When it comes to painting my nails, I am really – let’s be honest – lazy. I once read a magazine article about Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen where one of the twins said they like chipped nail polish. That was the only excuse I needed to let my nails go. I should have grown out of that. But even looking at my nails now, as they dance across my laptop keyboard, I’m noticing that there’s hardly any nail polish left from a paint job I did, well, a month ago. One nail is completely naked.

But as I spend more (scratch that, way too much) time on Pinterest – an online bookmarking Web site where you can see what everyone else is into – I’m seeing alternative nail styles that could, possibly, persuade me to be better about maintaining a solid coat. There are nails that look marbled, nails for news hounds, and inventive twists on French tips. So many possibilities! There’s even one style I saw that creates a “mural” of an underwater scene with an octopus. One of its tentacles reaches from the index finger to the middle finger. Genius.

Most of these come with fairly simple tutorials that I will pass on for anyone brave and bold enough (and less lazy than I am).

Newsprint nails:  This is the coolest style. I haven’t actually tried it yet, but it’s on my to-do list. Plus, it looks super easy.

First, use a light base coat – a white, beige, or nude color would probably work best, but if you want extra pizzazz, try light pink or blue. Just don’t go with anything that’s very dark.

Next, find a newspaper and rip up a page with a lot of text on it – you need ten pieces that are big enough to cover your nail. Then pour yourself a shot – or two if you’re thirsty – of gin and, once your nails are dry, dip one finger into the alcohol for about 25 seconds. Immediately put the newsprint on top of the nail and press down for about 10 seconds with a cotton ball. Finish the look with a clear topcoat. Ta-da! Easy, right?

Marble nails: This is a little more complex and looks a little more time consuming, but the outcome is really neat.

First, you’re going to need at least two colors of nail polish. Paint the nails you want to marbleize with a base coat – white will make the other colors pop more. Use a clear tape to cover the skin around the nails. Using a cup of filtered water, create a bull’s eye by adding a drop of polish to the water one color at a time, or you can alternate two or more colors. The more rings you have, the better. Next, take a toothpick or needle and stir to create a swirled pattern on the water.

Keeping your nail parallel to the design, dip it into the swirl and under the water. Hold it there while using a toothpick or a Q-tip to clear the excess polish from the cup.  Remove your finger and, viola! Remove the tape and you should have fabulously fun marbleized nails.

Other, less dramatic but still glamorous, styles could include a matte nail with a glossy French tip in the same color. Maybe you would prefer a nude nail with a thin tip in a bold color — or colors if you’re feeling feisty. For the holidays max out and get glitzy with a glitter polish.

Go on, give it a whirl – or twirl if you’re marbleizing – and show the Olsen’s that pretty polish dominates the scrappy chipped nails. Your willingness to try it could inspire me to be better about my habits.

By Taylor Dungjen

I love poinsettias, but let me advocate for a different holiday plant – one you won’t throw out when the season is over, and is available in full, brilliant bloom at garden centers and discount stores: The Christmas cactus.

The Christmas cactus is tropical, so it will not survive outside during our winters. In fact, it does not exist in the wild, but is a hybrid of a plant found in the Brazilian rain forest. It has dark green, flat stem segments that join together in a scalloped pattern. A profusion of tubular flowers two-inches to three-inches long  appear at the end of the each stem, and come in pink, purple, yellow, red and white.

It can grow up to two feet tall, but mine cascade over the side of the pot. Give it bright indirect sunlight near a window, but away from drafts and heat vents, which make it drop its blooms. It does not like to be moved around.

This is not a true cactus and will not tolerate dry soil, so keep the soil moist, but never soggy. With too much water, the leaves will spot and drop off. If you err, better to err on the side of less water.

The plant loves humidity, which is tough in a heated home in the winter, so place it in a waterproof tray filled with gravel. Add water until the tray is about half filled. As the water evaporates it provides the necessary humidity.

When the Christmas cactus quits blooming, water sparingly, so that the soil is barely moist, until new growth appears in spring. Water when the surface of the soil is dry and fertilize with a soluble fertilizer, such as Miracle Grow, following manufacturers directions.

To encourage branching, pinch off the tips of each branch, which will lead to a bushier plant. Once there is no longer a threat of frost in the spring, move it outdoors into a shaded area and keep the soil moist to barely moist. It may need water every two to three days when it is warm and sunny.

You can get it too bloom for next Christmas too. You need the right lighting, limited water, and eight to ten weeks of cooler temperatures (days in the low sixties and nights forty-five to fifty-five), staring in late October to early November, to set flower buds.

I keep mine outside, but bring it in when the temperatures are predicted to fall below forty-five degrees.

The other key factor for bud formation is equal night-to-day length. Putting it in a dark unused bathroom or closet for twelve hours is ideal. Or you could put a box over it, so no light can get in at night, and take it off every day. Finally, reduce water slightly, so soil is barely moist to the touch.

The Christmas cactus can bloom year after year and be passed along for generations.

Expect to repot every two to three years in spring. It actually prefers to be slightly pot bound and blooms better this way.

If the buds drop it is usually due to overwatering, lack of humidity or insufficient light.

It is unbeatable when in full bloom and adds a spot of color during the sort days of winter.

By Patti Householder

My nine-year-old son wrote out his Christmas list in October. I shouldn’t have been surprised at what landed at the top.

A BB gun.

It was like a scene straight out of “A Christmas Story.” He handed me his list, looked pleadingly at me and I shook my head and said, “I don’t think so.” (Really, he will shoot his eye out.)

Each week since, John has continued to ask for a BB gun. My husband thinks it’s a good idea. “He’s nine. All boys want a BB gun.”

My father, who is a hunter, also thinks this is a brilliant gift idea.

I’m not  convinced. I am not against the right to bear arms. Hey, our country has been built on that.

What I’m against is giving my son another object that will distress me and get him in trouble.

Like the Nerf assault weapon he got last year. Seemed harmless enough as he unwrapped it on Christmas morning. The bullets are foam, right? All was well until the moment I put the prime rib on the table. Twelve members of the family were seated and ready for the blessing. Suddenly from the top of the stairs, we took fire. An onslaught of orange foam darts sent everyone running for cover. Foam bullets hit my brother, my mother, the mashed potatoes, and me.

John was sent to time out to think about his actions.

Or how about the ninja dress-up outfit he received for his eighth birthday? Harmless enough, until he decided to ambush my husband as he came home from work, high-kicking him right in the… well, it wasn’t pretty. Let’s leave it at that.

John was sent to time out to think about his actions.

There is also the remote-control helicopter that crash-landed into the dining room chandelier. The drum set that he used only when I was on the phone with my boss. The whoopee cushion that he used on an unsuspecting dinner guest.

And each time, John was sent to time out to think about his actions.

I’m not sure he learned much from all those time-outs. But let’s face it, time out is really a device that gives you enough time to calm down so you don’t kill your children.

In most of those instances, I wasn’t the person purchasing the gift. (The drum set I admit was totally my fault. I thought I was nurturing his artistic soul. Same with a paint set that ended up ruining two pairs of jeans.)

Do I give my boy the gift he most wants? Or do I listen to my maternal instincts and buy another Lego set instead?

There is a third option, of course.

Let Santa Claus decide.

Which means John will probably be spending more time thinking about his actions in 2012.

 by Kelly Frick

In cooking as in few other arenas, necessity is the mother of invention. My necessary invention came about when Brinda Lisano needed finger food for a Auburn University School of Pharmacy reception with the proviso the foods be, “no sippy, no drippy” — a big challenge to someone who finds finger licking a compliment.

Kathy Tyler, secretary to Cristen Herring at Auburn City Schools Board of Education, inspired me with a suggestion of fresh veggie pizza using crescent rolls in muffin cups. Although the pizza idea flopped for me, I found that shaping rounds of the crescent roll dough into the bottoms of muffin tins and baking created a new field of possible appetizers. Thank you Kathy!

These wonderful little “crescent cups” are perfect for holding a bite or two of sweet or savory and it is now my go-to appetizer. The fun part of the recipe is this: No one guesses how the little cup is made, and everyone wants the recipe.

Crescent Cups

1 8-ounce package refrigerated crescent rolls

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. If you have dark colored tins, lower the heat of the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottoms of mini muffin tins with a very light coating of cooking spray. Unroll the dough and gently pinch the perforation closed for a smooth sheet of dough. Using a 2-inch biscuit cutter, make 24 rounds. Press each round into the bottom of a muffin cup. Bake 6 minutes. Remove from oven and turn the muffins onto a wire rack to cool. To store, gently stack the unfilled cups in a sealable plastic bag.  They will last 2 days unfilled.

Veggie Crescent Cups

This is my version of fresh veggie pizza.

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
• 1 cup diced or chopped fresh vegetables
• 24 Crescent cups

Beat cream cheese, mayonnaise and Cajun seasoning. Place the cream cheese mixture into a piping cone or a quart size plastic bag with one corner snipped off. Pipe about a tablespoon into each crescent cup, leaving enough room for raw veggies. Top with fresh veggies. I like to use diced red and green peppers, slivers of carrots, and tiny florets of broccoli. You could also top with fresh salsa, or a mix of chopped olives, or halved grape tomatoes and crumbled bacon.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Fruit Crescent Cups

Substitute the powdered sugar for a cup of dark brown sugar and create a completely different treat.

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• ¼ cup butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup diced fresh or canned fruit gently patted dry with a paper towel
• 24 Crescent Cups

Beat cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. Place the cream cheese mixture into a piping cone or a quart size plastic bag with a corner snipped off. Pipe about a tablespoon into each crescent cup, leaving room for fruit. Top with fruit. I like to use fresh berries, the cup will hold one blue berry, one raspberry or black berry a quarter of a strawberry and a quarter of a slice of kiwi. You could also use all of one kind of fruit and top it with chocolate sprinkles or chopped nuts.

Replace the 2 cups powdered sugar with 1 cup packed dark brown sugar and beat with cream cheese and butter. Pipe this mixture into crescent cups and try it with apples and pears. Be sure to soak your fresh cut apples in a little cold salt water, rinse, and pat dry to keep them from turning brown.

Another idea, place diced apples or pears in crescent cups and drizzle with caramel, and sprinkle with toasted pecans. Or put fresh quartered strawberries crescent cups topped with a teaspoon of hot fudge or homemade ganache (see recipe below).

Ganache Filled Raspberries

The first time I made these for a wedding, one of my helpers couldn’t stop eating them. I almost didn’t have enough for the wedding guests. I fill the raspberries for the Fruit Crescent Cups and put the leftovers on a plate and they go fast. 

• 1 cup chopped bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 pint raspberries

Heat the cream just to a boil in the microwave or in a pot on the stove. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Place a piping cone in a drinking glass, turning the top down around the rim of the glass to make it easy to fill. You can do this with a plastic bag too, just make sure the chocolate is not so hot it will melt the plastic. Fill the piping cone with the ganache and let sit in the glass until it comes to room temperature.

While the chocolate is cooling, carefully rinse the raspberries and dry on paper towels, pointing the opening of the berry down, so it will drain well. They must be dry before filling.

Pipe filling into each raspberry as soon as the chocolate is cool.

Holiday Crab Dip in Crescent Cups

Every time I bite into one of these crescent cups I think of something else I could put in them. This is one of my favorite crab dips and even though it’s cold, it is savory and works perfectly in the crescent cups. Use rubber gloves to clean and dice the jalapeño. For a hotter flavor, include the jalapeño seeds in the mix. I recommend Kroger’s Private Selection canned Wild Caught Special crab. Garnish the completed cups with a bit of finely diced red and green pepper or just a parsley leaf.

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
• ½ teaspoon lemon pepper
• ¼ cup finely diced green pepper
• ¼ cup finely diced red pepper
• 1 jalapeño pepper, cleaned and diced
• 8 ounces canned crab, drained, flaked, and picked through to remove any cartilage
• 3 dashes hot pepper sauce (or to taste)
• 24 Crescent Cups

Beat cream cheese, sour cream, Old Bay seasoning, and lemon pepper. Stir in the peppers and then the crab.  Add pepper sauce last, tasting to adjust the flavor. Using a small scoop or a tablespoon, place mix in each crescent cup. For presentation I use the smallest scoop I have and carefully place a scoop in each crescent cup.    Refrigerate until ready to use. This is best the next day, after the flavors marry and intensify.

By Heida Olin

Rena noticed that she wasn’t gaining weight on her hips and thighs as she had in the past. It was settling around her middle.  “The bottom two belly rolls don’t bother me,” she joked. “It’s the top one.” She also noticed that her once thin upper arms were getting “fluffy.” What was going on?

Ever since I was in my twenties, I have been hired to help clients going through menopause. Now that I am older, I can identify even more with their struggle. These healthy women come to the fitness center complaining of fatigue, irritability, low level anxiety, sometimes depression, and always weight gain.

The number one problem area for women approaching their fifties is the abdomen, followed by the upper arms. Women of childbearing age often deposit fat stores in their hips, glutes and thighs. When menopause begins body fat accumulates in the abdominal and triceps areas. The biggest problem is the visceral fat, located deep in the belly. It raises the risk for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women. It is also associated with high cholesterol, hypertension, and insulin resistance.

Spot reduction does not work. So save your money; the latest infomercial ab crunch device won’t work. Instead develop the habit of doing regular aerobic activity that promotes visceral fat loss, even if you don’t do enough to lose overall weight. This will reduce your risk of heart disease and help keep your midsection svelte.

Another reason to perform regular weight bearing exercise is to help prevent bone loss and the risk of falling. The North American Menopause Society reported in 2006 that forty percent of women fifty and older will break a bone due to osteoporosis at some time. Both the American College of Sports Medicine and the menopause society recommend weight bearing and resistance exercise to combat bone loss.

Exercise may or may not alleviate hot flashes, but the menopause society still recommends exercise as a complementary therapy to combat this annoying symptom. Exercise does help anxiety and depression. If you are one of the many experiencing chronic stress, insomnia, and loneliness as a symptom of menopause, exercise is a great first step to feeling like yourself again.

Rena has decided to take control of her body and mind. Three to five days each week she alternates walking with a low impact aerobics class, for 30 – 60 minutes, as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine. She lifts weights with a personal trainer twice a week and takes a yoga class or does stretching at home two or three times a week. She even includes Kegal exercises to prevent incontinence. She really feels that exercise is the best medicine, as the side effects are a positive attitude, some new friends, and finally – feeling herself again.

by Lisa Gallagher

Dreading that annual vow to give up your favorite vice for the New Year? Uncertain which empty promise to make in your ever-failing attempts to start the year with a clean slate? Can’t decide how you’ll manage to meet your impossible new pledge?

Then let us help you. We have consulted many expert sources (i.e. Wikipedia) and heard from respected people in a variety of fields (i.e. friends on Facebook.) and combed the self-help literature to come to your rescue.

This exhaustive research led us to this never-fail advice on making New Year’s resolutions to create a new you. By next year, you won’t even need to make a resolution. In fact, you will be so perfect, most people will not like you. But, being perfect, you won’t mind.

Our advice:

1. Define your goal in concrete terms. Saying, “I will be a better person” is far too general. Better than whom, exactly? Silvio Berlusconi? Mother Theresa? Be more specific. “I will be a better person than my sister, who is really a nag and has a very short temper, and could stand to lose a little weight.” This is a specific goal.
2. Break your goal into smaller steps. If your goal is: “I will exercise three-times a week in the coming year,” start with: In January, I will raise my arm over my head on Tuesdays. In February, add repetitions (aka “reps”). In March, actually hold something relatively heavy when you raise your arm, such as a small dog or a candlestick. Be careful. Do not drop the dog. By April, you’ll be raising both arms.
3. Have measureable outcomes by which to track your success. Say your goal is to learn to tango. Measureable goals may be:  (a) People no longer laugh so hard they cry when I am on the dance floor. (b) My instructor stops offering a refund for the course if I would please stop coming. (c) My passport is no longer ripped into small pieces when I land in Buenos Aires to try my new skills in the land of tango. (d) Someone who has seen me dance actually asks me to dance, and I’m pretty sure they’re not just teasing me.
4. Make the goal adequately challenging. If the goal is too easy to reach, it will have zero heft when you’re standing around the water cooler, bragging to your co-workers. This leads us to ask, do offices even HAVE water coolers anymore? Do people actually stand around them? Is it shadier there or something so you all gather around? Are you worried you might run out of water so you must stay near the cooler? Are you worried about predators, so you find safety in numbers around the water cooler? Can’t you find somewhere else to hang out? Preferably somewhere with baked goods?

5. Make the goal adequately challenging. (Sorry, we were carried away on No 4.) Don’t say, “I will read all the Mann Booker Prize winners for the last twenty years.” Say, “I will read the prize winners for the last twenty years in French, even if I have to translate the books into French myself.”
6. Make sure you really want to accomplish your resolution. For instance, pledging to take over the financial management of the European Union is a job no one wants, not even actual Europeans. You don’t really want it either. You’re just showing off.
7. Express your goal as a positive. Don’t say, “I will quit chewing my nails.” Say, I will let my nails grow into dagger-like talons.”
8. Put your goal in writing and make sure all of your friends know about it, so they can help you be accountable. This should pretty much rid you of the burden of friendship, leaving you more time to translate the great English literature into French.

Now, good luck with that resolution! And Happy 2012 to a Better, Brighter You!

by Jenni Laidman

Every Monday afternoon, Becky Benton’s mother went visiting. They called it visiting shut-ins in those days, and her mother took it on as her duty in the town of Opp, Alabama, about fifty miles due west of Dothan.

Sometimes Becky accompanied her mother on her visiting day. It wasn’t a big deal. Her mother didn’t put on a show. But it made an impression. It is how Becky learned that not everyone had it as good as she did, and that left her with a debt. “It was small things,” Becky says. “She didn’t beat this into my head, but I got that sense as a small child that it was very important to visit, to be with people, to make their lives better.”

Becky’s father was the chief of air traffic control at Fort Rucker, the U.S. Army post. Her mother stayed home and cared for her and her two siblings. And her mother visited shut-ins.

Not by plan nor by strategy, but perhaps by the route of an apple that keeps close to the tree, Becky has created a life that’s about that simple lesson her mother taught: We help others. For the last 15 years she has carried out that lesson as executive director of the United Way of Lee County.

“She doesn’t work like you imagine an executive would,” says Michelle Keese, a United Way employee. “She’s very empathetic. She cares deeply about the clients and always puts herself in their shoes.”

Lately, those shoes have pinched a little more, as more Lee County people are in need. While Lee County unemployment had fallen to an enviable 6.8 percent in November, need remains substantial and hard to alleviate.

“When the economy is tough, it hurts the least of these the most,” she says.

This time, it also cut into United Way’s ability to help. The turning point was BFGoodrich’s 2009 decision to shut its one-and-a-half-million-square-foot Opelika plant, an institution in town since 1963. The closing left a thousand people jobless; it also cut total corporate giving to the United Way by twenty percent. In response to the lost jobs and the disappearance of a major corporate donor, the United Way dropped its annual campaign goal from $1 million to $900,000 n 2009. Still, the agency fell short of the goal by some $30,000. The following year, Lee County donors managed to meet the $900,000 goal, but not until nine months after the campaign’s ceremonial end. And in the campaign that wrapped up as 2011 drew to a close, United Way remained 20 percent short of its most recent $900,000 goal.

But that doesn’t mean it’s over.

“We say we wrap up at year’s end, because we allocate the funds in January, but we still hope to raise that 20 percent,” Becky says.

The loss in funding, combined with reductions in federal and state funding to United Way member agencies, added to the hardships for community members. United Way was able to delay the impact of its funding loss on member agencies by making use of an emergency fund created for disasters such as tornadoes or flooding. But the emergency fund eventually ran out, and United Way was forced to reduce its contributions to member agencies.

“Last year was the first year we actually had to make cuts,” Becky says. The agency tried not to cut funds to groups involved in such survival services as food and shelter. Other services were harder hit. The across-the-board average cut was twelve percent, although some member agencies saw no reduction in funding, and a few saw reductions as large as twenty-eight percent. Because the disaster relief fund was depleted by the recession, if Lee County is hit by a major disaster, United Way would have to dig into its six-month operating reserve.

After reviewing the financial realities, Becky catches herself.

“I don’t want this to sound like gloom and doom We certainly live in a very, very caring community,” she says. “We’re so blessed here in Lee County.”

But she acknowledges that at times those blessings keep people from realizing the depth of need that remains. Until her tenure at United Way, and the Domestic Violence Intervention Center before that, she wasn’t aware either, she says.

“I really didn’t realize some of the problems we did have,” Becky says. “If you’re not a victim of domestic violence or you don’t have someone in your family who’s effected, you may not realize that’s really a problem. If you’re not around situations where children are abused, you wouldn’t know. It happens much more frequently than people realize.”

“I think sometimes, the further you are removed from the need, the harder it is to understand there is a need,” she said. That makes education an important component of the United Way’s mission. Part of that education has to focus on helping individuals understand that they are an essential part of the solution.

“It’s like watching a telethon on television, and you think, someone else will make that donation. It’s not that you don’t care. You just think somebody else will do it. But a lot of times, if we don’t step up to do it, it won’t happen.”

Becky Benton did not set out to run charitable agencies. As a girl in Opp, a place best known for its annual rattlesnake rodeo, she dreamed of teaching. She attended the University of South Alabama in Mobile as an education major. Then, for ten years, she taught special needs children, first in Abilene, Texas, then in Waco.

Teaching was a big surprise. She had imagined filling the role her own teachers filled: Standing in front of the class, helping children through lessons, grading papers. The reality was far different. The children she taught needed her in a much more elemental way. They ranged from toddlers with incomplete toilet training to ten year olds.

“It was not what I thought it was going to be. The children had so many different kinds of needs, that no two days were the same. And your goals are different. Your goal is to help each child be the best they can be, and that may be only counting to ten, or helping a child figure out what different coins they need to go to the Coke machine and put them in.”

“The work was very rewarding,” she says. “The smiles you would get from the children when they would accomplish a task were just so amazing. There is nothing like working with children.”

Despite the pleasure she took from her job, she found herself ready for a change. For one thing, she couldn’t help worrying. She was single, and teacher pay wasn’t great. Deciding to focus on improving her earnings, she moved back to Alabama to earn a master’s in business administration from Auburn University, with thoughts of becoming a businesswoman. But by the time she finished her degree in 1992, she knew she wasn’t cut out for the corporate world.

“I guess I could not get it, whatever it is,” that made someone a corporate type. “With a personality that makes you want to be a teacher, and enjoy being with people, and being a part of people’s life, I realized that probably working in the corporate sector probably would not make me happy.”

Now she was at sea. “I was just trying to find out what’s next. I just wasn’t sure. I felt like getting the business degree was the right thing, but now how am I going to use that.”  

Then, to her good fortune – in a way — someone embezzled money from what was then the East Alabama Task Force for Battered Women. It turned out, with her new MBA and her need to help others, she was uniquely suited not only to sort out the mess, but to put new systems in place to prevent it from happening again.

“I felt like God opened that door for me,” she said.

In 1995, she married to Chip Johnson, whose job kept him on the road a lot. When they decided it was time to have a baby (Their son Trace is a seventh grader WHERE), she knew it was time to job hunt. She couldn’t tote a baby along when she responded to middle-of-the-night distress calls from women escaping intolerable lives. So after four years as executive director of the task force, she moved to the United Way in 1997, replacing long-time director Judith Peterson.

“I definitely lucked into the United Way job,” Becky says. “It wasn’t something I was just actually looking for.”

But it was a little intimidating; Jude Peterson had run the agency for twenty-six years. “I felt like I was trying to replace Bear Bryant or Shug Jordan. But the board was wonderful. They said, ‘We don’t expect you to be Jude. We expect you to be Becky.’”

There was a lot to learn, not the least of which was how to make the best of the volunteers that made United Way work.

“That has been a major blessing,” she says. “When you have paid employees, there’s a contractual obligation there. Volunteers are working from their hearts. They already have paid jobs. They’re giving up something to be able to help you.” The challenge becomes finding ways to make the volunteer work a positive thing for them.

“You want to make sure you’re a meeting the need of that individual. It could be students who need a credit for a class, or just that mom who also needs to show her child you need to give something back.”

She has regular contact with forty to fifty of the two hundred volunteers or so who help United Way. “What I try to do, as much as I can with my immediate volunteers, is stay in contact with them. And we do that in broader ways, like the newsletter, so they know what’s going on in the organization, they’re getting feedback that the time they’re giving – whether raising money or sitting on the board – that that time is making a difference, families are being helped, children are being fed – that their efforts are making a difference.”

Finding just what Lee County needs “is a more difficult than you would think.” The United Way works with Auburn University MBA students regularly to formulate a survey and target an audience. “We try to do these surveys every five or so years to see if things are changing, if needs are met, where we lack services, where their seems to be a need. It’s always an ongoing process,” Becky says. Man-on-the-street interviews, phone interviews, written surveys administered at member agencies to employees and people receiving services, all help the United Way decide where money is best spent.

In the most recent survey, United Way workers noted an increasing number of children in single-parent homes, which sparked a review of what services were available for those families. “Are their mentoring programs out there to assist these moms – they are predominantly female-headed households – and are there services available to help their children?” Things like the Boys & Girls Club and the one-on-one mentoring program, Project Uplift, are helping meet the needs of this growing population.

The other area of need United Way identified is the growth in the numbers of senior citizens in Lee County. This led them to examine what was available for low-income seniors, such as adult daycare at East Alabama Services for the Elderly.

One area that Becky expects to see growth is in financial education.

“We’re looking at what we can do to assist families in, not just putting a Band-Aid on a situation, but seeing if there are better ways to work with families and help them manage and grow resources.” United Way of Central Alabama is already working on this area. “We’re not in a position right now to be able to do that, but we realize that there is a need.”

The amazing thing is, Becky says, the people of Lee County help meet all of these diverse needs. And it’s only a matter of time before more people catch on to the fact that they can also make a difference.

“We are so blessed, she says. “We’re blessed by the number of nonprofits. Our three school systems are some of the best in the state. We have a lot to be proud of, and we can be proud of how we take care of each other. I can’t imagine wanting to live anywhere else than Lee County. It’s just a little diamond. It really is.”

Story by Jenni Laidman Photos by Beth Snipes

United Way of Lee County 
P.O. Box 3075
Auburn, AL 36831
334.745.5540

www.unitedwayofleecounty.com

Local United Way Agencies

• 2-1-1 Community Connections            211 or 1.888.421.1266
• Achievement Center – Easter Seals                334.745.3501
• American Red Cross     334.749.9981
• Andrew Willis Fund
• Auburn City Schools Dental Clinic    334.887.1926
• Auburn Day Care Centers                          334.821.4060
• Auburn Dixie League Baseball                 334.501.2930
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County           334.502.1311
• Child Advocacy Center of East Alabama            334.705.0770
• Child Care Resource Center            334.749.8400
• Community Market of EAFB        334.749.8844
• Crisis Center of Lee County             334.821.8600
• Dixie Youth Baseball of Opelika
• Domestic Violence Intervention Center             334.749.1515
• East Alabama Services for the Elderly              334.826.5811
• East Ala. Mental Health/Retardation               334.742.2212
• Food Bank of East Alabama              334.821.9006
• Greater Peace Child Dev. Center                   334.749.5555
• Joyland Child Development Center   334.821.7624
• Junior Achievement
• Lee County Youth Dev. Center                     334.745.0503
• Lee County Literacy Coalition                       334.705.0001
• Project Uplift                                      334.844.4430
• Rape Counselors of East Alabama     334.741.0707
• Salvation Army                                               334.826.0073
• Unity Wellness Center of EAMC                   334.887.5244
• William Mason Emergency Fund                   334.745.5540

Please excuse me if this topic seems a bit tired. I’m sleep deprived.

Why? I’ll start with the baby shower I was at last week.

The party was typical until the honoree opened the mysterious but modest flat package. It was a children’s book – but not really for children. The title was “Go the F*&% to Sleep.” If you haven’t heard of it, you must have been in a coma last spring when the book topped Amazon’s bestseller list before it was even available. You couldn’t get on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter without seeing a mention of it.

The book, by Adam Mansbach, is written almost as a lullaby, except there’s cussing involved.

At the baby shower, the book elicited a few laughs and a few incredulous stares.

A children’s book that uses the F-word? Really? Is that necessary?

Maybe not. But for those of us who have children who refuse to go to bed, it’s a welcome acknowledgment that parenting can be a frustrating, headache-inducing venture – particularly at bedtime.

I speak from experience.

For the past nine years, my son has been a terrible sleeper. He fights going to bed, wakes frequently in the middle of the night, and greets the morning like Oscar the Grouch. This isn’t a phase. It’s his life. All nine years of it.

If that doesn’t make you want to swear, I don’t know what will.

And before you start telling me about how I just need to – insert your favorite bedtime routine here – let me tell you I have tried everything. Snuggle time, quiet time, bath time, tough love, threats, treats, promises. I admit I didn’t try the shot of whisky and honey remedy my dad said his mother used to give him because … well, I just can’t condone giving whiskey to a nine-year-old. Although the thought has crossed my mind more than once.

John is just one of those kids who doesn’t sleep well. My daughter is an excellent sleeper and always has been. But John gets up multiple times in the night to tell me he needs to use the bathroom, get a drink, or check on the dog. He’s too hot. He’s too cold. It’s too noisy. It’s too quiet. He had a bad dream. He had a good dream that he needs to wake me at 3 a.m. to tell me about.

I’m betting at least half of you can relate. From talking with other parents, and reading the frustration behind Adam Mansbach’s words in his unconventional book, I’m certain John isn’t alone.

Why don’t kids want to go to sleep? Why won’t they stay in their own beds? What is so much more enticing about sleeping in my bed with a leg over my stomach and an arm across my face? Why do children only need a drink of water at 2 a.m.? Why do monsters only appear at 11 p.m.? Why can’t my kid just go the bleep to sleep?

I don’t know.

You may not like naughty words, and I can understand that, but the beauty of Mansbach’s book isn’t because inserting a bad word into a “children’s” book is funny. The beauty is in the realization that other parents are just as tired and cranky about their children’s sleep patterns. One of us, however, was brave enough to send it to a publisher.

I may not be able to solve John’s sleep habits, but I take comfort in knowing there are other parents who also do not get a good night’s sleep. Other parents who pray for their child to just go to sleep and give them a few hours of peace.

That doesn’t make us bad parents. But it should entitle us to an afternoon nap.

by Kelly Frick

Are you throwing money away?

You are if you are raking or bagging your leaves and kicking them to the curb.

This time of year you may see me prowling neighborhoods for those bagged leaves waiting for city pickup. For me it is “black gold,” or it will be soon. I run the leaves through an electric leaf/limb shredder or put them in a trashcan and shred them with a Weed Eater. Then I mulch around my shrubs and put the rest in my compost bin.

It’s free, it looks good, and it helps to retain soil moisture.

Composting is a great way to amend soil and provide slow release fertilizer for your plants. Start by collecting yard, garden, and kitchen waste. A compost area can be as simple as a pile of yard waste in the back corner of your yard. You can construct a nice looking compost bin using chicken wire or woods. The Internet is a great place to find plans for compost bins both simple and elaborate. You can also buy bins at local garden centers.

Good compost piles have four important characteristics: green stuff, brown stuff, water, and air. Green stuff include coffee grounds, fresh grass clippings, kitchen waste (no meat or dairy products), manure if available (chicken, cow, goat, horse, pig, sheep), and weeds. People miss some great compost sources. Don’t forget dead bouquets, flour, and grains that have expired or gone buggy, stale bread, crackers, cereal, and teabags. The nitrogen in these ingredients helps raise the temperature of your compost. When it hits one-hundred-and-forty degrees, weed seeds die. You can buy a thermometer to check the temperature, but feeling the warmth as you turn your compost is usually sufficient.

The brown stuff includes aged sawdust, dried leaves, dry pine needles, shredded paper or cardboard (but no shiny paper), straw, tree branches, and soil. Layer the brown and green in your pile for the best results.

Compost breaks down faster when you shred the source material into smaller bits –this is most important for the brown stuff. Citrus rinds are especially difficult, but a bit of good garden soil or rotted manure, or a commercial compost booster, will add the microorganisms and proteins needed for that tough job.

The third important factor in composting is air. This means turning your compost pile with a shovel or pitchfork. You can also poke the compost in several spots with a four-foot piece of rebar, rotating the bar to make the holes larger. I have a compost-aerating tool that has two wings on the end that open up. The wings pull what was at the bottom of the pile to the top.

Finally, you need to supply water. The compost should be moist but not soggy. That means during dry weather you will need to moisten it.

How long before your compost pile is garden-ready depends on the size of the particle in the compost and how often you turn it. If you stick to small particles and turn it weekly, you should have useable compost in one to two months. Go to www.aces.edu and type in composting for more detailed information on any aspect of composting.

Or − wait a second. Don’t. Keep putting your leaves and grass clippings on the curb. I know someone who needs the supplies.