Category Archives: Family

Being The Only Child

  So… what’s up with being an only child? People say a lot of things about only children; they are spoiled, they are lonely, they tend to be bossy and they think the world revolves around them. In China, where … Continue reading

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5 Reasons to Hire an Atlanta Personal Chef

If you think hiring a personal chef is too hoity-toity, you may be surprised to discover that more people than ever before are opting to hire a chef for at least some of their meals.
Keywords:
personal chef, personal chefs, atlanta personal chef, atlanta personal chefs, private event chefs in atlanta, georgia ch
Article Body:
If you live in the Atlanta area, why not consider hiring a personal chef? If you think hiring Georgia chefs is too hoity-toity, you may be surprised to discover that more people than ever before are opting to hire a chef for at least some of their meals. Here are five reasons why:
1. Atlanta personal chefs can save you money.
Yes, it seems counterintuitive, but you can actually save money when you hire a chef in Georgia. Think about how much money you spend each week picking up take-out, going out to dinner, and buying groceries at the store. Chances are, you and your spouse spend more than the cost of having a personal chef prepare five days worth of customized meals in your own home.
2. A personal chef can save you time.
Most people think that in-home chefs come to your home every day. In truth, they usually come one day each week and prepare five days’ worth of meals at once. They then package and store the other dinners so that all you have to do is reheat and serve. Imagine the time you can save – time that isn’t spent running to the store or piling the family in the car to go grab a bite.
3. A chef for hire can reunite the family.
Well, the chef herself doesn’t reunite the family, but gathering together for a family meal goes far in helping family members stay connected. With careers, errands, extracurricular activities, and time spent with friends, it’s all too easy to spend for family members to scatter to the four winds. With a personal chef, you can spend what little time you have together enjoying good food and catching up with one another.
4. A personal chef brings nutrition to the table.
All too often, nutrition takes a backseat to convenience. Personal chefs provide convenience without sacrificing nutrition. By using the best and freshest ingredients, you can work with a personal chef to come up with menu ideas that are both delicious and nutritious.
5. A party chef takes the stress out of entertaining.
Whether you’re having a dinner party for six or a brunch for sixteen, private event chefs in Atlanta can be a godsend. They can whip up exquisite meals that your guests will find memorable, and you can concentrate on ensuring that everyone has a good time. Private party chefs have the experience needed to create dishes that complement one another, as well as the ability to execute those dishes to perfection. If you need other help for the party, such as servers or bartenders, a personal chef should be able to provide you with reliable referrals.
Once you look into the costs and benefits of hiring a personal chef, you’ll quickly see that she will not only make your life easier, but will also make your life better.
Title: 5 Reasons to Hire an Atlanta Personal Chef
Word Count:473
Summary:If you think hiring a personal chef is too hoity-toity, you may be surprised to discover that more people than ever before are opting to hire a chef for at least some of their meals.
Keywords:personal chef, personal chefs, atlanta personal chef, atlanta personal chefs, private event chefs in atlanta, georgia ch
Article Body:If you live in the Atlanta area, why not consider hiring a personal chef? If you think hiring Georgia chefs is too hoity-toity, you may be surprised to discover that more people than ever before are opting to hire a chef for at least some of their meals. Here are five reasons why:
1. Atlanta personal chefs can save you money.
Yes, it seems counterintuitive, but you can actually save money when you hire a chef in Georgia. Think about how much money you spend each week picking up take-out, going out to dinner, and buying groceries at the store. Chances are, you and your spouse spend more than the cost of having a personal chef prepare five days worth of customized meals in your own home.
2. A personal chef can save you time.
Most people think that in-home chefs come to your home every day. In truth, they usually come one day each week and prepare five days’ worth of meals at once. They then package and store the other dinners so that all you have to do is reheat and serve. Imagine the time you can save – time that isn’t spent running to the store or piling the family in the car to go grab a bite.
3. A chef for hire can reunite the family.
Well, the chef herself doesn’t reunite the family, but gathering together for a family meal goes far in helping family members stay connected. With careers, errands, extracurricular activities, and time spent with friends, it’s all too easy to spend for family members to scatter to the four winds. With a personal chef, you can spend what little time you have together enjoying good food and catching up with one another.
4. A personal chef brings nutrition to the table.
All too often, nutrition takes a backseat to convenience. Personal chefs provide convenience without sacrificing nutrition. By using the best and freshest ingredients, you can work with a personal chef to come up with menu ideas that are both delicious and nutritious.
5. A party chef takes the stress out of entertaining.
Whether you’re having a dinner party for six or a brunch for sixteen, private event chefs in Atlanta can be a godsend. They can whip up exquisite meals that your guests will find memorable, and you can concentrate on ensuring that everyone has a good time. Private party chefs have the experience needed to create dishes that complement one another, as well as the ability to execute those dishes to perfection. If you need other help for the party, such as servers or bartenders, a personal chef should be able to provide you with reliable referrals.
Once you look into the costs and benefits of hiring a personal chef, you’ll quickly see that she will not only make your life easier, but will also make your life better.
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The Argument Against Nationalized Healthcare

The idea of a nationalized healthcare system has been around for a long time, and like most other social ideas, it sounds good when you first hear it. Healthcare for everyone in the United States would be a dream come true for lots of families but the problems with universal healthcare far outweigh the benefits. Many countries have tried this and failed because of some basic ideas that aren’t even being considered. Continue reading

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Combating The Stigma Of Mental Illness

[src:’http://www.youtube.com/v/WUaXFlANojQ’,width:’425′,height:’350′]
Mental Illness…
That sounds bad, doesn’t it? it sounds like someone is crazy or
retarded, maybe just plain weak-minded. You are depressed?
Snap out of it! Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Hey! It’s over. It’s
in the past! Get over it! Bi-Polar? That’s just an excuse for bad
behavior. Scizophrenic? Get a hold of yourself, there’s nothing
wrong with you!
The mark of shame has been on mental illness for far too long.
This is due to misconceptions about the types of mental illness.
Knowledge is the key to erasing this stigma. Psychiatrists have
started a campaign to combat these prejudices.
There are six common mental illness, which are panic attacks,
dementia, eating disorders, depression, schizophrenia and
addiction to drugs or alcohol. People with any of these disorders
need understanding and compassion, not hostility and
disapproval. When patients receive negative reactions, it drives
them further into their problem.
Not all drug addicts, schizophrenics and alcoholics are violent,
even though that misconception is held by a large majority of
people. With the lack of education for the general public, many
think that a severely depressed person will be able to pull
themselves out of this problem on their own. On the other hand,
the majority of the public think that those suffering from
dementia, depression, schizophrenia, panic attacks and addictions
cannot be helped with treatment.
World Mental Health Day is on October 10th and the focus will be
on mental illnesses and human rights. The campaign to erase the
stigma from mental illness focuses on providing information on
types of treatments offered through self-help groups and
psychotherapy. They are attempting to lift the public’s awareness
of the types of mental illness that are the most common. It is the
desire of the psychiatrists to not only reduce the stigma, but to
allow those affected to have dignity and the same rights others
enjoy.

[src:’http://www.youtube.com/v/F2r8aXyCO5Q&feature’,width:’425′,height:’350′]
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Posted in Family, Health Matters | 2 Comments

Good-Bye, Robert

Good-Bye, Robert
Posted 3/7/2011 @ 3:07:35 pm by rainboreview.com

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Superbowl Sunday my step-father, Robert Woodard Dotson, passed on from this world. It was expected, he had been ill for quite a time with failing kidneys, but that doesn’t really lessen the impact on the lives of those left behind. His wife of 40 years is my mother, and her strong faith in God has helped her tremendously through this time. At first she was glad that he had left all his pain behind and is now with Jesus in Heaven. Then she looked at her situation and got a little angry. She is the older of the two and should have been the first to die. She thinks it is unfair that he got to Heaven before her.

Robert and “Red”

About a year or so after they were married, I went into the Army and never really got to know Robert that well. My sister got married the same year and was gone, but my little brother was only four at the time. My brother got to know him best as a parent and called him Dad. He raised my brother as if he were his own and loved him. After moving to Kentucky and getting settled in, events occurred that resulted in my grandson being adopted by my mother and Robert, and they raised him as if he were their own, and he loved him.

Robert was riding to work on a bicycle one day and was struck by a truck. Almost dieing on the operating table, he awoke to a new life of disability and had to adjust. My mother was working as a cook at a near-by university, so they had her small pay and his disability check to live on. Still they insured that everyone was fed and clothed and had a decent home in which to live. Times were not always smooth sailing, but the home always had love in abundance.

People would sometimes asked me how I feel about him and I would always reply that he was good to my mother and my family, so he’s alright with me. in my rebellious youth, in that year or so before I entered the Army we had our moments, and I gave him some headaches, but all being said and done, he was alright with me. Come to think of it , among all us kids, I believe my sister is the only one of us that didn’t get into troubles and cause him headaches.

Looking back at my life, I’m sorry about that.

Later, when I was in the Army and would come home on leave, he would loan me a car to use, and later co-signed for a loan so I could get a vehicle of my own. Although I didn’t act like it most of the time, he still treated me as his son and loved me in spite of myself.

When I got the call from my brother that Robert has passed on, I informed my wife and we drove to Kentucky for the wake and the funeral. My wife, Ok Cha, is deaf and knew Robert even less than I did, but he always tried to communicate with her even though many people never even try. She appreciated that and was very sad that he had died. As soon as we entered the house, she cried and embraced my mother. No other communication or interpreting was needed.

People would come to the house and bring food and talk about Robert, the man I realized I really didn’t know. I got to learn more about him from the people who knew him from daily contact and from his church. My Aunt is the pastor of the church and her son, Brian is the associate pastor. Together they would do the eulogy and funeral service at the funeral home and the graveside service at the cemetery.

Most everyone was already there who was going to be, but there was still the question of my two step-brothers making the trip. One in Tennessee and the other in North Dakota. Winter blizzards were covering most of the northern part of the country so we didn’t have much hope of Robert’s sister, Lillian coming in from Iowa or son Wesley coming in from North Dakota. The evening My wife and I arrived, the snow came falling, but we got the news anyway that Wesley and Dwight would both be arriving later that night. The bigger surprise was that Robert’s sister, Lillian would be arriving with her son. I hadn’t seen the boys for 40 years or more and I had never met Lillian.

At the wake at the funeral home, other relatives from the are would come and I saw people that I hadn’t seen in quite a while. My brother-in-law, Rod, had made a pictorial video about Robert’s family and friends and it was playing over and over on a screen over the coffin. My brother, who had been raised by Robert, kept watching the pictures as they played over and over and he finally lost it and broke down crying. It’s hard to be strong and hold back when someone you love is gone.

Robert and Mary, Newlyweds

The next day was the funeral service. My aunt, Pastor Betty, spent some time giving anecdotes about Bob’s life and loves. He loved God and the church, he loved to eat and he loved Red. “Red” was what he always called my mother, although her red hair has long ago turned to white. Yes, he was a man that loved and was loved. Then Cousin Brian took over and did the actual funeral service, along with a few anecdotes of his own blended in with scripture. Betty and Brian’s words brought to me much of what I had missed about this man’s life, what I had missed by being so distant. Yes, I cried, not for his passing, but for myself all those who are left behind. That’s why we have funerals, to comfort those who are left behind.

I and my brothers and cousins and grandson were pall bearers from the funeral home to the hearse, then from the hearse to the grave site through 10 inches of snow. A second, shorter service was given there by cousin Brian. My cousin, Brent and I are prior military and my grandson, Hugh is in R.O.T.C. We raised the flag from the coffin and folded it in the traditional triangle and gave it to Hugh to present it to my Mother. Robert’s time in the Army was not a career, but it was very meaningful to him.

So we all say good-bye to Robert Woodard Dotson for now with plans to see him again in a better place by and by.

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Days Of Innocense

My house, Danny’s house, Rick’s house, Mark’s house, Donna’s house and sometimes Diane’s house. Every day after school we would gather in front of someone’s TV and watch the Mickey Mouse Club.

Childhood friends… They reside in the dark, almost lost recesses of your mind and can come up for a peek every once in a while. Their appearance can be caused by something as simple as a bird’s song, or a scent on the air. Hearing Doves coo in the early morning will always remind me of my first love, Donna. We lived two houses away from each other and were born on the same day with-in an hour of each other. She loved to listen to the doves and I would sit with her on the sidewalk to listen, too. We were five years old and destined to be married. Our birthdays were the same, we listened to doves together and watched Mighty Mouse cartoons faithfully every Saturday morning. With that, we could build a lifetime together and buy a couple of babies when I had enough money. Ah… Memories.

The names listed above were my closest friends and, Oh, the adventures we had in a large farming community in North-Eastern Iowa. Old Widow Hayes had a large garage about the size of a barn with a couple of loose boards in the back. At times we would sneak in and explore the treasures there. Not treasures to most people, but things which would make our imaginations soar. Boxes with old clothes that the girls wanted to try on. That old car that hadn’t been driven since forever would be used to chase down gangsters with Eliot Ness or become the cockpit of a bomber over Nazi Germany. My favorite, an old Indian motorcycle that hadn’t moved since Mr. Hayes died, that quickly became a horse that I would ride along with The Lone Ranger and Tonto or Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy. The air was dusty but always with a thick smell of the lilac bushes that were planted all around the garage.

My number one, bestest friend was actually my big sister, and what boy would admit that? Yes… I was the oddball among my friends because I actually got along with and loved my sister. We sheltered each other from the darkness and evil that lurked about, in our home and elsewhere. We played together, we prayed together, we huddled together in fear and laughed together in joy. We would comfort each other after either one got whipped, because if one of us did wrong, we were usually both punished… One should have prevented the other from doing wrong. At the time, I didn’t think it was fair to either of us, but it brought us closer together. To this day, half a century later, I can count the fights we’ve had on one hand and have fingers left over. How often I have wished that on other families.

As the years go by, friends and family part ways and spread out around the country. I now live in Georgia, my family lives in Iowa, Alabama and Kentucky. I have maintained contact with family through the years with mail and telephone, but friends are a different story. Through the miracle if the internet, I have found Mark again, living in Indiana, Danny died years ago in a car wreck, his sister with him. I never found Dianne, but I found Donna many years ago while I was in the Army. She had become an anti-war activist and would not even speak to me. Rick is the only one I have found still living in Iowa. We sometimes communicate through the internet, but he has formed strong political ideas (that border on the insane) and they conflict with mine. Three girls I dated back in Iowa have died; Cancer, alcohol and Deep Vein Thrombosis. Two of them I actually loved and cared for, but time and distance have softened the blow. We can’t go back and un-do or re-do the past, but we can cherish the memories we like and let the rest fade into oblivion. Continue reading

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