Have you noticed that a lot of the teacher gift ideas out there on the inter-webs are kind of...girly? Go ahead, do a google search right now for "teacher gift" and see what pops up.
Anyway, we had MC's conference the other day, and Mr. O revealed that he loves Transformers. He's about our age, and I remember all the boys being way into Transformers when I was a kid, so it makes sense. That got my brain's wheels turning and here's what I came up with.
I got this fun Transformers Kre-O set (which is kind of like Lego) for free using a coupon last year around Christmas time. It's Optimus Prime (who is the leader of the good-guy transformers, just in case you didn't know), and while the figure doesn't transform per se, you can build either a robot or a truck with it.
You can see where this is going, right? Oh yes, it's a pun.
If you can't find a Transformer Kre-O set, no worries--anything from the Transformer genre will work--all the better if it's a puzzle or game the teacher can use in his classroom. Even stickers or a rubber stamp would work.
My baby turned 5 on Monday. I am so blessed to be his mommy and so thankful that he is a part of our family :) We celebrated with some batty cupcakes.
Remember when I posted a picture of batty cupcakes in this batty craft post? IrishMomLuvs2Bake used chocolate wafer cookies for the bat's wings and ears, but y'all! My grocery store wants $4.99 for a package of chocolate wafer cookies! Which is about $2.99 more than I wanted to pay. So I just used oreos for the wings and we decided we didn't need ears. Still super cute, right? The fangs are the bottom white part of candy corn--isn't that clever? Oh, and I must say, if you don't just happen to have candy eyes sitting around, I'm sure m&ms or skittles would work just fine.
Five candles for our five year old birthday boy!
He wanted to tell us what he wished for, but MC wouldn't let him--MC kept interrupting and eventually Bubby gave up!
As I mentioned in this post, several months ago, I became obsessed with making cake pops. I mean, what could be more fun than cake on a stick? OK, I can think of a lot of things that would be more fun, but you've got to admit cake pops are pretty fun. And they're so easy to make, really.
So I mentioned to my mustache friends that we should get together and make Halloween cake pops, and I was looking for a good basic explanation online of how to make them (because my friend J was the only one among us who had made them before), and didn't really find any.
So, my friends, here you go. Basic cake pop recipe plus some Halloween cake pop inspiration.
First, bake a cake and let it cool. Any flavor will do.
Next, crumble the cake into a bowl--you're looking for a fine crumb. Use a large bowl, because for some reason, cake gets bigger when you crumble it.
Then, add a 16 oz can of frosting to your cake crumbs and mix well. Again, any flavor will do. You don't have to use your hands, in fact, I would recommend against it--but it seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Finally, roll the cake mixture into balls. I knew y'all were going to ask me how big the balls should be, and here's what I have to say about that--make them however big you want them to be. Mine were about 1.5 inches, and I got 30 of them from one cake, but J's (the expert) were larger, like about 2 inches. Then stick your cake balls in the freezer to firm up.
Give 'em an hour or two, or four, just let them get nice and firm.
Then melt some chocolate, almond bark, or candy melts in the color of your choice. Take a lollipop stick (mine were 6 inches long), and dip it about half an inch into your melted goodness. Then, gently, using a swirly motion, poke the stick about half an inch or more into your cake ball. Once all of the cake balls have a stick in them, put them back in the freezer or refrigerator or out on the screen porch for a bit to firm back up.
Remove the cake ball from the melted stuff and hold it over the bowl while slowly turning to allow excess to drip off. When all the excess drips off, or you get tired of holding it, you can place the stick into a sheet of styrofoam to hold it while the coating hardens.
Dip first in white, then orange, then yellow for candy corn.
Jack Skellington--we tried using a food marker to draw his face, but it didn't work after the first one.
And, of course, my spiders. As you can see, I never did find black sprinkles, but the spiders are pretty darn cute anyway.
Hey y'all, if you're not a sewer, you might want to just tune out now. If you are a sewer, you probably already know about this tip. But I was pretty impressed with myself for coming up with it, so just on the off chance there's someone out there who sews and who also doesn't know this here ya go.
So I took on a sewing challenge recently, making a stuffed toy which is not available for purchase anywhere but on Etsy, for which there is also no pattern available.
So. Draw your pattern piece. Either cut it out, or don't cut it out--doesn't matter to me.
and cut out, not on the line, but give yourself a good amount of extra fabric around the piece.
Sew on the pattern line. That's right: just sew right through the pattern and fabric and everything.
When you're done, the pattern will just tear right off.
Trim the piece close to the sewing line and turn right side out.
And that's it! You'll end up with a sewn piece exactly the size and shape you wanted.
or a beak, or wings, or feet, try it--you'll save yourself a lot of grief!
Oh my friends, remember this? Remember when my precious 3rd grader was leaving jackets at school left and right? Leaving them like he believed global warming was on its way tomorrow? It's happening again, my friends, only this time, it's a year later and my treasured 4th grader is leaving behind winter coats.
When I asked him why he left a second winter coat (by the way, his brother is to blame for giving him the second coat to lose--mean mama was just going to let him tough it out and find the first one he lost) on the playground yesterday instead of at least bringing it back inside the school to his hook, he just shrugged. When I told him that it was going to be cold tomorrow (today) and he was going to need a coat, he said, well why didn't you TELL me that?! (say it again, with an incredulous, almost-yelling voice).
Oh yes, my friends, you read that right: in his opinion, it is my fault that my son chose to leave his winter coat on the playground instead of bringing it home to wear again.
It is exactly this sort of entitled attitude that prompted author Kay Wills Wyma to embark on a year-long quest to cure her five children of an attitude of entitlement, which she has chronicled in her book Cleaning House: A Mom's 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement.
I really liked this book and found it to be incredibly inspiring. Kids are naturally self-centered beings and it's our choice as parents whether we want to feed in to that, reinforcing their view that the world revolves around them, or teach them to see beyond their own wants and needs and feelings to those around them by showing them how meaningful work can increase self-confidence and concern for others.
Ms. Wyma's approach was both systematic and practical--she lays out her game plan in a way that anyone could duplicate. The book is also a quick read--I really enjoyed the author's conversational style--as if she and I were girlfriends chatting. I love the way she shares her family's successes and failures, letting us know up front that, if we're going to try this too, we will most likely be met with resistance and varying degrees of success. I finished the book feeling inspired, and with the definite conviction that, even if I can't devote a year to methodically teaching my children these skills, any improvement is a step in the right direction--I don't have to do everything perfectly in the experiment in teaching my kids life skills and the value of work for it to be a valuable undertaking.
I was so inspired that I started teaching my kids some life skills before I even finished the book. I taught my 9 year old son how to do laundry. After a few loads, he turned to me and said, "this is kind of fun." And you should have seen the look on my 12 year old son's face when we pulled up to Walgreen's one day, I handed him a dollar and told him to go get some eggs. He could not believe that I was sending him in by himself (I couldn't believe it either), but I knew he could do it, and I wanted him to know he could do it, too.
The thing that really struck a chord with me about the book is this: every time we do something for our children that they can do, themselves, we're sending them an unintentional message that they can't do it, or that we can do it better and faster, which undermines their confidence and makes them want to try less on their own. And after time and again of getting this message that they are incapable or their effort is not good enough, is it any wonder our kids expect us to do everything for them? By believing that they can do it, whatever it is, and then standing by to let them do it, we are showing our kids, in a very tangible way, that they are capable.
And after all, that's the goal isn't it? To raise our children to be responsible, capable adults?
Want to learn more? Go here to read an excerpt.
Cleaning House is available in both paperback and Kindle editions.
We had a mystery visitor last night, and he came bearing tools.
You see, yesterday evening, Hubby and the soon-to-be 5 year old Bubster were spending some quality time together in the garage. Not really sure what they were doing in there, but when they came out Bubby told me I had to come see his new tool box--his new tool box that had been Daddy's when Daddy was 5.
All that was in there was a coping saw, but Bubby was so proud and excited to have his very own tool box, and was looking forward to filling it with his very own tools.
So proud and excited, in fact, that the minute he woke up this morning, still in his PJs, warm from his bed, with his eyes still half closed and his words slurred from sleep, he just had to run to the garage to look at his new tool box. Imagine his delight and surprise when he found several more tools residing in his tool box.
Something a bit...unsettling...happened to me the other day.
So I was in the basement, shopping for wind pants for my 12 year old son, AKD to wear during warm-ups at his chilly, wet soccer tournament last weekend (click here if you want to know why I was shopping in my own basement). He wears size 12, so I was digging in the size 12 box, and there wasn't anything in there he could use, so I moved on to the size 14 box.
I found the perfect pair of pants--dark blue with white accents (leave it to mom to care more about color than comfort). So I held them up to kind of gauge the length (do you do that, too, when you're shopping without your kids?), and the pants were...um...actually...a little too long for me.
to be blue with white accents, yes?
Too long for me! Is my baby, who grew in my belly, who came into the world at 20 1/2 inches, really almost taller than me? How can this be?
Now, of course I've noticed that he's getting taller, and for quite a while now he's been just a few inches shorter than me***, but for some reason the pants just really brought that whole thing home for me. My baby is getting older, becoming a young man, and there's not one thing I can do about it*.
That's the goal, of course. I never intended for my babies to stay babies. It is the nature of parenthood to work ourselves out of a job**, and that's what will inevitably happen if we do our jobs well. But knowing that this would happen doesn't make it any less surprising when it actually occurs. I've gotten used to AKD being a boy, comfortable with him being a boy--he's been a boy his whole life. And there have been signs of his maturing along the way, of course there have been, but this thing with the pants really threw me for a loop; it's a glaring signpost that cannot be ignored on AKD's road to adulthood. Time to revise my inner concept of AKD.
As my babies grow, I need to grow, too. I need to expand my view of them to include their increasing maturity and responsibility and, yes, even height. I love those boys; I love these future men.
I'm sharing this post with the Parent 'Hood--come on over and join us!
*OK, so yes, I know that there is a heck of a lot I can do to help or hinder AKD's development as he navigates the minefield of adolescence in the next few years. I'm talking about the fact that there's not a whole lot I can do to keep him from physically growing into adulthood. I know that it's more important than ever right now to be consistent in our discipline, constant in our love, and unceasing in our prayers for our young man. We've been working his entire life to influence his character, show him how to be a man, a real, responsible, stand-up man. And now is not the time to slack off, just because he's getting taller.
**And yes, I know our job as parents isn't done just because our kids grow up and become independent, contributing members of society, our roles will just change. But it is our goal to raise these boys to be men, and that will be a major milestone for all of us.
***And, uh, AKD's appetite is insatiable these days, which has always in the past signaled the beginning of a growth spurt (remember those, nursing mommies?) so it won't been too much longer 'til he actually is taller than me. I'll let you know.
My (four year old) Roger volunteered to host the next time our moms' book group meets. I think he just wants to have his friend Car over to play, which can be arranged, my dear Bubby, without inviting a dozen women to my house at the same time. Anyway, he volunteered, and I agreed, and because it's my nature, even though it's 3 weeks from now, I'm already stressing out about considering how/if/what to serve for refreshments.
You see, when people get together, they drink. Coffee, tea, iced tea, wine, beer. I don't like coffee, tea, iced tea, wine or beer (not that I think we should be drinking wine or beer at 9 o'clock in the morning)--none of 'em. Heck, I don't even like soda all that much. Hot cider and cocoa are fine, at least I don't hate them, but I'd really rather just have ice water. Or skim milk.
It's a real conundrum. I want to be social, but I just don't like those social drinks, and I can't bring myself to drink them. OK, I can bring myself to drink them, but I can't do it without making tortured looking faces. I can never invite another mom out for coffee, because I don't like coffee. The baristas (and my invitee) might look at me a little funny when I say, oh, I'll just have ice water, especially when I do not order a pastry to go with it because 1. mine taste better, 2. theirs are overpriced, and 3. I just don't need the calories.
So I'm currently agonizing about social drinks for this little gathering. Should I make a pot of coffee? Make hot water (in the coffee pot) and set out instant coffee, hot chocolate, and tea bags? Do nothing? Break out the candy cane cocktails and grasshoppers?
Maybe I should just warn them that they'll need to bring their own social drinks.
So I saw this cute thing someone out there in blog-land did with her monster cookies. You know what monster cookies, are, right? They are cookies, and they contain all kinds of yummy goodies, like oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chips, m&ms. There are tons of different recipes out there, but the unifying factor seems to be that they all contain lots of different fun mix-ins. My hypothesis is that they're called monster cookies because they have a monster of an ingredient list. Or because monsters will eat anything and everything, and that's pretty much what's in these cookies.
Anyway, Amy, the author of The Idea Room, added wilton candy eyes to her monster cookies. Isn't that a fun idea? Now her monster cookies actually look a bit like monsters. Click here to see. It's so easy to do, but makes a batch of homemade cookies just a little bit more special.
I wanted to make them. I mean, they're so cute, right? So I mentioned them to Roger when I picked him up from school. "Wouldn't it be fun to make some monster cookies with candy eyeballs?" I asked him.
He liked the idea, but thought it would be better to make m&m cookies. And he knew we weren't allowed to use the candy eyes that I had purchased for another project (I was willing to make an exception, but he was adamant that we needed to save them), so he said we should use m&ms for the eyes. Or chocolate chips. He wasn't sure which. And, by the way, we should make them spiders instead of monsters, because spiders have 8 legs.
Um, what? What happened to my cute monster cookie idea? You know, the one that really wasn't my idea at all?
But I went with it, and we had the best time making spider cookies, which leads me to the subject of this post: how to have fun being creative with your little one.
1. Have an idea in mind. Many little ones, including my own, are completely intimidated if you just get out some craft supplies and tell them to have at it. So, have an idea in mind, and present it to your child.
2. Let go of preconceived notions. It's important to have an idea in mind, but don't get too attached to it, because if your kids are going to be creative, they're going to add their own little touches to the project. Or even go an entirely different direction. Let them. Go with them.
3. Stand back and let the creative process happen. This is not your project, it's theirs...so let it be theirs. Support them, offer suggestions if they get stuck, brainstorm with them, but let it be theirs. If you need to control how a project turns out, make your own.
4. On that same note, let the kids do it. Sure, you could do it faster, neater, and cuter (and, therefore, more "pin"able), but that's not the point, is it? Let the kids do every.single.thing that they can. Let them measure the sugar, crack the egg (even when it ends up on the counter instead of in the bowl), cut out the wings, glue on the eyes...whatever it is that needs to be done, let them do it, so that they learn that they can. Let them know you're available to help, but only help when your help is requested.
5. Have fun! That's what it's all about right? This is sooooo not about the finished product, but about the process of creating.
Ooops. I meant to schedule this to be posted October 16, which is tomorrow, but clicked October 9 instead! Ever have days like that?
Our oldest, AKD, played travel soccer for the first time this year. He's been playing soccer in a rec league since he was 7, but the travel team is another world as far as the level of skill goes.
AKD has always been one of the two or three best players on his rec team, and it was so great for him to get to play with boys who are better than him, to learn from them. His coach was pretty awesome, too, and taught him so much about position and technique. It's a whole different game when the whole team is good, rather than just a few.
The boys went 6-0 in the regular season, with only 1 goal scored against them, earning the championship title in their division. They were a sure thing to win a spot in the state tournament this past weekend.
The conditions were horrible. Could have been worse, but not by much. It was cold, rainy, and the field was just a mud pit. The boys won their bracket easily, beating their opponents, in the muddy skating rink the association tried to convince us was a soccer field, 3-0 and 2-0. The league uses a point system to rank the teams and our boys earned a score of 19 out of a possible 20--none of the other teams in either bracket even came close.
So we headed to the championship game. AKD played center in all three games, and had scoring chances in all three games--here you can see how close he came to scoring in the championship game (he's the player in white with the black hat, sleeves, and gloves).
Plain and simple, our boys were outplayed in their final game. It was heartbreaking, because I am sure, under normal circumstances, they could have beat that team. I'm sure they were tired from having played 2 previous games, including one that morning, in the mud (the other team played their 2 previous games the day before, and on a field in good condition). Oh, but they played their hearts out, and we parents were and are so proud of them!
AKD improved so much over the course of this season and gained confidence in areas of his life other than soccer as well. I love that he always does his best for the team (even when he's tired and cold and hurting) and doesn't seek the glory for himself. I am so proud of my boy, and can't wait to see what unfolds for him in the next few years and beyond.
And...here's a better pic of MC playing football--he's on the left.
Just look at that expression of determination on his face--I love it!
Consider this fair warning: this post is all about me bragging on my kid. If you don't want to hear me bragging about my kid, click the red X now. Because don't you think a mama is entitled to share with the world how wonderful her kids are? Don't you think a mama has an obligation to do so? I mean, who else is going to do it?
MC had his first football game last night and his team did so great! Red won, beating Navy 14-7.
Sorry--cell phone pics. From far away.
On defense, MC played nose tackle (don't ask me what that is. All I know is he lined up right near the middle, and when the other team snapped the ball, MC plowed through the other team's blockers and tackled whoever had the ball). MC made the first 4 tackles of the game, and ended up with 10 total, including a couple of sacks.
On offense, MC blocked, and he was like a wall. Not much got past him. He's not the biggest kid on the field, but he's got guts and tenacity.
We were so proud of our boy, not just for playing well, but also for staying focused and continuing to play, doing his best all the time, every time, until the whistle blew.
And, not completely off-topic, but...AKD and I had a little fun in the costume section the last time we were at Goodwill. By they way, they've got TONS of great Halloween stuff. Not as cheap as you could get at a garage sale, but brand new stuff for about half what it would cost retail.
I've shared the post with the Parent 'Hood. Come join us.
My friends, I am a mess. And by "I", I mean, my house. My house is a mess. And me. I'm a mess, too. It's long been espoused that a messy space equals a messy mind, and I have to say I agree whole-heartedly. My external space perfectly reflects my messy, distracted inner space right now.
My desk is so cluttered I can't even sit down to pay bills. When I sit at the computer I just move piles around. Who knows what's in some of those piles?
There's the corner of my bedroom, where I toss things I don't know what to do with: items to be returned to the store, bags of things I just bought but don't feel like I have time to deal with, uncompleted projects. There are the 4 laundry baskets overflowing with clean laundry waiting on the floor patiently since Monday, needing to be sorted and put away.
The basket of "female supplies" sitting on the lip of the bathtub that's been there so long I might as well just leave it out now, 'cause I'm going to need it again soon. The collection of lotions and facewash and who knows what else on the bathroom counter. The pile of mail that still needs to be dealt with from last week. The hall closet I'm a little afraid to open because I may set off an avalanche of lightbulbs, paper products, and craft supplies.
The bowl of grape tomatoes on the kitchen counter that just sits there day after day. Is anyone going to eat them? Ever? The sprawling pile of dirty dishes waiting for the clean ones to be unloaded from the dishwasher, along with the dirty dishes that are too big to put in the dishwasher. I swear they're procreating while we sleep. The mugs for which we no longer have room in the cupboards sitting forlorn and abandoned on the counter.
The newspaper from Sunday, still on the dining table, along with crumbs from who knows when. And don't even get me started on the kitchen floor. It's crunchy, my friends. Stuff sticks to our feet when we walk.
The pile of clipped coupons that just keeps growing on the fireplace. The toys and blankets and pillows and books strewn about on the living room floor. The ever expanding piles at the top of the stairs, needing to be brought down, and outside the utility room, needing to be put away. And don't even get me started on the dust. Where does it come from? Seriously, does anyone know?
It is just too much. The harder I work to keep it under control, the more it spirals out of control, and by "it" I mean, both my environment and my inner well-being. And I...I am a mess. Inside and out.
I know what the problem is, at least what part of the problem is. Both in my outer environment and inside my psyche, there are too many things that I just don't know what to do with--I don't know where they belong. Too many things, too many thoughts, feelings, desires, memories, hopes, dreams, failures, wounds.
You know that I hate clutter. You know that I am constantly getting rid of things. But I need to be ruthless, my friends, utterly ruthless and cold-hearted in ridding my life of this unnecessary clutter. And I need to start with me.
What I didn't tell you was, while I was doing my Camp Scarlet Craft of the Month October research, I came across so many cute bat crafts! It was so hard to decide which one to include in the Craft of the Month Club. So today, I wanted to show you a few of the other bat crafts I loved.
OhMyGoodness! Have you ever seen anything as cute as this mini-pumpkin turned bat from Family Fun?
Use your child's footprint and handprints to craft this charming bat from Handprint and Footprint Art.
Your child's fingers become the bat's legs in this delightful bat finger puppet from Family Fun.
I love these pretty bat finger puppets that my good (virtual) pal Valerie over at Inner Child Fun put together to go with Shel Silverstein's poem "Five Black Bats"
What a fun way to add a little festive to your space with these clothespin bats from Martha Stewart.
And, last, but certainly not least, IrishMomLuvs2Bake uploaded this pic of her gorgeous cookies-n-cream bat cupcakes, using oreo chocolate cupcakes, topped with crumbed whipped cream and a mint oreo cookie with chocolate wafer wings, ears and candy corn tips for teeth. I wonder if I can get Roger to decide he wants these for his birthday cake?


When you suffer from stress, anxiety or depression it's really hard to know where to start when you're looking for a solution. Everything seems either too overwhelming, or too much like hard work or takes up too much time.
So to help you on your way, we're going to break things down into easy bite-size portions and provide you with all the tools you're going to need to put yourself back together. Because that's what it feels like when you're going through bad times. It's like parts of yourself are either broken, lost, rusty or totally clapped out. So this week we're going to show you how to assess the stuff that needs fixing and make a plan to start putting yourself back together.
Even if that's all you do, at least it's an accurate portrayal of how you feel in that moment. Just expressing yourself on paper, even in the smallest of gestures, is alleviating some of that stuff from your brain and putting it somewhere else instead of letting it go around and around your head. Just write about how you're feeling right now. Don't get bogged down in re-living the past or speculating about the future. Just write down what your emotions are in that moment.
Every week we'll have a couple of questions for you to answer in your notebook and you might find that in answering them that some issues might arise for you. You can explore those feelings by writing about it so you can start to make sense of WHY you're feeling the way you do and what triggers those feelings.
But please DON'T read your notebook back to yourself. Every day is a new day. Don't revisit your daily entries. Just forge ahead.
Some people find it good to start their day with a bit of writing to get it all off their chest so it doesn't burden the rest of the day. Others like to do it in the evening or just before bed, when perhaps the worries that keep them up at night can be expressed and then put away in a drawer. However or whenever you do it, just try your best to do it.
One way to get your mind to relax is to relax your body first. Progressive muscle relaxation is a tried and tested technique of getting your muscles to release tension first which then naturally brings on the effect of relaxing your mind.
Our bodies reveal a lot about the tension we're feeling inside. When we're anxious or stressed our shoulders rise up and the areas around our neck become tense. There are a few muscles which take the full force of this – the Levator Scapulae (which runs down the back of the neck to the shoulder) and the Trapezius muscles (the big muscles that run from the back of the neck and over the shoulder bones) is where we end up getting big knots and masses of muscle tension. Our facial muscles also take a big hit when we're stressed. The Masseter muscle which controls the lower jaw can come under immense pressure from grinding our teeth or tensing our jaws which can go on to cause tension headaches.
When we're depressed however, another set of muscles come under strain. If our shoulders are slumped, the rest of our body slumps and this causes bad posture. The muscles around the lower lumbar region of the back will start to grumble and the neck muscles which extend the head will ache from being stretched downwards too often.
Some people find other bits of their body tensing when they're anxious. For instance their toes or hands or their thighs. Everyone has an individual way of holding tension in their bodies.
Take a moment to just focus on your body. Can you identify where you're feeling tense? Are there areas that particularly ache or feel sore? Just isolate an area of tension, and see if you can make a conscious effort to relax those muscles. Say the word 'relax' to yourself as you do it, as if you're speaking directly to your muscles. After trying this for a few minutes, see how your posture changes or how your body softens.
"I have a habit of clenching my jaw and hunching my shoulders when I'm anxious. If I'm feeling fearful or worried, I just take a moment to try and de-clench my teeth and lower my shoulders. I roll my shoulders a bit and open and close my mouth a few times to just release that tension. This quick technique reminds me that when I worry not only does my mental wellbeing suffer, but my body suffers too so I end up looking like the Igor character out of Frankenstein. And who the hell wants that? So to help me, I picture the face of someone serene and I try and soften my face to mirror that type of serene look. By concentrating on something physical it actually takes my mind off my mental state and I begin to calm down."
To help you find a way to release the tension from all around your body, we have an audio clip for you of a Progressive Muscle Relaxation Meditation. Just lie back and listen to the guided meditation which will list the areas of your body and help you to lessen the tension in those muscles.
Another technique to help calm yourself is to concentrate on your breathing. Breathing is something we take for granted. But if you've ever suffered from a panic attack then you'll know all too well that feeling of not being able to get enough oxygen or feeling like you're about to suffocate. Your heart races, you get sweaty and dizzy and you think you're basically going to die of a heart attack. It is one of the most extreme forms of mental collapse and if you're prone to them, they can make you very scared of going out in case you suffer one in public.
Whether you suffer from panic attacks of not, breathing properly and deeply can bring about a host of relaxing benefits. Most of us go through our day breathing in a very shallow manner, taking short bursts of air through our nose or mouth and then expelling it quickly before it has time to really expand our lungs. The average person only uses 20% of their lung capacity when in resting mode. So what we're going to try and do is double that number so that even though we're only sitting down, our lungs are working as hard as if we were exercising. By doing that, we are taking in far larger quantities of oxygen which in turn will relax our muscles and our minds.
We're going to show you a few different breathing techniques over the coming weeks. By the end of the course, you'll be able to choose the one that works best for you. You can then use them throughout your life, not only to help you relax or get you out of a panicky situation, but as a way of treating your whole body to the gift of oxygen and energy.
Scientifically speaking, there is a very easy way of telling your brain to de-stress using breathing exercises. If you hold your exhaling breath for even a few seconds longer than your inhaling breath, the vagus nerve that runs from the neck to the diaphragm sends a signal to your brain to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (the system that helps us relax) and reduce the signals to the sympathetic nervous system (the part that deals with stress and 'fight or flight'). Also, breathing in through your nose (instead of your mouth) and exhaling the air with an open mouth, also sends the right signals to your parasympathetic nervous system. So just by inhaling through your nose and then holding your exhale through your mouth for a few beats longer, your brain will automatically balance out your stress levels. How easy is that!?
Below is an interview with Liz who explains how breathing techniques are the first port of call in helping her patients who suffer from high anxiety and low mood.
To give you an idea of the breathing techniques that are used, below is an animated sequence which will help you begin breathing more deeply. It's a picture of a shape folding and unfolding, and by synchronising your breathing to this shape you'll be able to breathe in a guided, rhythmic fashion.
1. As the shape folds out - breathe deeply in through your nostrils.
2. As the shape collapses, blow the air out loudly through your mouth.
Give it several goes and see how you feel afterwards. Then try breathing in a similar slow rhythm but without the picture.
"When you're anxious or panicky about doing something, the easiest thing to say is 'Stuff it, I can't face it, I'm not doing it'. I've done that – we've all done that. But often this means we just feel guilty & rubbish or that when we definitely have to face this situation, it's twice as hard. A useful method I use to push through my anxiety and become more able to do things rather than avoid them, is to unpick some of the reasons I'm anxious and grade how anxious I actually am: 0 = No anxiety 10 = the most anxious I could be.
When you're in the midst of the situation and you feel yourself getting anxious, just try and stop for a moment and grade your anxiousness (this process in itself distances yourself from the anxiety). And try to remember that however your body and mind feels in that moment, that this is temporary. It will pass, sometimes in a matter of minutes, and that it doesn't have to control you and what you do. This is what I try and do every time I feel anxious.
Worrying that I'll say something stupid that will make the whole room go quiet like in Bridget Jones.
Then I put a rating on how much anxiety being in that situation is likely to generate for me. 0 = No anxiety 10 = the most anxious I could be. Then I break down the parts of the situation and when I feel ready, I see if I can work through it by doing the least anxious part first. I could for instance agree to go to a buffet style party with a friend first, rather than a sit down dinner just to get myself more accustomed. And if that went ok then I could agree to go to a sit-down dinner but only if I had a person seated next to me that I knew well. And so on.
When you're feeling rubbish, the only thing you want to do is escape. Escape from your situation, your mind, your body, your environment. But when you're stuck – either due to ill health, money issues, work or family commitments – then you have to think of another way to escape. Many people choose books, TV, others choose booze, drugs, food (guilty!) or other more crazy ways of escaping.
Whether they be tame or extreme, these are all quick fixes. The book comes to an end, the TV show finishes and the booze and drugs wear off to leave us with a whopping headache. One thing we can rely on, which is constantly with us, is our imagination. Even when we're at our worst, our imaginations can fire on all cylinders. Sometimes to our detriment. For example, imagining our own funerals; imagining how it would feel to punch your ex in the face; imagining how it will feel to tell our bosses to shove it.
The trick is to be able to use our imaginations in a more productive way by imagining situations or places that arouse pleasant relaxing feelings (rather than fist-clenchingly angry ones).
Below is an audio that should help get you in the right frame of mind. It's a favourite with our relaxation groups and leaves everyone with a feeling of lightness and dreaminess. Make sure you try this one in a quiet moment. Give yourself some time and space to really let the words guide you into a different place.
Now take a look at some top tips Liz has compiled for you in case you need a little extra help to get you through this first week.
Remember – feeling anxious is a normal physiological reaction to stress. It is our bodies' way of trying to protect us from danger. So whatever reaction you get from stress, your body is actually just doing its job. But you have to find ways of trying to make it understand that it's not in any real danger.
Remember to grade your level of anxiety on a scale – 10 being the worst you have ever felt & 0 being no anxiety. You might find that you're feeling less anxious than you realised.
Anxiety and panicky feelings WILL pass – they come in waves. Try to tell yourself that this is just a temporary feeling that will pass.
Start to moderate your breathing by doing the breathing exercises.
Thinking about what MIGHT happen is unhelpful. Focus on what is happening right now in this moment. You are safe. You are going to be okay. You can cope. You have got through this before. This will be over soon.
Accept how you are feeling and name it. For instance: "I'm feeling anxious right now. This is why my body feels this way. I feel sick. I feel sweaty. My heart is beating fast. But I'm ok. I'm still breathing. Nothing terrible will happen. I'm just feeling anxious. It's ok. It will pass."
Try to stay in the situation you are in. Avoiding it now will make it twice as hard next time. Use your grading system to consider whether you can actually get through it. Is it as bad as it could be or can I try to tolerate it a little longer?
Consciously relax your tense muscles – usually the neck and shoulders carry most of your anxiety. Roll your head around your shoulders slowly.
When you're feeling calmer, read our special article about how this interesting cold water technique can have results in helping both anxiety and depression.
Each week we're going to set you a bit of work to do at home. (We refuse to say "homework" because that has negative connotations and tends to trigger anxiety in us, let alone you!) We don't want you to feel you have to complete this section or do any of these suggestions religiously. We don't want to give you another stick to beat yourself up with. As we said, these are "suggestions", they are things to help you. Don't set yourself up for failure by laying down unrealistic targets for yourself. Just do as much or as little as you feel like. (But we guarantee that the more you do the techniques, the better you'll feel).
What things would you categorise as triggering stress or anxiety? If you can't think of anything, just write of an experience you've had that's caused you stress. Or think about what times of day make you most anxious? How do you know when you're stressed? What parts of your body hold stress – tense shoulders, bad back, clenched teeth? What is your behaviour like when you're stressed? What do you look like? Everyday write down when you've felt stressed or anxious that day and try and think about why that's happened.
Make a list of situations that make you anxious and grade them using Liz's 0-10 grading system. If you're feeling brave, perhaps try and break down the situation and try part of it. If you don't feel ready yet, just write down the situation and grade it. You'll get round to it in your own time. There's no pressure. Just writing and grading is a good start!
2. Try to practise the breathing exercise every day. Try it with the picture for a couple of goes and then try it without the picture. Perhaps have a go at practising it at different times of the day and in different situations – maybe if you're waiting for the bus, or in the queue for the supermarket.
3. Practise the Progressive Muscle Meditation every day. Try it with the guided meditation. And then see if you can try and relax your muscles on your own in different situations. Perhaps if you're at work or at the doctor's surgery or even just watching the TV.
4. Listen to the Cloud Imagery meditation every day. As well as doing that, have a go at imagining pleasant environments for yourself. Maybe imagine sitting in a room where you feel safe and calm. Or sitting peacefully in a place of nature. Whatever it is, practise escaping into these imaginary worlds whenever you start feeling stressed.
So once you've done this week's course, just check back in on the website in a week's time where Week 2 is already up and ready for you. And of course you can share this course by pressing on the social 'share' buttons at the very bottom of this page. Share it with your friends or with anyone you think might benefit from some TLC for their mental wellbeing. Our aim is to try and reach everyone who suffers from stress, anxiety or low mood so please help us in our mission to change lives!
But please note – we can't give out specialist advice for individuals so please don't email us personally. We'd love to be able to help you all, but unfortunately it's simply not possible. We do have a list of specialist helplines that deal with mental health issues or problems that impact on mental wellbeing, so take a look at our HELPLINE page to see whether you could benefit from their specialist advice. Or if you're feeling in desperate need, please get in touch with your doctor or visit the A&E department of your local hospital.


This is a list from the protocol of the congress of all the delegates attending the conference, those with rights to vote and those observing. The list includes the name of the person, country and affiliation.
Type the person's affiliation in the "political party" field. Type the abbreviations of the affiliations as they appear in text. Some people are representatives of more than one affiliation. The person's status is to be filled in the "remarks" field. If you are not sure of their status, leave this field blank. If you have a problem typing (parentheses), just type the information in the correct field without them.


text:
Q: Align protein sequence to Pfam file using HMMER3.0 (hmmalign) I'm using HMMER 3.0 (hmmalign to be specific) to align the whole proteome of Human to Pfam file. I got the proteome here and the Pfam file here, and downloaded the file Pfam-A.hmm.gz with the command:
hmmalign -o human.out Pfam-A.hmm Homo_sapiens.GRCh38.pep.all.fa

I got the error:
Error: HMM file Pfam-A.hmm does not contain just one HMM

A: I think you might be using the wrong tool for the job. To cite the HMMER manual, page 70, from their website:

hmmscan is used to search protein sequences against collections of
protein profiles.
For each sequence in seqfile, use that query sequence to search the target database of profiles in hmmdb, and output ranked lists of the profiles with the most significant matches to the sequence

So try to change hmmalign to hmmscan.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
CIA Once Tried to Turn Lightning into a Weapon
Lightning over the mountains. (Photo by Micah Tindell via Unsplash)
Man has always marveled at the terrifying and destructive nature of thunder and lightning. In Norse mythology, it is produced using Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, the god of thunder. The Greeks believed that lightning bolts were thrown down by Zeus from Mount Olympus. In more modern times there was the belief that lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, which turned out to be false. There's also another one that says you should hang an acorn by your window if you want to prevent lightning from striking. Whatever these beliefs were, they were not as wild as the CIA's belief that they could weaponize lightning and make it strike as they wished.
Thor's Fight with the Giants. (Mårten Eskil Winge , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Anatomy of a Lightning
First, let's have a little bit of elementary Science so we could understand how lightning works which would make us better understand why it was (or was not) a good weapon idea. Perhaps the best source of explanation would be none other than NASA. As they explained,
You need cold air and warm air. When they meet, the warm air goes up. It makes thunderstorm clouds! The cold air has ice crystals. The warm air has water droplets. During the storm, the droplets and crystals bump together and move apart in the air. This rubbing makes static electrical charges in the clouds.
So lightning is a discharge of electricity and a giant one. In fact, one strike of lightning can heat up the air around it at 54,000°F, and this extremely high heat could cause the air to expand explosively fast, and this rapid expansion would create a shock wave that would turn into the booming sound that we hear after the lightning, which is the thunder.
Lightning strikes when the negative charges in the bottom of the cloud are attracted toward the positive charges in the ground, so basically, a stream of negative charges rushes down towards a high point with positive charges.
Playing Thor
In 1967, the CIA perhaps thought that they did not need Thor's Mjolnir to become the god of thunder, so they started exploring the possibility of summoning the lightning as they wished. The idea started in one scientist's (unnamed in the declassified document) proposal to CIA's Deputy of Research "Special Activities," which was then passed on to the chief of the Air Systems division. The idea stemmed from the fact that lightning follows a path of ionized air stemming from the cloud, known as stepped leaders. According to How Stuff Works, "The stepped leaders are mostly invisible, except to incredibly high-speed cameras — they branch towards the ground unbelievably quickly — about 164 feet (50 meters) per microsecond!"
Stepped leaders start to develop when charge differences in the cloud become too large. (weather.gov)
The current flow in lightning could produce around 300 million volts at 30,000 Amps. Taking the whole idea, the scientist thought they could use artificial leaders to "cause discharges to occur where and when we desire them." The artificial leaders would be in the form of extremely thin metal wires that were a few thousandths of an in width and several miles in length. These wires would be "inserted" into storms either by aircraft or by rockets on a spool, unrolled, and then the lightning would follow these leaders to the ground as they normally would with stepped leaders.
No Interest in Lightning as a Weapon?
The scientist's idea was not invalid, although playing with and taming lightning was never done before, and it would not be easy. Nonetheless, DARPA did their experiments with triggered lightning and even took the research further with Project Nimbus, operating the only outdoor lightning research center in the US, even though its emphasis was on preventing and not attracting lightning strikes.
Soon, the funding was cut, and the operation ceased. In an article written by Tampa Bay Times, University of Florida professor Martin Uman said, "They claimed they had no interest in using lightning as a weapon." that was after a DARPA spokesman did not provide a specific reason why the research ended.
Perhaps the real question here was whether it would be feasible at all to use lightning as weapon against enemy troops or installations if the CIA pushed through with the project? Or maybe it was better to leave it to Thor?
Waking Up in a Body Bag— The Story of John Bennett Who Was Mistakenly Labelled KIA
Watch: Video from inside the cockpit of a Kuwaiti F/A-18 as it gets struck by lightning
The Pic of the Day: Flyboys Gonna Fly
Picture of the day: Sailors refueling F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter
The Pic of the Day: Exercise Lightning Forge 2020
The Pic of the Day: F-35 Fast Mover

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


05/15/2001 Executive Comment Requested from USDA.
03/23/2001 Referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock and Horticulture.
03/23/2001 Referred to the Subcommittee on Farm Commodities and Risk Management.
02/06/2001 Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.


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There are many shops within San Diego Airport to browse for gifts and souvenirs as well as items to use during the trip. Among these are a scattering of high end boutiques waiting to tempt you. There is shopping in all of the terminals, but the greatest concentration of stores is on the top floor of Terminal 2.
Tech n' Go has a wide selection of technological devices and accessories. There are also Best Buy automated shops for the purchase of prepaid cards.
You can stop off at one of the many book stores and news stands to get reading material for your flight. These include Global News, Baja Books, Daily News and San Diego News Connection. Last minute gifts and souvenirs can be found at Water's Edge (Terminal 2), Sunstyles and Spirit of San Diego to name a few. See's Candies offers many delectables for those with a sweet tooth.
The San Diego International Airport is currently adding even more shops and restaurants in the interest of further providing the perfect fit for every traveler's taste. The new Duty Free shop is one of these stores now enabling international travellers to purchase perfumes, alcohol, tobacco and other common duty-free items.
There is no end to what a person can do after flying into San Diego. Public transportation will take passengers to any place they want to go within the San Diego area, but for exploring the nearby mountains, using a cheap SAN car rental is the best way. By reserving a car a significant amount of time before the trip, customers can be assured they have received the cheapest SAN car rental rate available from the car rental company.
San Diego is famous for its many local attractions, but this can make it difficult to choose where to start upon arrival. Sea World is a wonderful adventure for adults and children. It is best known for the shows put on by different sea mammals. The shows run many times a day and include a whale show, a dolphin show, and a seal show. Additionally, Clydesdale horses are stabled in the park. Guests are allowed to walk through to see and pet them. These are the largest breed of horses in the world. Also for animal lovers is the San Diego Zoo. The zoo is famous for the variety of animals they keep and breed. Among the animals exhibited are pandas, koala bears, tigers, meerkats, and elephants. The zoo offers special tours before regular zoo hours and a safari experience that takes visitors off the paved walkways and into the zoo's natural exhibits.
Do not forget that San Diego sits next to the Pacific Ocean. This means that there are numerous sunny beaches for visitors to relax on as well as boardwalks for them to explore. Walking along the sun-soaked beaches is one of the most eagerly anticipated activities sought by visitors, and for a good reason. The sights offered by the San Diego beaches are wonderful. There is always a chance to see migrating whales or dolphins pass by on their way to destinations unknown. Seals also like to soak in the sun and can often be found lying on rocks, enjoying the day.


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We offer a wide range of care services including personal care, respite care, companionship care, Alzheimer's care, Dementia care, and 24-hour care.
To further enhance our services, we have developed a revolutionary philosophy behind our in-home care service offering called Interactive Caregiving.
This philosophy is based on the premise that seniors and other adults who engage in physical, mental, and social activity on a regular basis can live much happier/ healthier lives.
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