HLOM - Harvest Life Outreach Ministry in Brownsville, Tennessee is set up to bring healing to a hurting community where people of all races - nationalities, religions that are suffering due to the lack of funding - employment. Brenda Blue-Recio (brendablue1958@gmail.com) is the CEO/Project Leader (brendablue1958@gmail.com). ............... Brenda Blue-Recio passed away on Thanksgiving Morning.
This is a medical program that uses a team approach to provide quality occupational wellness and health, safety and rehabilitation services that addresses a person's total health - body - mind - spiritual needs while developing and nurturing partnerships with other medical programs such as child development, Teen Mentoring, Senior Citizen care provider services and to make sure no one is left behind.
The Ministry's goal is to continue and expand on the development and implementation of a medical program that has already been in operation for several years by (HLOM). The market research shows that last year a high ratio of children, teens, working adults and Senior Citizens were ill or injured in the workplace and instead of compensating them, businesses either laid them off or forced them to the side.
HLOM goals will be reached through the following objectives:
To help establish Centroplex Health Systems as the "One Stop Shopping" Medical Center for Healthcare in its service area.
Provide a full continuum of services that will help the medical services provide responsive, quality medical care to all ill and injured personnel.
The developmental and implementation of a successful marketing strategy/plan to make sure no one is turned down.
Recruitment of experienced medical and administrative staff.
Enter the Occupational Medical market system and build a brand name for the Kingdom of God.
Commitment to continuously improve the quality of medical service to a hurting community.
Harvest Life Outreach Ministry is a wellness and health program involving all age groups from newborn to Senior This wellness program is designed to assist the community in Brownsville, Tennessee especially in rural areas.
HLOM's heart is to make the program the center of helping people recover from all kinds of health issues, regardless of age, race, or religions background. This community is desperately hurting from lack of medical attention, and many have been turned down due to lack of financial due to job lay-offs, underemployment, or suffer from illnesses insurance companies will not cover.
HLOM will make the communities the premier Occupational Centroplex of Healing and wellness that their Medical Program can provide. Therefore, lives could be enhanced by helping community citizens become more productive and sustain longer life spans.
HLOM wants to reduce health care costs, purchase a building, remodel. Medical clinic that will provide the following components: accessibility, drug screening services, high quality staff, state-of-the-art care, and a wide scope of services.
Through its mission of promoting total health - body - mind - spirit while developing and nurturing partnerships with other medical services that are already up and running within surrounding counties.
Brenda Blue-Recio (brendablue1958@gmail.com) was educated at Miami Dade Community College North Campus. She completed her studies to become a Medical Assistant and continued her education in Clinical Laboratory Technology. She graduated with honors at Charron William College located in South Miami, Florida.
After completing her education, she worked with several hospitals in South Florida: South Miami Hospital, Parkway Hospital of North Miami Beach, National Laboratory in Hollywood Florida, South Shore Hospital as a Phlebotomist and Specimen Processor, Data Entry,and Cytology Smear Slide Preparation. She continued her training pathology homicide division as a volunteer mentor for troubled teens. She later became a Public Speaker on STD's to young adults and teens, at which time she was offered a position as a Medical Assistant Laboratory Instructor for Southern Technical Institute, United Business Institute, Concorde Career Institute and National School of Technology. Her specialty was Hematology, Urinalysis, STD's Coding, Medical Terminology Anatomy and Physiology She was given the opportunity work as a State Test Proctor for the American Society of Phlebotomy Technician Hickory North Carolina under the Leadership of Helen & Ralph Maxwell.
She is also an Inventor with two (2) complete patent designs in the USA.
Showing posts with label Healthy Lifestyles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthy Lifestyles. Show all posts
Monday, August 3, 2015
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Basketball Much More Than Just A Game: Book Review
Book Review . Coach Lawrence McKenzie . Basketball . Biz - Business . NBA Drafts . AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) . Grassroots Basketball . College & Professional . Dr. James Naismith . Kobe Bryant . Michael Jordan . Healthy Lifestyles . God . South Africa . Motivational . Booker T. Washington High School . Air Force . European Leagues
Exciting book for me to review. I did also enjoy looking at the photos in this book, as well.
I am highly elated that Coach McKenzie sent me an autographed complimentary copy for review.
I would highly recommend this book for businesses, schools, organizations, parents and Churches.
Coach sometimes wonder how many parents would stick their chest out if their kids grade point average was next to their points per game.
Coach McKenzie is a Coach, Educator, Author & Speaker. The only Coach to win four straight state titles in the ninety-nine year history of the Minnesota State Boys Basketball Tournament, shares his success strategies for "winning" on the court & in life.
Basketball is a business, & a scholarship is an investment.
Basketball More Than Just A Game, NBA Drafts, Amateur Athlete Union, Grassroots Basketball, College and Professional Basketball, European Leagues, Dr. James Naismith, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan
Basketball is no different from other things in life; you must understand the basics before you can master anything.
The training has to be about developing the kid's skills & not be strictly a business relationship.
Business Books, Motivational Books, Business Books in Spanish, Motivational Books in Spanish
Coach McKenzie was first introduced to the game when he was seven years old; his father took him to his Uncle Stan's high school basketball game.
His college career was cut short due to a bad attitude & a lack of focus.
But as only God would have it, providing an opportunity for redemption, he would find a place for him to give back & impact the lives of young men who were just like him.
To Parents:
The costs associated with parenthood, & they are numerous, are well worth it. The McKenzies' was & still is, in some respect a basketball family. The family tradition started with Coach father, Lawrence, learning the game on the streets of Miami. He became a star at Booker T. Washington High School & later in the Air Force.
Both Coach's son & daughter followed the family tradition & started at an early age.
Being five feet seven as a fourth grader made her a pretty popular camper.
Her new passion for the game of basketball kept her busy over the next few years, playing traveling ball for a few teams, four years of high school, & three years of college before deciding that the WNBA was not in her future, & she decided to continue her involvement with the game by becoming one of the team's broadcasters. Through the game she even managed to find her prince; KO, as they call him, is a former basketball star at Norfolk State, where they both played. Coach has even coached him during their brief stint in pursuit of professional basketball careers. They got married in September of 2009.
His son, Lawrence, started early with a house league at the YMCA. Lawrence is still pursuing his dream to play in the NBA, playing professionally in Macedonia & for the Los Angeles Defenders of the NBDL until his recent injury. Lawrence is the father of the McKenzie's first grandchild, Kailah Rae McKenzie, who probably pursue the game of basketball if his son has his way.
Its important to do your best best to not become that pushy sports parent.
Coach advice is to enjoy the moment, because it doesn't last forever. Kids grow up & move out & move on.
Coach talks to his children almost every day.
Life lessons Coach shares that he learned:
Learning to appreciate the joy of victory while remaining humble, & learning how to get back up,dust his self off, & move on after the agony of defeat.
To be responsible for his own attitude & understand that he can only control him-self, to always be open to learning, & to know that life is about serving others so that the world might be a better place.
Basketball is a game that is played by nearly three million people worldwide, ^ an estimated forty-five million in the United States. It is one of America's most popular sports but is also a very popular sport in other countries as well. It is a very culturally diverse sport & has opened up new doors all across the world, bringing foreign players to America to play the game at its highest level.
Michael Jordan, the most recognized player to ever play the game of basketball, has made it an extremely popular sport.
James Naismith was challenged by Dr. Luther Halsey Gilick Jr. to create an indoor activity as an outlet for sometimes unruly groups of students during the long, cold winter months in New England.
Naismith's challenge was to create a game that could be played by artificial light.
On January 18, 1896, the first college basketball game was played with the five-man format in Iowa City, Iowa. During the game, the University of Chicago defeated the University of Iowa, 15-12.
James Naismith 13 Rules of Basketball are listed in this book.
The game that Coach McKenzie once played for fun has blossomed into a multibillion dollar industry where kids are used like chess pieces so that adults can be crowned kings or queens.
The business of basketball includes selling sneakers, specialized training, traveling basketball, recruiting service, youth associations, & more, but it strides on selling pipe dreams through the magic of smoke screens.
The 5th Dimension used to sing "You don't have to be a star to be in my show." Today everybody has to be a star!
For Coach it started with the purchase of fifty-dollar Jordan shoes for his three-month old son. It continued with anything advertised or worn by Orlando Magic & Penny Hardaway.
Michael Jordan ...
"If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks."
If you put in the work, the results will come.
Michael Jordan play to win, whether during practice or a real game.
... Michael Jordan
These major events become our family vacations, which generate dollars not only for the organizers but increase revenues for hotels, restaurants, & malls.
The NBA Drafts only sixty players each year, with a limited number actually making the team.
So often he has seen parents investing in training when they should be investing in a tutorial course for reading or the standardized tests.
The reality is that only two out of every 100 high school athletes will ever play in college, & only 1 of every 12 thousand high school athletes will ever become professional players.
Healthy Lifestyles, Nutrition, Food, Recipes, Health
The AAU (Amateur Athlete Union) is one of the largest sports nonprofit organizations in the United States. Founded in 1888 with the purpose to establish standards & uniformity in amateur sports, it administers thirty-two different sports. Proof of grade & membership are required.
Grassroots basketball, is much like the subprime mortgage market, making up the rules as they go along, & always in the interest of making a dollar. The former NCAA President, Myles Brand, describes it as the dysfunctional world of youth basketball.
TV analyst Len Elmore, who played college & professional basketball, graduated from Harvard, & is now the executive of Ihoops, has been quoted as saying "that shoe companies spending has thrown youth basketball into turmoil."
As a smart athlete you must be willing to ask yourself this question: Do those claiming to care really have my best interest at heart?
The best kids usually play for free, & others pay 1000's to finance the team with hopes of being seen by North Carolina, Kentucky, or Duke.
College basketball is big business. It's megamillion - dollar coaching contracts & selling sports apparel in team colors.
Corporations pay as much as $100,000 for a thirty - second ad during the early rounds of NCAA tournament. The NCAA television deal is worth $6.1 billion over 11 years for TV rights.
Every year during the NCAA tournament, Richard Lapchick of Diversity & Ethics in Sports (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida releases the graduation rates of the participating teams in "Keeping Score When Its Counts." Last year his study found that 64 percent of the teams participating in the NCAA tournament graduated 50 percent of all its players, but the percentage of graduation for African-American differed by 31 percent.
We spend so much of our lives chasing dreams, trying to capture the desires of our heart, with very little time appreciating our Creation's blessings.
A couple of years ago Coach lost his father, & while he was fortunate to spend some very memorable moments with him, he often find that he thinks about the things they didn't get a chance to do.
Besides Thanksgiving, when was the last time you thanked those special people who have touched your life & told them how much you have appreciated what they've done?
Coach & his wife was blessed in 2006 to travel to South Africa &, in particular, Bostwana, with Athletes in Action, as part of the Sports Ministry team. They actually celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary on this trip.
The trip was a blessing for him, it made him appreciate a great country like the United States, in spite of its shortcomings.
He witnessed orphans infected with HIV & kids looking in trashcans for their next meals.
He met a young Christian pastor, Gary Pelotshweu, who he continues to communicate with & plan on assisting with building a school to be used by young kids.
So while you chase your dreams don't forget to thank those people who helped you along the way.
With two children, Coach & his wife sometimes passed like two ships in the night while traveling to opposite sides of the city.
Back when his daughter was playing AAU & he coached her team, they qualified for Nationals in Memphis, Tennessee. It was an inner-city squad, full of talent but short on cash & opportunity.
They didn't win the tournament, but the trip wasn't a total loss. He took the girls to talk to the Coach at the University of Memphis. They also visited several historical sites, including the National Civic Rights Museum, where they sat on a replica of the Montgomery bus that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on. They also toured the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated, & a house turned museum that the slaves used in the Underground Railroad. Some girls, including his daughter,got letters from interested Colleges.
While a teacher has the responsibility for inspiring & molding the minds of our children, they are probably the least appreciated.
As students, we often fail to acknowledge the contribution of our teachers until much later in life. As for me I came from a long family line of educators - preachers - pastors.
The scholarship includes tuition, room & board, & other fees, but players are rewarded by receiving some of the great coaching, medical care, first-class treatment for injuries, trips to exotic locations during the winter, free tickets, media relations, & hopefully one day a very good job.
If parents are looking for financial assistance, they should be aware that it's been estimated that there are thirty times more scholarship dollars available for college academic scholarships than there are for athletic scholarships. The higher the grade point average, the more opportunities exist to have a scholarship offered.
In the end, academics should always be your priority because when you have played your last game its the educated students who would be the ultimate winners.
Very little time is spent watching the game, kids these days aren't really fans of the game. They're fans of some of the players in the game: Lebron, Kobe, Dwayne Wade, KG - the big names.
It is said that no player or coach spends more time studying his opponents than Kobe Bryant. Before each game you will find him with a portable DVD player watching clips of the players he'll be guarding in that particular game. He's looking for just the slightest advantage.
The greatest players are the ones who have mastered the most basic skills. We have begun to see more & more Europeans players being drafted into the NBA & the expansion of the league overseas primarily because of their style of game.
If you want to mimic a style, look at the European leagues, whose players have a flair for the fundamentals. They have some of the best players because they've gone back to the basics.
Coach Randy Brown, a former college coach at Iowa State, amongst other, suggests that kids need to learn forty basic basketball skills. Included in this book is 40 Skill Development Checklist with a brief breakdown of each position.
Kobe is just good; he's not a good guard or forward. He's good, period.
Jay-Z didn't drop Reasonable Doubt, his debut album until he was twenty-seven. He understands that while the world is a rush, true greatness takes time!
Teachable translates into being coachable.
It starts with recognizing that you don't know everything & being willing to learn. The book of Proverbs says, "In all you do get wisdom & understanding."
Coachable players want to get better & understand that when they are coached it's for their own good & the good of the team.
One thing that stuck with Phil Jackson when he was hired as Chicago Bulls assistant coach was Red Holzmans statement, "It isn't about how great a star player, is himself, its's about how great he makes the player around him." Michael, being coachable, transformed his game from being a scorer to learning how to beat teams without having to score. Even the greatest player in the game allowed himself to be coached.
A truly coachable player has the ability to separate the truth from fantasy.
If you don't believe in you, then why should I or anyone else, for that matter?
Believing is about faith, & faith is holding onto that which you can't see.
The word no is engrained in us. So we learn to play it safe & not take risks.
But when you believe in yourself, you have the power to make positive changes. As they say in Star Trek, "You can go where man has never gone before."
Your mind is your power! We often don't take advantage of the power within us. If you want to be successful, then watch your thoughts. Stop thinking like a chicken when you were created to be an eagle!
The world can be cruel; it places labels on you & tell you that you are not the right color or maybe you don't dress right or maybe you're too short or too big or maybe you talk differently, & we listen to it & start to believe it.
In October of 1998, Coach was hired as an assistant coach at Minnesota Patrick Henry. He was warned that it was a bad job; for the kids lacked discipline & had very little talent.
Coming off a season of being beat in the first round off the sectional play-offs, the school hired a well-known youth pastor who previously coached girl's basketball named Efrem Smith. He was introduced to Efrem in Church & asked if he needed any assistants & was offered the opportunity to volunteer.
Efrem Smith coached with Christian principles & shared Bible lessons to back them up. If God be with me, who can be against me?
Prior to the this game they were coming off one of the biggest runs in Minnesota basketball history with 3 straight state titles, led by standout guard Khalid El-Amin.
On a Friday night in a crowded gym their kids began to understand what it meant to believe. Mike Pettis, was having the game of his life, kept them close, every kid was shouting "I believe, I believe" at the end of regulation in a huddle.
Coach McKenzie was hired as head coach, after Coach Smith left to take a youth pastor job in Dayton, Ohio. Led by three juniors, Johnnie Gilbert, Greg Patton, & Tony Travis, they would return to the state tournament his first season,only to lose in the quarter finals that year.
Their mantra "Refuse to Lose" was born, & in 2003, Minneapolis Patrick Henry joined Southwest Minnesota Christians as the only two teams in state history to win four consecutive titles, all because they learned to believe!
Your attitude can either be your greatest asset or your greatest liability.
It is the foundation of becoming a champion, whether on the court, in the classroom, in the community, or in your family.
For so many coaches the emphasis is skill development, & very little time spent on developing the right attitude & character.
Their daily practice was known as the patriot creed; they repeated it before every game. Nine steps explained in this book. Awesinwe!
Loving to live starts with the understanding that each of us is truly special, made in the image of our Creator.
Successful people want to be around successful people, while misery loves company.
Coach once read if you want to be a millionaire, find one to hang out with, & it makes sense, because they're making deals with people like themselves.
Surround yourself with dream makers not dream killers, not those whose only contribution to you is to bring nothing but negative energy.
Coach understands the pain of young people making bad choices; one of his former players is currently serving life without parole in a California prison. It only takes fifteen - to twenty -seconds lapses in judgment to ruin your life & change your future.
He was an outstanding student-athlete who excelled in football & basketball - a star quarterback & a three-time state champion in basketball. He had star qualities, & he earned a basketball scholarship in pursuit of playing in the NBA.
Young people are faced with challenges that he couldn't even imagine - the lure of hip-hop culture, the information superhighwway, & the influence of music videos & mass media.
When you love to live, what you eat & don't eat becomes important. If you don't take care of your body, it won't take care of you.
Not only is your diet important but so are proper rest & exercise.
When you love to live, you know that you cannot put chemicals into your body.
In a 1968 speech in Atlanta, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke the words, "Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. He went on to say, "You don't need a college degree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love"
Coach's grandmother, Pauline Jones, a very spiritual woman, was there for anybody with a need, whether in the Church or the in the community.
His grandfather, William Jones, served as the neighborhood handyman.
His mom & dad, Lawrence & Retha McKenzie home was where relatives & friends came to relax, get a meal, or to lay their heads. His sister Paula is a nurse, helping those that are sometimes in their weakest moments, & his sister Carla is an administrator with the school system.
Coach was blessed to marry a woman with the same values & upbringing. They ended up taking his niece & nephew after his wife lost her sister to sickle cell anemia.
So when that final horn sounds, & you've scored that last basket in the game of life, Coach hopes your final stats will read as you being the type of player who not only had the ability to score, but was always willing to provide an assist, & your dash will say you were truly a champion.
Coach McKenzie successfully inspires to motivate audiences everywhere to enjoy, achieve, & go from the sidelines to become true players for your business, Church, school, or organization.
Exciting book for me to review. I did also enjoy looking at the photos in this book, as well.
I am highly elated that Coach McKenzie sent me an autographed complimentary copy for review.
I would highly recommend this book for businesses, schools, organizations, parents and Churches.
Coach sometimes wonder how many parents would stick their chest out if their kids grade point average was next to their points per game.
Coach McKenzie is a Coach, Educator, Author & Speaker. The only Coach to win four straight state titles in the ninety-nine year history of the Minnesota State Boys Basketball Tournament, shares his success strategies for "winning" on the court & in life.
Basketball is a business, & a scholarship is an investment.
Basketball More Than Just A Game, NBA Drafts, Amateur Athlete Union, Grassroots Basketball, College and Professional Basketball, European Leagues, Dr. James Naismith, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan
Basketball is no different from other things in life; you must understand the basics before you can master anything.
The training has to be about developing the kid's skills & not be strictly a business relationship.
Business Books, Motivational Books, Business Books in Spanish, Motivational Books in Spanish
Coach McKenzie was first introduced to the game when he was seven years old; his father took him to his Uncle Stan's high school basketball game.
His college career was cut short due to a bad attitude & a lack of focus.
But as only God would have it, providing an opportunity for redemption, he would find a place for him to give back & impact the lives of young men who were just like him.
To Parents:
The costs associated with parenthood, & they are numerous, are well worth it. The McKenzies' was & still is, in some respect a basketball family. The family tradition started with Coach father, Lawrence, learning the game on the streets of Miami. He became a star at Booker T. Washington High School & later in the Air Force.
Both Coach's son & daughter followed the family tradition & started at an early age.
Being five feet seven as a fourth grader made her a pretty popular camper.
Her new passion for the game of basketball kept her busy over the next few years, playing traveling ball for a few teams, four years of high school, & three years of college before deciding that the WNBA was not in her future, & she decided to continue her involvement with the game by becoming one of the team's broadcasters. Through the game she even managed to find her prince; KO, as they call him, is a former basketball star at Norfolk State, where they both played. Coach has even coached him during their brief stint in pursuit of professional basketball careers. They got married in September of 2009.
His son, Lawrence, started early with a house league at the YMCA. Lawrence is still pursuing his dream to play in the NBA, playing professionally in Macedonia & for the Los Angeles Defenders of the NBDL until his recent injury. Lawrence is the father of the McKenzie's first grandchild, Kailah Rae McKenzie, who probably pursue the game of basketball if his son has his way.
Its important to do your best best to not become that pushy sports parent.
Coach advice is to enjoy the moment, because it doesn't last forever. Kids grow up & move out & move on.
Coach talks to his children almost every day.
Life lessons Coach shares that he learned:
Learning to appreciate the joy of victory while remaining humble, & learning how to get back up,dust his self off, & move on after the agony of defeat.
To be responsible for his own attitude & understand that he can only control him-self, to always be open to learning, & to know that life is about serving others so that the world might be a better place.
Basketball is a game that is played by nearly three million people worldwide, ^ an estimated forty-five million in the United States. It is one of America's most popular sports but is also a very popular sport in other countries as well. It is a very culturally diverse sport & has opened up new doors all across the world, bringing foreign players to America to play the game at its highest level.
Michael Jordan, the most recognized player to ever play the game of basketball, has made it an extremely popular sport.
James Naismith was challenged by Dr. Luther Halsey Gilick Jr. to create an indoor activity as an outlet for sometimes unruly groups of students during the long, cold winter months in New England.
Naismith's challenge was to create a game that could be played by artificial light.
On January 18, 1896, the first college basketball game was played with the five-man format in Iowa City, Iowa. During the game, the University of Chicago defeated the University of Iowa, 15-12.
James Naismith 13 Rules of Basketball are listed in this book.
The game that Coach McKenzie once played for fun has blossomed into a multibillion dollar industry where kids are used like chess pieces so that adults can be crowned kings or queens.
The business of basketball includes selling sneakers, specialized training, traveling basketball, recruiting service, youth associations, & more, but it strides on selling pipe dreams through the magic of smoke screens.
The 5th Dimension used to sing "You don't have to be a star to be in my show." Today everybody has to be a star!
For Coach it started with the purchase of fifty-dollar Jordan shoes for his three-month old son. It continued with anything advertised or worn by Orlando Magic & Penny Hardaway.
Michael Jordan ...
"If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks."
If you put in the work, the results will come.
Michael Jordan play to win, whether during practice or a real game.
... Michael Jordan
These major events become our family vacations, which generate dollars not only for the organizers but increase revenues for hotels, restaurants, & malls.
The NBA Drafts only sixty players each year, with a limited number actually making the team.
So often he has seen parents investing in training when they should be investing in a tutorial course for reading or the standardized tests.
The reality is that only two out of every 100 high school athletes will ever play in college, & only 1 of every 12 thousand high school athletes will ever become professional players.
Healthy Lifestyles, Nutrition, Food, Recipes, Health
The AAU (Amateur Athlete Union) is one of the largest sports nonprofit organizations in the United States. Founded in 1888 with the purpose to establish standards & uniformity in amateur sports, it administers thirty-two different sports. Proof of grade & membership are required.
Grassroots basketball, is much like the subprime mortgage market, making up the rules as they go along, & always in the interest of making a dollar. The former NCAA President, Myles Brand, describes it as the dysfunctional world of youth basketball.
TV analyst Len Elmore, who played college & professional basketball, graduated from Harvard, & is now the executive of Ihoops, has been quoted as saying "that shoe companies spending has thrown youth basketball into turmoil."
As a smart athlete you must be willing to ask yourself this question: Do those claiming to care really have my best interest at heart?
The best kids usually play for free, & others pay 1000's to finance the team with hopes of being seen by North Carolina, Kentucky, or Duke.
College basketball is big business. It's megamillion - dollar coaching contracts & selling sports apparel in team colors.
Corporations pay as much as $100,000 for a thirty - second ad during the early rounds of NCAA tournament. The NCAA television deal is worth $6.1 billion over 11 years for TV rights.
Every year during the NCAA tournament, Richard Lapchick of Diversity & Ethics in Sports (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida releases the graduation rates of the participating teams in "Keeping Score When Its Counts." Last year his study found that 64 percent of the teams participating in the NCAA tournament graduated 50 percent of all its players, but the percentage of graduation for African-American differed by 31 percent.
We spend so much of our lives chasing dreams, trying to capture the desires of our heart, with very little time appreciating our Creation's blessings.
A couple of years ago Coach lost his father, & while he was fortunate to spend some very memorable moments with him, he often find that he thinks about the things they didn't get a chance to do.
Besides Thanksgiving, when was the last time you thanked those special people who have touched your life & told them how much you have appreciated what they've done?
Coach & his wife was blessed in 2006 to travel to South Africa &, in particular, Bostwana, with Athletes in Action, as part of the Sports Ministry team. They actually celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary on this trip.
The trip was a blessing for him, it made him appreciate a great country like the United States, in spite of its shortcomings.
He witnessed orphans infected with HIV & kids looking in trashcans for their next meals.
He met a young Christian pastor, Gary Pelotshweu, who he continues to communicate with & plan on assisting with building a school to be used by young kids.
So while you chase your dreams don't forget to thank those people who helped you along the way.
With two children, Coach & his wife sometimes passed like two ships in the night while traveling to opposite sides of the city.
Back when his daughter was playing AAU & he coached her team, they qualified for Nationals in Memphis, Tennessee. It was an inner-city squad, full of talent but short on cash & opportunity.
They didn't win the tournament, but the trip wasn't a total loss. He took the girls to talk to the Coach at the University of Memphis. They also visited several historical sites, including the National Civic Rights Museum, where they sat on a replica of the Montgomery bus that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on. They also toured the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated, & a house turned museum that the slaves used in the Underground Railroad. Some girls, including his daughter,got letters from interested Colleges.
While a teacher has the responsibility for inspiring & molding the minds of our children, they are probably the least appreciated.
As students, we often fail to acknowledge the contribution of our teachers until much later in life. As for me I came from a long family line of educators - preachers - pastors.
The scholarship includes tuition, room & board, & other fees, but players are rewarded by receiving some of the great coaching, medical care, first-class treatment for injuries, trips to exotic locations during the winter, free tickets, media relations, & hopefully one day a very good job.
If parents are looking for financial assistance, they should be aware that it's been estimated that there are thirty times more scholarship dollars available for college academic scholarships than there are for athletic scholarships. The higher the grade point average, the more opportunities exist to have a scholarship offered.
In the end, academics should always be your priority because when you have played your last game its the educated students who would be the ultimate winners.
Very little time is spent watching the game, kids these days aren't really fans of the game. They're fans of some of the players in the game: Lebron, Kobe, Dwayne Wade, KG - the big names.
It is said that no player or coach spends more time studying his opponents than Kobe Bryant. Before each game you will find him with a portable DVD player watching clips of the players he'll be guarding in that particular game. He's looking for just the slightest advantage.
The greatest players are the ones who have mastered the most basic skills. We have begun to see more & more Europeans players being drafted into the NBA & the expansion of the league overseas primarily because of their style of game.
If you want to mimic a style, look at the European leagues, whose players have a flair for the fundamentals. They have some of the best players because they've gone back to the basics.
Coach Randy Brown, a former college coach at Iowa State, amongst other, suggests that kids need to learn forty basic basketball skills. Included in this book is 40 Skill Development Checklist with a brief breakdown of each position.
Kobe is just good; he's not a good guard or forward. He's good, period.
Jay-Z didn't drop Reasonable Doubt, his debut album until he was twenty-seven. He understands that while the world is a rush, true greatness takes time!
Teachable translates into being coachable.
It starts with recognizing that you don't know everything & being willing to learn. The book of Proverbs says, "In all you do get wisdom & understanding."
Coachable players want to get better & understand that when they are coached it's for their own good & the good of the team.
One thing that stuck with Phil Jackson when he was hired as Chicago Bulls assistant coach was Red Holzmans statement, "It isn't about how great a star player, is himself, its's about how great he makes the player around him." Michael, being coachable, transformed his game from being a scorer to learning how to beat teams without having to score. Even the greatest player in the game allowed himself to be coached.
A truly coachable player has the ability to separate the truth from fantasy.
If you don't believe in you, then why should I or anyone else, for that matter?
Believing is about faith, & faith is holding onto that which you can't see.
The word no is engrained in us. So we learn to play it safe & not take risks.
But when you believe in yourself, you have the power to make positive changes. As they say in Star Trek, "You can go where man has never gone before."
Your mind is your power! We often don't take advantage of the power within us. If you want to be successful, then watch your thoughts. Stop thinking like a chicken when you were created to be an eagle!
The world can be cruel; it places labels on you & tell you that you are not the right color or maybe you don't dress right or maybe you're too short or too big or maybe you talk differently, & we listen to it & start to believe it.
In October of 1998, Coach was hired as an assistant coach at Minnesota Patrick Henry. He was warned that it was a bad job; for the kids lacked discipline & had very little talent.
Coming off a season of being beat in the first round off the sectional play-offs, the school hired a well-known youth pastor who previously coached girl's basketball named Efrem Smith. He was introduced to Efrem in Church & asked if he needed any assistants & was offered the opportunity to volunteer.
Efrem Smith coached with Christian principles & shared Bible lessons to back them up. If God be with me, who can be against me?
Prior to the this game they were coming off one of the biggest runs in Minnesota basketball history with 3 straight state titles, led by standout guard Khalid El-Amin.
On a Friday night in a crowded gym their kids began to understand what it meant to believe. Mike Pettis, was having the game of his life, kept them close, every kid was shouting "I believe, I believe" at the end of regulation in a huddle.
Coach McKenzie was hired as head coach, after Coach Smith left to take a youth pastor job in Dayton, Ohio. Led by three juniors, Johnnie Gilbert, Greg Patton, & Tony Travis, they would return to the state tournament his first season,only to lose in the quarter finals that year.
Their mantra "Refuse to Lose" was born, & in 2003, Minneapolis Patrick Henry joined Southwest Minnesota Christians as the only two teams in state history to win four consecutive titles, all because they learned to believe!
Your attitude can either be your greatest asset or your greatest liability.
It is the foundation of becoming a champion, whether on the court, in the classroom, in the community, or in your family.
For so many coaches the emphasis is skill development, & very little time spent on developing the right attitude & character.
Their daily practice was known as the patriot creed; they repeated it before every game. Nine steps explained in this book. Awesinwe!
Loving to live starts with the understanding that each of us is truly special, made in the image of our Creator.
Successful people want to be around successful people, while misery loves company.
Coach once read if you want to be a millionaire, find one to hang out with, & it makes sense, because they're making deals with people like themselves.
Surround yourself with dream makers not dream killers, not those whose only contribution to you is to bring nothing but negative energy.
Coach understands the pain of young people making bad choices; one of his former players is currently serving life without parole in a California prison. It only takes fifteen - to twenty -seconds lapses in judgment to ruin your life & change your future.
He was an outstanding student-athlete who excelled in football & basketball - a star quarterback & a three-time state champion in basketball. He had star qualities, & he earned a basketball scholarship in pursuit of playing in the NBA.
Young people are faced with challenges that he couldn't even imagine - the lure of hip-hop culture, the information superhighwway, & the influence of music videos & mass media.
When you love to live, what you eat & don't eat becomes important. If you don't take care of your body, it won't take care of you.
Not only is your diet important but so are proper rest & exercise.
When you love to live, you know that you cannot put chemicals into your body.
In a 1968 speech in Atlanta, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke the words, "Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. He went on to say, "You don't need a college degree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love"
Coach's grandmother, Pauline Jones, a very spiritual woman, was there for anybody with a need, whether in the Church or the in the community.
His grandfather, William Jones, served as the neighborhood handyman.
His mom & dad, Lawrence & Retha McKenzie home was where relatives & friends came to relax, get a meal, or to lay their heads. His sister Paula is a nurse, helping those that are sometimes in their weakest moments, & his sister Carla is an administrator with the school system.
Coach was blessed to marry a woman with the same values & upbringing. They ended up taking his niece & nephew after his wife lost her sister to sickle cell anemia.
So when that final horn sounds, & you've scored that last basket in the game of life, Coach hopes your final stats will read as you being the type of player who not only had the ability to score, but was always willing to provide an assist, & your dash will say you were truly a champion.
Coach McKenzie successfully inspires to motivate audiences everywhere to enjoy, achieve, & go from the sidelines to become true players for your business, Church, school, or organization.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Independently Raising A Man (Single Parenting): Book Review
Book Review . Real Life 101 . Single Parenting Insight & Tips . One Income . Healthy Lifestyle . Positive Environment . Child . Children . Responsibilities & Challenges . Love . Inspirational Thoughts
Very inspirational book to own.
I thank Shondreka, for sending me an autographed copy for review.
We all have made mistakes, and I would like first to commend her for carrying her child full term, instead of an abortion. I am not promoting premartial affairs.
The moment you find out that you are pregnant can be the most terrifying, and yet most exciting moment of your life. It is not until the day that you hold your beautiful baby in your arms for the first time that you can realize how great that change can be.
She never wanted to place herself in a position to end up as a single parent. She thought she had it all figured out. Life has a way of throwing a curve ball. The key to moving forward and pushing through a struggle is your attitude.
Know that both you and your child are valuable worth the best life has to offer. If you are in a negative or harmful situation, keep in mind that you and your child deserve more than what is currently being brought to the table. Your heart will not put food on the table and clothes on your child's back. Start saving and get into a place where you and your child can live peacefully and that you can afford by yourself.
Shondreka, Little Miss Health fanatic would gain seventy pounds during her pregnancy. Her diet was healthy and very sensible. She craved tomatoes and also Kosher pickles. Too much of anything, healthy or not, will cause weight gain.
After her handsome baby boy was born, she set a plan of action to lose all of the baby weight in a healthy manner. After having her baby, money was tight so buying a whole new wardrobe in the new size was not a feasible option for her. Her meal routine consisted of a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and healthy snacks throughout the day. Within three months of having her son, she lost forty pounds and within six months she lost the remaining thirty pounds. She drinks lots of water and try to stay away from sodas. She limits her fruit juice, because it is high in sugar. She don't deny herself sweets, this keeps her from straying.
Living a healthy lifestyle does not mean you can't have sweets, it just means you have to have them in moderation.
Independently Raising A Man Thoughts From a Single Mothers Perspective, Shondreka Palmer, Single Parenting, One Family Income, Budget,Child Development
You don't have to be a celebrity to get your pre-baby body back. Anyone can do it with hard work and discipline. Be sensible and try to keep your food choices as healthy as possible. Allow your baby to have the nutrients he/she needs in preparation for making his/her entrance into the world. The bundle of joy you get in the end is well worth the sacrifice.
At times, the burdens that come along with being a parent, especially a single parent, ,especially a single parent, can be very overwhelming. Children are a blessing from God and you should treat it as such. Don't just be in the same house as your child; spend valuable time with your child/children. Be creative. Be a part of your child's.
A part of being a phenomenal single parent is taking care of yourself and your health. Sometimes you just have to stop, take a break and enjoy life. You always want to be responsible and do the things that are important and need to be done.
Be positive. Be grateful and happy for what you do have. Your attitude and outlook on life will over into your child's attitude and outlook.
Budget! Budget! Budget! An absolute must when living life as a single parent.
Whenever possible, save energy and teach your children the same habits. Keep the bills low as possible, electric, gas, water, etc.
You will have to learn some smart ways to save money and shop for your child.
Sometimes as a parent you don't want to see your child grow up. Arm yourself and be ready ahead of time.
As a single parent, your disposable income is very limited, so get into the habit of spending your money wisely. You never want to put yourself in a situation where your child has nothing to wear and you don't have any money to buy clothes or shoes needed at that moment.
Don't forget about yourself when browsing resale and thrift stores. You can also save money on your clothes and find some great slacks, jeans, dresses and tops.
Groceries are another very important life necessity for you and your child.
Buy store brand items. The long term consequences of a life of unhealthy eating habits are not worth the short term savings benefit.
Use coupons. Only buy items that you actually use. Become a wise grocery shopper, and cook meals at home.
Being on a budget does not mean you have to sacrifice your appearance. The key is to adjust to what your current lifestyle allows.
Life is going to happen; no one is immune to unforeseen circumstances.
Children will try to get over on their parents. Don't fall for it.
Implementing rules and boundaries within your child's life is so important to their growth and development. Allowing your child to do and say whatever they feel is not doing them any favors. Love your child enough to want to teach them by providing the necessary guidance.
We are our children's first teachers.
It is important to remember that children need discipline and structure.
Discipline is not yelling at your child. Encourage your child often.
Discuss with your child/children what is expected at home and school daily.
Place your child on a consistent schedule.
Children need plenty of rest.
In order to support you and your child, you have to work. Take the time to research the facilities and teachers who are going to care for your child/children. Check with the State Board for any penalties or violations.
Select a daycare that models the same morals and values as you do.
Be conscious and watchful.
The first step to being a successful single parent is taking care of you and maintaining a great mental health.
Smile! Make the choice to be happy. Your main focus is and should always be your immediate family - you and your child/children.
Watch for family and friends that are constantly negative. Ignore and remove yourself from negative conversation or situations.
You have a purpose in this life. Don't allow someone else's insecurities or jealousies break you down and confuse you. You are a child of God.
You should have a couple of true genuine friends to confide in and who are truly "Team U" during the good and bad times.
Shondreka is happy and her state of mind is at peace and she feels great! She's still standing.
Be strong, happy and secure. You are on the right path to success so push harder and keep going no matter what.
Take care of your health as well. There is no reason why you can't have some mommy-me time and enjoy yourself, once you have everything together.
Take a mental break and do something that you enjoy. You might go to the movies, out to eat with a friend, maybe on a date, or any activity you enjoy.
Treat yourself to something nice. Men, this includes you too!! Stay within your budget. You will not always be restricted to a tight budget. With God, faith, a positive attitude, a plan and being proactive you will reach all your goals and dreams.
Never leave your child with an irresponsible adult, whether family or friends. Your child is a treasure and should be treated as such.
Be patient with your child/children.
Don't forget to take the time to enjoy life with your child. You never know what true unconditional love is until you have your first child.
Shondreka Palmer (Author) compiled her warm inspiring thoughts and insights on being a single parent.
Very inspirational book to own.
I thank Shondreka, for sending me an autographed copy for review.
We all have made mistakes, and I would like first to commend her for carrying her child full term, instead of an abortion. I am not promoting premartial affairs.
The moment you find out that you are pregnant can be the most terrifying, and yet most exciting moment of your life. It is not until the day that you hold your beautiful baby in your arms for the first time that you can realize how great that change can be.
She never wanted to place herself in a position to end up as a single parent. She thought she had it all figured out. Life has a way of throwing a curve ball. The key to moving forward and pushing through a struggle is your attitude.
Know that both you and your child are valuable worth the best life has to offer. If you are in a negative or harmful situation, keep in mind that you and your child deserve more than what is currently being brought to the table. Your heart will not put food on the table and clothes on your child's back. Start saving and get into a place where you and your child can live peacefully and that you can afford by yourself.
Shondreka, Little Miss Health fanatic would gain seventy pounds during her pregnancy. Her diet was healthy and very sensible. She craved tomatoes and also Kosher pickles. Too much of anything, healthy or not, will cause weight gain.
After her handsome baby boy was born, she set a plan of action to lose all of the baby weight in a healthy manner. After having her baby, money was tight so buying a whole new wardrobe in the new size was not a feasible option for her. Her meal routine consisted of a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner and healthy snacks throughout the day. Within three months of having her son, she lost forty pounds and within six months she lost the remaining thirty pounds. She drinks lots of water and try to stay away from sodas. She limits her fruit juice, because it is high in sugar. She don't deny herself sweets, this keeps her from straying.
Living a healthy lifestyle does not mean you can't have sweets, it just means you have to have them in moderation.
Independently Raising A Man Thoughts From a Single Mothers Perspective, Shondreka Palmer, Single Parenting, One Family Income, Budget,Child Development
You don't have to be a celebrity to get your pre-baby body back. Anyone can do it with hard work and discipline. Be sensible and try to keep your food choices as healthy as possible. Allow your baby to have the nutrients he/she needs in preparation for making his/her entrance into the world. The bundle of joy you get in the end is well worth the sacrifice.
At times, the burdens that come along with being a parent, especially a single parent, ,especially a single parent, can be very overwhelming. Children are a blessing from God and you should treat it as such. Don't just be in the same house as your child; spend valuable time with your child/children. Be creative. Be a part of your child's.
A part of being a phenomenal single parent is taking care of yourself and your health. Sometimes you just have to stop, take a break and enjoy life. You always want to be responsible and do the things that are important and need to be done.
Be positive. Be grateful and happy for what you do have. Your attitude and outlook on life will over into your child's attitude and outlook.
Budget! Budget! Budget! An absolute must when living life as a single parent.
Whenever possible, save energy and teach your children the same habits. Keep the bills low as possible, electric, gas, water, etc.
You will have to learn some smart ways to save money and shop for your child.
Sometimes as a parent you don't want to see your child grow up. Arm yourself and be ready ahead of time.
As a single parent, your disposable income is very limited, so get into the habit of spending your money wisely. You never want to put yourself in a situation where your child has nothing to wear and you don't have any money to buy clothes or shoes needed at that moment.
Don't forget about yourself when browsing resale and thrift stores. You can also save money on your clothes and find some great slacks, jeans, dresses and tops.
Groceries are another very important life necessity for you and your child.
Buy store brand items. The long term consequences of a life of unhealthy eating habits are not worth the short term savings benefit.
Use coupons. Only buy items that you actually use. Become a wise grocery shopper, and cook meals at home.
Being on a budget does not mean you have to sacrifice your appearance. The key is to adjust to what your current lifestyle allows.
Life is going to happen; no one is immune to unforeseen circumstances.
Children will try to get over on their parents. Don't fall for it.
Implementing rules and boundaries within your child's life is so important to their growth and development. Allowing your child to do and say whatever they feel is not doing them any favors. Love your child enough to want to teach them by providing the necessary guidance.
We are our children's first teachers.
It is important to remember that children need discipline and structure.
Discipline is not yelling at your child. Encourage your child often.
Discuss with your child/children what is expected at home and school daily.
Place your child on a consistent schedule.
Children need plenty of rest.
In order to support you and your child, you have to work. Take the time to research the facilities and teachers who are going to care for your child/children. Check with the State Board for any penalties or violations.
Select a daycare that models the same morals and values as you do.
Be conscious and watchful.
The first step to being a successful single parent is taking care of you and maintaining a great mental health.
Smile! Make the choice to be happy. Your main focus is and should always be your immediate family - you and your child/children.
Watch for family and friends that are constantly negative. Ignore and remove yourself from negative conversation or situations.
You have a purpose in this life. Don't allow someone else's insecurities or jealousies break you down and confuse you. You are a child of God.
You should have a couple of true genuine friends to confide in and who are truly "Team U" during the good and bad times.
Shondreka is happy and her state of mind is at peace and she feels great! She's still standing.
Be strong, happy and secure. You are on the right path to success so push harder and keep going no matter what.
Take care of your health as well. There is no reason why you can't have some mommy-me time and enjoy yourself, once you have everything together.
Take a mental break and do something that you enjoy. You might go to the movies, out to eat with a friend, maybe on a date, or any activity you enjoy.
Treat yourself to something nice. Men, this includes you too!! Stay within your budget. You will not always be restricted to a tight budget. With God, faith, a positive attitude, a plan and being proactive you will reach all your goals and dreams.
Never leave your child with an irresponsible adult, whether family or friends. Your child is a treasure and should be treated as such.
Be patient with your child/children.
Don't forget to take the time to enjoy life with your child. You never know what true unconditional love is until you have your first child.
Shondreka Palmer (Author) compiled her warm inspiring thoughts and insights on being a single parent.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Bread & Wine a love letter to life around the table with recipes - Book Review
Enjoyable read and family-friendly.
Click Here to Advertise on My Blog
I am not promoting the sale and use of wine or any alcoholic beverages but, I am promoting harmony and a time to slow down and enjoy your family, loved ones and true friends around the kitchen and dining table. There will come a day when all you have is memories, because one day the chain will be broken.
In my home as a child and some of my adult life I can remember meals at the table just like on a television show "Soul Food." There is nothing like good food, loved ones around at the table laughing and some sad when a loved one has passed on.
Bread: I Corinthians 5:8 ... Sacred Seasons; Historical Sacred Seasons; The Passover Becomes a Christian Festival ................ I Corinthians 10:16 ... Sacred Rites & Forms; Sacraments, Worship, & Church-Fellowship; The Lord's Supper, Its Significance
Wine: Wine Prescribed; Abuse of It; & Prohibited to the Priesthood When On Duty .... Psalm/Tehillim 104:15; Joel 2:24; I Timothy 5:23; Titus 2:3; Ephesians 5:18; Ezekiel 44:21
Gather the people you love around your table and feed them with love and honesty and creativity.
Shauna Niequist mom's dad is Irish, a storyteller and her mom is German, a rose gardener and meticulous baker. They were married just before her grandpa joined the navy, and her mom, their first child, was born at Pearl Harbor.
Neither of them grew up in religious home, but when they married, they decided that religion was important, and that they wanted to join a church. They visited all sorts of churches before settling at Lake Center Bible Church.
There is a difference between religious and righteous.
They were meat and potatoes people, men who work long days on the farm and ate accordingly.
Six brothers - Shauna's grandfather and her dad's five uncles - all died of heart attacks before they were fifty-five. When she was born her parents knew something had to change.
Because of Shauna's dad scary family history, her mother became a health food person before it was fashionable.
Now that Shauna is an adult, she can appreciate how much effort this entailed, how expensive it was for her to feed them that way.
Sunday afternoons were family time - private, casual, silly.
The Cooking Club began when Aaron and Shauna moved back to Chicago from Grand Rapids three years ago. There are six of them in the Club.
They met once a month, and sometimes more, and whoever's hosting the theme and cooks the main course, and then the rest of them fill in - appetizers, side dishes, desserts.
They have attended funerals and birthday parties together, reported bad tests results, gotten advice about sick children, made trips to the ER, walked together through postpartum depression. They have talked about faith and fear and fighting with their husbands, sleeping through the night and anxiety and how to ask for help when they needed it.
It all started around the kitchen table, once a month and sometimes more.
Each of us should be able to nourish ourselves in the most basic way and to create meals and traditions around the table that tell the story of who we are to the people we care about.
Marketing and advertising campaigns are created to influence us to eat our or buy prepared foods. They want us to think that plain old cooking is difficult and not worth learning. In order to sell canned food and cake mixes, advertisers had to convince American women that cooking is too hard and troublesome for our modern world. But it wasn't true then, and it isn't true now.
When you're dependent on prepared foods, you don't get to decide how something is seasoned. You don't get to add flavor according to your geography, your story, your table.
Shauna started buying cookbooks and reading them cover to cover in bed before turning out the lights at the end of the day.
In my case, I have my bigmomma cookbooks which some of them might be older than I am.
Our goal is to feed around our table the people we love. We're not chefs or restaurateurs or culinary school graduates, and we shouldn't try to be. Make it the way the people you love want to eat it, and the way you love it.
During a three-month period after Shauna's last book came out she traveled to twenty-two cities to speak at forty-four events.
Near the end of that season, she became aware that her appetites were escalating. The longer she was away from home the more intensed her appetites became.
She was all feasting and no fasting - all noise, connection, go: without rest, space, silence. At one event, she licked the icing off a cupcake right as she walked onstage to speak, mouth full of sugar and butter as she walked up the steps to the podium. She lost her manners and lost her ability to slow down.
You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the concert,
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink. - G. K. Chesterton, "A Grace," Collected Poetry
Shauna feels that women feel shame about two things: their bodies and their homes. She feels men have no shame about their homes. She thinks for men its about paychecks or cars and these are stereotypes, but in her house, they hold true.
When she and her husband were first married, they lived in a one-bedroom town house so small they couldn't sit at their kitchen table at the same time, and the only place for her husband grand piano was their bedroom. It was mostly a big piece of furniture on which to pile their clothes, but sometimes in the middle of the night, Aaron would terrify her out of sleep by sneaking out of bed to play "Great Balls of Fire" at a shattering volume.
Their first home was not fancy, but it was their first home together.
In the years they lived in that tiny home, they must have had a hundred parties.
You'll miss the richest moments in life - the sacred moments when we feel God's grace and presence through the actual faces and hands of the people we love - if you're too scared or too ashamed to open the door.
She doesn't knock herself out for picky eaters. Homes are are not restaurants and your host is not a short order cook.
Depending on medical condition of your loved ones and friends some may not be able to eat certain foods so that should be taken into consideration when inviting guests into your home. I know of one person who was taking radiation and was at a business meeting and he could not eat smoked meat. He was doing well until he went to this meeting and he thought that the turkey meat was baked and it was smoked. He had a little back set, but he is doing well now back in his office.
Shauna is learning that feasting can only exist healthfully - physically, spiritually, and emotionally - in a life that also includes fasting.
Some things only come by fasting and prayer.
A few years ago she went to a natural health doctor, after a particular indulgent summer. She was getting sick more easily than usual.
No one changes their life until the pain is unmanageable, and in all sorts of ways for her, the pain level had reached the unmanageable point. She followed his advice for more than four months. She felt great. She lost some weight, started sleeping better, didn't ache at all.
Her work these days is to find that fine balance - allowing her senses to taste every bite of life without being driven by appetites, indiscriminate and ravenous.
Me, myself I am not having any problem staying on my level. For it is just the way I was raised to eat and I have lost weight and losing weight. I am not starving and I am not on any weight loss medications - injections. Just back to the basic. My doctor placed me on the diet that I am on and then I decided to take another look at my bigmomma's cookbooks and nutrition list.
During Christmastime we find ourselves most tempted to abandon Christlikeness in favor of overspending, overdoing and overconsuming, but she finds it to be true: the season that centers around the silent holy night; the humble baby; and the star very quickly becomes the season in which we over - everything - overspend, overeat, overindulge, overcommit, all int he name of celebration.
Let's honor the story - the silent night, the angels, the miracle child, the humble birth, with each choice that we make.
Food and cooking are among the richest subjects int he world. Even more, they sit us down evening after evening, and in the company that forms around our dinner tables, they actually create our humanity. - Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
For more than thirty years their church has been giving food to families in immediate need all over the city.
Hunger upsets her. It upsets her and makes her angry.
The Church is at its best, in her view when it is more than a set of ideas, when it is a working, living, breathing, on-the-ground, in-the-mess force for good in our cities and towns.
The last several times the Cooking Club has gathered, they've talked about hunger. They are moms, and aunts, and sisters. As they talked about hunger, privilege, waste and wealth, they talked about how easy it is to settle into a lifestyle of accumulation.
This is how they arrived at the Cooking Club garage sale and bake sale with all the proceeds benefiting the Care Center.
They earned a thousand dollars for the Care Center.
A thousand dollars in the face of a problem like hunger in a city the size of Chicago isn't that much. It's so easy to think that because you can't do something extraordinary, you can't do anything at all.
She wants to be a part of making sure the kids in her town, and in every town, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and she wants to be clearer about what money can and can not buy.
Gather the people you love around your table and feed them with love and honesty and creativity.
I was sent an advanced review copy of this book from Zondervan.
Shauna Niequist is the author of this book as well as Cold Tangerines & Bittersweet. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Aaron, and their sons, Henry and Mac. Shauna writes about family, friendship, faith, and life around the table.
Click Here to Advertise on My Blog
I am not promoting the sale and use of wine or any alcoholic beverages but, I am promoting harmony and a time to slow down and enjoy your family, loved ones and true friends around the kitchen and dining table. There will come a day when all you have is memories, because one day the chain will be broken.
In my home as a child and some of my adult life I can remember meals at the table just like on a television show "Soul Food." There is nothing like good food, loved ones around at the table laughing and some sad when a loved one has passed on.
Bread: I Corinthians 5:8 ... Sacred Seasons; Historical Sacred Seasons; The Passover Becomes a Christian Festival ................ I Corinthians 10:16 ... Sacred Rites & Forms; Sacraments, Worship, & Church-Fellowship; The Lord's Supper, Its Significance
Wine: Wine Prescribed; Abuse of It; & Prohibited to the Priesthood When On Duty .... Psalm/Tehillim 104:15; Joel 2:24; I Timothy 5:23; Titus 2:3; Ephesians 5:18; Ezekiel 44:21
Gather the people you love around your table and feed them with love and honesty and creativity.
Shauna Niequist mom's dad is Irish, a storyteller and her mom is German, a rose gardener and meticulous baker. They were married just before her grandpa joined the navy, and her mom, their first child, was born at Pearl Harbor.
Neither of them grew up in religious home, but when they married, they decided that religion was important, and that they wanted to join a church. They visited all sorts of churches before settling at Lake Center Bible Church.
There is a difference between religious and righteous.
They were meat and potatoes people, men who work long days on the farm and ate accordingly.
Six brothers - Shauna's grandfather and her dad's five uncles - all died of heart attacks before they were fifty-five. When she was born her parents knew something had to change.
Because of Shauna's dad scary family history, her mother became a health food person before it was fashionable.
Now that Shauna is an adult, she can appreciate how much effort this entailed, how expensive it was for her to feed them that way.
Sunday afternoons were family time - private, casual, silly.
The Cooking Club began when Aaron and Shauna moved back to Chicago from Grand Rapids three years ago. There are six of them in the Club.
They met once a month, and sometimes more, and whoever's hosting the theme and cooks the main course, and then the rest of them fill in - appetizers, side dishes, desserts.
They have attended funerals and birthday parties together, reported bad tests results, gotten advice about sick children, made trips to the ER, walked together through postpartum depression. They have talked about faith and fear and fighting with their husbands, sleeping through the night and anxiety and how to ask for help when they needed it.
It all started around the kitchen table, once a month and sometimes more.
Each of us should be able to nourish ourselves in the most basic way and to create meals and traditions around the table that tell the story of who we are to the people we care about.
Marketing and advertising campaigns are created to influence us to eat our or buy prepared foods. They want us to think that plain old cooking is difficult and not worth learning. In order to sell canned food and cake mixes, advertisers had to convince American women that cooking is too hard and troublesome for our modern world. But it wasn't true then, and it isn't true now.
When you're dependent on prepared foods, you don't get to decide how something is seasoned. You don't get to add flavor according to your geography, your story, your table.
Shauna started buying cookbooks and reading them cover to cover in bed before turning out the lights at the end of the day.
In my case, I have my bigmomma cookbooks which some of them might be older than I am.
Our goal is to feed around our table the people we love. We're not chefs or restaurateurs or culinary school graduates, and we shouldn't try to be. Make it the way the people you love want to eat it, and the way you love it.
During a three-month period after Shauna's last book came out she traveled to twenty-two cities to speak at forty-four events.
Near the end of that season, she became aware that her appetites were escalating. The longer she was away from home the more intensed her appetites became.
She was all feasting and no fasting - all noise, connection, go: without rest, space, silence. At one event, she licked the icing off a cupcake right as she walked onstage to speak, mouth full of sugar and butter as she walked up the steps to the podium. She lost her manners and lost her ability to slow down.
You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the concert,
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink. - G. K. Chesterton, "A Grace," Collected Poetry
Shauna feels that women feel shame about two things: their bodies and their homes. She feels men have no shame about their homes. She thinks for men its about paychecks or cars and these are stereotypes, but in her house, they hold true.
When she and her husband were first married, they lived in a one-bedroom town house so small they couldn't sit at their kitchen table at the same time, and the only place for her husband grand piano was their bedroom. It was mostly a big piece of furniture on which to pile their clothes, but sometimes in the middle of the night, Aaron would terrify her out of sleep by sneaking out of bed to play "Great Balls of Fire" at a shattering volume.
Their first home was not fancy, but it was their first home together.
In the years they lived in that tiny home, they must have had a hundred parties.
You'll miss the richest moments in life - the sacred moments when we feel God's grace and presence through the actual faces and hands of the people we love - if you're too scared or too ashamed to open the door.
She doesn't knock herself out for picky eaters. Homes are are not restaurants and your host is not a short order cook.
Depending on medical condition of your loved ones and friends some may not be able to eat certain foods so that should be taken into consideration when inviting guests into your home. I know of one person who was taking radiation and was at a business meeting and he could not eat smoked meat. He was doing well until he went to this meeting and he thought that the turkey meat was baked and it was smoked. He had a little back set, but he is doing well now back in his office.
Shauna is learning that feasting can only exist healthfully - physically, spiritually, and emotionally - in a life that also includes fasting.
Some things only come by fasting and prayer.
A few years ago she went to a natural health doctor, after a particular indulgent summer. She was getting sick more easily than usual.
No one changes their life until the pain is unmanageable, and in all sorts of ways for her, the pain level had reached the unmanageable point. She followed his advice for more than four months. She felt great. She lost some weight, started sleeping better, didn't ache at all.
Her work these days is to find that fine balance - allowing her senses to taste every bite of life without being driven by appetites, indiscriminate and ravenous.
Me, myself I am not having any problem staying on my level. For it is just the way I was raised to eat and I have lost weight and losing weight. I am not starving and I am not on any weight loss medications - injections. Just back to the basic. My doctor placed me on the diet that I am on and then I decided to take another look at my bigmomma's cookbooks and nutrition list.
During Christmastime we find ourselves most tempted to abandon Christlikeness in favor of overspending, overdoing and overconsuming, but she finds it to be true: the season that centers around the silent holy night; the humble baby; and the star very quickly becomes the season in which we over - everything - overspend, overeat, overindulge, overcommit, all int he name of celebration.
Let's honor the story - the silent night, the angels, the miracle child, the humble birth, with each choice that we make.
Food and cooking are among the richest subjects int he world. Even more, they sit us down evening after evening, and in the company that forms around our dinner tables, they actually create our humanity. - Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb
For more than thirty years their church has been giving food to families in immediate need all over the city.
Hunger upsets her. It upsets her and makes her angry.
The Church is at its best, in her view when it is more than a set of ideas, when it is a working, living, breathing, on-the-ground, in-the-mess force for good in our cities and towns.
The last several times the Cooking Club has gathered, they've talked about hunger. They are moms, and aunts, and sisters. As they talked about hunger, privilege, waste and wealth, they talked about how easy it is to settle into a lifestyle of accumulation.
This is how they arrived at the Cooking Club garage sale and bake sale with all the proceeds benefiting the Care Center.
They earned a thousand dollars for the Care Center.
A thousand dollars in the face of a problem like hunger in a city the size of Chicago isn't that much. It's so easy to think that because you can't do something extraordinary, you can't do anything at all.
She wants to be a part of making sure the kids in her town, and in every town, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and she wants to be clearer about what money can and can not buy.
Gather the people you love around your table and feed them with love and honesty and creativity.
I was sent an advanced review copy of this book from Zondervan.
Shauna Niequist is the author of this book as well as Cold Tangerines & Bittersweet. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Aaron, and their sons, Henry and Mac. Shauna writes about family, friendship, faith, and life around the table.
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