Valentine’s Day is a special holiday for sweethearts, friends, lovers, spouses etc and that includes grandparents, on February 14 of each year. Valentine’s Day for us this year will be spent visiting with our grandchildren and grown children, out of town. There will likely be the Valentine’s Day cards and small gift-giving, even if the gifts are very cheap from stores like Walmart or Target.

Valentine’s Day gifts for lovers or wives typically mean sending flowers of one kind or another, but considering how overpriced flowers are during the Valentine’s holiday, flowers just never cross our minds to give as a gift to each other. I don’t mind at all either because there is really no good reason I can think of to spend so much money on Valentine’s Day flower bouquets that are just going to die in a few days.
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We have a large General Electric (GE) side-by-side refrigerator freezer that suddenly and without warning broke down and quit working. At first Grandpa thought that maybe the problems were only with the freezer motor or blown fuse, since it appeared that the frig was still cooling. The lights inside still worked and the water line for the ice maker and water dispenser on the door still worked. It turns out that the refrigerator circuit board was giving us the problems and in need of repair or replacement, and both the refrigerator and freezer had died.

It figures that the refrigerator would break down on a weekend and we would have problems trying to reach a local service provider or repairman to come and fix the refrigerator for us. Then again, having refrigerator or freezer problems happen on a weekend is much better than if it happened during the work week or while on vacation. Fortunately, we still have a very old stand-up freezer in the garage so we were able to save all the frozen food, and didn’t have any problem keeping the food in the refrigerator cold and nothing was spoiled.
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New year’s eve celebrations around the world traditionally include dinner parties, firework shows, singing songs, watching Dick Clark’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC, plus the New Year’s kiss at the stroke of midnight. Year’s ago, celebrating New Year’s Eve may have meant getting all dressed up and heading out to a number of New Year’s Eve parties, but this year we’ll celebrate the holiday at home.

In year’s past, looking for things to do on New Year’s Eve was fun and exciting. Maybe we’ve just gotten too old for extravagant parties where everyone is drinking to excess and then stupidly driving while they are clearly intoxicated.

We will still prepare a New Year’s Eve dinner with all the traditional fixings, but to tell you the truth, I do not like black-eyed peas so we’re going to have to come up with a new recipe if I am going to eat any of those.
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The Gooseberry Patch cookbook for kids called Kids in the Kitchen includes recipes that kids of all ages, including preschoolers, toddlers and older kids can enjoy the fun of cooking in the kitchen with mom or dad, or even Grandma and Grandpa.

Kids need to be in the kitchen rather than being shooed away, so children can learn the basics of nutrition, healthy food choices, correct portion sizes and much more. Gooseberry Patch cookbooks are not just for adults, and as a Grandma who raised 6 kids and now has two grandchildren, I love the great ideas found in these cookbooks for kids.

Cooking with kids in the kitchen is a fun activity that should be encouraged rather than discouraged. The Kids in the Kitchen: Recipes for Fun cookbook was designed exclusively with little kids in mind, and the list of recipes found in this cookbook will help little chefs want to learn how to cook lots of good food!
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Churches around the US have changed over the years, where multi-site churches mean pastors are able to reach thousands of would-be church attendees on the web, says USA Today. In an interview with pastors Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll and Ed Stetzer, the “old fashioned”, traditional churches from grandma and grandpa’s time are going by the wayside and are being replaced by what is often referred to as the “mega church” with thousands upon thousands of church members.

Having visited a few “mega churches” over the years, such as the Potter’s House and a few others, witnessing the burgeoning growth of large churches and the increased numbers of online internet churches has been interesting to say the least. To say this ain’t your grandma’s church anymore is an understatement.
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