Caffeinated Potato Chips!

Now I have seen it all!  They’ve just announced a new potato chip is coming onto the market—it’s laced with caffeine!

Okay, call me crazy but I am not so sure this is a great idea!  What are food manufacturers thinking?  Are we so stressed out and lack so much energy that we are reaching for more caffeine?  And is it not enough that we have energy drinks, and tea and coffee?  Now we have to have chips with caffeine too?

Take a look at this article, and tell me what you think!http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/5103121.html

About a month ago my dad and I were talking about a new orange juice with glucosamine added to it.  The company’s commercial for this juice was so positive, painting a picture of why not drink this oj because you need that mineral in your body anyway.  What people fail to realize is that glucosamine is made from scraping the oyster shells, and anyone who has an allergy to iodine or shellfish (like my dad) could become seriously ill by using this product.

Oh!  And in the grocery store the other day, I saw Diet Coke with Vitamins!  As if drinking vitamins in your Diet Coke is going to make you healthier!

Can you tell that my opinion is so strong on this one?  I feel like the food companies need to stick to as close to natural ingredients as possible and leave the added vitamins and minerals out.  If you need vitamins and minerals, get educated and take what you need with your food.  But don’t drug up the food!  It only leads to more problems.

Okay, enough with my soap box.  It’s lunch time.  And, no, I’m not having potato chips or Diet Coke! 

A Deeper Love

A funeral is for the living.

It sounds weird, but it is so true.  A funeral is all about the family of the one who is gone and getting together to share their grief and their love.  And for Christians, it is a homecoming and a bittersweet tribute. 

It was not easy, sitting there, looking at the casket that was so tiny.  My best friend was there and we linked our arms together and cried until we had no tissue left.  We knew that this little one was in the arms of the Lord; yet it was still hard to experience.

And while the service was beautiful and the mood was tearful, there was a real message of love.  The uncle who did the eulogy said he feels that the purpose of this 5 month old, so frail and broken, was to show them how to love.  It somehow took the love this family had to such a deeper level that they now realize that the love they had for each other before was NOTHING compared to the love they have now.

Our lives, no matter how short or long, are but vapors.  Jesus Christ’s brother James said so in the Bible.  And every moment that we spend has to count for something.  I want mine to count for God.

Which leads me to ask you; Do you know Jesus?  I don’t mean “do you go to church,” or “do you have a faith,” but do you truly know that He is your only one way ticket into Heaven?  Because if you don’t, there’s still time. 

Being a great person doesn’t cut it.  None of us are perfect.  That’s why God made a way.  He takes what you know as love to a deeper level.  He gave His Son as our sacrifice and that allows us to live eternally when we commit our lives to Him. 

Take the free gift of salvation.  Accept that Christ died for you and ask Him to make your life count for Him. 

Then watch your love go to a deeper level.  You won’t regret it!

Being Neighborly

National Night Out.

Sounds like a date night, but it’s not.  It’s a once a year, get out and meet your neighbors night.  Once a year?  Have we really gotten that busy?  Are we so over scheduled and uptight that we don’t even know who lives on our street?

Things have really changed since I was a kid.  Of course, I grew up in a small town.  I knew almost all of my neighbors and played with many of them.  We’d climb trees, much to my mother’s horror, ride bikes, and do normal fun summertime stuff.

Until recently, I didn’t know any of my neighbors.  When we moved into our house, I was seven months pregnant and exhausted.  No one came and introduced themselves.  Not a soul.  I was very lonely.

And then, one by one, houses around us went up for sale and changed owners.  And my small town, girl-next-door mentality began to get to work.  I began knocking on the new neighbors’ doors, taking a little plate of cookies or brownies and our phone numbers.  I have been so blessed to have met new friends this way, and it all started with me deciding to change the status quo.

My latest attempt was not so fortunate.  I baked brownies and took them with the kids over to a house several doors down.  I rang the bell, saw a man’s silhouette move from the kitchen to somewhere else in the house.  No one came to the door!  My kids were a little upset, “Why won’t they come to the door?”  I figured they thought I was a salesperson.  Or maybe they like to keep to themselves.  We left the covered plate of brownies on the porch.

Two days later, that neighbor called.  She was very nice.  She said she grew up the same way I did; knowing her neighbors.  She thinks her husband didn’t hear the door that day.

I am continuing to pray for my new neighbors and future ones.  I don’t want to live in this neighborhood without knowing them.  We don’t have to be great friends; but it would be nice to be able to know their names in case something happens on our street.

Do you know your neighbors?  How have you contributed to the community around you?