buttercream frosting. It’s perfect. And though brides’ appetites are often depicted as demure, I eat the entire slice.

∞ ∞ ∞

While I work in book publishing by day, I begin writing essays for Salon.com and other magazines. In my spare time, I also take up yoga, which I find so difficult I hate it for the first six months of my practice. As my body begins to open, I get my first glimpse of its innate intelligence and begin to understand that it will tell me what it needs if I learn to listen.

I begin eating organic vegetables—kale, fennel, rutabaga, and more. Something in me gets happy when I eat this food.

I am 35 and wear a size 14.

∞ ∞ ∞

It’s the call I’ve been anticipating but also dreading, because I don’t know what the news will be. “You’re pregnant,” the kind nurse says. “Twin boys, both healthy.”

After I call Scott at work, I put on Dusty Springfield and start dancing around our living room.

I gain only 30 pounds during pregnancy—perhaps the result of being on bed rest for almost two months and delivering my sons at 32 weeks. When they are born, one weighs 5 pounds 3 ounces, the other 4 pounds 13 ounces.

“Linebackers,” the neonatal nurse says.

“It’s all that meat you ate,” my doctor tells me.

After delivery, I’m 39 and wear a size 16.

∞ ∞ ∞

I’m 41, and Matthew and Jack are almost two. I get a job at Yoga Journal magazine, running the communications department, and have the good fortune to be hired on the threshold of yoga’s American renaissance.

While at one of the Yoga Journal conferences, I have the opportunity to practice with Patricia Walden, a master teacher. As she helps me move into a backbend, she asks, “Why are you in this body? What does your body have to teach you?” I wonder if she senses that this will become a defining question for me, one that I will wrestle with for much of the next decade.

∞ ∞ ∞

I’m now 48. My husband Scott and I have been together for nearly 20 years. Our children are nine. I’m a size 18.

My relationship with food still doesn’t work. Now I overeat daily, and overeating has become a habit.

I can’t just give up food. And that makes things more complicated.
What should I eat? How should I eat it? How much should I eat? What does it mean to be nourished? How can I, a food lover, learn to eat in a balanced way?

I need to lose weight, and that usually means going on a diet. But I’m not going to do that. For starters, I’ve never wanted someone else telling me what to eat and when to eat it. But even more important, diets have always felt temporary to me. We talk about “going on” them, and that means we go off them, too. There’s no middle ground.

I want to find a balanced way of eating that I can live with for the rest of my life. If I can find that, my body will find the weight it wants to be.

I’m not looking for a perfect body or a perfect way to eat. I am searching for a relationship with food that brings me greater health, peace of mind, and ease in my skin.

At midlife, I’m ravenous for something more than food. I’m hungry for freedom.

Talk dirty to me

My Soulmate

 I love scrapbooking and recently realised I'd never done up a page for my hubby, so here it is in honour of his birthday. Its a look through the years from the baby he was right through to the man he became, and boy what a man.  He is my soulmate - 

A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

Happy 4th Birthday Katie

Happy Birthday Wishes going out today to my niece Katie, she turns 4 today.

A Birthday Wish On your birthday stretch for a sunbeam... Reach for a star... Go for a beautiful dream... Pick out some wishes, no matter how far, or how hard to reach they may seem... Cherish hopes dear to your heart... And as a new year comes in view, I will add my wishes to yours that this year they will come true

Facebook Quote

National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911

National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911

I have been using this site to delve into our family history, it has been a real eye opener.

With this being a Census year I am planning on getting copies of all my relatives from the 1901 and 1911 census records.

Its free to search and anyone can do it...

go give it a try you never know what you might find out.

You Crack Me Up Thick Egg

I know its a long way of to Easter, but this site has the best eggs ever.... yummy

Buy Easter Bunny Egg; You Crack Me Up Thick Egg - Hotel Chocolat UK

http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk//images/products/You-Crack-Me-Up-Extra-Thick-Egg-IMG300166m.jpg

Heart Cake Tutorial

Want to make this heart cake for Valentines Day

Heart Cake Tutorial - i am baker

YouTube - The Sagan Series (Pt 1) - NASA The Frontier Is Everywhere

YouTube - The Sagan Series (Pt 1) - NASA The Frontier Is Everywhere: ""

Time lapse videos...

Time lapse videos... I love the ones that have the stars in the night sky racing by.



Stomacher - Untitled/Dark Divider from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

What is Forgiveness?

Free Actions for Photoshop

This is a link to some brilliant actions, Pioneer woman is giving them away for free.

Pioneer Woman Actions UPDATE! | Pioneer Woman Photography | Ree Drummond