I am sure most people would like to think they have decent critical thinking skills. As I have grown older and gathered more life experience, I believe my critical thinking has gotten better.  Admittedly, when I was younger……not so much.           However, I think that is typical of all of us at when we were younger to some degree. Young people without significant life experience or proper...

          I have been feeling an urgent compulsion to talk about the media as of late given the all the recent hoopla in the news.  This is in no way an attempt to condemn any specific media industry, be it TV, Internet news sources, blogs, talk radio, etc.; they are what they are.       This is also not to say there is not room for condemnation of these sources either. Many media industries handle themselves and the...

“Why do you talk about money so much?”           This was a question asked to me when I was  trying to describe the Empowered American Project. I am guessing many people thought it would be more “politically” driven, primarily due to the “American” part in the title as well as my own personal involvement in politics. However, the reason we “talk about money so much” has to do with self-reliance and...

     It is difficult to believe that 11 years have passed since the fatal attacks that took a stranglehold on our country. I have to admit, any time the anniversary of September 11th, 2001 occurs, it is difficult.  To put it simply, I hate relieving those gut wrenching feelings of sadness, anger and grief.  I do not watch the clips of the towers being destroyed or the horrific aftermath.     In my experience, what defines a...

Well I guess I mean a season.  Today as I think about the last year, I find myself feeling grateful.  Last year was honestly a difficult year.  We had illness, travel to deal with illness and then we had a funeral.  All this while we home schooled and I still had to manage a business.  There were days when I was totally overwhelmed. However, as I look back I find that we all made it with only a few more gray hairs.  So what got us...

        It has been an amazing day. What was really cool about this day was enjoying the reward of delayed gratification. That is one thing we do not see a lot of these days. We seem to live in a microwave, instant society. Think about it, why are there are microwave directions on a Pop Tart box?         What did I delay? Let me explain; about 18 months ago my 20 year old oven broke down. I was not a happy camper. First you...

All right, maybe I am being a bit extreme, but it is clearly a tool I cannot and will not be without.  At least once a week I use my trusty crock pot.  In fact, there have been some weeks where it has been used up to three times and I have also used my smaller one as well.  Yes, I call this power crock potting. So what do I do with this treasure in my kitchen?   Save time: I can usually get a crock pot armed and loaded in less than...