Thinking about the New Year, I was reminded of a disturbing statistic I once read. According to a study, only ten people cry at an average funeral – 10! It gets worse. Once those ten (or fewer) wipe away their tears, the number one factor in determining how many people would join the funeral procession to the graveside service is . . . the weather. The statistics show that if there is rain, 50% would go home and not attend the burial.

Those are depressing statistics, aren’t they? I mean, there’s a possibility that at the end of my life, only 10 people would cry at my service. And then there’s a fifty-fifty chance they might sneak out the back afterwards if the weather is bad.

None of us want that. We all want our lives to count for something. We want to make an impact in this world, to make a powerful statement with our lives, to leave our marks, to leave a legacy for future generations. It is a deep-seated need we all have as humans.

But it won’t just happen. You don’t accidentally make a difference in the world. Rather, to leave your mark takes directed effort. When Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?” his reply was simply, “That depends a good deal on where you want to go.”

So where do you want to go in life? What kind of response would you like at your funeral? To get where you want to get in life, you need a vision for your life. The Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV)

Of course, none of us have goggles that allow us to see into the future. If we did, we wouldn’t worry so much about the economy and the challenging times ahead. So what kind of vision is the Bible talking about? I think there are two aspects of vision we need. We need a “rearview mirror” vision as we grasp the ancient wisdom of God and his plans. The Bible says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16, NIV)

We also need a “big picture” vision – the idea that God is in control and finding where we fit into his plans. King Solomon said: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

Give yourself to God and let Him give you a vision for your heart.

A New Normal by Dr. Jim and Christine Mann

After a sudden death in his family, Pastor Jim Mann found himself unprepared to handle the unfamiliar issue of grief. An idyllic childhood made grief an unfamiliar foe. Daily, he read the Bible, prayed, cried, and journaled his thoughts. This book is the result.

Grief will touch us all at some point and it comes in many forms, great and small: loss of loved ones, loss of a dream, a broken marriage, accidents and disasters – even the loss of a beloved pet or a move to a new town. When we experience loss, life changes and it will never be “normal” again…but God will lead you to a “new normal.” This honest and insightful month-long journal is intended to help the reader work through grief in a healthy, healing way. You can emerge from the process in a stronger relationship with God and prepared to “get on with life.”

You can order the book through www.newlifedenton.org, or at your favorite Christian bookstores.

by Byron Cogburn, Cogburn’s Service General

What do we want on these cold wintery days, we want to turn on our central heat and air unit and have it deliver perfect temperature, exactly when we want it. The hard part for most of us is to determine when the unit is not running efficiently. It may be on and it may be putting out warm air but is it working too hard? Good maintenance is the essential factor to assure your system will be working when you want it and continues to work at it’s optimum efficiently.

Your HVAC unit is no different from your car. In order to keep it running and running at the maximum efficiency, you have to keep up with several key maintenance processes like oil, spark plugs, battery. Your HVAC unit also needs regular attention to run efficiently and effectively.

No matter what type of heating and cooling system you have, there are several things you can do to keep the system in top condition.

Actions to Do Yourself

• Inspect, clean, or change air filters once a month in your central air conditioner, furnace, and/or heat pump. Your contractor can show you how to do this. A dirty filter can increase energy costs and damage your equipment, leading to early failure.
• Keep the area around and near your unit clean and free of debris.
• Check for leaks and cracks.
• Make sure vents are no blocked with furniture, curtains and plants.

A service professional can help you with the more in depth system checks listed below.

10-Point Check for Heating Systems

• Clean & Inspect Heat Exchanger & HydroScan Test
• Clean Blower Compartment
• Check and Inspect Flue Pipe & Collector
• Check and Adjust Manifold Gas Pressure
• Inspect Evaporator Coil & Duct Work for Cleanliness & Air Leaks
• Test Over Temperature Safeties
• Test Flame Roll-Out Safeties
• Test Heat Exchanger for Carbon-Monoxide Leaks
• Check Calibration of Thermostat

• Clean & Wax Exposed Metal Surface

Efficient operation is a function of good regular maintenance. A portion of the maintenance should be your responsibility to handle yourself but good scheduled maintenance from a service professional is a vital part of keeping your system in good efficient shape.

by Dennis Smith, Dennis’ Farm Store

It is time to start planning for the spring gardens. Really? With cold winds, a little ice and maybe even some snow in our yards and gardens still? January and February are actually important times for your upcoming seasons, time to get started on getting started.

Start with cleaning and weeding the flower beds and garden areas and start tilling in several inches of compost. If you use raised beds it is also time to adjust, anchor and just generally fix up the area. And the same for your general garden areas, get them cleaned up and adjusted so all that process is done before you are actually ready to start putting plants in the ground.

If you plan to seed some plants and flowers indoors you can start the process late in January (tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, periwinkles). Those that are safe for planting in late January are Pansies, Violas, snapdragons, petunias, alyssum, ornamental cabbages and kale. Also bulbs like tulips and daffodils are ready in January.

Your onions, potatoes, garlic and asparagus, English peas and spinach will be ready for outside planting late in January and early February. And if you are interested in trying grapevines or blackberries, this is a good time to plant those.

Nice days and sunshine in February will make you tempted to grab some tomato plants for early outside planting. Your chances for success are slim and you will probably be back purchasing more plants to replace them in mid to late March.

February is North Texas garden ready time and the following vegetables will be in stock and ready for planting in the mid month: beets, brussel sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, potatoes and radishes.

Climbing roses should be trained but not pruned at this time. Remove dead or weak canes, and weave long canes through openings in trellises or arbors. Securing canes now will prevent possible damage from winter/spring winds.. Hold off on pruning bush roses until late February. Use good shears that will make clean cuts. Remove approximately one-half of the top growth and height of the plant. Now is an excellent time to plant container-grown roses to fill in bare spots in your rose garden by spring.

Remember, having the beds ready ahead of time will make your actual planting time much easier and will give your garden a head start. With a year of lots more rain and a lot less heat, we will be bountiful gardeners, so let’s plan on all three.

by Carli Trest

Sparkly bandeaus, kitten heels and sexy styles have many parents concerned. There are plenty of varied opinions on the matter, a few will be as far in one direction on the subject as those completely in the opposite side.

It’s not just at the bargain store that you find the shoes and clothes that are concerning parents. Shoes with half-inch heels, in sizes small enough for toddlers are at top children’s clothing retail shops. Halter tops with lacy fronts and padded cups are becoming a bit too normal in junior departments at major stores. And marketing, from some major retailers are barking the hype that this type of dress is appropriate for younger girls.

Recently a $25 padded bikini top targeting preteens crashed and burned just a few weeks after public outcry sent a top brand store executive group slinking back to the boardroom to revisit their marketing strategy. The padded “push-up” triangle bikini top peddled to girls ages 7 to 14, was first “re-categorized,” according to the company statement and then the top disappeared from the website entirely.

Many parents are upset about a popular shoe commercial advertising for girls. The sneaker, first marketed to adults, is supposed to help tone backsides and thighs. Now, they apparently think little girls could use the shoes, too. The animated commercial, airing on children’s TV networks, features a young seemingly popular girl named Heidi wearing the shoe. Heidi sings “She’s got the height, got the bounce, yeah she’s looking good and having fun because she’s got the shoes.” It is just one more example of how commercialism is playing a big role in influencing their choices.

Now we can also mix in the temptation of the hottest dolls in the toy aisle, dolls with overblown lips, smoky eyes and hot pants, again, young girls are being sent a message that implies “this is how you should look.” Even our beloved long time Barbie has decided to get tattoos!

For all those marketing ploys that have made a big fiery crash with parents and consumers man, many more are silently hitting the shelves and the sales registers. Too often you are having lunch at the local bakery & soup bar and see a young girl scamper by with a trendy t-shirt or sweat pants that are stamped across the chest or derriere with words like “juicy” or “hot to the touch.” Parents responding to questions on the matter answered saying, ‘It’s one thing when an older teen girl goes shopping and comes home with skinny jeans and a pair of high heels but when you see a seven-year-old wearing something similar, there had to be an adult along for the ride when that outfit was purchased.

Public opinion on the topic is pretty clear. Two recent polls on an opinion website, SodaHead.com, show 51 percent of respondents agreeing that “young girls dress too sexy.” Thank goodness it was 51%, shameful that it was only 51%.

by Denton Municipal Electric

After the holidays, I would like to have my ducts professionally cleaned. What advice can you give me for what questions to ask when contracting a company?

Before contracting with any service provider to clean your duct system, you may want to ask yourself a couple of questions. What can make a duct system dirty? Is the dirt a symptom of a larger problem?

Your duct system delivers air from your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system (HVAC) throughout your home and removes air from your home through its HVAC system. This is a closed system that should be tightly sealed. If it is sealed properly, how does dust get into the system?

One reason could be the location of your return vents – vents that pull air from the home back to the HVAC system. If your return vents are located in the floor, it could be pulling in more dirt than it would if it were on the wall or ceiling. Instead of redesigning your duct system, just make sure that the filters located in these vents are changed consistently.

Another reason ducts get dirty is due to duct leakage. Duct leakage accounts for a majority of issues in duct systems that are dirty. With the return ducts creating a negative pressure, it is pulling in dirt from crawlspaces and the attic. Using mastic tape to properly seal your ducts will reduce, if not eliminate, these duct leaks.
Having your ducts cleaned is a good plan of action, but make sure that you are addressing the real issues, otherwise you are just going to have a short term fix.

The use of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in the treatment of obesity was first discovered by the late British physician, Dr. A.T.W. Simeons. HCG is a hormone that is only produced by pregnant women in millions of units. Over 30 years ago, Dr. Simeons made the connection between HCG and weight loss, and proceeded to work with hundreds of women while he was perfecting a process that we use today with, in some cases, a clinician’s personal modifications.

How does it work? When a person goes on a normal diet, the portion of the brain (called the hypothalamus) that controls appetite, hormones and many other bodily functions sends a message to get energy and nutrients from wherever it can, i.e. “good” fat, (muscle), and “bad” fat (usually in the hip, butt, waist area). Unfortunately, the “bad” areas tend to be the fat that disappears last. When a man or woman goes on the HCG diet, the hypothalamus sends a message to go after the “bad” fat first. This message is thought to work through a gut hormone called leptin, which is associated with fat deposition and hunger.

The restrictive diet primarily consists of protein, fruits and vegetables within 500 calories. The question that immediately comes up is “how can I live on 500 calories and not be starving?” Quite simply, the HCG helps to release 2,000 to 3,000 calories into the bloodstream daily thus meeting all your energy needs. It is like being hooked up to a ‘fat IV.’

Does it work? It has been our experience, after working with hundreds of clients and assuming that they are compliant with the diet, that the average weight loss for women over a 40 day period is 25 to 30 pounds and for men 30 to 40 pounds. A recent journal article from Nutrition in Clinical Practice (Vol 26 No. 5 10/2011) compared weight loss with and between the traditional diets. The average weight loss over a 6 month period using a traditional diet was approximately 10 pounds.

How is it taken? Prescription HCG can be injected, or taken under the tongue, used topically or intranasally.

Is it safe? There are very few contradictions to using HCG for weight loss. Many of the reported “side effects” are more than likely due to the fact that the diet is very detoxifying. If/when you decide to try the HCG diet, it is important that you work closely with your clinician to monitor progress and to address any ongoing questions or concerns that you may have. We also feel that having a drug profile, baseline labs, a stress and cardiac analysis, initial weights/muscle mass and a body composition analysis helps us to help you achieve the weight loss we are both anticipating. As always you should check with your physician before starting any diet regimen.