Lifestyle: Family, Home, Pets
 
This section shares information, tips, stories or ideas about parenting,family life, children,outings and trips, finances,self-care, customs, stories about cultural heritage and tradition, our furry pet companions (even hairless ones), and any other aspects of our domestic experience in Asheville and Western North Carolina.
Willow
Esmeralda awoke with a splitting headache. This is certainly the worst headache I’ve ever had, she thought, rubbing her head vigorously. Her temples were throbbing in a most unpleasant manner. She tried to remember what had happened. She looked around her. It was dark.
more...
Lytingale
I'm really a Type-A personality; you know, the kind that wants everything done yesterday, in the absolutely most efficient way. I've read the books; I know it's bad for my health. My husband and co-workers aren't too crazy about living with it either... more...
News or Press Release
Dear Animal Compassion Networkers,
Here I sit, humbled by all you have achieved. It was less than a year ago that you decided to do something to change the fact that only 20% of cats and dogs in American homes today were adopted from a shelter or rescue group. And today we announce the Grand Opening of ACN's own pet store - Pet Harmony, Making Second-Chance Pets Everyone's First Choice! more...
News or Press Release
Animal Compassion Network, Asheville, NC — Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. For an animal in need, these heroes often come dressed as Animal Compassion Network foster parents. ACN places unwanted dogs and cats in loving foster homes while they await adoption. Often times these animals come into the homes neglected and lonely and leave as perky, beautiful animal companions. more...
 "Locavore" is 2007 Word of the Year
News or Press Release
The New Oxford American Dictionary chose locavore, a person who seeks out
locally produced food, as its word of the year. The local foods movement is
gaining momentum as people discover that the best-tasting and most
sustainable choices are foods that are fresh, seasonal, and grown close to
home. Some locavores draw inspiration from the 100-mile diet or from
advocates of local eating like Barbara Kingsolver. Others just follow their
taste buds to farmers' markets, community supported agriculture programs,
and community gardens. Check out Local Harvest to find sustainably grown
food near you, and make a New Year's Resolution to be a locavore in 2008!
Source:
Union of Concerned Scientists FEED – Food & Environment Electronic Digest
- December 2007
More Women doing Home Repairs
Sheville Staff
The Wall Street Journal reports that home repair activity by women is up substantially in this country. It appears to be driven in part by the greater number of single women buying houses. For more information, please see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120001596712982785.html?mod=taste_primary_hs
Willow
The Egg solemnly shifted under the blanket and gazed off into the distance. “I don’t know how long it’s been that I’ve been gone. I’ve lost all track of time. I seem to have been suspended in time and space. I don’t know if I’ve been gone minutes or centuries. more...
Religious Exemptions for Childhood Vaccination
Sheville Staff
Check out the Citizen Times' coverage of the issue of childhood vaccination: arguments for and against. Whatever your personal beliefs, relgious exemptions from the North Carolina vaccination law are way higher in Buncombe County than statewide: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071223/NEWS01/71222124/1009
New Girl Order
Sheville Staff
Heard about the New Girl Order? It's a worldwide phenomenon. Even in a number
of quite sexist societies, women are discovering that marriage may not be the
best career choice! From New York to Poland to India to Japan to Korea, women
are staying single into their thirties as they pursue career goals - and also
as they reject many of the traditional ideas about marriage and female subservience.
This SYF (Single Young Female) trend has hit many cultures completely by surprise.
And it's not so easy for societies to try to reject it out of hand: the trend
has spawned considerable economic buying power. For more info, see http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_4_new_girl_order.html
Willow
They had a delicious lunch of nuts and fruits and several other delicacies
she had never tasted before but was afraid to ask what they were. She didn’t
know what kind of diet lizards and Eggs ate. All the same, they did eat very
well indeed. more...
News or Press Release
About Animal Compassion Network
ACN is the largest no-kill, non-profit animal welfare organization in Western North Carolina. It achieves its dual mission of eliminating companion animal overpopulation and finding homes for unwanted animals as a volunteer-driven foster network that is an alternative to traditional sheltering. more...
Study shows less decline in Religious Faith by College Attendees
J. Lee Lehman
Bucking almost everyone’s expectations, a new study clearly demonstrates that those young adults who attend college – whether or not they get a degree – show less decline in religious faith than young adults who don’t attend college at all. Three different measures of religious faith were studied, and all three show the same trend. It appears that the perception that higher education was contributing to the decline in religious faith was actually resulting from a measurable decline attributable to age, not education.. For more information, please see http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/14/religion
Jean Cassidy
My cat greets each day
and each event as though it is just now happening
for the first time. more...
Mary Regina
I was born into a family that had one top priority – FOOD! Both of my parents were overweight. How do you trim down in the midst of a family whose home is stocked with every kind of exotic food just waiting to be eaten? more...
Bonnie Rose
Q: We moved but some of our things did not arrive on the moving van. Can we still have them appraised?
A: Yes, you can. Hypothetical appraisals are used to estimate the value of property which is no longer available for inspection, such as property that has been stolen, destroyed by fire, or damaged or misplaced by the moving company. more...
B J Tankersley
The white eagle's name is Anunkasun the protector of the women and children. Her blue eyes are the eyes of our Creator's spirit and she lives in the west on the north side of the altar. In the center of her chest is the morning star, our guiding star. Each morning just before day break, she is there to bless our new day with love and light. We give thanks each morning for keeping us safe as we sleep thru the night. more...
 Quotable - Alice Walker
Alice Walker
"How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers' names."
Sue Ford
“I can’t keep my power next to Kelly!” a live-wired little girl said to me in total earnestness. I was about to share a music program with a kindergarten class. more...
M. Linda Rowe
The handcraft tradition in North Carolina is a long one and includes items as diverse as dulcimers and pottery, knives and quilts. Handmade never meant that tools were not used, but that the tools ran on human power, not motor power. In the 20th century, electricity reached even the most remote mountain coves and hollows, and along with it came machinery that made crafting work easier. more...
Animal Compassion Network
I know you’ve all heard of The Betty Fund, Animal Compassion Network’s spay/neuter program that will pay up to the full cost of surgery for any pet guardian in WNC who cannot afford it. But some of you have probably wondered who exactly Betty is. more...
Sheville Staff
Fun things To Do List! more...
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Teddy
Life as A Fat Child - Being a Slim Adult
The Betty Fund