A Saturday Night Earth Hour Tradition for the Adults: Bermuda’s Black Out Martini

March 26th, 2011

For years now, I’ve been blogging about trying to mark Earth Hour with little kids. You can read about my trials and tribulations in 2008, in 2009 and  in 2010. I thought about going all out this year, focusing on the poignancy of this year’s Earth Hour, given the events in Japan.  But it seemed too…dark. There’s been enough bad news lately.

So this year, with Earth Hour on a Saturday night, it seems appropriate to focus on the adults. And if my husband wasn’t battling something dreadful he dragged in from last night’s Red Eye, here’s what we’d be doing: enjoying the Bermuda Black Out martini.

Take a look:

And yes, I know this video is bleeding over the edges...And no, we haven't started drinking already. With my husband so sick, I don't want to ask for his help fixing this...and soon it will be Earth Hour, so it's time to go dark here.

Enjoy!

Lynn  Continue reading »

When It’s Not What It Seems: The Murder at Lululemon

March 21st, 2011

On Thursday, I quickly put up a post about a community gathering in memory of Jayna Murray. A friend from Bethesda’s Mindfulness Center had asked me to put the post up, emailing me that“the women at the Mindfulness Center have been close to Jayna and all the workers at Lululemon.”

No longer. The murder victim’s co-worker, Brittany Norwood, was arrested on Friday and charged with the slaying. She’s due in Montgomery County court today.

Like so many in our community, I was horrified by this senseless tragedy and then incredibly shocked to learn that one of the “nice girls” from Lululemon may have committed this crime.   Perhaps it’s ghoulish, but I wondered what she looked like – I wondered if I had seen Brittany on Bethesda Row.   I searched for images of Brittany Norwood, and turned up two that seemed like fits, but as I tweeted Friday night, I was afraid to post the images in case I had identified the wrong person.

It turns out I hadn’t identified the wrong Brittany Norwood – biographical details since revealed by the news media, and her sad looking mug shot match the images I found of a pretty young woman partying in her FaceBook picture and a wholesome looking woman in her college soccer profile picture.

We tend not to think of women as murderers. It’s far easier to imagine brutal “masked men,” as Brittany had claimed, even when logically we know that the odds of “masked men” sneaking into a store on a well traveled street are extremely low.

I wasn’t originally going to post these photos of Brittany Norwood, but I wondered if they would stay up online. And sure enough, they’ve been removed from the websites where I found them. Facebook profile deleted. College soccer shot gone.

All the public is left with is an image of Brittany Norwood in a mug shot. An image that is what she became…but doesn’t reflect all that she was..and doesn’t remind us, like those other images do, that things are not always as they seem.

How sad.

Bethesda Community to Gather at Candlelight Vigil in Remembrance of Jayna Murray this Friday Evening

March 16th, 2011

Lulelemon Shrine Bethesda

 

Our community has been rocked by a random act of violence:  the senseless attack against two beautiful young women, yogis who radiated peace and happiness through their work at Lululemon Athletica.  I was asked to post the following to help get the word out about a community gathering this Friday evening in remembrance of Jayna Murray.

Community Gathering in Remembrance of Jayna Murray
and in support of our friends at Lululemon and our Community.

Friday, March 18, 2011
8:00-9:30 pm

We will gather at The Mindfulness Center at 8:00 pm, with an open forum for remembrances and prayer, in celebration of the life of Jayna and in support of our friends at Lululemon, and the healing of our community.  This will be followed by a candlelight vigil to Lululemon for song and prayer. Dr. Deborah Norris will lead us in meditation, and Rev. John Love will lead us in prayer.  Counselors will be available at The Mindfulness Center throughout the week.

Deborah Norris, Ph.D.
Founder, The Mindfulness Center
4963 Elm Street, Suite 100
Bethesda, MD  20814
301-986-1090
www.TheMindfulnessCenter.org

Director, Psychobiology of Healing Program
Psychologist-in-Residence
American University
http://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/dnorris.cfm

 

Going Green on Saint Patty’s Day (My Annual Saint Patrick’s Day Post)

March 10th, 2011

The “green” holiday is becoming anything but green. Back in the “olden days” when I was a kid, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day was simple. You put on some green clothing,  a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” button, and made sure to down some beer that night. If you truly had the Luck of the Irish, you got to watch or march in a fabulous St. Patrick’s Day parade, like the one in New York City where I marched for years.

stpattysephoto

But like everything else in our consumerist society, we’re being prompted to buy more “stuff” to celebrate properly. I’ve admitted to loving the tacky, tacky side of Christmas, replete with blow-up inflatables and lighting, but decorating for the holidays is a longstanding tradition. Do we really need more inflatables barely three months later? This year, St. Patrick’s Day inflatables have popped up on suburban lawns, biding their time till they end up in our landfills. (Check it out here). And more and more, the retailers are offering special Cheap Plastic Crap for St. Patrick’s Day. Cheap Plastic Crap is bad enough in kid’s goody bags. Do we really want to encourage it on St. Patrick’s Day too?

st-pattys-photo

Here are 10 tips for celebrating a truly green, eco-friendly St. Patrick’s Day. Have fun! Luck o’ the Irish to you!
1. Wear Green

2. March or Watch a St. Patrick’s Day Parade

3. Enjoy Some Irish Spirits

4. Sing Irish Songs

5. Visit an Irish Pub or Restaurant

6. Bake and Decorate Some Green Cookies or Cupcakes

7. Try Some Corned Beef and Cabbage Ah, I’ve gone greener since I wrote this post in ’08. Beef is a major contributor to climate change. So skip the corned beef! Tofu and cabbage? Cabbage and beer?  :)

8. Say No to Cheap Plastic Crap for St. Patty’s Day

9. Say No to St. Patty’s Lawn Decorations

10. Smile and Say Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Have fun!

Lynn

Copyright OrganicMania

Note: This post was originally published in 2008.

The Danger Our Kids Face: #justiceforhenry

March 7th, 2011

Update: Katie Granju will discuss Henry’s case on CNN Tuesday night at 7 pm EST on “Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell.”

Yesterday morning, I sat stunned, looking at the angelic faces of the third graders in my Sunday school class. I kept thinking of another boy, who shared our faith, enjoyed the love of close family and friends, and yet ended up dead at the age of 18, victim of the number two cause of accidental death in America.

Do you know what it is?

Think.

katiehenry

You’re not alone if you don’t realize that drug abuse, particularly prescription drug abuse, has reached what some experts call “epidemic proportions.”

The problem is, parents don’t talk about it. In our tell-all, Reality-TV world, a child’s drug addiction is one of the few things that is considered shameful. And as a result, awareness of the problem  is low, and families suffer in isolation.

But one mother, in the midst of her horrible pain over not only losing her son Henry, but dealing with a very questionable  police investigation into his beating and involvement with a drug and prostitution ring, is changing all that.

Katie Allison Granju is a gifted writer. Many of you know her as the author of “Attachment Parenting: Instinctive Care for Your Baby and Young Child,” as a contributor to Salon, as a Babble.com blogger, or from her blog Mamapundit.

She’s now taking her powerful communications skills and huge reach into the Mom blogger community to both raise public awareness of the prescription drug epidemic and to force a re-examination of the investigation into her son’s death in Knoxville, TN.


Please go to her blog and read the story of Henry Granju. You will be shocked and saddened and outraged. Tweet about it using the hashtag #JusticeForHenry.   Call or email Nancy Grace and ask her to investigate.

 

And above all, talk to your kids about drug abuse. A little bit of experimentation with pot is NOT OKAY.

Watch this incredible video, Henry’s story. Show it to your kids. Ask your school, your church, your synogogue, to show it to the youth. It will save lives.

And after you’ve done all that, please remember to leave a comment here and let me know your thoughts.

Thank you and godspeed to Henry’s family.

— Lynn

Cutting PBS Kids

March 3rd, 2011

Dear reader,

I am Lynn Miller’s son.I do not want the government to eliminate PBS kids because we do not have cable Tv .PBS kids is one of the two  kids channels on tv that my mom lets me watch. I want you to write letters to the people in the government who want to destroy PBS Kids.   Please donate money to help PBS Kids. I saved up and donated $30 from the part of my allowance that goes to charity – you can donate too!

Thank you.

To donate, find your local station here.

Note from Lynn: Hmm…Big Boy’s first blog post. And it was all his idea! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? :)

Copyright 2011 OrganicMania