It doesn’t happen often, but I am utterly speechless. See if the same doesn’t happen to you as the beautiful young lady, in the video above, uses sand, emotion, and talent to tell a story.
General
A Few Dental Tips from a Very Humble Bumble
I had a painful dental procedure done yesterday – which is why I wasn’t on the blog yapping about this or that. It’s hard to yap when you’re laid up in bed watching I Love Lucy DVDs and wishing the day away. For some reason, I simply can’t be sufficiently numbed at a dentist. My daughter Brittany is the same way. We’re given up to six shots – when two are all that most people require – yet, we still feel the pain. They had to give her laughing gas on a recent trip. Lucky girl.
Anyway, a lot of the problem was my own fault. I broke a back tooth ages ago while chomping on popcorn. Instead of having it seen to right away, I just sort of ignored it. That never really works out now that I think about it.
I’ve already given all of my daughters the lecture about dental care and preventive measures – so now I’m here to lecture you. If you don’t have a regular dentist, find one and go in for a check up. I know money’s an issue for all of us – except for those fortunate few with killer dental insurance – but, believe me, taking care of your teeth is money well spent. Besides, if you catch problems (a-hem) early, the cost will be a lot lower.
Also, many dental offices offer initial consultations and x-ray free. Aspen Dental (in Owensboro, KY) did, which is one of the reasons I chose them. They gave me a great once over, which included x-rays and even a thorough exam by a dental hygienist. All I had to pay for was the extraction – and that was, quite honestly, a couple of hundred dollars less than I expected.
Here’s something kind of funny. Now. The night before my dental extraction, I was watching television, trying to think about anything else but what the next morning would bring. I figured Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer would be safe…… forgot all about Herbie the elf who wasn’t happy in his work. Forgot all about Herbie wanting to be a dentist. Forgot all about him removing every tooth in the abominable snowman’s head – creating a humble bumble with no choppers!
I had to laugh. It hurt, but I had to laugh.
A little dental advice:
- If you have something wrong, have it seen to immediately. Most dentists have payment plans for those of us who don’t have insurance and aren’t blissfully rolling in money.
- Procedures have probably changed since the last time you went and things aren’t nearly as frightening or painful as you remember. I didn’t even mind my shots, actually.
- Take excellent care of your teeth. Use fluoride, the best toothpaste you can find, and floss every single night.
- I know you won’t avoid chocolate any more than I will – but brush your teeth afterward. We can agree to that, can’t we??
- Start your children out on the right, healthy dental path. Teach them to brush as carefully as you teach them to wash their hands during cold and flu season. Also, begin taking them to a dentist at an early age – so they come to associate dentists with good memories. Having your teeth cleaned feels tingly and good after all! If their first association with a dentist is pain, that’ll stay with them. I guess that’s what happens to most people.
- When you are at a dentist’s office, don’t be afraid to ask, “How much is this going to cost me?” If the person you ask isn’t sure, he or she will find someone who is.
- Never agree to a procedure or examination without first asking, “Will this cost extra?” When we’re already a little apprehensive (personally, the words scared spitless apply) we tend to not think clearly. Oh, Lord. can that ever be costly! These days, you just have to be obnoxiously careful: Politely say that you are working within a budget and that you MUST know how much money you’ll be required to pay. It’s been my experience that everyone understands – after all, they have their own budgets, too. Remember, in life very few things are free – so don’t expect them to be. Ask, ask, ask.
- If you happen to be taking herbs for other health reasons, stop if at all possible a few weeks before your dental procedure. Years ago, I had to have a wisdom tooth removed. I happened to be taking a particular over the counter herb (saw palmetto) for another health concern. Many herbs interfere with blood clotting – something I didn’t know at the time. This led to really bad problems in my healing process and, what’s more, I bled off and on for about 24 hours!
If you have a tooth extraction:
- Follow the dentist’s orders to a letter. Don’t smoke (no problem for me.. never have, never will), don’t use a straw for 24 hours, and avoid hot food and drinks for 24 hours – they interfere with the blood clotting and healing process.
- Don’t spit, it may cause more bleeding.
- Get plenty of rest and drink lots of water.
- Ibuprofin is your friend.
- If you have antibiotics, take them with a little soft food. Take them all, leave none behind.
- My husband brought me something that saved me: KFC mashed potatoes and gravy. I let them cool off, then I dove right in. He also brought me home some pre-made puddings (chocolate – my guy knows me) jell-o, and cinnamon applesauce. Sigh. I loves him.
- Don’t rinse your mouth for 24 hours.
The main thing I want you to take away is this: Don’t put off going to the dentist. They want to help you and they aren’t nearly as painful or expensive as you probably think they are. And, like I said, for procedures that are pricey – there are almost always payment options. Look into it!
Chances are your dentist has a website – give it a look sometime! It could have some very helpful advice – this Burlington dentist, for example, has a whole host of tips and FAQs on lumineers, invisible braces, brushing and flossing, and general oral health and hygiene.
Okay, your lecture is over. Now go have a glass of milk.
Attitude: The Heart and Soul of Everything
Chuck Swindoll on the importance of attitude:
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company … a church … a home, or an individual.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day. We cannot change our past … we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.
“I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it.” I completely agree with Mr. Swindoll on that one. How often do we compound a bad situation – making it much worse than it needs to be? About as often as we make mountains out of ant hills!
Last night, I was lying in the floor with my cat Alexa – watching a little football and nursing a MAJOR toothache (my cooking marathon included about a gazilion Advils, two gazillion salty mouth rinses, and a couple billion, “Owwwww’s,” all of which did nothing – then I sat at the feast with my loved ones and couldn’t even eat!). I heard my husband at his computer (which is in the middle of what surely must be a slow death). After an ominous “restarting” sound from the computer, I heard my husband say something like, “Yes. That’s what I was hoping you’d do.”
No throwing pens, no turning the air blue… just a little sarcastic jab at a machine that deserved much more. I asked him if he was encouraging it now and he said it didn’t do any good to do anything else.
True enough. I’ve said it many, many times on this blog – and even more times in my day to day life: Sometimes you just have to say, “It is what it is. ” It’s one of my most used phrases and, somehow, it always helps. Another of my favorites is, “If this is the worst thing that happens to me this year, I’ve got it made.”
Bad, unsavory, and sometimes even ugly things are going to happen to us and around us. And if you’re still waiting for life to be fair…. excuse me while I chuckle. The amazing thing is, it’s well within our power to make these things worse or better. “I am convinced that life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it.”
61 Ways to Feel Happier During the Holidays
The holidays can be either the happiest time of the year or the saddest. For those who have reasons to feel sad (lost loved ones, grown children, divorce, a recent break up, loved ones who’ll be away from home on Christmas…), all of the ridiculously happy faces only add to their own unhappiness – Why can’t I feel as happy as everyone else? If you recognize yourself in this scenario, don’t give up hope just yet. You don’t have to face Thanksgiving and Christmas with a frown on your face or a tear in your eye.
Below are some suggestions for putting the Happy back in Happy Thanksgiving and the Merry back in Merry Christmas. A lot of them would actually work for any time of the year – after all, the blues aren’t exclusive to the Holiday Season!
- Number one for a reason: Buy and wrap new toys for the different Toys for Children programs in your area. Find the prettiest, brightest Christmas paper (or bags) you can find and let the joy that they’ll bring to underprivileged children fill your heart and soul. Think about their little faces lighting up and about the fact that they’ll have something to brag about to other kids about when they go back to school. Blues? What blues?
- Go to your local animal shelter and adopt a couple of new babies! It’s just not possible to be miserable when you’re giving a wonderful new life and home to a couple of precious cats or dogs. Buy them new fluffy beds, bright food and water bowls, and (of course) toys.
- If cats or dogs are out of the question for some reason, head off to a local pet store. You’ll find hamsters, guinea pigs, and a host of little cuties looking for love.
- Work a puzzle.
- Buy a coloring book and crayons and don’t worry about staying inside the lines. Extra points if you grab one with Santas, Elves, and candy canes.
- Make homemade boiled custard.
- Go to Starbucks for a special latte of the season.
- Take someone who always makes you laugh out to lunch.
- Take a ride around town with the radio blaring. Sing out loud to each and every song.
- Watch It’s a Wonderful Life.
- Go up to a department store Santa and ask, “So, what do you want for Christmas?”
- Watch re-runs of your favorite sitcoms. I Love Lucy, Sanford and Son, Andy Griffith, Roseanne, Friends… If it tickles your funny bone, give it a chance to do so.
- Volunteer.
- Make taffy.
- Bake sugar cookies and cut them into wonderful different shapes.
- If you have a blog, give it a new look. Change the colors, graphics, or whatever. Mixing things up can be fun.
- Check with a local nursing home. See if it’d be okay to give each resident a cute little snowman or Santa.If you’re allowed to do so, deliver each one personally and visit for as long as they’ll have you. I don’t even have to tell you how much this would mean.
- Put up a Christmas tree with the gaudiest, most pimped out decorations you can find! (On a safety note, if you have pets, skip the garland and silver icicles.)
- Move that body! Pop in an exercise dvd, ride a stationary bike, or clean house with a vengeance. Physical activity releases feel good endorphins that’ll have you back in the fa la la la la in no time.
- Go see The Blind Side while it’s in theaters. After that, buy the dvd. Also, read about the family behind the movie.
- Make a list of the people and things you are thankful for.
- Make a list of the people in your life. Now go back and, for each one, think about one of the times they made you laugh out loud. In no time at all, you’ll be laughing out loud again.
- Make someone’s day. Compliment a loved one, cook their favorite meal, bake their favorite cookies, or write them a heart-felt note telling them how much they light up your world.
- Don’t over-expect. Real life is not Little House on the Prairie. People generally don’t stand around the table singing carols, spew lovely little speeches, or hug out of the blue. If my family behaved this way I’d think someone had spiked their egg nog. Accept and love your family just the way it is. Yes, they’re quirky. Sure, they leave their socks all over the place. No, they don’t say “Thank you” nearly often enough – but they’re your’s and you love them, quirks and all. (Besides, if we were to be honest, don’t we own a few quirks ourselves?) Also, don’t over-expect with yourself. You are going to flat wear yourself out if you try to bake every recipe in your favorite cookbook and you’ll flat ruin yourself if you try to get everyone all of the presents you want to get them. Dial down!
- Be sure you get enough sunlight. Open up the blinds and let the sunshine in. It can make a real difference in how you feel.
- Did you know that learning something new can lift even the nastiest mood? Pick a subject that you know very little about and research the heck out of it. It’ll give your brain a great workout and your spirits will soar. Learning feels good, pure and simple.
- Give! Contribute to charity of your choice = you help others AND it feels wonderful.
- Chocolate. I’m not even kidding – eating chocolate is a shortcut to a better mood.
- Well, that’s Bananas! Science has proven that eating a banana can make you feel more relaxed. This fun fruit contains tryptophan, which helps the body manufacture serotonin. Serotonin is a natural relaxant. What s more, low levels of serotonin tend to go hand in hand with depression. Monkeys are on to something here.
- Get plenty of rest. Sometimes what we think are “blues” are actually just the “drags.” During this time of year we actually need MORE rest, yet we tend to get less.
- Get as much fresh air as possible.
- Eat healthy foods.
- Smile even when you’re in the room alone.
- Find a church home. Having a church home and family are wonderful blessings – but for the individual who is feeling lonely, they could make all the diffenece in the world.
- Research your family’s history. You’ll probably meet some very interesting characters along the way.It’s fun and it’s educational.
- Take up crafts. My youngest daughter and I were talking about this recently. We both want to learn to make jewelry and other crafts, we want a sewing machine, and I want to make a huge doll house and fill it with little furniture and people! The more we talked about it, the more excited we got.
- Re-arrange the furniture in your living room.
- Wake up a tired room by giving it a whole new look and vibe. If your bedroom has been green and white since Carter was in the White House, but a bright red (or blue, purple, or orange) new comforter and contrasting pillows. The happier the colors, the better.
- Watch Runaway Bride, starring Julia Roberts.
- Buy a new, fun set of dishes.
- Sing to your cat.
- Write a list of your 10 favorite actors, 10 favorite actresses, 10 favorite movies, and 10 favorite all-time television shows.
- Watch the Game Show Network.
- Set up a Twitter account and tweet like you mean it.
- Eat Ramen Noodles. No scientific claims, here. They’re just kicky. And good.
- Give yourself a facial. You can buy some really cool masks at the store – exfoliate, darling.
- Go to the driving range and take it all out on the little golf balls.
- Play frisbee.
- Make ice cream cones.
- Build a Gingerbread House.
- Stop thinking about what you don’t have and dwell only on what you do have.
- Buy bird feeders and fill them with seed. Your yard will soon be a lot more beautiful with colorful little appreciative birds.
- Take up yoga. I love myself some yoga.
- Buy your dog a new toy and help her break it in.
- Have your nails done.
- Learn to play a new card game.
- Gather your golf buddies together for a game of poker.
- Buy a Pilates dvd and have at it.
- Make handmade gifts for your loved ones. They’ll appreciate them more than you’ll ever know, and creating them is incredibly fun.
- Chill. Be perfectly still and quiet for 20 minutes each day.It gives life a chance to catch up with you!
- If something specific, which is out of your hands, is bothering you – crumble it up. Literally.Write it down on a piece of paper (I wish I had more money, I wish my parents were still alive, I wish my home were bigger, I wish I were smaller…. ). Now crumble up the piece of paper and throw it away. This symbolic action is a reminder that somethings just have to be let go of. Carrying around burdens, resentment, guilt, grief – or any host negative emotions – is akin to taking a big gulp of rat poisoning. I’m convinced that many people stay miserable simply because it’d take a little effort to be any other way. They somehow manage to get comfortable in this misery. Make a vow to never let that happen to you. When you feel even the slightest tinge of sadness, realize that the next move is up to you. You can lie down with the blues or kick them out of your bed. You look like a kicker to me!
Remember the holidays are to be enjoyed, not complicated. Relax and enjoy every single minute and every single person.
It probably goes without saying, but I’m never one to let something go unsaid: These are suggestions for individuals who are feeling blue – not depressed. We’re referring to a feeling of sadness that has you back on your heels – not the sort of sadness that knocks you completely off of your feet.
If you are so sad that you don’t want to even get out of bed, and if this sadness has lasted more than a few weeks – please see a professional asap. They can help you.
Time Management Tips: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
As you’ll notice (if you look at the dates on my posts on Self Help Daily), I’ve been in the boxing ring with time management lately – and losing. At the end of the day, sometimes I feel like someone needs to stitch me up. The clock (time management’s lackey) insists on giving me just 24 hours a day. More Time!, I demand. Take what you have!, it deadpans, without so much as glancing in my direction. Always the same old response.
I won’t bother you with the details of my busyness (I’ll just say that I don’t have a daily to do list, I have to do lists). Running a web publishing business from home while being a wife, mother, AND working on my first book leaves me craving more hours in the day the way I crave more coffee in my cup and more chocolate chips in my cookies. It certainly doesn’t leave me feeling like a time management ninja or the queen of time management tips.
Normally, the writing, editing, typing, designing, cooking, cleaning, shopping, baking, and reading fall into their respective places pretty well – but lately things have just been whackadoodle (Kentuckian for nuts). A lot of it has to do with the upcoming holidays. I’m even having trouble concentrating on one of the things I love the most online – wordpress plugins (plugins are life). As wicked cool as they are, they just can’t compete with trying out new Christmas cookie and Thanksgiving pie recipes, decorating with Christmas loveliness, or shopping for my beloved family’s gifts. There should be a whole set of time management tips geared just for the holidays?
My cooking blog is also exploding, quite honestly – there are countless review requests, recipe requests, and so forth. Seriously, some of my blogs could keep three people busy, let alone one.
So much to do! Even when you love what you’re doing, sometimes you can feel overwhelmed when you’re up against the clock. It won’t even give an inch, no matter how much I plead or blackmail.
To manage time effectively and stand a chance of adhering to time management tips, we should continually shine the spotlight on our activities – hold them accountable for themselves. A few questions to periodically ask ourselves:
- How did I spend my time today? Did I balance work with play? Am I a well-rounded individual who doesn’t allow herself/himself to become all about either work or play?
- What activities did I choose to engage in? Some activities are a given (work, cooking, cleaning, laundry), others we choose. There’s a difference… and part of the answer lies right here.
- How much time did I spend on each activity? Could some of this time have been cut? Cut time leads to found time – it leads to the extra time we all crave at the end of the day.
- What were the results of these activities? Is there anything to show? Did the time produce an outcome that I can feel good about? Was the time spent “quality time” with a loved one? Did I accomplish something? Did I get somewhere?
- Was my mind stretched or challenged by any of these activities? Did I give my mind junk food or healthy nourishment? Do I read about the same things or do the same activities over and over? Am I creating mental fitness or tearing it down?
- Were any of the activities I engaged in within the last 24 hours relaxing? Here’s a funny thing about relaxation that I learned from my husband. He works full-time outside the home. He also runs two websites for his company and oversees two of the websites in our web publishing business. In addition, he’s looking at a couple of other online ventures. At the end of the day, after supper, he generally heads off to our home office to research, read, write, take part in web conferences, create, and so on. Once I told him that I was worried about him working too much. I told him that working all day and then coming home just to work more couldn’t possibly be good for him – I wondered where the relaxation was. He got a really quizzical look on his face (as he sat at his computer surrounded by books, with about 6 different windows open), and said, “This is relaxing.” He actually unwinds at the end of a day’s work with… you got it.. work. Of course, he does have a television in the office and if UK basketball, Andy Griffith, or St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball is on – his computer chair takes full advantage of it’s swivel!
A few nights ago, I wanted to make a huge pasta supper – with mozzarella garlic bread and the works. I decided to create a pasta sampler type meal, so I made some pasta with a marinara basil sauce, some with a browned butter mushroom sauce, and one pasta had three different cheeses. To keep each sauce from burning (while keeping it warm), and to ensure that my pasta was al dente, I had to rearrange the pans often on the burners. After the mushrooms sauteed in the butter sauce, it needed to make room for the marinara sauce… when the pasta was perfect, it had to get out of the way for the cheese sauce – and so on.
Personally, I’ve found that we have to approach our daily activities in a similar way – sometimes, something simply has to take a back burner. You don’t have to let it go completely, of course, you just have to say, “You sit right here, I’ll be back for you in a minute.” Whether it’s a preference to update your blogs daily, a rigid exercise routine, frequent tweets, or a favorite television show. Sometimes you have to realize that you can’t do everything and do it well – something has to get off of the front burner for a few days.
If I were to give all of my attention to the browned butter mushroom sauce while ignoring the pasta – the meal would have been ruined. And pointless!
Take a look at your daily activities and see if there’s anything you’re overcooking on one burner while under-cooking on another. After all, in every sense of the word we pretty much dine at the table of our own creation. Good, bad, underdone, creative, delicious, bland, forgettable, remarkable, outstanding – we have no one to blame or credit but ourselves.