Tag: post (thrice) a week challenge

Amy Wood at Kennebooks

by Karen, posted in books, education, local fun, writing

Amy Wood spoke at Kennebooks on Saturday, February 19. Her talk was part discussion and part reading (from her new book Life Your Way), followed by a question and answer period and then book signing.

Despite it being the beginning of a school vacation week, the little upstairs room filled with people eager to hear Amy tell us how to live “life your way”.

She tells us right off the bat that “I do everything according to my intuition, ” which generated many questions from the audience about the definition of “intuition” and how it shows up in one’s every day life.  Amy considered each question  thoughtfully and answered thoroughly.

Amy generously mentions books by other authors related to intuition and recommends them for further reading on the topic. Here are a few:

  1. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  2. Compass of the Soul (and others) by Lynn Robinson
  3. How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy by Anne Milford (coauthored with Jennifer Gauvain)

As Amy began reading aloud the chapter on “Optimism” from her book, my tween daughter grabbed my copy, found the right chapter, and began reading along, suggesting that this book can appeal to any age group. She focused on optimism because it can become a tool in your life, an “enviable skill” that can make your life easier, just as listening to your intuition, which (unlike Mapquest directions or ads from the high fructose corn syrup mongers) will never steer you wrong.

There is so much more information to sift through at any given time now that it can be helpful to just know when to stop. Joan Rivers? She is an excellent example of a person who does not know when (or how?) to stop. Seinfeld? He did.

The book is formatted so that it’s easy to read, a boon for busy, overscheduled people. Each chapter includes an “Apply the Wisdom” section at the end with a few bulleted strategies for using the points made in your everyday life right now (very user-friendly). You can start at the beginning, or let your intuition guide you to the best chapter(s) for you. 🙂 Read more about Amy’s book on my raisingmaine.com bookblog  here.

Kennebooks offered the audience the option of purchasing a bag lunch from Cheri’s in Kennebunk. For $10 you got a sandwich (choose one of three), chips, a cookie, and a bottled water. My daughter and I took advantage of this offer and split the meal. It was plenty for the two of us (we had some left over!) and it was excellent. We (my daughter and I) highly recommend that you take advantage of this offer if you ever get the chance.

Amy gives talks at different sites in Kennebunk and Portland. She will be at the Kennebunk Free Library for her workshop (which she gives quarterly) next on Tuesday, April 12 from 12:00P-1:00Pm. The presentation is enticingly titled: “Your Way and How to Find it”.  No commitment of time or money is involved. Just show up!

She will also be at the Portland Public Library on Wednesday, February 23 from 12:00PM to 1:00PM. Consider going to this (also free) event. You’ll be so glad that you did!

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Gnomeo and Juliet: Vacation week with your tween

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, local fun, movies, tweens
Gnomeo and Juliet

When it’s winter and the “Can we go out and do something today?” questions are about to put you over the top, give in. I did; we headed out to the 2:45pm showing of Gnomeo and Juliet at the Wells Five Star Cinema.

There has been a dearth of (good)  movies for kids lately, have you noticed? I wasn’t that excited to see this one (I don’t even like gnomes), but it was the only game in town. This movie was actually very good, adorable and funny (and~did I mention?~ I don’t even like gnomes…or pink flamingos!).  All of the kids in the audience seemed to really enjoy the movie (one little girl was talking to the screen at one point, but in a cute, non-annoying way). I even laughed out loud more than once. In case you’re a fan, Elton John sings the songs in the show. 

Gnomeo and Juliet are just so so darn appealing you can’t help but love them and root for them. Don’t worry that it’s just all about the kids though; this movie has plenty of adult humor. My daughter even got one of the subtle play-on-words jokes that went over my head (hel-lo; how embarrassing!). One of the funniest parts was the scary lawnmower from h-e-double hockey sticks sequence (“Your grass will be afraid to grow!” Heh heh heh…).

This movie was a very manageable hour and 24 minutes long, so the whole afternoon will not be wasted even if you don’t agree that it was worth your time, but I’m pretty sure that you will.

P.S. Stick around for the “Crocodile Rock” full cast dance at the end of the movie. 🙂

Cupcake Fetish Bakery Grand Opening!!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, local fun, quest for the best
Amy and Jen from CFB

Amy and Jen have been selling cupcakes and other small baked goods for a while now at their new bakery: Cupcake Fetish Bakery at 883 Main Street in Sanford, but Saturday was a special day: the official Grand Opening celebration.

They set up a three tiered table that was adorned with an assortment of mini cupcakes which were not only delicious…but they were also so cute!

In addition to the generous offering of free bite sized cupcakes was a plate of mini cinnamon buns with icing to sample. It was a smorgasbord of sweet baked treats!

When we arrived at around 2:30PM the little shop was packed with happy people: men, women, children, all with their tummies filled with yummy cupcakes. Amy came out with another tray of Snickers cupcakes after hearing someone say, “Oh! They got the last one!” People were sitting and chatting at the tables. Kids were bargaining with parents over how many cupcakes they could sample and buy. The common denominator: the smiles that people smile when their sweet tooth has been satisfied...big time. 🙂

“I’ve been baking all day!” Amy said, smiling as she restocked the case. Jen was busy helping us with important decisions. Which cupcakes? Should we get a few whoopie pies? Yes! Thank you, Amy! Thank you, Jen! We appreciate you both!

Reasons to go to the Cupcake Fetish Bakery today:

  1. Your husband is in a funk and needs cheering up
  2. You’re in a funk because yoga teacher made cupcakes for the class…the class that you couldn’t get to.
  3. Your (amazing!) daughter got a 103 on her spelling test and a 106 on her science test and you want to celebrate.
  4. It’s someone’s birthday and you want to give them a little something sweet.
  5. The cupcakes (and everything else) at the Cupcake Fetish Bakery ROCK!!!

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Thank you, Amy and Jen, for opening your lovely little shop. We hope your business is supremely successful and that you are keeping us in cupcakes (and cinnamon buns and pupcakes and coffee cake and whoopie pies and muffins….) for a long, long time. 🙂

P.S. Maybe you could sell those bite sized cupcakes too? We LOVED them!

WordPress Post a week challenge

by Karen, posted in writing

I’ve decided I want to blog more consistently. Rather than just thinking about doing it, I’m starting right now but having a “Goldilocks” moment…

Issues:

  1. Once a day seemed like too much. I didn’t want to set my self up to fail from the outset, after all.
  2. Once a week seemed like not enough. I’m already blogging at least once a week, and even though I’m not a fan of setting the bar too high, I also am not interested in setting it too low.

Therefore, I’m modifying the challenge a bit to suit my own purposes (is that wrong?):

I will be posting on this blog thrice a week for all of 2011.

It won’t be easy, but it might be fun…well, if nothing else,  it will be challenging. For prompting (and reminders!)  I plan to make use of The DailyPost and the community of other bloggers with similar goals to help keep my on track,  including asking for (and accepting!) help when I need it and encouraging others when I can.

If you already read my blog, I hope you’ll encourage me with comments, likes, and good wishes along the way…and I am also hoping to get some new readers, so feel free to spread the word!

Karen 🙂

Head underwater

by Karen, posted in family, friends, health

Well, it isn’t really underwater, but it sure feels like it. I awoke last Friday with an odd feeling in my right ear. I mostly ignored it; I had plans to celebrate a friend’s birthday and so was distracted by good company and good food.  The next day, I awoke to a completely blocked right ear. It felt like it was stuffed with cotton…but from inside my skull.

I continued with my most effective health management weapon: denial. So, I got up, went to my yoga class, complained about it but not too much (I hope!), and then carried on the rest of the day at home with all of the self-care measures that I knew of, to no avail. By 5pm, it was worse, not better.

I’d been talking myself out of going to the Wells Urgent Care for hours…but finally, when it was going to close in an hour and a half, I grabbed my coat and keys and went. On the way over, I told myself:

  1. If it’s really crowded, I’ll just leave.
  2. If my ear (miraculously) becomes unblocked on the way over, I’ll just keep going on down the street (Dairy Queen is now open!) and turn around in the parking lot and go home.
  3. If the wait is too long, I can just leave (reference DQ note above~it wouldn’t be a total loss to have gone out!) and head back home.

Well, none of these things happened. I had barely gotten in the door and they greeted me and ushered me into an “intake” room where they checked my blood pressure (yikes!) and temperature (none) and wrote down my concern. Minutes later I was taken to another room to wait for the doctor, who came in almost before I could read an entire sentence in the book I’d brought to kill time while I waited.

Diagnosis: Otitis Media. What? Are you kidding me? Little kids get that! Stupid ear infections! Yes, plural: not one, but two ear infections, although the blocked ear (surprise!) was the worse of the two.

Let me just say that I now have a world of empathy for those poor little kids who have fluid in their ears and can’t hear properly for however long that lasts. In my case, they told me to plan on it clearing about 48 hours after starting the antibiotic. After  almost 72 hours, while it’s not actually clear yet, it’s much better. I’m very glad that I went because the morning after I did I woke up feeling much worse, but I wasn’t worried about it like I was the day before, when I didn’t know what the cause of it was. Knowledge is power…and peace of mind.

I decided that ‘head underwater’ is an especially appropriate title because I was under…well, overwhelmed by doing so much for so long that my immune system must have just said, “Hey, I need a break. You’re on your own for a while,” and then just went on strike.

It hasn’t been pretty. I’m hoping to woo it back with ten days of amoxicillin.