Cinco de Mayo

(Google Image) 

By Diane Forrest

The first week of May is a very eventful time for me.  It is the time for the Kentucky Derby, and although I don't know much about horse or racing, I love to look at the lady's hats.  It is also my birthday, and Cinco de Mayo.  Cinco de Mayo means May 5th in Spanish.  According to history.com, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army's 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867).

(Google Image) 

It is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico; however, in the United States Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. Cinco de Mayo traditions include parades, mariachi music performances and street festivals in cities and towns across Mexico and the United States.

(Google Image) 

This year will probably be an even larger party than usual since it is Saturday and many people will be off from work.  I plan on going to our local Mexican restaurant and celebrating with a fried Chimichanga and chips and salsa.  

How are you going to celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

(Google Image) 

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Whenever your kids are out of control, you can take comfort from the

thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to his kids.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.

And the first thing God said to them was: "Don't."

"Don't what?" Adam asked.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit, said God."

"Forbidden fruit? Really? Where is it?", Adam and Eve asked, jumping

up and down excitedly.

"It's over there," said God, wondering why he hadn't stopped after

making the elephants.

A few minutes later God saw the kids having an apple break and he was

very angry.

"Didn't I tell you not to eat that fruit?" the First Parent asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

"Then why DID you do it?", God asked exasperatedly.

"I dunno," Adam answered.

God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their

own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed. But there is a

reassurance in this story. If you have persistently and lovingly tried

to give your children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be so hard

on yourself. If God had trouble handling his children, what makes you

think it should be a piece of cake for you?

(Google Image) 

By Diane Forrest

RN and Mother

Since the beginning of the world when you tell someone they can’t do something, or have something, well that only serves as an incentive to get it.   The same goes for teens and sex.   This subject has been in the news alot recently, but it has been a problem for centuries.  How do you deal with it?  I was raised to abstain from intimate relationships until marriage, as was my son.  However, with my son, it wasn't enough to tell him that was the way he should live, but being a nurse, and teaching sex education to other kids, I also taught it to my son.  I taught him how the body works, about how the female body works, how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.  I also gave him the tools to use for prevention.  I don’t think it is enough to tell them, don't do that because I said so, you have to explain why you shouldn't do something.

(Google Image) 

Recently I read an article that teen pregnancy was at the lowest it had been in many years.  While that is comforting, it is still disturbing that there is teen pregnancy.  Shows like 16 and Pregnant, and celebrities such as Bristol Palin and Brittney Spears younger sister, Jamie Lynn only fuel the fire that having babies when you are still in high school is cool.

(Google Image) 

Education is the main way to prevent teen pregnancies, but it natural to assume that kids are going to experiment.  Not only do they need the facts, but they need the tools.  Condoms and birth control methods should be explained and provided.  The main discussion is who is going to educate?  In the Bible belt, where I live, they don't want it taught in schools, but parents are weary of having "the talk" too.  By the time most families get around to it, the child already knows more than you do.  They learn from kids, television, and just by doing.  It doesn’t matter what they know, the information they have may be wrong.  They still need to learn the real facts, and have the real tools.

(Google Image) 

This is the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.  To learn how you can help with this problem, click on this site:  http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/

(Google Image) 

Celiac Awareness Month

(Google Image)

By Diane Forrest, RN

When I was in nursing school we did a clinical at the pediatric hospital in Jackson, MS.  We spent a few weeks there learning about the problems, diseases, and how to care for children.  Taking care of children is a totally different ballgame.  Children are scared, confused, irritable, and would rather be outside playing instead of inside getting poked with needles or swallowing pills.   Many hospitals try to make the pediatric area as special as possible to keep the kids entertained while they receive their care.  The children also have the additional benefit of having a parent or other family member stay with them, which is always comforting for the child, but can be draining for the family.

(Google Image)

This was the case for one particular family, their child had several medical problems, and one of them was Celiac Disease.  This meant that the child was on a very restricted diet.  Back then, they didn't have as many gluten free products as they do today, so things were even more difficult.  Celiac disease is a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food that are important for staying healthy. The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats.

(Google Image)

The cause of Celiac is unknown.  It can occur at any time in a person's life, from infancy to adulthood.  It destroys the villi in the stomach lining and prevents the absorption of nutrients the body needs.  Symptoms include:

• Gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, constipation stomach cramps
• Bruising
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Hair lose
• Tooth damage
• Irregular Menstrual Cycles
• Poor weight gain
• Delayed Growth

Celiac disease is diagnosed with a blood test or genetic testing.  It usually runs in families.  It is treated with a gluten free diet.  It will usually heal itself within 3 to 6 months for children, and up to 2 to 3 years in adults.

(Google Image) 

May is Celiac Awareness Month.  For more information on ways you can help, click here:  http://www.celiac.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=119

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Awareness Month

Lou Gehrig 
(Google Image) 

By Diane Forrest, RN

In 1923 a handsome brown haired dimpled faced 20 year old man put on a New York Yankee baseball uniform, number 4, and began a life time career of professional baseball.  He played 2130 consecutive games during his 17 seasons, a record that lasted until 1995.  He was nicknamed the “Iron Horse” for his batting ability.  During his career he had 23 grand slams, 492 home runs, and 2721 hits.  He, along with Babe Ruth opened the Yankee stadium, he was the first athlete on a box of Wheaties, and was awarded a post office stamp in 1989, and was the first player to have his number, 4, retired and he was the only player in history to collect 400 total bases in five seasons.  He had a grand career until 1938.  His performance began to slip.  In 1939, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.  On June 21, 1939 his retirement was announced, and on June 2, 1941 he died at his home in the Bronx.  His name was Lou Gehrig.  His disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is also known as the Lou Gehrig's disease.  He was 38 years old.

(Google Image) 

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement.  In about 10% of cases, ALS is caused by a genetic defect. In the remaining cases, the cause is unknown.

(Google Image) 

In ALS, nerve cells (neurons) waste away or die, and can no longer send messages to muscles. This eventually leads to muscle weakening, twitching, and an inability to move the arms, legs, and body. The condition slowly gets worse. When the muscles in the chest area stop working, it becomes hard or impossible to breathe on one's own.

(Google Image) 

ALS affects approximately 5 out of every 100,000 people worldwide. There are no known risk factors, except for having a family member who has a hereditary form of the disease.

Symptoms usually don’t appear until after the age of 50.  They include:

1. Difficulty swallowing
2. Difficulty breathing
3. Muscle weakness, twitching and cramps
4. Paralysis
5. Difficulty speaking

There is no known cure for ALS, and death occurs usually in 3 to 5 years.  May is ALS awareness month.  To learn about ways you can help, visit their website here: http://www.alsa.org/ to help find a cure.

Brain Tumor Action Week

(Google Image) 

By Diane Forrest, RN

Years ago if you heard of someone having a brain tumor it was like receiving a death sentence.  Medical research has grown so much since then.  Cures and treatments have progress so that it is no longer considered a fatal diagnosis for some.  There is still so much to do though. Each year over 190,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with a brain tumor. Brain tumors are a leading cause of tumor cancer deaths in children. Brain tumors are also the third main cause of cancer death in adults within the 20-39 age brackets.

(Google Image)

Brain tumors are either primary or metastatic tumors. Primary brain tumors are those which originate in the brain. Metastatic brain tumors are those which originate from cancerous cells that have migrated from other areas of the body.  Metastatic brain tumors are also known as secondary brain tumors. Not all brain tumors are cancerous – benign brain tumors are non-cancerous tissue and are harmful only when they grow to a size which affects adjacent areas of the brain. Benign brain tumors tend to grow more slowly than malignant (cancerous) brain tumors.

(Google Image)

Early warning signs include:

• seizures;
• headaches;
• fatigue, tiredness and drowsiness;
• impaired speech;
• difficulties when swallowing;
• in infants, an increase in head size;
• impaired vision;
• vomiting;
• poor body coordination;
• behavioral and mood changes;
• weakness in a limb or on one side of the body;
• difficulties with balance; and or
• tingling sensations and/or weakness in the arms or legs.

With over 120 different forms of brain tumor, effectively treating them can become very complicated.  Proton treatment for a brain tumor is a precise method of using proton therapy to deliver powerful doses of radiation to the tumor. The precision this delivery of treatment brings means there is minimal effect of the surrounding healthy brain tissue.

Dosage of radiation can be tailored to each tumor. Other treatments include surgical removal, chemotherapy, radio therapy or a combination of these methods.

(Google Image)

This week is Brain Tumor Action Week.  To see what things you can do, click here:  http://www.braintumor.org/get-involved/advocacy-public-policy/action-week.html

(Google Image)

National Truffle Day

(Google Image)

By Chef Diane

The first time my son invited me to visit him in his new town we went to a wonderful restaurant for dinner.  I had the rib eye steak and fried shrimp and it was delicious!  I could only eat the shrimp, and I was stuffed!  When the waitress came by to ask if we wanted dessert, I could barely breathe.  I always like to eat something sweet after a meal, but I couldn’t hold another crumb.  My son, being aware of my sweet tooth, took me to a local candy shop.  I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.  Inside, there were shelves and shelves full of chocolate!  There were so many different kinds of truffles it was hard to choose the one I wanted most.

(Google Image)

They had coffee and tea flavors, salty and spicy flavors, fruity and liquor flavors too.  Some were rolled in coco dust, coconut, powdered sugar, and candy sprinkles or nuts.  His favorite was the Iced Mocha, and I picked the Chocolate Mint.  Today is National Truffle Day, why not stop by a candy store in your area and grab one...or two.  If you don’t have one in your area, here is a recipe from simplyrecipes.com for you to try to make your own.

(Google Image)

Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients

Basic truffle ingredients

• 8 ounces of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate (high quality, 62% cacao or higher), well chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

(Google Image)

Optional base flavorings:

• Mint leaves (1 bunch, stems removed, chopped, about 1 cup)
• Cinnamon and cardamom (1 cinnamon stick, 2 cardamom pods)
• Amaretto (1-2 tablespoons)
• Almond extract (1 teaspoon)
• Truffle coatings
• Cocoa powder
• Finely chopped walnuts
• Finely chopped almonds

Method

1. In a small, heavy saucepan bring the heavy whipping cream to a simmer (this may take a while, be sure to stir and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula every few minutes).
2. If you are using one of the other recommended flavorings, stir it in with the cream (and ignore vanilla in the next step). If adding mint or other solids, after the cream simmers, remove from heat and let seep for an hour. Then strain away solids, and return the cream to a simmer and proceed with recipe.
3. Place the chocolate in a separate bowl. Pour the cream over the chocolate, add the vanilla, and allow to stand for a few minutes then stir until smooth. (This chocolate base is called ganache.)
4. Allow to cool, then place in the refrigerator for two hours. Remove and with a teaspoon roll out balls of the ganache. Roll in your hands quickly (as it will melt from the heat of your hands) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in the refrigerator overnight.
5. Roll in cocoa powder or chopped nuts and serve, or place back in the refrigerator until needed.

(Google Image)  

Makes 30-40 chocolate truffles.

May Day

(Google Image) 

By Akindman

“Isn’t it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool’s Day and ends with cries of “May Day!”?” ~ Unknown

(Google Image) 

Last year we focused on the history of May Day and this year we will look at some quotes, lyrics, poems and a little of this and that – we hope you enjoy!

(Google Image) 

“Love is fragile -- she was thinking -- but perhaps the pieces are saved, the things that hovered on lips, that might have been said. The new love-words, the tenderness learned, and treasured up for the next lover.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, May Day

May Day (May 1st) is celebrated in many places around the world. The traditions and stories surrounding May Day vary from place to place. There is, however, one thing that is similar in most celebrations – the use of Flowers!

One of the most popularly known May Day traditions is to hang a basket full of spring flowers and/or other small gifts on a neighbor’s doorknob. The trick is you don’t want the neighbor to see you! If you get caught, you are supposed to get a kiss.

"The world's favorite season is the spring.

All things seem possible in May."

-  Edwin Way Teale

(Google Image) 

"By the time one is eighty, it is said, there is no longer a tug of war in the garden with the May flowers hauling like mad against the claims of the other months.  All is at last in balance and all is serene.  The gardener is usually dead, of course."

-  Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman

"'Tis like the birthday of the world,

When earth was born in bloom;

The light is made of many dyes,

The air is all perfume:

There's crimson buds, and white and blue,

The very rainbow showers

Have turned to blossoms where they fell,

And sown the earth with flowers."

-  Thomas Hood

"You are as welcome as the flowers in May."

-  Charles Macklin

(Google Image) 

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill.

You know how it is with an April day.

When the sun is out and the wind is still,

You're one month on in the middle of May.

But if you so much as dare to speak,

a cloud come over the sunlit arch,

And wind comes off a frozen peak,

And you're two months back in the middle of March."

-  Robert Frost

"The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds.  For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May."

-  Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur

(Google Image) 

"What is so sweet and dear

As a prosperous morn in May,

The confident prime of the day,

And the dauntless youth of the year,

When nothing that asks for bliss,

Asking aright, is denied,

And half of the world a bridegroom is,

And half of the world a bride?"

-  William Watson, Ode in May, 1880

"Spring - an experience in immortality."

-  Henry D. Thoreau

"A little Madness in the Spring

Is wholesome even for the King."

-  Emily Dickinson

"When April steps aside for May,

Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;

Fresh violets open every day:

To some new bird each hour we listen."

-  Lucy Larcom

(Google Image) 

“It's spring fever.... You don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

-  Mark Twain

(Google Image) 

"Spring is God's way of saying, 'One more time!' "

-  Robert Orben

"Also known as May Eve, May Day, and Walpurgis Night, happens at the beginning of May.  It celebrates the height of Spring and the flowering of life.  The Goddess manifests as the May Queen and Flora.  The God emerges as the May King and Jack in the Green.  The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess.  Colors are the Rainbow spectrum. Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight."

-  Selena Fox, Beltane: Celebrating the Seasons

"Poetry is the silence and speech between a wet struggling root of a flower and a sunlit blossom of that flower."

-  Carl Sandburg

(Google Image) 

"All furnished, all in arms;

All plum'd like estridges that with the wind

Bated like eagles having lately bathed;

Glittering in golden coats like images;

As full of spirit as the month of May

And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;

Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls."

-  William Shakespeare, King Henry the Fourth, Part I

(Google Image) 

"For the May Day is the great day,

Sung along the old straight track.

And those who ancient lines did ley

Will heed this song that calls them back...

Pass the cup, and pass the Lady,

And pass the plate to all who hunger,

Pass the wit of ancient wisdom,

Pass the cup of crimson wonder."

-  Jethro Tull, Cup of Wonder

Links:

http://www.egreenway.com/months/monmay.htm