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To You and Yours

Five Ways to Fight Holiday Stress

A classic holiday tune tells us this is the most wonderful time of the year. But with parties to attend, food to prepare, and gifts to buy and wrap, it can feel overwhelming.

Here are five tips to stop stressing and enjoy the season.

Create a gifting game plan

Write down everyone who’s made your list—naughty or nice—along with ideas for each person. Then, create a rough estimate of how much you can afford and think of ways to stick to your budget. You’ll also want to set aside enough time for shopping, wrapping, and mailing.

 Avoid party overload

Swamped by invitations? Prioritize! Write all the events you’re invited to on a calendar, and circle the ones that are most important to you. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t attend them all.

 Organize your decorations

Decking the halls can be merry for some—and miserable for others. When you store your decorations, think about what you’ll need for next year, and organize your decorations by type or by where you display them. Keep the decorations you hang first most accessible.

Simplify your dinner party

Write down exactly what you’ll be cooking and how many people will be attending. Make a grocery list, and determine what can be made in advance, and what you’ll need to prepare the day of. Don’t be afraid to ask your guests to bring a dish to pass or a bottle of wine.

 Share the holidays

If you don’t have many people with whom you can share the holidays, there are plenty of options for keeping busy and feeling merry. Consider volunteering at a toy drive or a soup kitchen. Or, enjoy some alone time and curl up solo with hot chocolate and a favorite book or movie.

Why do we have leap years?

Leap Year 2016: – why does the month have an extra day every four years?

When is it, why does it happen and everything else you need to know about the leap year in 2016

Why do we have leap years?

A leap year, where an extra day is added to the end of February every four years, is down to the solar system’s disparity with the Gregorian calendar.

A complete orbit of the earth around the sun takes exactly 365.2422 days to complete, but the Gregorian calendar uses 365 days. So leap seconds – and leap years – are added as means of keeping our clocks (and calendars) in sync with the Earth and its seasons.

What if you’re born on February 29?

The chances of having a leap birthday are one in 1,461. People who are born on February 29 are referred to as “leaplings”, or “leapers”. In non-leap years, many leaplings choose to celebrate their birthday on either February 28 or March 1, while purists stick to February 29 for the occasion.

Some suggest those born just after midnight on February 29 should celebrate their birthdays on February 28, while those born just before midnight on March 1 should celebrate their birthdays on that day. Those born around midday are less fortunate when it comes to picking a side.

About 4.1 million people around the world have been born on the 29th.

Pisces is the zodiac sign of a person born on February 29, and amethyst is the birthstone for this month.

It”s Labor Day

Labor Day: What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

Pic of the Week – Summer coming to a close in Upper Michigan

   “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Happy Independence Day – July 4th 2015

The Real Meaning of the Fourth of July

I found this article and I think it states it all!

It’s the Fourth of July weekend. We’re supposed to be celebrating Independence Day.

But what makes this day special?

What gives the Fourth of July its significance is that our Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1776.

It was in Philadelphia, and the signers of that document, composed by Thomas Jefferson, knew that this declaration of independence from the dictatorial rule of Great Britain might also be — literally — their death sentence.

They knew full well that the wrath and might of the British army would be sailing across the Atlantic to descend on the relatively defenseless colonies. They knew their scattered “states” didn’t have the numbers or arms or training to stand against the British, much less defeat them militarily. Yet they put their signatures, and their lives, their families, their destiny, on that parchment.

And so, against all odds, and even against reason, that Declaration told the world that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”The only importance of the 4th day of July, then, is that it marks the birth of the United States of America.

The very words should send awe-filled shivers up your spine, as they do mine.   Most of the people living in those colonies had simply had enough of British domination, of working and virtually existing at the pleasure of a king they didn’t know and who obviously considered them his indentured servants.

They wanted to be free, to make their own decisions, to govern themselves and breathe the sweet air of liberty.
The first celebration of American Independence took place four days later in Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was still meeting.

The ceremony began with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Then, from the tower of the State House, now called Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell rang out.  The coat of arms of the king of England was taken down. And there was a parade. And cannons boomed. The people, though aware of what lay ahead, cheered! A new nation sprang to life.

That’s what this day is meant to be about.

John Adams, himself a signer of the Declaration, thought that Americans should henceforth celebrate a “great anniversary festival.” In a letter to his wife Abigail he wrote, “It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”

So it began. A more elaborate celebration was held there in 1788, after the new Constitution had been ratified. Then there was a much larger parade, speeches and a dinner.

But between those two celebrations, in 1776 and 1788, there was much horrible fighting, rivers of bloodshed, the deaths and bankruptcies of many of the signers of the Declaration, families torn apart and businesses and farms destroyed. The freedoms declared by the Declaration — and ushered into fact by the Constitution — were secured at a terrible cost.

Soon, across the growing nation, at sunrise on July 4, salutes were fired and bells were rung. Flags were flown from buildings, from homes, and along the streets. Shop windows were decorated with red, white, and blue. Churches held special services.

What’s Independence Day like today? Do most people you know actually make time to purposely celebrate our independence in meaningful ways?

Even while we’re again locked in a deadly combat on foreign soil  — still involving hundreds of thousands of our finest young men and women?

What are they fighting for now? Is it anything like what motivated our Revolutionary Army?

Is it “freedom from religion,” the necessity to take “under God” out of our pledge, or even to do away with it altogether? Is it the “right” to end the lives of unwanted babies, or the “right” for two men or two women to “marry”?

Or is it still the impossible dream of a nation under God, with unalienable rights endowed equally to all — among these life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?Surely this weekend is a time for all of us who really cherish that original dream, the one for which so many have died, to individually and collectively re-declare our independence from tyranny, despotism, taxation without representation, and debts that no free society should ever bear.

And allegiance to the blood-bought foundation of government of, by, and for the people . . . people who are determined to live free.

So today while you are sitting around drinking a beer and enjoying the BBQ you may have prepared take a moment and really think about what Independence day really is about.

By Pat Boone   |   Monday, 05 Jul 2010 04:20 PM

© 2015 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Thanksgiving in the United States

The tradition of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving is steeped in myth and legend. Few people realize that the Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving the next year, or any year thereafter, though some of their descendants later made a “Forefather’s Day” that usually occurred on December 21 or 22. Several Presidents, including George Washington, made one-time Thanksgiving holidays. In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying several Presidents for the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but her lobbying was unsuccessful until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday.

Just a thought.