The girls, troop leaders, senior citizen Girl Scouts, parents and friends of Troop 766, Elyton Village Community Troop and Troop 207, Mt. Ararat Baptist Church Troop, spent some of their Christmas break by giving back to others by providing a little love to the homeless in Linn Park. The girls made over 120 scarves for the homeless. as well as giving 100 pairs of gloves, and over 120 caps for them to wear. They also gave them 10 blankets. The girls also gave 200  gift bags for them, each bag containing socks, snacks and facial tissue as well as 200 brown bags which included a fruit and a juice.
The girls used their cookie and candy profit to purchase some of the items. Other items were donated by these amazing girls, their supportive parents, their wonderful registered senior citizen Girl Scouts, especially Lee Colvin, Pastor Barbara Chapman, Dr. Carol Johnson, John Hicks Jr., Gwen Dawkins, Nathaniel Reed, Jesse Chapman, Viola Davis, Clara Yelder, Walter and Ann Jemison, great friends and dedicated troop leaders and assistants.
Their passion and kindness with the homeless started four years ago. The girls try to do something for the homeless at least twice a year, along with their other community service.
As a part of this service project, the girls have made a three minute film that will be on YouTube this week. This is the second year President Obama has had a film fest.  This year the White House is looking for videos that highlight the impact of service and giving back. Our girls have entered the contest. We ask that you would go to YouTube, put in White House Film Fest Giving Back 2015 and go to Girl Scouts Making a Difference by Warming Hearts. Let us know if you like it. The winner of the contest will go to the White House to watch the film with the President and his family, so please support the girls.

A Christian father recites how a reestablished connection with his suddenly sick daughter changed his life and faith five years later
Many parents typically find the process of bonding
and connecting with their young teen fairly difficult, mainly due to their growing desire for privacy and independence. Labeling it a “phase,” many parents tend to sit back and hope their teen eventually “grows out of it.
A typical tactic for sure that could and often does turn out okay for the parent. But is gambling that time will essentially “fix” your child the best way of finally connecting with him or her? Well, from his own experiences, book author Paul Stepusin begs to differ.
Paul, a Christian father and husband, successful businessman and family provider took pride in these roles. But as his daughter Rebecca turned 18 and was heading to college, he felt that despite an obvious mutual love for one another, the once personal relationship held between father and daughter was now diminishing.
As she was becoming a woman, Paul had a tough time accepting she was not daddy’s little girl anymore. This did not sit well with Paul, but he like many parents, placed faith on time magically placing things together – until a routine check-up with the family doctor happened.
That routine check-up revealed Rebecca suffered from a historically uncommon form of Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that usually affects children much younger than her. The road to treatment was one of much uncertainty and unanswered questions. But one thing Paul was certain about was taking time into his own hands by re-bonding with his daughter asap – despite how uncomfortable or embarrassing it may be for him.
Paul’s book, Rare captures how he was able to reconnect his father/daughter bond with Rebecca, and how important it became for both of them to do so, while cancer was looming.  He reveals ways on how he remained persistent without becoming a nuisance, and how he began to read body language while using non-verbal cues to connect early on. He also stresses how parents must overcome inner-pride and take the time to open up with their child emotionally. It is only then when true personal moments are captured between a parent and a child.
The Role Faith Played
Rare also uncovers how Paul struggled with his faith more than ever during this time. His inability to see God’s works in Rebecca during her time of sickness brought anger and mistrust. However, Rebecca ironically became closest to God as her sickness grew. Her trust in Him was apparent to everyone who was around her, which eventually made everyone see the miracle of spiritual healing she was receiving from God, including Paul.
“God was there all along, but it took the strength of Rebecca when she struggled most to see his love and mercy. It is very ironic, but her belief in God’s will allowed me to open my eyes for the first time during all this to witness His grace,” said Paul.

by Elaine Taylor
When anyone asks my dignified, stiff-upper-lipped husband, how a guy who’s been an investment banker in financial capitals of the world— London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York — ended up blissfully hitched to a broad from red-white-and-blue Texas, he deadpans in his clipped British accent, “We were channeled together by the spirit of Elaine’s dead lover.”
Hundred percent true; but not as effortlessly mystical as it sounds —even if you’re into that stuff.
I grew up in redneck, white-trash, blue-collar Texas, where a girl was a big fat nothing — less valuable than a good huntin’ dawg.
Terrified to wake up thirty years later and find they were right, I scratched out a role in the corporate testicle festival. By age 40, I earned fat, man-size paychecks. The price? A heart as tough as armadillo hide, and my “love life” a dispiriting trail of relationship roadkill.
Desperate for a peek at my future I consulted an astrologer-psychic who fanned out her Tarot cards, did her California woo-woo thing and assured me I would someday have the kind of love about which stories are written. “But,” she said, “not until you’re ready.”
Sheesh. How much readier could one woman be?
The psychic pointed me down the path of a 1-2-3 Get-Ready-for-Love Plan:
1.    Write a Perfect Mate List: Let’s face it: if you’re “on-the-market” you have some form of that list running through your subconscious 24/7, right? And it works! My first iteration, decades earlier, was, “tall, dark and handsome.” Yep. Exactly what I got … and pretty much nothing more. This time I went beyond the kind of description found on a driver’s license. Honed and refined that list over multiple years. (Sadly, this was not an overnight process; but isn’t the possibility of a soul mate worth the time?)
2.    Define what “love” will look like when it finds me: Seriously? How no-brainer is that? It will be, “Wonderful! Spectacular! I will be ecstatically happy!” Which, of course, was just another lazy variation on the driver’s license list. To my surprise I struggled with this — couldn’t figure out even how to start. Until Emily Dickinson inspired me: Heart, we will forget him! You and I, tonight! You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.
3.    Unload the emotional baggage: No emotional baggage here! OK, OK … I was a Peterbilt truck with no side mirrors, hauling a semi-trailer of festering emotional manure that rocked along in my blind spot. Yeah, it probably couldn’t hurt to drop a load. After much mewling and twitchy dithering, I hunkered on my therapist’s sofa, unleashed a lifetime of repressed tears; and summoned the courage to face down all those hurts and betrayals — both those done to and by me. Over time, the volume diminished on the “you’ll never be good enough” sound track that had been hammered into my psyche.

Painful? Absolutely. Emancipating? Beyond words.
Over this years-long process I discovered three critical truths:
•    It is not possible to find long-lasting, deeply satisfying love unless you believe yourself worthy of it. I had to learn to love, and find contentment with, myself.
•    As a woman clawing her way in a man’s world I defined “emotional strength” as all sharp-edges and impenetrable boundaries. I had to relearn that tenderness and vulnerability are the DNA of true emotional strength. When the time came, I used that strength to love a dying man who had once broken my heart. A man who desperately needed to receive love, even as he could not return it.
•    I accepted and found peace with the fact that I might never share my life with the Perfect Mate. So what would I do with all the love my heart yearned to give? I stopped focusing on what I did not have … and sought a way to give what I could offer to those who needed it. I began to volunteer at a homeless shelter for families— the kind of place that, but for the grace of God, I might have needed to land in my early, below-the-poverty-level, single-parent years.

My journey through the Get-Ready-for-Love Plan was neither easy nor quick. But it was worth it for the lessons learned, for the woman I worked so hard to become, for the love and respect I feel for that woman.
As it turned out, my reward was exponentially greater. That dying man I loved fifteen years ago? Two years after his death the psychic told me he was sending my soul mate — a lover who would bring “warmth and light” for the rest of my life.
Seriously! She said it. And he did!
That soul mate, my husband, has been my Perfect Mate since 2001. Thankfully I was ready for love — I was ready for him … when he found me.
Elaine Taylor is a former IT headhunter and Contingent Workforce Management consultant to Fortune 500 companies. When she lived in San Francisco, she was involved with Raphael House, a shelter for homeless families, as a regular volunteer and as a member of the Board of Directors. She teaches Story Structure through OLLI at Duke University. KARMA, DECEPTION and a Pair of Red FERRARIS (May 5, 2015) is her only work of creative nonfiction. Currently she lives with her husband and two highly indulged Weimaraners in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina.

NATIONWIDE (BlackNews.com) — Pam Saulsby is an Emmy award-winning journalist with more than 30 years of professional work experience. She has reported on many of the country’s triumphs and tragedies. But her true passion is singing and because of this, she has recently launched a new venture with a new tune called “Brand New Day.”
She comments, “My new song is an anthem of the woman she has matured into, and a real look at how she loves the new life she is living – fully-expressed.”
Pam, who is a blogger, author, professional speaker, and now performer is no stranger to hard work.
As a journalist, she was in Miami during the 1980 Mariel Cuba Boatlift Operation. She has covered many of the major hurricanes to hit the southeastern coastline, the start of the AIDS Epidemic, the NCAA Final Four College Football Tournament, the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Men’s Basketball Coach Dean Smith, and most recently the ill treatment of U.S. Military Veterans by the VA Center.
Here’s what one REVERBNATION reviewer says about her and performing:
“[She] has a nice voice, strong and level, not too showy or flashy, she has the kind of humble honest tone to her voice that you feel you can trust, depend on somehow. I really enjoy her harmonies and just her overall sound really, she has a genuine texture to her voice, and she handles her tone like a well honed instrument.”
To listen to the song and/or to watch the music video, visit www.PamSaulsby.com.

Consumers help spark sales as they find
 more ways to enjoy a favorite drink
With whiskey sales on the rise, more people are discovering there are plenty of ways to drink the distilled spirit than just straight on the rocks.
Drink mixologists enjoy finding more and more ways to complement the whiskey flavor with a plethora of other ingredients, whether it’s syrups, fruit juices, vermouth or even tea.
A growing willingness to experiment with whiskey and bourbon as the primary ingredient in a variety of cocktails is just one of several ways consumer habits have been changing, says Steven Earles, CEO of Portland-based Eastside Distilling (www.EastsideDistilling.com).
“People are drinking less wine and more whiskey, and women have become more inclined to give whiskey a try,” says Earles, whose company already experiments with a variety of flavors in its drinks, such as Cherry Bomb Whiskey and Oregon Marionberry Whiskey.
The trend of finding more ways to include whiskey in cocktails also may be just one of several factors helping to add to the bump in whiskey sales. As of November 2014, Whiskey sales were near $4 billion, in contrast to $3.5 billion in 2013, according Nielsen research.
For distilleries, those numbers may mean a toast is in order. For consumers, that toast may involve a mix of flavors made just to their liking – but definitely is still on the rocks.
Recipes For Mixing It Up Yourself
Perhaps the classic whiskey cocktail is the Old-Fashioned, around since the late 19th Century. But for those looking to add even more variety to their whiskey and bourbon selections, Eastside Distilling offers these cocktail recipes:
• Earl’s Demise
    

25 oz. Cherry Bomb Whiskey (one 750ML bottle)

12.5 oz. Burnside Bourbon

75 oz. Smith Teamaker Earl Grey Tea (chilled)

25 oz. Orange juice

25 oz. Simple syrup

12.5 oz. Sweet vermouth

5 tablespoons Peychaud’s Bitters
Mix all the ingredients in a large punch bowl, then add ice or ice ring. Serve in small punch glasses. The mixture serves 10-12 people.
• The Sideburn

1 ½ oz. Burnside Whiskey

¾ oz. Aperol

½ oz. Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur

1 oz. Fresh lemon juice

½ oz. lavender simple syrup

13 oz. Old Fashioned glass over ice
Fill a 14 oz. rocks glass with ice, add all the other ingredients and stir.
• Eastside Civil War
 

1 ½ oz. Burnside Bourbon

½ oz. Cocchi Torino Sweet Vermouth

½ oz. Cynar

2 dashes Fee Brothers Old Fashion Bitters

Amarena cherry
Add all the ingredients, except the cherry, to a 16 oz. mixing glass (pint glass). Fill to within 1 inch of the top with ice. Stir until chilled and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with an Amarena cherry.
• Marionberry Beret

1.5 oz. Marionberry Whiskey

.5 oz. Dry Curacao

2 oz. Fresh Grapefruit juice

Served on the rocks
Fill glass with ice, add Burnside Bourbon and recipe ingredients.

Anthony and Betty “Frances” King celebrates their 50th wedding anniversary, January 25, 2015. Anthony retired from The V.A. Hospital and Frances retired from U.A.B. Special Studies. Darryl King and Grandchildren are responsible (Hosts) for the month of January activities for the couple.