July 2, 2008
Ah! I have a huge Footprint!!
Yes, I am still reading up about ways to reduce trash output, etc etc. I was watching ‘Life with Derek’ on Disney Channel the other day and Lizzy was measuring everyone’s “footprint” for trash output and waste. (I didn’t get to watch the beginning, so I missed what she called it besides footprint.)
Anyways, I was searching for what she meant by “footprint” when I came across this wonderful tool, MyFootprint.org. I put in just the generic, what my family had been doing for quite some time, and yowsa!! Below are my results, and I have to say, they are not pretty.
My Ecological Footprint – Quiz Results
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June 29, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
LIFE IN ABUNDANCE COMES ONLY THROUGH GREAT LOVE
There is no force more potent than love.
Take away love and your world is a tomb.
Your life echoes emptiness without love.
With it, your life will vibrate with warmth and meaning.
Even during hardship, love will shine through.
As you look back upon the events in your life you will find
that the moments that stand out, the moments when you
have really lived, are the moments when you have done things
in a spirit of love.
If you have it, you don’t need to have anything else,
and if you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter what else you have.
Therefore, search for love.
Once you have learned to love, you will have learned to live.
Love is the most important ingredient to your success.
Copyright 2008 http://www.yourdailymotivation.com
June 23, 2008
Inspiring video from Matt Harding
I found this video on Noob.us and nearly cried at how wonderfully brilliant this man united the world with dance. The song is lovely, and the dancing is funny to say the least, but just clearly inspiring. I had to get up immediately and dance with my son I was so happy about this video.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
June 20, 2008
CashKrazy
Just a little fun site my hubby and I are testing out. Looks interesting and a simple way to earn some extra gas money. Take a look. It takes a bit for the offers to refresh and be credited.
June 13, 2008
120 Life Lessons
120 Life Lessons
These are definitely the things that I want to teach and instill in each of my children. Or at least most of them 😉
1. Compliment three people every day
2. Watch a sunrise at lease once a year
3. Have a firm handshake
4. Look people in the eye
5. Say thank you a lot and write thank you notes promptly
6. Take time to listen to your favorite music all alone once a week
7. Sing along with songs that you like
8. Stand at attention and put your hand over your heart when singing the National Anthem
9. Learn to identify the music of Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven
10. Be the first to say hello
11. Return all the things you borrow
12. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated
13. Keep secrets
14. Never give up on anyone
15. Remember that miracles happen every day
16. Show respect for teachers, the police, and for your elders
17. Don’t waste time learning the tricks of the trade. Instead learn the trade
18. Control your temper
19. Put the cap back on the toothpaste
20. Take out the garbage without being asked
21. Enjoy beautiful things; always have something beautiful in sight
22. Smile a lot; smile at someone once each hour for one full day
23. Take responsibility for everything you do or fail to do
24. Accept a compliment with a simple thank you
25. Live so that when others think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you
26. Use your sense of humor to amuse, not abuse
27. Dot your i’s and cross your t’s
28. Be brave; even if you’re not, pretend to be, because no one can tell the difference
29. Touch the ones you love
30. Don’t take good health and your body for granted
31. Don’t mess with drugs, alcohol or smoking; enjoying life will give you everything the drugs could give you
32. Avoid sarcastic remarks
33. Earn trust and learn to trust
34. Slow dance and enjoy
35. Refill ice-cube trays, even if there are only 2 cubes left
36. Choose your friends carefully; you will influence each other greatly
37. Make it a habit to do nice things for people who’ll never find out
38. Don’t miss class
39. Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures
40. Go for a walk alone at least once a week
41. Never cheat
42. Put marshmallows in your hot chocolate
43. Learn CPR
44. Learn to listen; opportunity sometimes knocks very softly
45. Know how to tie a tie
46. Make it a point to remember people’s names
47. When people are re-telling an important event that happened to them don’t try to top them with a story of your own; let them have the stage
48. Be on time
49. Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have
50. Strive for excellence, not perfection
51. Avoid negative people
52. Be neat
53. Realize that the person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all of the facts.
54. Be kinder than necessary
55. Give people a second chance, but not a third
56. Never take action when you’re angry
57. Battle against prejudice or discrimination wherever you find it
58. Wear out, don’t rust out
59. Let people know what you stand for and what you won’t stand for
60. Ask why
61. Measure people by the size of their heart
62. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know
63. Have good posture
64. Enter a room with purpose and confidence
65. Don’t forget a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated
66. Show respect for ALL living things
67. Loosen up, relax
68. Commit yourself to constant self improvement
69. Remember that being a good loser is different than not caring about losing
70. Don’t major in minor things
71. Praise in public, citicize in private
72. When someone hugs you, let him or her be the first to let go
73. Know that good manners matter
74. Keep your promises; promise and deliver
75. Save some money each week
76. Recognize that you only have one chance to make a first impression
77. Respect Tradition
78. Wave to children on a school bus
79. Show respect for another’s time
80. Hang out with people smarter than yourself
81. Be modest; a lot was accomplished before you arrived
82. Lie on your back and watch the clouds or the stars
83. Remember that overnight success takes about three years
84. Leave everything a little better than you found it
85. Think of what you would change in yourself then change it
86. Realize how you affect others
87. Practice empathy; try to see things from other peoples’ point of view
88. Learn to say ‘no’ politely
89. Don’t expect life to be fair
90. Never criticize another’s family
91. Never underestimate the power of forgiveness
92. Don’t say you don’t have enough time; you have exactly the same number of hours as the rest of us do
93. If you think you have no time to work out, do pushups
94. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do
95. Check the batteries in the smoke detectors
96. Life your life with an exclamation! not an explanation
97. Live so that when you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than those you did
98. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them
99. Keep a dictionary at your desk at home
100. Never eat the last cookie
101. Be grateful and acknowledge those who help you
102. Take charge of your attitude; don’t let someone else choose it for you
103. Pay attention to details
104. Be a self starter
105. Pay your fair share
106. Remain curious about your ability
107. When attending meetings, sit upfront
108. Don’t litter
109. Don’t flaunt your success, but don’t apologize for it either
110. Don’t procrastinate; do it now
111. Help out at the special olympics
112. Always do more than the minimum. even if no one will know
113. Waste no opportunities because they can never be regained
114. Ask yourself ‘will this help me become my very best?’
115. Become someone’s hero
116. Adopt the motto ‘if it is to be, it is up to me’
117. Remember that quitters never win and winners never quit
118. Believe that the future belongs to those who prepare for it
119. Assure success through persistence and determination
120. Press on!
Thank you Lori for emailing these to me.
June 11, 2008
Ways to Reduce Trash Output
My family has been having a horrible time dealing with the amount of trash we throw out each day. We live in Worcester, MA, and here the city requires us to purchase special yellow trash bags for collection, instead of garbage cans. These bags are very expensive, and we go through them like water. So, to save my family time, money, stress, and to help the environment, I have researched ways for the average family to reduce their garbage output.
Look for recyclable packaging on products you buy. Start at the grocery store when you are buying your food items. Avoid buying products that are packaged in non-recyclable material (simply look for the ‘3 arrow’ recycle logo) or buy in bulk instead of single servings to reduce the amount of packaging. Also, purchase reusable or refillable containers for snacks or drinks.
Recycle. Cans, bottles, glass… even newspapers can be recycled at your local recycling center. In most states, grocery stores have a place to redeem your bottles and cans for money. It’s not much, but it helps keep our homes and environments cleaner while putting extra cash in our pockets.
Reuse the same grocery bags until they fall apart. This may seem a bit tedious or conservative, but think about how many plastic bags you get during a single trip to the grocery store (this goes the same for department stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy). Now, what do you do with those bags? Some people save them… ok for what? School lunches, trash bags in little trash buckets, yard work, etc. Ok so you save these bags to reuse once and then… throw away. That seems slightly pointless to me. Either way, these bags end up in the same place, the landfill. Why not reuse them for the same purpose until they can no longer be used again? Sounds good to me.
Take your own shopping bags or totes. Instead, use the cloth bags at every store you shop at, grocery store, department stores, malls, etc. This will cut out the use of plastic bags altogether.
Donate, sell, or remake. This applies to all things from clothes to toys to electronics. It is a way to recycle things inside your own home. Old clothes that don’t fit anymore can be given to friends or relatives or donated to local shelters or charities. Same with toys your kids have outgrown. Even broken toys can possibly be given to someone that has the time and means to fix. Maybe put a posting out there on FreeCycle or Craigslist or any other online source in your area. Only sell things that are in tip top shape. If something is ripped, jammed, cracked, or broken, chances are you may never sell them so just give them away. Electronics, too. That old VCR or TV or DVD player that stopped working after the last move, instead of tossing it, put a posting online for free. There are plenty of tinkering souls out there dying to get their hands on your old electronics.
Flush it. This is a neat trick I learned from my husband when we moved in together. I am sure that we all cannot eat or drink everything we buy or make. Some things go bad before we can consume them, or not all of a dinner is eaten, these things happen to probably most families. Instead of tossing the leftovers in the trash, we flush them down the toilet. As long as the products are biodegradable, you should be all set.
This is all I have come up with so far. I will probably update this in later days. Enjoy.
June 6, 2008
How I decided to finally write this blog.
I cannot remember when the first time I wanted to start writing a blog. I do know that it was probably years ago. In the past few months, I have been researching and reading and noting about how to start a blog. In the last two days, I have been bookmarking some of my favorite blogs. I have even discovered what RSS feeds are. I am still not 100% on those, but I am proud of myself for making the effort finally.
I guess blogs have been staring me in the face for quite some time, because EVERYONE reads, writes, or knows about blogs. Business people and even companies have blogs to promote and reach out. Others have blogs to give back to the web community great ideas or resources. Those are the ones I have been particularly interested in lately. The design community is intensely inspirational with their blog tutorials and guidance. I am even delving into some CSS and HTML how-to’s.
Okay, I better get to the point, because I am already getting new ideas of posts I want to write (They were right when they said once you start a blog, it is truly addicting.)
I have always been a writer. Unfortunately without an audience after graduating high school and moving cross country with my family, I have lost the motivation and desire to write. I tried a few months back to have my friends on MySpace to motivate me to write another story, but not a single one of them responded. Not even my best writing partner. Needless to say I was extremely upset for weeks. I still haven’t picked up a pen and paper to start that story. Maybe someday I will.
But for now…
I see a lot of postings about ‘how to start a blog.’ They are everywhere. However these are covering mostly the nitty gritty and background info. Such as, where to host your blog or where to get a free one, domain names, designing or choosing your theme, publishing and advertising your blog, etc.
One thing I really did not see covered in most of the posts I read was what to say. What should our first post be about? That was my biggest question.
A great tip I found (can’t remember where, when I do I will credit it here) was that if you are stuck about what to write, then just write headlines. Brainstorming headlines will help in two ways. First, you will create a list of future headlines you can write about when you are stuck again (saves you time). Second, you will hopefully find a topic that sparks an open article for you. Voila. Such a simple thing = such a miraculous epiphany.
I have a short list going, but it is a list all the same. Do you have anything in mind that you want to write about? Let me know. If you are stuck about what to write, take some tips from any comments left below. Or ask, and maybe you will get a response from fellow readers.
Melissa Bailey's Weblog 
June 18, 2008
Feedback
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blog post, comments, curious, feedback, information at 11:12 pm by Melissa Bailey
I know I am getting A LOT of views on this blog. But I am not seeing any feedback.
I just wanted to ask right out, if you view this blog, leave me a comment. You don’t need to leave any info like your name, website, etc. Just a note saying you like it, you hate it, or whatever. I want to know what everyone is thinking out there. This seems so one way, but I see that there are literally hundreds of views on this one blog, at least one person has to have an opinion.
Let me know. I am curious.
~Melissa B
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