CottageAlmanac

Down to Earth Guide To Global Warming for kids

What is global warming?

Global warming is in the news every day. Everyone from age 2 to 102 has heard about global warming and as a result, every parent has heard this question from their child.

What is global warming?

While most parents understand global warming and the immediate need to take action before it is simply too late to make a difference, how does a parent explain the complexity of the facts of global warming without watching the eyes a child glaze over.

Rachael Ray: So You Think You Can Cook contest

Food Network's 30 Minute Meals cooking show host and daytime syndicated talk show host Rachael Ray is looking for the next celebrity chef -- and it could be you.

Ray has launched the contest So You Think You Can Cook for an amateur cook who believes they have that something extra and has a personal dream of becoming the next celebrity chef.

During a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Ray explained, "We just want to give a person — a real person, not a chef or somebody specially trained to do this for a living — a shot at showing everybody their personality and how much fun you can have with food."

HGTV Design Star: And the winner is -- Kim Myles!

In an update to last week's post HGTV Design Star: And the winner is? You vote --

Viewers voted. The HGTV Design Star winner is Kim Myles.

If you are a designer who dreams of hosting their very own HGTV design network series, HGTV Design Star is accepting applications for its third season.

To be considered for season three of HGTV Design Star, completed applications, video, photographs and copies of portfolio pages and/or website links must be postmarked by October 31, 2007.

For all the application details, visit the HGTV Design Star.

Congratulations to Kim Myles!

Madonna: The English Roses for tweens

Four new books in The English Roses series of children's books written by Madonna will become available September 13. Madonna's first book about five London grade school-aged girls, who are best friends, was published in 2003.

From a mother's perspective, Madonna has channeled her storytelling creativity into a series of books that not only help her daughter Lourdes navigate the path of girlhood, but also for girls worldwide who read about the challenges and interests as experienced by the English Roses -- Amy, Charlotte, Nicole, Grace and Binah.

From the publication of the first The English Roses book, and all books in The English Roses series since, the ages of the English Roses mirrors the age of Madonna's own daughter Lourdes. Lourdes, who prefers to be called Lola, is now almost 11 years old and entering the age of a tween. The newest books in The English Roses series is written for a tween audience. 

HGTV Design Star: And the winner is? You vote.

The design-based reality show HGTV Design Star competition is down to the final two contestants, Kim Myles and Todd Davis. Voting is open until noon Eastern time on Wednesday, September 12. The winner will be announced on the show's season finale Sunday, September 16, at 9pm Eastern/Pacific time.

In each of the HGTV Design Star's nine episodes, hopeful designers competed in design-based challenges with one to two designers eliminated each week. The final winner will be chosen by HGTV Design Star viewers.

HGTV Design Star season three is looking for the next designer who dreams of hosting their very own HGTV design network series and is up for the challenge of competing against 10 other designers with the same dream of becoming HGTV's next designer star.

Ed Begley: Living with Ed New Season

HGTV's green living reality television show Living with Ed, chronicling the walk the talk eco-friendly lifestyle of Ed Begley and his wife Rachelle, is back for a new season of great television.

This season, Begley visits with friends Jay Leno, Jackson Browne, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Daryl Hannah, Bradley Whitford and Jane Kaczmarek, Sharon Lawrence and Everybody Loves Raymond co-creator Phil Rosenthal.

As an environmentalist, Ed rates being a pedestrian on foot as his first choice in transportation; uses the city bus; drives an electric car; and lives in a modest solar-powered house in an unpretentious neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The Secret: Law of Attraction Visualization Video Tool

Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears, Kevin Federline, Dick Cheney, Judge Larry Seidlin, spinach and lettuce tainted with E.coli, salmonella food poisoning peanut butter recall, and New York City-sized rats found running around in fast food restaurants. Top news stories of the day.

Unfortunately, every day seems to find us bombarded with equally bizarre and disturbing news. It is not happy news, or hopeful news, and in some opinion, not all of it newsworthy of our attention in the first place. Over time it can cast a dark shadow on the human spirit, if not balanced with greater exposure to positive and affirming news and messages. News equally as real.

There is Happy News. Real News. Compelling Stories. Always Positive. An experiment by the Happy News staff in the "basic belief that people should not be insulated from bad news. We just believe much of the traditional media has strayed from this course, and reports a disproportionate amount of negative news."

I believe, in part, the secret to the phenomenal success of The Secret is while paying attention to all that has and is going wrong in the world around us, there is something intrinsically intuitive about us -- that little voice -- that is drawn to messages like The Secret, and other authors who speak to the reality of realities of all that has and is and can go right.

Here then, is a law of attraction visualization tool provided by The Secret. A gentle reminder to help keep us focused on what we already know but may not keep mindfully aware on a day-to-day basis -- setting us in the direction of all that can go right.

To view the feature-length movie The Secret online for $4.95, visit The Secret website -- or you can order a DVD of the movie The Secret through Amazon.

Law of Attraction Gateway: New Portal to Inspiration

Of all the bright lights in this world, Sandi Kimmel and Patrick Murphy of Music Healer and Sterling Heart are two of the brightest lights.

I first met Sandi seven years ago, at a time when she was launching her first CD based on her work as a music healer. Around that time, she boldly decided to follow her passion of spiritual authenticity on a path in easing the struggles of life faced by others, and has successfully shared a healing comfort to all who have had the privilege of her companionship and song.

Sandi and Patrick recently launched their new project, the Law of Attraction Gateway, a portal featuring the best of reviewed law of attraction resources in blogs, webcasts, podcasts, books, and DVDs. They will be publishing the inspirational stories of readers to the portal, affirmations, as well as offering gifts, music and Joy Circles newsletter. To learn more, visit the Law of Attraction Gateway. 

Dancing with the Stars Announces New Season Celebrity Dancers

There are few television shows that find grandparents, parents and children viewing together. Dancing with the Stars is one of those rare programming events the entire family can enjoy.

Last season's Dancing With the Stars Jerry Springer won the hearts of viewers when he joined the television show in hopes of learning to dance in time to dance with his daughter at her wedding. Another viewer favorite, elegant-on-his feet Emmitt Smith claimed the final victory and is the current Dancing with the Stars reigning champion.

Today, on ABC's Good Morning America, Springer announced this season's celebrity dancing competitors. The participants include Laila Ali, daughter of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali; country music star Billy Ray Cyrus; Paul McCartney's estranged wife Heather Mills; Basketball Hall of Famer, Olympic gold medal champion and former NBA player Clyde Drexler; 'N Sync boy band member Joey Fatone; former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey; talk show host Leeza Gibbons; supermodel Paulina Porizkova; Beverly Hills 90210 Ian Ziering; Sopranos Vincent Pastore and Olympic speed skating champion Apollo Anton Ohno.

The fourth season of Dancing with the Stars premieres March 19 at 8/7c on ABC.

The Higher Power of Lucky: Award-winning Children's Book Banned

Newbery Medal's winner The Higher Power of Lucky is being banned by shocked librarians across the country because of author Susan Patron's use of the word scrotum, according to the New York Times. Librarians are concerned the word scrotum is inappropriate in children's literature and might make some teachers and parents uncomfortable should children ask for a definition of the word.

Patron wasted no time with the use of the word, as it appears on the first page of the book. “Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.” The context of the incident in which this body part is referenced involves a rattlesnake and a bitten dog, and a perplexed Patron insists it is based on a true event.

The Higher Power of Lucky chronicles the life of an orphaned and abandoned ten-year-old girl named Lucky, who is attempting to navigate her way on the mysterious path to adulthood. She is gleaning much of her information about the world of adults by eavesdropping on alcoholics and gamblers 12-step meetings. This is how she hears the word scrotum. 

Former Newbery Award committee chairperson Pat Scales is quoted as saying, "Declining to stock the book in libraries was nothing short of censorship. The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole.” I agree, if the ban rests solely on the use of the word scrotum. I am ordering a copy of The Higher Power of Lucky, not only to read what the library may not be making available, but more importantly, in support against the dangerous act of book banning in general.