New/Old Goals

Posted on January 12, 2012 by April Galloway

Another year has passed and once again, I dropped out of the Resolution effort. One of my goals was to post on my blogs on a regular basis. Another was to exercise more to improve my health and lose weight. I intended to force myself to socialize more. I think there may have been a couple more, but I can’t remember where I stored them, so I can’t be sure.

So, here we are in 2012, a brand new year to work on self-improvement. That’s what it’s all about after all. We all make New Year Resolutions about improving ourselves. We don’t list things to make our friends and families better or to improve society. We simply want to make ourselves better: more efficient, considerate, healthy. Every year, we plan to improve our appearance, education, status, or life and every year most of us fall short.

I think our problem is that our goals are too vague. We need to make two lists. One that is the usual grand plan and a second one that consists of detailed, measurable items that will enable us to move toward the greater goals. We should be making the bigger items part of a five year plan. Then each year make a list of things to help us stay on track.

Then when we suddenly realize in the middle of March that we’ve fallen off the wagon, we can simply start again. Make each new day a step on the path. If we have vacation in July and drop out of all our efforts, we simply pick up the trail again because our signposts are still there.

So, my goals this year are not carved into a cliff, waiting for me to fall. Instead, they weave a path through the fields and forests of my daily life. If I find that I’ve let myself wander away, then my measurable list will provide a map to find my way back.

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Family Resemblences

Posted on May 6, 2011 by April Galloway

Look at the photo above. Do you see how much we all look alike? The noses, eyes, face shapes, and smiles? I am amused whenever one of my granddaughters says someone told them they look like their mother and they don’t agree. I understand because I used to feel the same way. I thought I looked mostly like my Daddy and I was proud of it. As I got older, the mirror showed me my mother’s features.

I used to say that my three oldest children looked more like each other than either myself or their father. My two younger daughters looked so much alike as children that they could have been twins if not for the three and a half years between their ages. As they got older, their features changed and the resemblance lessened. Now their faces are growing back toward each other again. I see myself more in them also. There was a time when I thought my oldest daughter was the one most like me, but that too has changed.

Even though I, like them, hate to have my picture made and seldom like photos of myself, this picture has become one of my favorites. In it, I can trace the resemblances of three generations and, since I see my own mother in my mirror, add that resemblance back to the fourth one. I find it especially meaningful this week as we move toward Mother’s Day.

Yesterday afternoon, my middle daughter started the celebration for this year with a bouquet of beautiful yellow roses. She gets some such for me every year because she knows yellow roses are my favorite. It has become a tradition for us. She brought them early this time because she saw them in the store and thought that particular bunch was especially beautiful. She said she was afraid, if she waited until Sunday she wouldn’t be able to find others as nice. There will be other tokens, phone calls and cards, but this gesture is a memory that I will cherish because it says she wanted to give me the best possible.

I love my all my girls (and my boys too, but this is about the feminine side) and am very proud of them. They are strong, independent, and successful women. They have raised beautiful daughters who are on their way to becoming the same. I only wish my own mother was still here to enjoy them with me.

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Recipes – Mine or Not?

Posted on April 19, 2011 by April Galloway

One thing I originally wanted to do on this site was publish favorite recipes so that family members could share. I just haven’t ever gotten around to setting it up. Today I decided to look into it. As a website copywriter and freelance writer, I am constantly aware of the need to avoid plagiarism. Therefore, the first thing I was concerned about was how much a recipe had to be changed before it could be called “mine.”

What I found seems very confusing. The copyright law says:

“Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.”

The general consensus seems to be that you need to give credit for where ever you got the original recipe before you made your own changes to it. So, for instance, there are probably thousands of Chili recipes out there. Some of them may have unique ingredients, but most just use different combinations of the same standard list of things. These standard ingredients can only be prepared so many ways. It seems to me the descriptions for how to do this are going to overlap very frequently.

How many ways can you say “brown the meat” or “add all the spices?” So, here’s my version of chili. It’s based on personal sampling of many people’s chili over the years and a gradual “let’s try this” attitude over those same years. Continue reading →

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