A month or so ago, while driving into town and listening to the radio, we heard the D.J. ask the following question:

What is the most purchased item at Walmart?

Katrina and I kept trying to come up with an answer, as did the people calling in. Finally someone provied the answer "bananas" and I wanted to kick myself. After all, I buy bananas pretty much every week and it is the only thing I buy every week besides milk.

So it was with interest that I read a National Geographic article on 'Green' Banana Farming. Banana trees are disease prone and must be sprayed constantly with pesticides and fungicides.

For example, standard banana plantations tie plastic bags around budding bunches to protect the fruit from scarring and to keep out unwanted pests.

But innovative approaches have been working at recycling the plastic bags and finding ways to not use the pesticides and fungicides. Every bit helps and it is big companies like Dole leading the way that will really help to make a difference!

"Let your speech always be with grace..." Col. 4:6a

"In all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works..." Titus 2:7a

Maybe it is the nature of human beings, or maybe it is the nature of wives, but we tend to focus on the negative features of those closest to us. We treat our spouses worse than we would treat a friend or an acquaintance. How many friends would we have if we were always nagging them about how they don't do enough or how they don't help us the way we think they should?

Why then do we treat the loves of our life, the men we have spoken vows to honor and love for a lifetime with any less honor and love. We turn blind eyes to the faults of our friends, we try to lift them up, to aide them as we may. But our own spouses, we do not follow this same code of love and care.

Today(and everyday), concentrate on your spouse's excellent qualities. Lift him up by praising those and be there to help him where he is lacking (for instance...if your dh is unorganized, then you help him by keeping schedules and paperwork together and easily accessible.)

Daniel desires to make his mark on the world, to help others, to spend time with his family. He prizes honesty, creativity, and people's desire to better themselves. He loves to travel and does what he can to make sure all of us get that opportunity whenever possible. He doesn't go out with the boys, spend endless hours watching sporting events, or otherwise try to find ways to spend time away with his family. Instead, it grieves him to be away from us.

No, he is not perfect. There are things I wish he did, that he does not, but that is not his fault. That is the fault of my own expectations. It is my goal to spend more time attending to his fabulous qualities just like I would any friend.

I had never heard of the Blue Iguana before today when I was reading a National Geographic article about them.

The Blue Iguana is a critically endangered species and is one of the longest lived species of lizard (possibly living up to 69 years). In 2003 there were only 15 Blue Iguana left in the wild. Fortunately, there are those working desparately to preserve this beautiful iguana.

From Wikipedia: Since 2004, 219 captive-bred animals have been released into a preserve on Grand Cayman run by a partnership headed by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, in an attempt to save the species. Some success with naturally laid eggs has been reported in the wild. At least five non-profit organizations are working with the government of the Cayman Islands to ensure the survival of the Blue Iguana.

This species is struggling to survive and someone senselessly butchered six of them in a nature preserve on Grand Cayman last weekend. It is beyond me why anyone would do such a thing. Capture them to sell as pets, eat them for food...those things I could at least sort of understand though I would not condone. But just to kill them....I hope the investigation turns up the culprit.

Have you ever noticed how as the day goes along, your hearing seems to get worse?

For example, you watch a movie before going to bed, then you get up in the morning to watch another movie or to watch the news and the volume blasts you out of the house! Is that because over night your hearing gets a break and 'repairs' itself a bit? Or is it because by the end of the day the volume in the house is so loud, you have to turn up the television volume to compensate, but in the morning it is nice, quiet and calm and the volume on the television can also be quiet and calm?

Inquiring minds want to know....

And then there is the whole hearing and aging mystery. When I was younger, I could hear a device my parents had installed in their chimney that emitted high pitched whistles to keep birds away. Now I have a hard time hearing a person talking on my cell phone....

This Bald Eagle was found scavenging for food in an Alaskan landfill after his beak had apparently been shot off with a billet. Unable to rip and tear, this eagle, called Beauty, was starving. Two years later, Beauty is going to be getting a replacement beak. Beauty still won't be able to rip and tear because the beak won't be strong enough. But if it works, perhaps scientists will be able to come up with a stronger beak and help birds in similar situations in the future. This article and photo courtesy of National Geographic.

I hope all of you moms are having a wonderful holiday! I hope that your families are giving you a day of pedastel treatment. Fixing your meals, letting you choose what you want to do, rubbing your feet and showering you with flowers.

Yesterday, I received these lovely flowers from my hubby and children. They have a lovely balloon connected.

Today, my children woke up and told me I had to stay in my room with the air filter running to block out sound. About an hour later, they appeared with breakfast and a recording they had made. For breakfast, there were waffles, a cup of chocolate pudding and a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie (which Jack made yesterday and they are awesome!).

The recording was Katrina singing a song she had made up for me telling me how much she loved me and how she would do things for me and how we would always be together. Jack periodically chimed in. Jack played a couple of songs on the piano too.

We went to my mother's church and surprised her for Mother's Day. After church, they had cake and punch to celebrate the day and to show their appreciation of a leaving pastor (from a nearby church). They also gave the mom's tons of roses.

Now I am here with my kiddies watching movies and enjoying a specatularly Happy Mother's Day.

"Let your speech always be with grace..." Col. 4:6a

From Revive Our Hearts.com-

Focus today on how you represent your husband in your home, your church, and your community. In this challenge to encourage, ask: "If all my family and friends knew about my husband came from a filter of what I've said about him, what would they think of my husband?"

Don't forget: you are always criticizing - or encouraging - before an audience. God hears your conversations when you are alone with your husband in your own home. May your speech be always seasoned with grace.

I think this is one that we as wives, should pay attention to. How we speak of our spouses to others influences how others see our spouses, and in all likelihood, how they see us. We must be certain we aren't building ourselves up by tearing them down.

My friend over at My Little Drummer Boys just made me aware of a cool Wikipedia experiment. They report that there are some 70,000,000 million blogs in the world and they want to see how long it will take 1,000,000 blogs to sign up on Wikipedia. They started this experiment on April 10th, and apparently word of mouth is a tad slow. They are only up to number 1448! So go take advantage of this cool experiment. Get another link, perhaps more traffic and help Wikipedia answer the question they are dying to know....just how long will it take for a million blogs to sign up!???

Video from National Geographic: Greensburg, Kansas was basically destroyed last May when a F-5 tornado touched down. Today they are making lemonade out of lemons. They could have given up and moved away, instead, they are rebuilding their town, and they are rebuilding Green! Way to go, citizens of Greensburg! You are a shining example to us all!

Video from National Geographic - An Australia company is testing what could be the undersea equivalent of a wind farm. Their devices would capture wave energy and convert it to electricity.
Makes sense to me! Our planet is 3/4 covered with water....we need to figure out a way to put this vast resource to use. Way to go Aussies!

Video from National Geographic: Cheetahs could be extinct within 15 years. To help stem the tide, a new South African program brings a big cat into contact with the public.

Click on the link above to see what conservationists in Africa are doing to create a bond between people and cheetahs, how they are taking care of these magnificent creatures and how they are helping local ranchers keep from losing their livestock.

Last week I had some fun money to spend. You know...the bills are paid and you have some money available to buy something fun. Well I spread my fun money around. I purchased Harry Potter 6 on Audio Book for the kids and I to listen to on our way to Illinois in a couple of weeks. Jack and I have read it, but I didn't read that one to Katrina, and with the movie coming out in November, I thought this would be a great way to catch her up and to fill our 12 hour drive. I bought some clothes (our local DAV was having a 1.00 sale on all clothing) Now I have a whole new wardrobe for this spring and summer and I packed up a bunch of clothes for a friend that I no longer wish to have around. And I bought myself two games for the Nintendo DS.

I got Snood, which I played once the night I got it, but once I put Word Jong into my DS, I haven't removed it since...that poor little Brain Age chap is sure to feel deserted by me!

Anyway...I love Mahjong and I love Scrabble and Word Jong puts the two of these great games into one! I have played and played and played! I already have a ranking of Silver Ox (having passed through all the bronze levels and half of the silver ones). I have beat all of the Word Jong masters except for Qu Xan...I have come sooooo close to beating him. And I have done all the daily puzzles for this month so far. I have earned around 6 awards. I tried connecting to another player using WiFi...but there probably aren't a lot of people out there playing this game and finding them when I am looking for them hasn't worked out yet.

Sooooo....if you have this game or it sounds like something you would like to have, check it out. And if you can play via WiFi with me, drop me a comment and we'll plan a battle time!

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Matt. 6:33

From ReviveOurHearts.com

If we are living in light of eternity, everything we think, do or say is seen from an eternal perspective. We will someday give an account for our failure to speak words of love and encouragement. Determine today that your words will be sweet and helpful.

So often we have unrealistic expectations of the people around us. Our husbands, our friends, our family. We expect them to meet all of our needs and then we are disappointed when they do not. But we are the ones setting them up for failure. A deep love and trust of God is the only thing that can satisfy all of our needs. When we focus on Him, the rest of our lives will become more loving, forgiving and wonderful. When we stop expecting those around us to be perfect, it frees us up to try to love them the way God loves us without burdening our love with the failures that we perceive.

I am more than a bit behind with my National Geographic feed reading. So I am going to make a big post linking to some of the stories that interested me the most from the past couple of weeks. Hopefully you will find something here that interests you as well!

"Extinct" Plants Discovered Blooming in Australia - these plants haven't been seen since 1891 and were listed as extinct in 1922.

VIDEO: Terra-Cotta Army Coming to U.S. - This would be very neat to see!

Colossal Squid Thawing; Hints at Even Bigger Beasts A Colossal Squid that was accidentally captured February 2007 is revealing answers to the scientists in charge of thawing it and studying it.

I just finished watching the movie, Into the Wild

This movie is based on a true event that was written about in the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. The movie is directed by Sean Penn.