Since I'm busy, busy, busy tody but feel like I haven't blogged in awhile I'll keep it short and sweet. I'm in the process of creating an entire packet/program outline for this Job Skills thing. I would say you cant imagine how tidious it is to create an entire program from scratch but I'm sure plent of you have done much more. There are always so many things each day I think I need to add.
Another really exciting development that I had mentioned earlier(I think) was about the health and nutrition initiative I am looking to collaborate with from a woman in the community. I am meeting her for coffee on Friday to discuss things further but she had mentioned wanting a place for women who cant afford a place to be healthy and safe somewhere to go. It gave this idea for something like a women's santuary. Whether we team up with the local Crisis Center and offer classes to women there who were victims of domestic violence, etc. It would be so special to have a place where women can go to get physically healthy and find support and love. These are the type of people I'd love to eventually help with my counseling degree as well.
There is something about being the person that is there at people's lowest moments that feels right to me. To be the person that they turn to when nothing else makes sense. I hope that I can stay on the right path to be able to be that support for someone. What a blessed life and profession tha would be.
Remember when I said this was going to be short? I'm such a rambler.
Now for those bits and pieces!
I am usually not a big fan of forwards but my mom sent me this one about all these interesting historical facts and where so many sayings we used today came from. I love stuff like this...take a moment.
There is an old Hotel/Pub in Marble Arch, London which used to have gallows adjacent. Prisoners were taken to the gallows (after a fair trial of course) to be hung. The horse drawn dray, carting the prisoner was accompanied by an armed guard, who would stop the dray outside the pub and ask the prisoner if he would like ''ONE LAST DRINK''. If he said YES it was referred to as "ONE FOR THE ROAD" If he declined, that prisoner was "ON THE WAGON" So there you go.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor". But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot they "Didn't have a pot to Piss in" & were the lowest of the low.
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s: Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence, the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married. Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all, the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
Houses had thatched roofs , thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs." There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: ''Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old''.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "Bring home the Bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around talking and ''Chew the fat''.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning & death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or '' The Upper Crust ''. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of ''Holding a Wake''.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and the realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, '' Saved by the Bell '' or was considered a ''Dead Ringer''
Here is the link to the newspaper article for our grant we got. The spelled my name wrong but thats ok, it'll make it harder for the papparazzi to track me ;)
http://www.thecherokeean.com/news/2010-06-30/Front_Page/Circle_of_Ten_Council_awards_almost_120000_in_gran.html
Have ya'll see those shake weight commercials that incredibly inappropriate workout devices. Its that weight you hold in your hands and it goes up and down really fast, and, well, you get where I'm going with this. Anyway, SNL did a hilarious skit about it and its probably one of the most funny things I've seen as a digital short in quite some time. Try and not laugh, I DARE YOU!
Annnnnd bring it on home with a great quote!
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”~Nelson Mandela
Shine on :)
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