A Little Moment

That little table I scored for $40 in a 'chuck-out sale' as it has a tiny crack in one of the legs... bargain hey. I love it. It's very 'Raffles' I reckon.

I was sitting on my deck on the weekend, in the late afternoon, and I noticed how the sun was playing on my pretty little side table in the lounge inside. Just as well I had my trusty iPhone camera right next to me!

Capturing this moment reminded me how important it is to be mindful, to live in the moment. 

If you don't, you miss so much. 

Image Courtesy Blinks Of Life

Happy Wednesday!

~♥ Gooseberry Patch Freebies ♥~

Hello blogging friends...how's the weather in your neck of the woods?  It's been cold and rainy here in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  I've been spending a lot of time indoors cleaning, organizing, and snuggling under a blanket catching up on my reading. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Isn't that a darling Autumn graphic in my post?  It came from Gooseberry Patch and speaking of Gooseberry Patch...I'd like to share a link with you that lists all of their freebies!

http://www.scribd.com/GooseberryPatch

Thanks for stopping by,

♥ Kim

Graphic by: www.gooseberrypatch.com

MODELLING THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE

Galaxies in Real and Simulated Universes from Risa Wechsler on Vimeo.

Seriously cool stuff. From the Vimeo page:

We see galaxies in the sky, but cannot see the dark matter clumps surrounding them. However, we can simulate them as they form in a model Universe. In this video we show how good the agreement is between the observed distribution of galaxies in the SDSS sky survey, and the predicted distribution of model galaxies associated with dark matter halos in the Bolshoi simulation. It's hard to tell them apart!  

Hearts for Home - 4th October

 In today’s busy and aggressive society mothers at home are not given much encouragement to be committed to their role in being home.

In my weekly 'Hearts for Home' post I am encouraging myself and others to commit to thinking about what 4-6 things we can do each week to bring our thoughts, prayers and actions to keeping our 'Hearts for Home'.

I am praying that a spirit of gentleness, generosity in thoughts and time along with loveliness and grace would lead us to be all that God wants us to be.

I pray also that each person involved in 'Hearts for Home' would also pray for any others involved as well.

May you be blessed by this initiative. I pray it brings you and your family many blessings.

So each week list 4-6 things you will commit to that will keep your "Hearts for Home'.
Please leave a you name and a link to your blog (if you don't have one just leave your list in the comment box) and perhaps a comment so we can all see and encourage each other.

If you would like, add the 'Hearts for Home' logo to your side bar as a reminder of your goals.
May God Bless you this week.

♥ Please leave a link to your Hearts for Home Edition on the Mister Linky at the end of the post, so we can all come and visit.
I would also appreciate you linking back here too.☺ ♥ ♥

Holiday Mode- 4th October

Hello Dear Friends,

We truly are in holiday mode here at the moment. We are enjoying the relaxed pace and visiting new and interesting places, visiting new friends we have made and spending a lot of time just 'hanging out'.

Like I said last week our home is our family and we are living this time being aware of how close a family circle we are and how much we enjoy each others company.

We will be making final preparations for Autumn's Deb Ball this week as it is on Saturday and she along with Braedon who is partnering his sweet Anna-Lisa (who is making her debut as well) so the excitement is very high for us all as we look forward to this special event. Please keep all the Debs and their partners in your prayers as well, that they have a beautiful and memorable night.

I am continuing to relax and am sure our precious Trahaearn is putting on more weight. This seems to really support the fact that I need not to be so busy but continue to put baby time ahead of all other interests.

Praying you all find peace and joy in your own homes this week,

TINY TUVALU RUNS DRY

Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu. Credit: Stefan Lins via Wikimedia Commons.

 

The tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu—already suffering from rising sea levels—has declared a state of emergency as water supplies on some islands ran dry today. 

The Telegraph reports that Tuvalu's state of emergency was declared after existing desalination plants broke, exacerbating an already dire drought:

The Tuvalu Red Cross said it had not rained properly in the country for more than six months. Meteorologists have forecast a lack of run until December. Typically it gets between 200mm to 400mm [~8 to 16 inches] of rainfall per month... [New Zealand] was working with the Red Cross to deliver aid workers and supplies as quickly as possible.  

  

Location of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. Credit: TUBS via Wikimedia Commons, modified by Julia Whitty.

 

I wrote about the troubles facing Tuvalu's nine tiny islands in my 2003 Mother Jones article All the Disappearing Islands. At that time Tuvalu was threatening to sue Earth's gassiest nations for emitting enough CO2 to sink Tuvalu for good:

Tuvalu is among the smallest and most remote countries on Earth, with a total land mass comprising only 10 square miles/26 square kilometers, less than half the size of Manhattan and scattered over 347,400 square miles/899,000 sq km of ocean—an area larger than California, Oregon, and Washington combined... At no point is the sandy island of Funafuti higher than 13 feet above sea level, as is the case throughout the nine coral atolls of this South Pacific nation of Tuvalu. Surrounded by the sea, the people here have been shaped by it as few others on earth. Every afternoon, rain or shine, Tuvaluan children romp in its unsupervised playground... Inescapably, this is a nation of waterfront property; even the plywood and corrugated-tin houses standing 'inland' a block or two enjoy the ambiance of the ocean. No one here has ever lived a moment without hearing the thunder of surf.

Credit: © Julia Whitty.

Now Tuvalu's freshwater aquifers may be contaminated, reports the BBC:

Secretary General Tataua Pefe advised people against drinking water from wells. "It's not safe for consumption," he told Radio Australia. "Some animals have died recently and we think it's because of subterranean water."

In The Fragile Edge I wrote how Tuvalu's problem with freshwater contamination could render its islands uninhabitable long before rising sea levels irrevocably sink them:

Floods and rogue waves raise the saltwater table underlying the atolls, poisoning the Tuvaluans' staple crops. Already some farmers have been forced to grow their [crops] in tin containers, and already some of the smaller motus [islands] have lost their coconut palms to saltwater intrusion. Nor are storms a prerequisite for disaster. "Last August," Prime Minister Saufatu Sopoanga tells me, "on a clear, calm day, a sudden wave surge rolled in from the sea and washed across Funafuti into the lagoon, flooding houses." There was no apparent reason for it, and during my stay on the atoll, I find the sensation of threat to be ever present—the sea on both sides, the constant drumroll of surf, a thin strip of land between—like living on a liquid fault line.

Funafuti Atoll, Tuvalu. Credit: Davidarfonjones via Wikimedia Commons.

   
Meanwhile 3 News New Zealand reports the drought is affecting other Pacific islands too:

The latest place to declare a state of emergency is Tokelau, a New Zealand territory of fewer than 1,500 people on three coral atolls in the central Pacific.

And The Taiwan News reports a possible cholera outbreak in Tuvalu.

A wedding party on Funafuti. Credit: © Julia Whitty.

  
Inundated by ills from afar, more and more Tuvaluans are leaving their home islands—and not because they want to. From All the Disappearing Islands:

Within the coming decades, the atolls of Tuvalu and elsewhere will almost certainly revert to sandbars and then nothing. Although the people themselves will not go extinct, without their home islands to anchor them, their beliefs and identity probably will, scattered person by person across the rising waters... until, like Atlantis, the name of Tuvalu fades into myth.

Get your Zzzs!

Welcome back!  Thanks for all your sweet comments about this series!  I am loving it too!

DAY 3:  Get enough Sleep!

This is another simple health tip and yet it is often overlooked! 

I now I am guilty of skipping out of my sleep for sure!  If I am busy, which is like everyday, I seem to always sacrifice my own sleep.  I am totally a late-night person and love the peace and quiet that only happens when everyone is asleep!  I am going to be working on this one with you this month.

How much sleep should you get?

Well, according to the National Sleep Foundation, adults need 7-9 hours of sleep a night.

It is best to be sleeping from 10pm-2am for the best REM cycle.

While you are working on this for yourself, please make sure that your children and getting enough sleep!  Even though I don’t follow the rules for myself, I am a total stickler when it comes to my kids’ sleep schedules!  I read the book, “Happy Sleep Habits, Happy Child”, and it changed my life FOREVER!  I had a hard time with my daughter’s nap and bedtime routine and I needed something new with Michael.  This books made sense to me and it worked like a breeze for us.  All of my kids go down between 7-8pm and sleep through the night. Before Michael turned 2 he has taking 2 naps a day and going to bed at 5:30pm and sleeping until 7am. (I have so much to say about this that it could be a post by itself.)

Anyway, back to you! 

There are a ton of reasons to get your sleep including looking and feeling better (we all want that, right?), repairing your body, reducing stress, putting you in a better mood (this is extremely important as a mom, in my opinion, because nobody wants a cranky mom)  it helps with your memory and controls your weight, (oh yes ladies, did you hear that?  sleep helps control your weight!!).

One way thing that helps our family’s sleep pattern is to create a night routine.  After dinner, we slow things down.  We will play a family game, finish homework and then we read as a whole family.  We will dim the lights and quiet the house down.  After that, we get ready for bed and do more reading in bed.  Grace will read aloud and then we will read a little more to the kids.  Also, this is a great time to talk one-on-one with our kids.  I find that they open up and talk to us when we are with them in bed with them and we are giving them 100% of our attention.

After we put the kids to bed, we have adult time to talk, read, go on the computer, take a bath or shower or whatever else we want.  We usually don’t watch TV because we think it is a waste of time and money.  Remember, we don’t have cable or the dish.  Now I just need to work on being in bed by 10.  I just love staying up late but then I usually pay for it the next morning, haha! 

If you are having a hard time sleeping, I know a couple of people that have really benefited from taking this natural Gentle Sleep Complex.

What time do you go to bed?

What time do your kids go to bed?

DAY 1: DRINK WATER

DAY 2: EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGGIES

Have a healthy day!

OCEAN OBSERVED

Compound eye of an Antarctic krill. Credit: Gerd Alberti and Uwe Kils, via Wikimedia Commons.

Scales on a 3-day old zebrafish. Credit: Carla Stehr, NOAA.

     Coccolithophore, Gephyrocapsa oceanica. Credit: NEON_ja via Wikimeda Commons.    

Diatoms. Credit: Carla Stehr, NOAA.

Gills of a mudskipper, Periophthalmus argentilineatus. Credit: G. Kruitwagen and H.P.M. Geurts, Radboud University Nijmegen.

Gills of a mudskipper, Periophthalmus argentilineatus. Credit: G. Kruitwagen and H.P.M. Geurts, Radboud University Nijmegen.

Suckers on a newly hatched east Pacific red octopus, Octopus rubescens. Credit: Carla Stehr, NOAA.

Dinoflagellate. Credit: Carla Stehr, NOAA.

All these images were taken with a scanning electron microscope. If you're wondering how that works, this video explains.