MY Favorite MOVIES

Living 45 minutes from the nearest cinema, I seldom get to go to the movies.  However, I had the pleasure of seeing not only one but two films in the last two weeks.

RED - This film is a fun romp through the "cops and robbers" genre.  Starring some of my favorite "older" actors such as Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich plus "The Queen," Helen Mirren, in a long, white formal gown creating mayhem with a machine gun.  This is a wonderful spoof that caused me to chuckle, in spite of the violence, all the way through.

HEREAFTER - purported to be Clint Eastwood's finest is a thought provoking, well acted story about the end of life and the affect death has on survivors.  Matt Damon plays a psychic who has the ability to connect with the dead.  He finds the work depressing and the response from the survivors is often difficult to handle - he wants out.  Luckily for the viewer of this film, he's still persuaded to look into the afterlife for a few desperate survivors.  I really enjoyed this film, even though I guessed early on how it would end but that didn't spoil it for me.  The other thing that was amazing about the film was it reminded me of my very own out-of-body experience when I was 21 years old.

My young husband, 15-month old son and I were driving to the coast for our first vacation.  On the way, going a little too fast on a curve, our car hit loose gravel and started to fishtail.  In those days the front seat of our car was a bench rather than bucket seats and we had no seatbelts.  On one side of the road was a deep drop-off.  I either grabbed the door handle of the car to hold on or to escape - I don't know which - I do remember thinking we were going over the bank and I needed to get out of there - bad choice.

Well, I did get out, actually flew out of the car.  The next thing I knew I was sitting in the top of a tree.  I was looking at and feeling the yellow and gold leaves of the tree.  As I sat there I saw someone tumble across the road below me.  It was like watching television - I felt no connection to that person on the road.  Then all of a sudden my arms went up in the air and I felt I was on a very long slide.  I slid down and landed in my body which was pretty torn up.  I was conscious but knew I needed an ambulance.  Luckily, the first vehicle to arrive was equipped with a radio and the driver was able to call for help.  Today I'm fine with only a few scars but I continue to wonder about my experience.

Make Your Community Sparkle

Lost a sock or, how about a 15” X 24” black lid for your kids plastic toy box?  Is the stuffing missing from your couch?  Or, do you know what happened to that plastic mattress cover from Kmart? 

Those are just a few of the items recovered by me and members of our local garden club as we began cleaning up the roadsides on the edge of our community.

We gathered at 6:00 AM and donned bright orange vests and grabbed big orange trash bags to begin the beautification of the road.  One member brought his gas powered weed-eater and began slicing away the tall, dry grass.  Everyone else spread out along the road using long-handled pickup pinchers to fill their bags with litter.

What an amazing collection of trash:  water bottles that someone forgot to recycle; Budweiser and Coors beer cans - worth cash; Pall Mall and Marlboro packs and hundreds of cigarette butts – isn’t there some kind of law against leaving cigarette butts in the dry grass along the road?  There was a fire along this same stretch of road last year.  I don’t mean to blame drivers, but I seldom see walkers, bicycle riders or runners smoking as they dash by.  If drivers are the culprits, don’t cars have ashtrays anymore?

Bags were filled garbage, pieces of plywood and even a large pipe was pulled from the side of the road. The lumber must have flown off trucks on the way to the dump, surely no one living or working in our community would toss this stuff out their windows on purpose, right?  When I found the pipe, I wondered if someone would think it was a pipe-bomb – I hesitated to pick it up but then thought, oh, come on, who would place a pipe bomb along this rural road?  I hoped the answer was a loud and clear, “nobody.”

After a couple of hours and the sun heating up, the troops were called in.  It was time to return to our air conditioned homes. As we walked back to our cars we discovered some lovely small trees previously hidden by all the debris. What a nice surprise.

Our Garden Club’s plan is to beautify the area with native trees, plants and wildflowers but we can’t begin planting until fall.  In the meantime, with a little pruning by some of the Garden Club’s master gardeners, the residents and those driving along our road will be able see and enjoy these natives that have made our roadside their home.

How clean is your community?  Having clean roads and beautiful plantings increases the value of the area and reduces vandalism.  Pleasant surroundings only help to encourage visitors to your town and your business – hopefully you too are willing to spend a little time to brighten up your area and REMOVE THAT TRASH!  And when you're through, curl up on a comfy chair with a cup of chai and read my book, Million Dollar Cup of Tea, available from my publisher, WBusiness Books, Amazon.com or ask for a copy from your local bookseller. 

Have a good day,  Tedde

Support Charitable Organizations

These are hard times.  We have all had to cut back but we still need to give to those non-profit organizations we support.  So how do we do it on a budget?  Well, my sister-in-law, Carol, who is retired and on a tight budget, says when she gets a request, she sends $5.  Five dollars is better than nothing and if we all gave even $1 it would certainly help the various causes.

I too am on a tight budget now.  Things were good when we sold Oregon Chai, I was able to donate quite a bit to local charities and it felt good.  In the past the amounts I have given were in the range $25 to $100.  But those times are past so now I follow Carol's advice and send $5.  It's not at all painful, in fact, I took some bottles back to the recycling center that came to $4.20.  I gave the clerk 80 cents and he gave me a $5 bill.  I tucked the bill into a Planned Parenthood envelope and dropped it in the mail.

Hope you're able to continue to support charitable groups.  If not, I hope you have a home, good health and enough food for you and your family.

Tedde, Author of Million Dollar Cup of Tea

New Article

Sign on the Middletown Bible Church:  "HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS, TEXT WHILE DRIVING TO MEET HIM."

New Article

EASY SUMMER VEGGIES

Ingredients:

• Beets
• Bermuda Onion
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Carrot
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Chard
• Garlic
• Ginger – small amount of fresh, by taste
• Kale
• Parsley
• Red Pepper
• Zucchini

•  
  • Lemon
  • or
  • Lime

Toppings:

• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Tomato

Directions:

Gather any or all of the vegetables above or others you would enjoy

Cut all into ½ inch pieces, a food processor works best, at least quickest

Squeeze fresh lemon or lime juice over the veggies

Combine and store in refrigerator in a large glass jar

Use vegetables as a salad with your favorite dressing alone or over greens, add toppings as desired

Stir fry – and serve over rice

Add a handful in a pan with quinoa

My Naturopathic Physician suggested this salad.  It is SO EASY and I discovered not only can I eat the veggies raw with dressing or over a green salad but I can also use them for stir fry.  Then a couple of nights ago I cooked some quinoa for dinner and to make the dish more enjoyable, I threw in a couple of handfuls of my pre-cut, organic veggies and cooked them along with the quinoa.

It was so great to have these veggies ready to use and with my food processor it only took minutes to prepare.

Hope you enjoy it too.

Tedde McMillen

Author of Million Dollar Cup of Tea

www.milliondollarcupoftea.wbusiness.biz

PS the photo is my little dog, Moby, he is part Pekinese and part Maltese, weighs 13 pounds and is 14 years old - a real little love.

Purrfect Performance

Love Cats?  Love Music?  Then check out this kitty's koncerto on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg&feature=player_embedded%3E

ENJOY!

Guilty For Disliking Your Kids?

Do you sometimes feel guilty for disliking your children?

My kids are grown, 41 and 44.  Wow, I don’t feel that old.  They both turned out well and we are good friends. But I sometimes have pangs of guilt.  I tried so hard to be the perfect mother.  I followed Dr. Spock’s book religiously until my daughter was 2 years old, when I finally had the sense to toss it in the fireplace.

But, I had other issues too.  My Dad believed in the belt as the best form of discipline and I inherited his bad temper.  I, however, was going to be different.  I would never beat my children and I would learn to control my temper.  I used the time-out method for discipline which helped both them and me.  It worked well with my son.  My daughter, on the other hand, refused to sit in her corner and would immediately stand up when I set her in her time-out chair.  (Where was Super Nanny when I needed her?)

I also tried to talk to them.  One of my most regrettable memories was the time I said to my son, “I don’t love you when you act this way.”  But what he heard was, “I don’t love you.”  Then, according to my husband who, unknowing to me at the time, witnessed the whole thing and told me later, “After you said that, he threw up.” I felt AWFUL!!! I really, really do love him and I never, never meant to hurt him.  I just wanted him to know that I was very upset with his behavior. He wouldn’t do his schoolwork (not just homework but classroom work or finish tests) and had just flunked ALL of his subjects.  What’s a mother to do?  For me, feel guilty for years.

Well, I can finally feel a little better about that episode after reading the June 23 column of Dear Abby, by Jeanne Phillips.  She wrote, “No shame in disliking your kid sometimes – it’s quite normal.”  The article went on to share experiences of other parents who sometimes disliked their kids.  A psychotherapist wrote that many mothers feel shame about not liking their kids, especially difficult children.  That most mothers believe they must “feel positive toward  their children all the time, even if they’re behaving badly.”  But, according to the physchotherapist, ALL mothers dislike their kids sometimes.  What is important is to have the very naughty child evaluated by an expert, just in case there is a medical problem that can be treated.  For those that are just unruly and “headstrong,” they will usually grow out of it and become sweet, loving adults.  And, believe me, I can happily say they do.  My son was never unruly or even naughty.  In fact, I don’t think I ever “disliked” him but I know other mothers who do feel that way and I think Phillips’ column benefits us all.

I do want to report that my son went on to graduate from college, get two more advanced certificates and now runs a successful nursery specializing in hardy orchids and unusual plants:  www.hanafarms.com.

So cheer up Moms and do the best you can, one baby-step, child-step and adolescent-step at a time.  And, according to the expert, it’s okay if you, like your children, are not always perfect.

Tedde McMillen

Author of Million Dollar Cup of Tea

© 2009