When I was a child growing up, I remember seeing mostly houses in neighborhoods and a few apartment complexes here and there.  Nowadays, there are still a lot of housing communities, but there are also a lot of apartment complexes and condominiums.  In fact, it’s common to see apartments and condos in the downtown sections of cities.  Senior housing is also available in most areas of a city as well as mobile home parks, some of which have curbs, sidewalks, and driveways just like regular housing communities.
 
I wonder, however, if neighbors nowadays know each other as well as they did back when I was growing up. Back then, we knew nearly all our neighbors up and down the street and many on the streets on either side of ours as well. Now, we basically know our neighbors on both sides of our house (both are great neighbors, by the way) and a few others on our street and other streets in our neighborhood.
 
One thing that’s sad to me is hearing about some people who don’t even know their neighbors at all. It’s great to have neighbors to be friends with, to watch out for each other’s houses when gone, and to be there to help out when needed.  One definition of “neighborhood” is friendliness appropriate to a neighbor (a feeling of  neighborhood).   Even though neighborhoods may change in dynamics, I hope the “feeling of neighborhood” never changes.

Thousands of prayers for Jenny were lifted up during her sudden illness (flu/pneumonia/sepsis), and you can still visit the FaceBook site set up for her!  Although Jenny passed away at the young age of 31 and is greatly missed, her family believes God has a greater purpose in mind.  Jenny’s passion for Christ has touched so many people’s lives!

1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair?
3. Will it improve things?

I think these are very worthwhile questions, and I like the fact that he supports positive youth programs as well as educational and historical preservation pursuits.  That’s probably the teacher side of me that’s drawn to these pursuits.

Do you know of some interesting philanthropists?

Would you like to check the quality of drinking water in your area?  Just go to the University of Cincinnati’s website and click on a major city on the United States map. A graph will show you the quality of the drinking water according to several different contaminates.

I’m surprised at how much chlorine is in our water. Well, actually I guess I’m not too surprised. We can definitely taste the chlorine in our water which is one of the reasons we’ve been using bottled distilled water.  However, we just purchased a “Pur” water filter so we won’t be buying gallons of water now. There’s no chlorine taste using the filter, and we like the taste of the water so far.

Probably most of you know one person or maybe several women whose lives have been affected by breast cancer.  I lost a friend, who had three children, to breast cancer 16 years ago.  I have several friends who are breast cancer survivors, and we thank God for that!

I had a breast cancer scare 15 years ago, had surgical biopsy done, and it turned out to be a non-malignant tumor.  Again, I thank God!  I am in a higher risk category because of that, and so I have my mamograms done every year.  Several years I’ve had to have an additional sonogram.  Last year, I had another scare and thought I was going to need to have another surgical biopsy, but it turned out OK and I didn’t have to have one.  (but that was after 10 weeks, four doctor visits, a mammogram, sonogram, and new digital mammogram)

So again, please visit this site, and I want to stress the importance of every woman having regular mammograms.  They do catch cancer early while it’s treatable!

• RECYCLE - We’ve been recycling for over 15 years. A truck comes weekly and picks up recycling from our recycling bin which we place out by the curb with our trash can. If you don’t have this option, check on locations of recycling stations in your area.

1. Plastics – Check for your area as to which plastics they recycle. I know for our area, they recycle #1-#5 & #7. If you don’t know how to tell what the recycling number is for plastics, look on the bottom of the container and find the triangle. There will be a number inside of it.
2. Glass – Our area recycles clear glass. Check for your area.
3. Paper – Our area will take newspapers and cardboard.
4. Plastic grocery bags - I don’t put these out by the curb, but there are a couple of grocery stores in the area that recycle bags. I take them to the grocery store to recycle where there is a recycling receptacle for them by the front door of the store.
   

• REUSE – Some items can be used more than once.

1. Donate – Give things to a charity. (I know someone who threw away a pair of good pants because they didn’t fit her anymore.)
2. Hand-me-downs – Give something to a relative or friend who can use it.
   
3. Reuse paper grocery bags – Use them for trash instead of buying new plastic liners for a trash can. If the bags aren’t soiled, empty them when they are full of trash and reuse again.
   
4. Reuse plastic cereal bags – Line the bottom of your trash bag (the paper grocery bag) so it doesn’t leak. Use them for chicken bones and other smelly garbage. Use a twisty to help contain the smell.
   
5. Reuse gift bags – My friends and I have done that for birthdays and Christmas many years, and sometimes we would get back a gift bag that we had originally given out. We didn’t care…we’d laugh about it.

• REDUCE -Reduce the amount of natural resources that you consume.

1. Reduce paper – Read the newspaper online and help save trees.  I like not having to deal with all the paper accumulation.
2. Reduce gasoline – Plan errands efficiently so that the least amount of gas is used. Try to group errands together that are close in proximity.  If your destination is close enough, walk or ride a bike (great exercise).  Car pool when possible.
   
3. Reduce wattage – Use fluorescent light bulbs that are energy efficient.  We are buying more and more of these bulbs until we have all of our bulbs replaced.  (except for the decorator bulbs)
   
4. Reduce heating & cooling - Set the thermostat a few degrees warmer in the summer and use ceiling fans or floor fans.  Set the thermostat a few degrees cooler in the winter and wear a sweater in the house.
5. Reduce water – Use energy efficient shower heads and take shorter showers. (I need to work on this one about shorter showers!)  Only use the dishwasher or clothes washer when full.  A full dishwasher actually saves water versus washing by hand.  TURN THE WATER OFF WHILE BRUSHING TEETH.  So much water is wasted just from this habit alone.  Wet the toothbrush, turn the water off, brush teeth, and then turn the water back on.

There are a lot of other things you can do that I haven’t mentioned or haven’t thought about.  If you have a good idea, I’d love to hear about it!