Ronald McDonald is expanding his role as a global ambassador of fun, fitness and children’s well-being. As McDonald’s® Chief Happiness Officer™, Ronald® is inspiring and encouraging kids and families around the world to eat well and stay active, or as he likes to say, “it’s what i eat and what i do™ …i’m lovin’ it.™” As a recognizable role model for children around the world, he makes learning fun and can make important subjects like energy balance – the food you eat and the activity you do – simple and compelling.

In McDonald’s new global television commercial, “Come Out and Play,” Ronald steps out in his Big Red Shoes™ to show kids that getting active and making balanced food choices actually means having fun. Ronald gets kids up off the couch, and outside and moving with a variety of cool sports activities including bike riding, snowboarding and playing basketball with NBA superstar Yao Ming. Whether he’s juggling vegetables with his friends or dodging strawberries, he snowboards down a yogurt mountain, Ronald makes it clear that kids can have fun and feel great if they “Come Out and Play.”

The global television commercial will debut in the U.S. on June 10 and will air in numerous countries including Canada, Germany, Italy, Portugal, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina throughout the year.

To keep up with this active lifestyle, Ronald McDonald went shopping and picked out a whole new wardrobe. Whether he’s hitting the ball with tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, training with Olympic athletes or attending awards ceremonies, these new outfits complement his fun, energetic style.

The trademark yellow jumpsuit remains a wardrobe staple for Ronald, and has been updated with a new, streamlined fit. In addition to the jumpsuit, his active wardrobe features a warm-up suit, basketball and soccer/football outfits, a tuxedo, a winter jacket for visits to Russia, and a baseball outfit for events in Japan.

This September, Ronald will take his new “Go Active with Ronald McDonald™” community show on the road. The program will debut first in the U.S. followed by countries around the world this fall. It is a fun, interactive show in which Ronald enlists the audience to help him coax his friend “Arnie” out of the house and into a more active lifestyle.

Using improvisational games and cool activities, Ronald encourages everyone to burn energy by finding the activities they like to do, making them fun and incorporating them into their lifestyle.

As a global leader, McDonald’s cares about its customers and is taking action to encourage balanced, active lives. The company is committed to being part of the solution by reinforcing the importance of energy balance – the food you eat and the activity you do. McDonald’s Balanced, Active Lifestyles program is built on three strategic pillars: increasing menu choice, promoting physical activity, and continuing to provide accessible nutrition information. For more information, visit http://www.balance.mcdonalds.com/.

McDonald’s is the leading global foodservice retailer with more than 30,000 local restaurants serving nearly 50 million people in more than 100 countries each day. Approximately 70 percent of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent, local businessmen and women.

BBC News

Delaying Babies ‘Defies Nature’

Women who wait until their late 30s to have children are defying nature and risking heartbreak, leading obstetricians have warned.

Over the last 20 years pregnancies in women over 35 have risen markedly and the average age of mothers has gone up.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the London-based fertility specialists say they are “saddened” by the number of women they see who have problems.

They say the best age for pregnancy remains 20 to 35.

Over the last 20 years the average age for a woman to have their first baby has risen from 26 to 29.

The specialists, led by Dr Susan Bewley, who treats women with high-risk pregnancies at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, warned age-related fertility problems increase after 35 and dramatically after 40.

Other experts said it was right to remind women not to leave it too late.

‘Having it all’

In the BMJ, the specialists write: “Paradoxically, the availability of IVF may lull women into infertility while they wait for a suitable partner and concentrate on their careers and achieving security and a comfortable living standard.”

But they warn IVF treatment carries no guarantees – with a high failure rate and extra risks of multiple pregnancies where it is successful.

For men, there are also risks in waiting until they are older to father children as semen counts deteriorate with age, they say.

Once an older woman does become pregnant, she runs a greater risk of miscarriage, foetal and chromosomal abnormalities, and pregnancy-related diseases.

They add: “Women want to ‘have it all’ but biology is unchanged; deferring defies nature and risks heartbreak.”

“Their delays may reflect disincentives to earlier pregnancy or maybe an underlying resistance to childbearing as, despite the advantages brought about by feminism and equal opportunities legislation, women still bear full domestic burdens as well as work and financial responsibilities.”
Dr Bewley told the BBC News website: “We are saddened because we are dealing with people who can’t get pregnant or are having complications.

“Most women playing ‘Russian Roulette’ get away with it, most people are fine. But I see the casualties.

“The best time to have a baby is up to 35. It always was, and always will be.”

She added: “I don’t want to blame women, or make them feel anxious or frightened.”

The reasons for these difficulties lie not with women but with a distorted and uninformed view from society, employers, and health planners.

“Doctors and healthcare planners need to grasp this threat to public health and support women to achieve biologically optimal childbirth.

“Where we can, we should be helping women to have children earlier.”

Clare Brown, chief executive of Infertility Network UK, said “Delaying having children until you are in your thirties is a choice many people make but they need to be aware of the added problems when trying to conceive, particularly over the age of 35 when a woman’s natural fertility declines.

“When this is exacerbated by a further complication such as blocked tubes or low sperm count the chances of a successful pregnancy even using IVF are much less.”

Peter Bowen-Simpkins, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: “The biological clock is one thing we cannot reverse or change.

“The message that needs to go out is ‘don’t leave it too late’

Pumpkin carving kit from Dremel’s

Halloween enthusiasts will be clamoring for Dremel’s latest Pumpkin CarvingKit which includes cool “tools” to create this season’s ultimate pumpkinparty.

Dremel’s kit also includes unique ideas that make Halloweendecorating and entertaining easier and more creative than ever before. Click on the link for our Online Media Kit

Afterschool

Gretchen Wright
September 19, 2005

Turning the Lights On from Coast-to-Coast Cities Nationwide Gear Up for National Afterschool Rally From the courthouse in Moultrie, Georgia to the Children’s Museum in Pittsburgh to the Houston Zoo, afterschool programs are lining up fun and exciting venues for the sixth annual Lights On Afterschool.

Each October, hundreds of thousands of parents, children and community leaders in cities across the country come together in diverse settings to rally for afterschool programs. Lights On Afterschool is organized by the Afterschool Alliance with National Presenting Sponsor the JCPenney Afterschool Fund.

Events planned for this year include:

* A “Kids Day” on October 20 in Los Angeles, California at the Boys and Girls Club of East Los Angeles. Activities will include making special Lights On piñatas.

* A two-day celebration in Modesto, California, beginning with a rally at Boomers Amusement Park on October 19 and ending with a street fair in downtown Modesto on October 20. The street fair will also highlight Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

* A Lights On Afterschool On the Square festival at the courthouse in Moultrie, Georgia on October 20. Afterschool providers from across the city will participate and staff booths that showcase the types of afterschool activities available to kids.

* An open house and pizza dinner at Madison Middle School in Rexburg, Idaho on October 20. The program will display light bulb artwork created by students and participants will receive Lights On necklaces.

* Fireworks, food, games, prizes and entertainment at Bosse Field on October 12 in Evansville, Indiana. More than 3,000 residents are expected to turn out for what is becoming one of the city’s most anticipated annual events.

* Student performances at the state capitol in Albany, New York on October 20, and a van tour of local programs for state legislators and other officials. Two local malls will also hold events, hosted by JCPenney.

* Youth church choir performances in the town square in Supply, North Carolina, where County Commissioners have already issued a proclamation declaring October 20 “Afterschool Day.”

* A “Best Afterschool Program Ever” at the Cincinnati Museum Center in Ohio on October 20 that will include a showcase of the variety of afterschool activities involving art, science, reading, math and culture.

* Art activities and a Youth Puppet Troupe performance at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh on October 20, with door prizes, a raffle and refreshments.

* A “Wild About Afterschool” rally at the Houston zoo on October 20, featuring Mayor Bill White. After the rally, children will be invited to participate in a variety of fun, hands-on activities.

* A rally featuring a performance by the West Virginia youth choir and First Lady Gayle Manchin at the state capitol in Charleston, West Virginia on October 20. “It is exciting to see the diverse events being planned and so many communities participating in Lights On Afterschool this year,” said Wynn Watkins, Board Chairman of the JCPenney Afterschool Fund.

“We are delighted to be National Presenting Sponsor again this year, and to have many of our store managers supporting events around the country. Lights On Afterschool does so much to call attention to the need for more afterschool programs, which keep kids safe, help working families and inspire student learning.”

This year’s Lights On Afterschool is expected to include more than 7,000 events in the United States and at military bases around the world. Information about other 2005 Lights On Afterschool events is available online at Afterschool

Lights On Afterschool was launched in October 2000 with 1,200 events across the country. Last year, more than half a million people rallied at 7,000 events to show their support for afterschool programs. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is National Chair of Lights On Afterschool, a position he has held since 2001.

The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit public awareness and advocacy organization supported by a group of public, private, and nonprofit entities working to ensure that all children have access to afterschool programs by 2010. More information is available at www.afterschoolalliance.org.

The JCPenney Afterschool Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports programs designed to keep kids safely and constructively engaged during out-of-school time. The Fund’s contributions allow for the creation and continuance of afterschool programs aimed at the academic, physical, and social development of children throughout the U.S.

The JCPenney Afterschool Fund also works to raise awareness of the benefits of afterschool programming, and is committed to ensuring that every child has access to the world of opportunities that awaits them after school.

Here’s a splendid idea for a new business. Ill child care. But if you consider the price in the article, no one could afford it. Drop in ill child care is probably going to cost over and above what parents pay as “tuition” day care costs, so this is an add on expense. Visiting sitters would be the best. Considering a substitute teacher probably makes $50.00 to $75.00 per day for a 6:30 – 3:00 job, what could someone charge to do this?

Brighton pages Dr. Day Care
By Jim Totten

DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
Livingston Michigan

Parents with a child that is too sick to go to school but not seriously ill face a challenge: What to do?

Stay home with their child and miss a day of work? Or try to find someone who will take care of their sick child, a challenge in itself. It’s a problem faced by many families including the growing number of homes in which both parents hold down jobs.

Dr. Mo El-Fouly, a pediatrician, said he can resolve the problem with his pediatric observation center that he plans to open in October in Brighton. He said this facility for mildly ill children would be the first in the United States.

“The best place for a sick child is at home with one or both parents,” El-Fouly admitted.

“Barring that, the second-best place would be with caring people and pediatricians.”

Children would be kept in private or group observation rooms with glass walls and separate ventilation systems. Children with similar maladies would be kept in the same room. The cost would be $25 per hour, but it could be as low as $12.50 per hour with employer participation plans.

El-Fouly, who has been a pediatrician at the University of Michigan Brighton Health Center for 12 years, said his new idea will address the needs of dual-income, middle-income parents who need a place for their sick children. He said absenteeism is a growing problem in this country, and he has received a lot of support from patients’ families for his new venture.

According to the National Association for Sick Child Daycare (NASCD), there is a huge, unmet need for sick child care. Each day, more than 350,000 children younger than 14 years of age are too sick to attend child care or school. It is estimated that working mothers are absent from their jobs from five to 29 days per year caring for ill children, and this has been estimated to cost employers between $2 billion and $12 billion annually.

El-Fouly said families will see his observation center as a “godsend.”

He recalled an incident involving a friend who came to his office one day with his sick child. His friend, an attorney, had a big case that day, and his wife, also an attorney, was out of town on a business trip. El-Fouly said his friend pleaded with him to watch the child that day because he had no one to watch him, but the doctor had to turn him away.

The center will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and take up to 40 children ages 6 months to 16 years. He said the center will serve children with mild illnesses such as pinkeye, low-grade fever, mild asthma, fractured bones. Post-surgery patients would be welcomed, too.

The observation center would only be one facet of El-Fouly’s new office, at 1021 Karl Greimel Drive in an industrial_commercial park west of the Brighton District Library. The office would offer pediatric services, counseling for children, gynecological services for teenagers and a gift_coffee shop. Three doctors and two nurse practitioners would work at the office.

El-Fouly said he picked Brighton because he doesn’t believe there are enough pediatric services for the increasing number of young families moving to the area.

He said there’s a four-month wait for teenage gynecological appointments in the area.

The new office would be next to Advanced Urgent Care & Walk-in Clinic, which opened last month. El-Fouly said the two offices would complement each other, with Urgent Care handling more serious injuries and his office handling mild sicknesses.

Canada.com
Paul Martin Says Childcare Key to Confronting China and India

Alexander Panetta
Canadian Press
Wednesday, September 21, 2005

GATINEAU, Que. (CP) – Canada’s competitive edge in the looming economic showdown with China and India must be honed soon after its toddlers leave the crib, Prime Minister Paul Martin said Tuesday.

The prime minister said his proposed national child-care plan will help Canadian tots get a head start in a global economy where only the smartest countries will thrive.

“It’s about development and learning during the crucial time in life when potential is most readily nurtured and developed,” Martin said in an address to senior bureaucrats.

Re-positioning Canada’s economy for the next century was the central theme of his remarks. The address was constructed like a throne speech, laying out the Liberal government’s agenda in the months before an election expected next March.

Polls indicate that much of the prime minister’s popularity is built around his handling of the economy as finance minister. His government’s agenda for the fall to boost productivity appears to play to that strength.

Before he could outline the future, Martin was forced to deal with the past in his speech. He acknowledged that the sponsorship scandal stigmatized MPs and public servants.

“The issues related to the Gomery inquiry, issues that have reflected on both those who are elected and those who are professional public servants – these are unacceptable aberrations in a public sector that is honest, talented and committed to Canadians,” Martin told his audience.
His proposed national daycare plan will be part of an agenda that will move his government beyond the scandal, Martin said.

The program will be an integral part of improving productivity, he said.

“A successful head start is important for all Canadians,” Martin said. “I am convinced that when future generations look back they will recognize in our pan-Canadian approach to early learning, a project of nation-building in the same sense as universal medicare.”

Canadians must understand that the intellectual bar is being raised globally and only the best-educated countries will successfully compete.

“When (Microsoft founder) Bill Gates goes to China young people line up for hours and hang from the rafters just to listen to him. In China . . . Bill Gates is (like pop singer) Britney Spears,” Martin said, quoting best-selling author Thomas Friedman.

“In North America, Britney Spears is Britney Spears.”

He predicted China and India – which comprise one-third of the world’s population – will vault upward in a race for top jobs in research-based industries. Canadians need to start developing learning skills before they get into formal schools, he added.

“Today we don’t just want our children to succeed in school. We need them to.”

The Liberal government has promised $5 billion over five years for new provincially run, low-fee day care programs and is in the process of striking funding deals with the provinces.
Six provinces – Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Alberta – have already signed on. Quebec’s $7-a-day program is the model for the plan.

The Conservatives have dismissed the daycare plan as a potential bureaucratic boondoggle.
Martin’s proposal for $5 billion over five years will not even come close to covering the cost of a Quebec-style program, they say.

They also contend that for all the Liberal talk about education, the nation’s post-secondary institutions are chronically under-funded while students are buried under a mountain of tuition-related debt.

Tories say the daycare cash should simply be turned over to parents.

“I really don’t think we need the Liberals telling us what we need to do to raise our children,” said Tory critic Carol Skelton.

“I know lots of little children that read before they go to school and are very outgoing and have had the very best care from a stay-at-home mom. And grandmas, too.”

Scandinavian countries have large government day-care programs similar to the one Canada is creating. But the taxes in Nordic countries also hover around the 50-per-cent mark of GDP – compared with under 40 per cent in Canada.

Martin also said Tuesday that the federal government would like to cut taxes while improving social programs.

When did we stop listening to one another? In the first hour I returned to work today, I was cut off, disregarded, and interrupted nine times. I don’t think I made a single statement that actually went from start to finish.

OK, so nobody wants to listen to me. So what? If that is the case generally, if we no longer want to listen to another, then what happens to communication? What happens to the idea of socialization? What happens to knowing someone, or is knowing self all that really matters? Or is it just me?

At the risk of seeming paranoid, which I always think of as twice annoyed, I realize that everyone has an agenda, a point of view, a list of important matters that need an attentive ear once in a while. It might seem insignificant to a listener at the time, but the truth is, everyone needs that ear once in a while just to appear to be a valued friend, and in today’s world, that’s simply not happening.

People don’t ask each other questions any more. Asking questions in today’s shallow formless, civilization is about as “Meepsorpian” as it gets. “Nice weather we’re having?” seems to be about as invasive as it gets. Is the failure a failure of interest? Are we simply not interested any more in someone else’s life?

I have dozens of interests that could strike up a conversation at about any level, and yet I find more and more that those interests are simply never touched. It makes me believe that I am simply a dull and uninteresting person with nothing or little to say, and if I feel that way, what are other people thinking or feeling and does it matter?

I think it does. I think people are important and not only need friendship that is based on friendship, but an ear and interest when they speak.

There was a wonderful scene from “Our Town” where the actors were supposed to be dead, and they asked more questions than the normal fifteen people would in a stuck elevator, an office, a school or a class reunion.

Exchange was the basis of simple economics that changed the world. Perhaps we need the same simple exchange again.

Rocks-DeHart Public Relations 306 Marberry Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15215 sends:

Endure No More: Five Ways to Say “Enough Is Enough” and Create an Extraordinary Life If your life has become an exercise in survival or sameness, it’s time to stop enduring. In her new book, Jane Straus explains how to stop enduring and start thriving.

San Francisco, CA (September 2005)–Life can and should be an adventure in joy, excitement, and inspiration. But too many people drag through the day in a mild (or even severe) state of boredom, anxiety, or depression. Perhaps you’re one of them. Well, you may be thinking, I would be happier if I didn’t have to keep this job, but without my high salary we couldn’t afford our house. Or, I would love to go back to work, but my husband insists that our kids need a full-time mom. Or, it’s too late for me to __________ (fill in the blank).

If you can relate to any of these scenarios–or more to the point, the dismal feelings related to them–you’re not really living, says seminar leader and personal coach Jane Straus. What you’re doing is enduring.

“Endurance is not the same as perseverance. We persevere when we have a higher goal in mind. Our spirit is engaged when we are persevering. On the other hand, we endure when we think we don’t have the right to whatever we feel or the right to choose an extraordinary life,” writes Straus in her book Enough Is Enough!: Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life (Jossey-Bass, August 2005, ISBN: 0-7879-7988-0, $22.95).

“Most of us succumb to a life of endurance with little, if any, resistance because we do not believe we are worthy of more. If we wake up most mornings feeling anxious, bored, or numb, looking toward some imagined future time when we will feel happier, then we are enduring.”

“When we are enduring, we try to convince ourselves that surviving is the same as thriving,” she adds. “We tell ourselves that it should be enough that we made it through another day, earned our daily bread, performed our duties, and possibly helped others. But when we are merely surviving, we feel resigned, not inspired, exhausted, but not accomplished. We know that something is missing, but we don’t know exactly what or how to go about finding it.”

In Enough Is Enough!, Straus illuminates the suffering created by self-judgments and inattention to our deeper truths and inspires readers with the courage and conviction to embrace their inherent value and dreams with joy, self-respect, and compassion. Citing examples from the lives of her clients and seminar participants–and sharing some poignant stories from her own life–she clarifies the chain reaction of emotional, spiritual, and physical suffering triggered the moment one chooses endurance. In the process, she helps readers overcome their fears, break their destructive patterns.

About the Author:

For more than 20 years Jane Straus has maintained a private practice coaching individuals, couples, and families using the principles found in Enough Is Enough! She also speaks to various groups, provides consulting services for companies trapped in negative cultural patterns, and conducts in-depth seminars for organizations and individuals from all walks of life.
Jane lives in northern California with her husband, daughter, and dog.

About the Book:Ten Steps to Creating Your Extraordinary Life

Excerpted from Enough Is Enough!: Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life (Jossey-Bass, August 2005, ISBN: 0-7879-7988-0, $22.95) by Jane Straus

Step 1: Recognize that you are enduring. Do you feel that you never have time to stop? Do you distract yourself with eating, working, volunteering, cleaning, etc.? Do you resent that you never have time to do the things your spirit longs for? Do you feel resigned rather than inspired? If you wake up most mornings feeling anxious, bored, or numb, looking forward to some imagined future time when you will feel happier–“when my children finally start school,” “when my bills are paid off,” “when I retire”–then you are enduring.

Step 2: Release your self-judgments. Your negative beliefs about yourself that are holding you back–you’re untalented, too fat, not smart enough, etc.–are probably rooted in your childhood. Why would you let your “inner seven-year-old” run your life? These judgments are real but they are only as true as you have believed them to be. Give yourself compassion for having carried the burden of your self-judgments. Replace them with affirmations and find new evidence to support your willingness to believe in them. Affirmations are as true as you allow them to be.

Step 3: Question your limiting beliefs. When you tenaciously hold on to the belief that the world works in one particular way (against you), or that there is only one right way to do something (and you are doing it wrong), or that your actions will inevitably result in a specific and predictable outcome (bad), you are strapping on blinders. Make a commitment to take off those blinders. It will take practice and patience to stay out of “limiting belief territory,” but eventually it will become second nature. You’ll quickly start to see that life no longer feels boring and predictable.

Step 4: Drop your acts. When you put on the armor of an act, you sacrifice your authenticity for protection. For instance, you think no one can hurt you if you’re tough enough…or that everyone will love you if you’re nice enough…or that everyone will respect you if you never admit to being wrong. Your acts will become your prison. Instead, give yourself joyful permission to become more of who you really are. You will feel free and you will find that who you are is much more interesting than any character you could possibly play.

Step 5: Face down your fear. What fear is keeping you from living your extraordinary life? Whatever it is–quitting your unfulfilling job, leaving an abusive marriage, telling the truth about your past–you must face it head on. Recognize that F.E.A.R. means “False Evidence Appearing Real.” Think of the worst-case scenario and see yourself living through it with dignity. Get support from others. Create an affirmation, such as, “I am now courageous.” Then, just do it. Remember that no matter what the momentary outcome of facing down your fear brings, your worth as a person is constant and never in question.

Step 6: Free your feelings. If you feel bored, you are probably ignoring or avoiding something. Make an effort to connect with your feelings. Sit in a quiet place and close your eyes. Take some deep breaths. Check in with your body. Do you feel any tightness or pain? Give that pain or tightness a name, such as fear, hurt, anger, resentment, sadness. If your body feels light and open, give that an emotional name such as joy, love, happiness. Whatever emotions you feel and name, just allow them to be. If they change, let that be. Let yourself be. Learn to honor your emotions. Give them an opportunity to inspire you.

Step 7: Heal your anger and resentment. When you can acknowledge that your resentments are fueled by your personal regrets, you free yourself to step out of the victim role. It is not that you are letting others off the hook for unkind or unfair behaviors; they are still responsible for their intentions and actions. But the moment you uncover your regrets, you are empowered to let go of resentment.

Step 8: Forgive yourself. Make a list of the wrongs you have done to others and to yourself. See them as results of survival strategies. Acknowledge the consequences of these strategies to yourself and others. Grieve for your losses and your mistakes. Make amends with yourself and others. Create an affirmation to replace the self-judgments that drove you to using your survival strategies. And remember to treat yourself the way you would want others to treat you.

Step 9: Know, speak, and live your truth. Commit to being truthful in all you say and do. Realize that being truthful is not synonymous with being honest. Truth is a complex blend of honesty mixed with compassion and vulnerability. When you are “brutally honest,” you are expressing your judgment but not expressing your truth. Your spirit knows the difference between truth and honesty. When you express your highest thoughts and intentions, you are able to live a true life, not just an honest one.

Step 10: Create your extraordinary life every day. To live in your truth is to allow your spirit’s energy into every cell of your being and into every thought and action. Here’s what this means in everyday terms: When you tell the clerk at the grocery store checkout counter that she has given you too much change, you make truth and spirit matter more than money. When you hear gossip and don’t pass it along, you make truth and spirit matter more than your momentary desire to feel important. When you tell someone you love him or her, unsure of whether he or she will say it in return, you make truth and spirit matter more than your fear of rejection. Make these decisions every day. It takes courage and commitment to be your extraordinary self. You will be amply rewarded with a rich and fulfilling life.

Timely Resource for National Family Meal Day

Is your family on the run from morning until night? Never have time to reconnect? Even at mealtime?

The pleasures of cooking and eating meals with the family are rarely practiced in our hurry-up world. Millions of children and adults eat “out of the refrigerator ” and often alone, or spend more time at fast-food restaurants than at heir own tables.

Amy Houts would like to see that change and her book, Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun is the beginning of a mission to help families cook and eat meals together. Over 150 of the recipes and suggestions in the book are intended to help in preparing seasonal food, establishing meaningful traditions, and cherishing he joy of spending family meal time together.

This book is a timely resource for the upcoming National Family Meal Day to be celebrated September 26. On this day families are encouraged to sit down and eat dinner as a family. It is a revealing fact about our society when we need a special day to acknowledge the importance of eating together.

Eating together tends to strengthen bonds between loved ones. There is a strong connection between food, family and friends. Cooking and sharing meals together is an extremely powerful way of connecting with the people you care about.

Make mealtime a time to reconnect with your family. Ask your kids to tell you about their day and share what is happening in your world. Forget the phone, the doorbell and TV. Make this your special time, not only on National Family Meal Day but perhaps a regular part of any day.

Here is a recipe from the cookbook, Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun that ill get the family working together and then enjoying their meal together.

Easy Vegetable Soup

1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
3 cups beef broth
3 carrots, pared and sliced
3 stalks celery, sliced
1/4 cabbage, shredded
1 (8-oz.) can tomato sauce
3 tablespoons uncooked rice
1 (16-oz.) can kidney or red beans.
Season to taste

Brown ground beef or turkey and onion in a 4 qt. pot. Drain fat. Meanwhile, prepare vegetables. Allowing children to pare, shred, or dice vegetables will depend on the age of the child.

Children can measure beef broth and rice and add to pot along with the vegetables. Bring to boil, then turn down heat, cover, and simmer or our. Yield: 6 servings

Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids — Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun is available from libraries, select bookstores, and directly from Snaptail Press, Division of Images Unlimited, P.O. Box 305, Maryville, MO 64468 or through their website. ($24.95 plus 4.00 postage)

Media kits, review copies, and interviews available on request. Special feature story inquiries welcome.

I was told once that I talk about love too much. I must be confounded by it. I must not know very much about it to be always including it in my conversation. But that’s essentially what I do for a living, I excused myself. “It’s not a job, but it’s the key to doing my job.”

I suspected other jobs at that point and wondered if people who understand gardening never talk about it. If professors who know about history or psychology never talk about their subject. Are artists mum about art, musicians recalcitrant about music, poets ready to hide their words, and are news broadcasters more eager to sit silently as the cameras do a red light dance?

I looked back. I was one of those pathetic children with all the strikes. You know the kind. The little girl with the boy’s haircut and the mud on her face and the sprinkling of bruises and scrapes. My dress was always dark brown with one gigantic hole that was easily hidden in the great gaping of two sizes too big, but that was OK because shoes were always two sizes too small and it kind of balanced the ragamuffinesque picture.

David Niven lived up the street from me right near Mary Martin. I played with Sterling Hayden’s kids; Gretchen wore pink and yellow and ribbons in her long blond hair. Her father loved her and her brothers. He had a huge booming voice and once demanded that I teach his new wife how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Perhaps I looked smart.

I remember going next door to Mrs. Kyle’s house who taught me how to garden. She showed me how to divide plants, how to care for bits and pieces of living things. I saw instantly how life is precious, how the smallest green thing begs to live, begs for life – a little water, a little care, some time, some light and suddenly the pot is overflowing with abundance and vigor. Because of simple acts of kindness, the plant often rewards the giver with a gift of flowers. I learned a lot from Mrs. Kyle. I watched her love her life and how she missed her husband who was a merchant marine. She used to knit her own clothes. I remember a brown suit she made and a houseful of treasures.

What I’ve found is that life is like Mrs. Kyle’s garden. It’s filled with bits and pieces that just need to be loved – a little warmth, some light, some care and presto bingo there’s an abundance of life returned. Love a child and you have a friend for life. Love a peer and you have companionship. Love strangers and the world becomes full. I suppose that’s an unsophisticated approach to life that’s terribly flawed. We are all terribly flawed, but it doesn’t keep us from loving.

Perhaps I don’t know a lot about love, but I know that love seems to be a free exchange of the will. And those who know how to love, love with abundance and joy and vigor and life. Lovers give everything they have without fear that one day it will all be given away and there won’t be any left – that’s why they’re called lovers.

I know that when you love something lesser than yourself, like the cat my daughter and I found covered in mange, coughing with pneumonia, toothless, and sad, and you care for it just a little with just a little love, and the actions of love – interest and care – it thrives. When the cat found us, we called him Terminal and now we have to give this handsome cat with the sleek coat and the appetite of kings a better name. Perhaps we will call him Paul.

One of Scripture’s little pockets offers the best image of love I can think of. Talents given by the Master to become an abundance with a little care. Some will reap the flowers, and others will hide theirs in the back yard under a rock in an attempt to keep it all.

Love is a beautiful expression of hope. It’s meant to be shouted out loud from the rooftops.