Mocha Club

I decided to give up trips to Starbucks for Lent--and to send that money to a good cause.

I just joined a web site called Mocha Club, where you can give up the cost of 2 mochas a month, or $7, to help orphans, refugees, and those affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Did you know that 6300 people die every day from AIDS? Here is what blew my mind - in All of Africa, $7 gives clean water to 7 Africans for a year. In Kibera Kenya, $7 gives 3 meals in a day for 9 orphans. In Bulawayo Zimbabwe, $7 would put two kids in school for a term. It's those kind of things that made me realize this is something I can do. So I've felt convicted to move from the talking to doing category. You can join my online team by clicking HERE and we can keep inviting friends so the team continues to grow at $7 per person.

They also give detailed updates once a month as to what the money is doing in Africa.

And do you know of MATT WERTZ? Here's a cool incentive he's offering - if you join our team now, you'll also get a FREE download of his entire new album, Everything In Between. Cool, huh?

Let me know what you think.

Free pancakes today, Fat Tuesday

From KRDO news:

IHOP is doing what it can to fatten you up on this "Fat Tuesday".

It's National Pancake Day and IHOP is giving away a free short stack (three good sized cakes) of their buttermilk pancakes--for a good cause.

IHOP is hoping those who come in to get the free pancakes will donate money toward the Childrens Miracle Network. The non-profit helps sick children get the medical treatment they need by treating everything from pediatric aids to cancer to a child injured in a car accident. If you do donate today there's even more of an incentive than free pancakes. "We hope that they donate. They get free pancakes no matter what they do but we hope they come in and donate and if they do we also give them a 20 percent bounce back coupon to come in and see us again." says Patty Tennant Operations Director of local IHOPs.

Last year IHOPs around the country raised more than 300-thousand dollars for Childrens Miracle Network. This year the goal is to raise more than 500-thousand dollars.

To get the free pancakes you can go by any IHOP TODAY between 7 am and 10 pm.

Beware of early daylight-saving time

Congress lengthened this year’s daylight saving time by four weeks in the name of energy efficiency. The decision is likely to affect numerous computer systems preset to change the hour on the traditional date.

Many people aren’t even aware of the change, which takes effect Mar. 11. Devices such as cell phones should automatically update. But Microsoft cautions that some of its older products—including Windows XP SP1 and Windows NT4—will require manual updates. The company’s Web site provides detailed instructions on how to update various products. As a fallback, Microsoft says customers should double-check meetings scheduled electronically during March and April 2007.

One more reason to stay away from Peter Pan

A salmonella outbreak that has slowly grown to nearly 300 cases in 39 states since August has been linked to tainted peanut butter, the Assoc. Press reported.

The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat certain jars of Peter Pan or Great Value peanut butter because of the risk of contamination.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they believe this to be the first salmonella outbreak associated with peanut butter in U.S. history. How salmonella got into peanut butter is still under investigation.

I am a HUGE fan of peanut butter, so this is kind of scary. However, I'm kind of a peanut butter snob and won't eat the kinds like Peter Pan with lots of sugar and hydrogenated oils. So I see this salmonella incident as just one more reason to stay away!

The affected jars have a product code on the lid that begins with the number "2111," made by ConAgra in a single facility in Sylvester, Ga., the FDA said.

The largest number of salmonella cases were reported in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri. Symptoms of salmonella can include diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and vomiting. Fun!

Starbucks new promotion: designer t-shirts

To show customers how easy it is to customize their beverage of choice, Starbucks created a new campaign--letting fans choose drink elements incorporated into the design of the shirts, including drink size and flavors.

The cost and shipping are free. However, only a limited number of shirts are available each day.

Starbucks offers more than 5,000 drink combinations.

The campaign runs through Feb. 28 and is designed to ease the intimidation factor of ordering a beverage and get customers to try something new.

Fashion designer Mychael Knight has been tasked to create icons that will be placed on the T-shirts. MyStarbuckstshirt.com includes a link to a list of popular drinks and celebrity favorites and details about Knight.

Life's Story

Last night a friend and I went to the $1.50 theater (less money than renting!) to see Stranger Than Fiction, which has become a new favorite. The main character, Harold Crick suddenly starts hearing his life being narrated by the author who’s controlling it. “Little did he know” of his “impending doom.”

When he starts to accept that he’s going to die, Harold starts living the life he’s always wanted. I walked out of the theater challenged to live—really live the rest of my days. I don’t know that I’m going to die soon, but I do know my days are numbered.

I’m glad I know and trust my narrator to create my life story in the most loving way possible.

This morning I read Proverbs and Psalms 13.
Proverbs 13:12 (Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life, NLT) is often quoted, but it particularly struck me in the aftermath of yesterday.

I walked over to the Focus on the Family bookstore and picked up a Brio magazine. I realized this was the issue my sixth (I think?) article appeared—the one they used as part of my job interview last summer.

Once again I questioned why God has placed insurmountable obstacles in front of me and working at what I believe to be my dream job. And my best friend is going on a mission trip with them this summer, but I can’t go because of my current job’s demands.

However, I was encouraged when I read an article in our magazine’s “Why We Do What We Do” section, in which the author had a mission from God, but He kept saying “wait” or “not now” until 12 years later when circumstances lined up and she was ready.

Psalm 13 says: “O Lord, how long will you forget me? …Restore the sparkle to my eyes or I will die…But I trust in your unfailing love.” (1,3,5)

Feeling for Bones review

Bethany Pierce / Moody Publishers
Subject: Contemporary Fiction
p $12.99 ISBN: 9780802462886

When her dad loses his pastor job and the family relocates under his aunt’s mercy, 16-year-old Olivia watches her surroundings spin out of control. Money is scarce, dad stops attending church, mother becomes more controlling, they constantly argue, and she has to share a room with 6-year-old sister Callapher.
Olivia becomes obsessed with controlling her calorie consumption and pasting idyllic images on the bedroom wall. “Every page was another promise that life could become what it should, that I could be beautiful,” she says.
Near-tragedy and a death bring the family closer together, and Olivia slowly learns to accept love and care from her mother and her heavenly Father—who in the final pages becomes real to her and miraculously heals her disorder.
Recommend to young women and their mothers searching for a palatable tale of a teenager’s striving for beauty and struggle with anorexia.

Too skinny

photo: Bernat Armangue / AP

There’s been more in the news recently about models and actresses being “too skinny,” when previously the message has been “you can never be too skinny or too rich.”

It’s a well-known fact among womankind that models set an unrealistic standard—and the quest to be thin can be deadly. The most recent wakeup call came when Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died in November 2006 at age 21. She was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed just 88 pounds, and had a BMI (body mass index) of 13.4.

Italian designers in December agreed to health and age guidelines for runway models, The Associated Press reported. Now New York City Council member Gail Brewer wants fashion houses to ban any model with a body mass index of less than 18.5 -- the cutoff for the World Health Organization's definition of "normal." (up to 24.9)

Brewer said she wants models to be educated on nutrition and designers to encourage healthful lifestyles. "We want the designers to offer some clothes that are a little bit more robust," she also told CNN, "and we certainly don't want people under the age of 16 to be modeling.
Models are often women’s mirrors—who they compare themselves to. I’m not saying this is how it should be, but I certainly think it’s time for culture to start recognizing the impossible and unhealthy ideal that’s presented on the runways.

Models don’t need more education about nutrition. I think they know how to eat, but they choose not to because they’re not allowed to if they want to keep their profession. The rules of the profession need to change, so models portray an image of beauty and health.
However, if women want to see an image of beauty and health, perhaps fashion models are not the best role models in the first place. I want to look to models like Mary, Elizabeth, Ruth, and Esther (in the Bible).

Younger women join convents

From The Washington Times
By Jocelyne Zablit

One was a successful corporate lawyer, another a Mercedes-Benz driving businesswoman and a third a Navy officer who steered warships and hunted down cocaine smugglers in South America.
They are among a growing number of women in their 20s and 30s across the United States who have shed high-powered jobs, career ambitions and boyfriends for a nun's veil and a life devoted to the church. Though the trend is by no means spreading like wildfire, several Roman Catholic communities throughout the country say they have noticed a surprising and welcome phenomenon in the past decade as younger women join their ranks.
"The inquiries in recent years have been coming from younger and younger women, most of them in their early to mid-20s," said Sister Agnes Mary, mother superior at the Sisters of Life community in New York.
The Catholic community, which counted seven members when it was founded in 1991, has grown to 52 women who live in six convents scattered throughout the New York area. A seventh convent is planned within two years.
"I think young women are searching for something, and culture is not giving it to them, so they are turning to God," said Sister Mary Karen, 33, the superior at the Sisters of Life Formation House in the Bronx, where 18 women are being groomed for a life of obedience, poverty and chastity. They include a Yale graduate, a former Navy officer, a former medical student, an opera singer and a Web designer.
All have college degrees, are well-traveled and were more cosmopolitan than cloistered growing up.
They have abandoned cell phones, IPods, daily Starbucks runs and, in some cases, fiances for dormlike rooms, or "cells" as they call them, and a wardrobe that consists of a veil and habit. "I was in the Navy for a total of 10 years because I wanted to do something great with my life, but I realized I could never be passionate about it," said Angela Karalekas, 28, who entered the convent in September and will receive her habit and new religious name in June. "I was raised Catholic, but my decision has been hard on my father and three brothers."

Answer me this: What's the appeal?