Scatter Sunshine

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and I wanted to throw out a great idea for a special Valentine’s gift that is sure to bring a little sunshine into that special lady’s life.  (Hint hint husband!)

You see, a pearl is most certainly a thing of classic beauty. Its subtle elegance is something that no other gemstone can match. These stones use to only be available at the whims of nature. Fortunately though people have developed methods which allow them to cultivate, or culture, these fine treasures, enabling us to enjoy pearls more often.

The culturing process actually has quite a long history behind it that begins in Australia. William Saville-Kent discovered the methods behind pearl culturing. However two men from Japan, Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise, are responsible for its true beginning as a commercial process.

In 1916 they were granted the patent in Japan for culturing pearls, and Nishikawa’s Father-in-law then began to applying the technology to akoya pearl oysters. This technology was then applied to the south sea oyster in 1917, however it took another 11 years before a commercial crop of pearls was produced.

The method for culturing pearls is surprisingly pretty simple. The oyster is brought up out of the water. At this time a small irritant, usually a piece of shell or oyster tissue is inserted into the oyster. The oyster then activates its natural defense system and starts to coat the intruder with a layer of nacre. It keeps doing so until a full pearl is formed.

This process, depending on the oyster and size of pearl desired, can take anywhere from 2 to 7 years. A common misconception of this process is that a grain of sand is used to “seed” the oyster. While sand can cause a pearl to be formed it is much more likely that a bead, piece of shell, or chunk of tissue was used. These provide more reliable pearls, and pearl shapes, great for pearl necklaces and pearl earrings.

The culturing of pearls has provided a unique opportunity for those who seek after this jewel. They are able to have a real pearl made through the same process as natural pearls however they don’t have to wait for the rare natural pearl to found. It also provides the chance to have longer strands of matching pearls. Whatever the case may be, the culturing of pearls has truly made the jewelry world a better place.

I thought that I would get a quick post in to wish everybody a happy new year. I am really looking forward to the potential of a new decade. I love this time of reflection and excitement. I’m not sure what resolutions I’m going to make, but I am excited about the possibilities.
At the beginning of the year, my family has a night strictly dedicated to setting goals for our family. We also review how we did the past year. I’m really looking forward to it!
Be safe, and have a great new year!

Okay, so I may very well be out of the loop and pathetically behind, but I have NEVER seen these commercials with the Evian babies.  I don’t want to plug Evian, in fact, I never even drink bottled water of any kind, but this little clip really did make me giggle!

Tis the season to be thankful.  Have you ever thought of all the things there are in this life to be thankful for?  Is that hard to do?  I find that when things are going well, it’s easy to see the blessings.  The goodness in life. 

When things are tough. . . it’s different.  When dark times of trouble hang over us, often times, that’s is what we see. Darkness.  The sun doesn’t shine as bright, and if it does, it is only a nuisance which wakes us from the sleep that is protecting us from the darkness.  Laughter becomes annoying, fulfilling basic needs becomes bothersome, and the last thing on your mind is recognizing the things you are thankful for.

But when life is filled with darkness, being thankful is imperative.  Difficult yes, but imperative, absolutely.

Have you ever thought of being thankful for your trial itself.  Why?  How would that be a benefit?  Well, what are you learning?  Upon who are you leaning?  How has your perspective changed? 

Are those things you can be thankful for?  If not can they become things that you can be thankful for? 

Being thankful is imperative, making a sincere conscious effort to recognize life’s blessings may just make the sun shine brighter, in a good way.  Laughter may sound joyous again, and perhaps fulfilling those basic needs may be a privilege.

What are you thankful for?

So, my middle child is in preschool.  Preschool is a wonderful thing.  Lots of playing, painting, and parties.  Luckily, thanks to my son’s wonderful teacher, there is also learning encorporated into all of the aforementioned pleasures. 

She has started a new system during the last hour of class in which she incorporates center rotations.  She has asked for parent volunteers to help with the centers. 

I told her I would be happy to help, and I was.

Things went smoothly, the class was well behaved, their art projects were a smashing success, and I walked away happy.  As I loaded my son into his booster seat, he told me (with his adorable lisp and inability to say l’s, or r’s),

“Mommy, I thtiww (still) wuv you, but I never want you to come to my prethkool (preschool) ever again, and thith time I mean it!”

He said it with such passion that I nearly peed my pants.  I had hardly interacted with him as “my son” so I was quite surprised with is reaction to my visit.

I informed him that I had already volunteered to help again the following Monday during their Thanksgiving party so he was out of luck.

After a little contemplation, he came up with a solution, “Weww, (well) you can pretend to be Kam’th mother then.”

At least he still loves me right?

I am a suburban mother of three beautiful children who has the tendency to complain.  I hear it all the time, “I don’t want to clean my room!”  “Democrats are too liberal,”  “Republicans are too conservative,”  “Gas is too much,”  “My house isn’t worth enough.”  Negative thoughts and discussions are all around us.  It is so easy to get caught up in the complaining.  I’m sure each one of us could find something to complain about if we looked long and hard enough, but why should we?  I mean, spending our whole lives focusing on the negatives around us just can’t be doing us any favors. 

That is why I am dedicating this blog to the positives. 

There are positives, and they happen to be all around us too.  Sometimes they are just harder to see. 

For instance, a few short days ago, my darling little toddler dumped an entire box of cereal on the floor, an entire FULL box of cereal.  I nearly lost my mind!  I had been cleaning all day and the house ended up looking no different than it had that morning.  After giving the little dear a stern “NO, NO!” I went to work cleaning it up.  Before I knew it my two older boys were joining in and the moment suddenly had a little sense of sweetness.  Instead of losing my mind like I had originally planned, I was able to take a deep breathe and enjoy working together with my kids.  We ended up having a good laugh about the whole situation.  Allowing that little bit of sunshine in kept a lot of potential darkness out! 

That’s my challenge to you.  Look for the sunshine in your life, then scatter it to others.  Heaven knows we could all use a little more light every now and again!