Drink Water And Like It!

Would you  believe that in the future you will be asked to restrict your consumption of canned beverag

Reducing the consumption of soda and other sugary drinks will be the focus of a new campaign to reduce diet-related disease announced today by health departments in several major cities as well as the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, and other groups.

The campaign, Life’s Sweeter with Fewer Sugary Drinks, will seek to decrease average consumption of sugary drinks to roughly 3 cans per person per week by 2020. Health officials in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Seattle say that reducing soda consumption is one of their top strategies for reducing rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems. All of those cities, plus 110 local and national health organizations, have embraced the Life’s Sweeter campaign.

es with sweeteners to THREE CANS A WEEK.

When I read that I almost died.  I know sodas are bad for me.  I try regularly to delete them entirely from my diet but I can’t imagine only drinking 3 cans a week.  I wonder how many other people are ready to make that kind of change?

Here is a little bit about a program called Make Life Sweeter.

 

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Suspicious Parcel Sends OJR Kids Home

Everything is fine.  The package was just old homework and assorted papers that a former student left behind and a new student removed from their locker.  Pheww!

Earlier when we had no idea of the seriousness  I wrote this….I made a couple of “dirty  guesses’  and in hindsight it’s a little silly.  Should we ease up a bit?  Or should we maintain our vigor in protecting children?  What do you think?

 

What a world.  Today the high school students at OJR were sent home after a one hour administrative lockdown because a suspicious parcel was found in the gym locker area.

My kids said that the person who planted the suspicious device might have known that Wednesday’s don’t have scheduled gym classes.  Which means that unless someone was in there to do a makeup class which isn’t likely since this is the first days of school, or elective which would make it a smaller group of kids

My girls also mentioned that yesterday at an assembly they were each told different things.  My freshman was  told that there are over a hundred cameras in the school.  14 in the lunchroom so they can tell if the kids make messes and none in the lockers or the bathrooms for obvious reasons.    That was the spiel for the younger grades,

For the juniors and seniors they reminded the students that stealing happened but that it was more hassle than it’s worth because the students at OJR were above it and they mentioned that they shouldn’t bring valuables to school, but if they had them they were to keep them in the main locker or give them to the gym teacher because there weren’t cameras in the locker rooms and they couldn’t prevent thefts as easily. So the older kids got told that there weren’t cameras in the locker areas but it wasn’t as specific.

So someone knew about no cameras in the locker area and no gym classes to worry about. Or they just had a lot of dumb luck.

I’m frustrated that someone would either do something with the intent to harm kids, or that someone would threaten kids even with a “joke” package.

Thanks to Dr. Soeder for handling this awful situation professionally and I’m glad that the teachers and staff at OJR were supportive and considerate of the student’s feelings because the kids had to hear ” This is NOT a drill, there is a potentially dangerous situation that we have under control, this is an administrative lockdown.”

I hope everything gets figured out and I hope that we hear more.

love,

mo

Schuykill River Image at Hanover Street Bridge!

This was taken yesterday afternoon.  It’s a picture of the Schuykill facing towards Philly.  It’s a pretty view isn’t it?

Music for Back to School!

Kids are Heading Back to School!

Everyone keep your eyes open and  abide by the law when it comes to crosswalks and school zones and make sure you keep your eyes open for school buses!

Give yourself a little more time and please remind yourself that the children in our neighborhoods are precious and we need to look out for them in order to keep them safe!

Happy Back to School!

love,

mo

 

Hoarding for the Apocalypse!

TLC had some crazy shows on last night.  I tuned in to watch “living for the Apocalypse” which was a show about some folks who have devoted their lives to preparing for the end of times.  Some of the families seemed perfectly normal at first glance and then we got invited through the magic of television into their homes where things weren’t exactly “normal”.

Now I’m not going to try to tell anyone that being normal is all it’s cracked up to be.  I admired some of the skills that those worry warts were adopting.  I think it’s smart to be prepared for emergencies- but I do worry about their cult like devotion to the idea that they can somehow stand alone if the world ends in a disaster.  Preparation is good.  Worrying about zombies?  Not so good.

The first family that the show featured was the Layton family from Utah.  Mrs. Peggy Layton seemed like a lovely lady who has a lot of energy and a lot of talent.  She grew up in a community that teaches that people should prepare and the impetus for that preparation is biblical.  It is there that you’ll find advice to prepare yourself as if against a thief in the night.  Or prepare as bridesmaids should by keeping the wick of your lamps trimmed in order to guide a married couple.  Preparation then  is part celebration and part protection based.  But when you see that they have several underground bunkers built into their home and Peggy’s work space and they also have a bug out place in the mountains where they’ll be able to look down on the rest of the world with their weapons and food- well, it’s a little creepy.

Peggy said the difference between hoarding and preparing is organization!

Are you prepared?  Have you really thought about what you and your family needs if there are problems with the weather?  Or problems with the economy? Or problems with food distribution or production networks?  Or God forbid, problems due to man-made disasters?

These people sound a little crazy but maybe they are just exaggerated examples of forward thinkers?!

love,

mo

 

 

 

 

Flooding Still A Worry!

Remember folks that when a storm as big as Irene moves through the area we are going to have potential for flooding after the storm passes.  All the creeks, streams and tributaries are going to be full and all of that water is headed to the ocean which seems incredible but that is all part of the water cycle.  Our water moves into the Delaware or Chesapeake and into the ocean!

So keep an eye out for local flooding today!  Don’t fool around with flooded areas.  Stay out of them!

Be safe.

love,

mo