Hirst

Is your house so messy you can never find what youre looking for? Are you often late for work because you can never find your car keys? These tips will help save time and keep you more organized.

Keep things in a place that makes sense. Drop your keys in a dish by the front door so you wont waste time looking for them throughout the house. Put anything you need to take with you by the front door- outgoing mail, your briefcase or the library books that need to be returned. This will save you time in the morning because you wont be running around trying to gather what you need for the day.

Straighten up as you go. Pick up the newspaper and put in the recycle bin instead of leaving it on the coffee table. Fill the dishwasher after every meal instead of once a day. Put your groceries away rather than leave them on the kitchen table. How can you possibly know what food you do or dont have if last weeks haul is still in the bag? This makes the kitchen an appealing place to enjoy a meal instead of a constant reminder of chores that need to be done.

Finish one project before starting another. I have a friend who has started to update his bathroom, never finished the project and is now working on his kitchen. His house is constantly in a state of confusion and he never manages to get any project completed because its now so overwhelming.

Keep your bathroom tidy. Wipe up the sink and vanity top after you shave or wash your face and put your toiletries away. Doing these small things as you go keeps the bathroom looking cleaner in case unexpected guests stop by- you wont have to be embarrassed if they ask to use the facilities.

Organize your closets. If your closet is filled to capacity, you cant see what you have. Instead of squeezing everything into your closet, keep out of season clothes in the spare bedroom closet. Keep shoes in boxes or shoe racks. Donate any garments that no longer fit or if you havent worn them in the past season. Dont hang onto things you cant use anymore because there is someone out there who will be grateful to have it.

Keep your important documents and papers in a safe place. Birth certificates, passports, marriage license, divorce papers, the deed to your house and the title to your car should be filed in a fireproof lockbox. Better yet, they should be kept in a safe deposit box at a bank close to home so its convenient for you to retrieve them when needed. If you keep important financial information on your home computer, its a good idea to backup to a flash drive and keep this at the bank too. The cost of a safe deposit box is worth the peace of mind knowing you wont have to replace these documents if they were ever lost in a disaster.

Taking small steps every day to keep organized will help keep your casa cozy and clutter-free.

Copyright 2006 Kathy Swann

Kathy Swann has over 25 years experience in office management, payroll and Human Resources and also works as a consultant/bookkeeper for several small businesses. Using her organizational skills, she has helped many of her clients streamline their office systems to save time, money and maximize efficiency.

She is the author of "How to Win When You Understand Money: A Handbook for Teenagers. Purchase this e-book at http://www.suncatcherpress.com

The good news is finally here. For all the guys that have been turned down and embarrassed. This is just what you have been waiting on to happen.

Now more than ever more and more women are getting on the "Friends with Benefits" bandwagon. With the shortage of men willing to commit more and more women are not going to go without. They are realizing that an honest relationship built on friendship and sex is a viable option to "Mr. Lonely" the toy.

The old days are gone. You no longer have to lie, cheat and beg to get sex. There are women out there who are as ready as you are without the strings of a relationship. You can actually be honest. I know that will be a change for a lot of you, but it will be worth it.

Imagine, no more creeping, lying and hurting someone else just so you can get what you need. Now you can enjoy your time together even more because the guilt of using someone is not there.

What does that mean to you. These are the women that you are looking for. They are out there you just have to find them. Looking in the streets can be tough because it is not like they have a sign on their foreheads, "Desperate and Horny".

It is not like you can just walk up to a sexy woman squeezing the melons at the grocery store and say, "How would you like to squeeze mine". Trying to find a woman like this out in public can be hard.

But wait, there is more good news. The internet is here to save the day. There are actually sites where women are looking for guys to "hook up" with. Friends with Benefits has never been easier.

http://hotwomensecrets.com

Frustrated by the lack of sexy women that you are meeting? Disappointed in the lies you are being told? Go here for the real truth about finding the women you want.

Yes or No? Difficult questions for Fundamentalist Christians.

I was sitting in the Ambassador Auditorium, in Pasadena, California at a Bible Study, in the early 80's, on the Nature of God given by the then resident Greek scholar and thinker. He really was a very intelligent teacher and I always enjoyed, to a point, hearing from him. At times, it was an exercise in going around and around but never quite landing anywhere.

The fact that I have yet to understand the true nature of the true God and how He/She/Him/Them relate is irrelevant. It was all pretty heady stuff for my denomination's ministry. I'm sure I was not privy to the half of all the drama being played out behind the scenes between those that were teaching and those that thought THEY should be teaching, but I suspect it would have been much like the Council of Nicea back in 325 where being on the wrong side could have serious consequences.

But the most hilarious moment came from a simple question in which the questioner, after trying to frame an intelligent question for this very astute teacher on this profound question, said... "please try to use the word 'yes' or 'no' in your answer."

It was a moment of sheer enlightenment. "Please try to use the word 'yes' or 'no' in your answer." I laughed to tears in that way that is much deeper than the comment warranted because it struck at the heart of what many who repeat the mantra, "God said, I believe it, that settles it for me." are incapable of doing---using a yes or no in an answer to a sincere question about obvious contradictions, impossibilities and inconsistencies of scripture.

So let's take play Yes or No. Take your time but you MUST pick a yes or no for the answer. No yeah-buts. While we are well aware that the Bible speaks of three kinds of leaders in the NT (the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the But-u-sees) try to leave them out of it.

From Matthew 1 and 2

Yes or No: It is interesting that Matthew includes a victim of incest (Tamar), a prostitute (Rahab), a foreigner (Ruth) and an adulteress (Bathsheba) leading up to Mary's birth of Jesus, rather than four upstanding women of Israel in Jesus' lineage.

Yes or No: With Matthew and Luke showing that Jesus' REAL father is not literally Joseph, but rather literally God himself through the Holy Spirit, the idea of Jesus being related through Joseph back to David and Abraham is broken and irrelevant.

Yes or No: While in the context, Isaiah 7:14 predicted the child would literally be named Immanuel, Jesus was never literally called Immanuel.

Yes or No: Following a star from Iraq/Persia that rises in the East to a specific home West, five miles south of Jerusalem is not literally possible. (Ok, argue comets, and conjunctions of planets if it helps)

Yes or No: It is odd that Herod and his astrologers could not see the star and could not follow it themselves.

Yes or No: When the Magi arrived, (perhaps up to a year after Jesus birth) Mary and Joseph lived in a house with no mention of a home in Nazareth or a need to go back to another home in Nazareth where they had just come from.

Yes or No: According to Matthew, lots of children in Bethlehem and the region paid for Jesus birth with their lives so that Jesus as an adult could die for their sins.

Yes or No: The angel told Joseph it was safe to go back to Israel but then changed his mind and told him "oops I forgot about Herod's evil son", so Joseph returned to live for the first time in Nazareth.

Yes or No: All gift shop angels are female and all Bible angels are male.

Yes or No: I can't find any place in the Old Testament where it says a Nazarene is a person who lives in Nazareth and foretells Jesus would be from there. In fact, I can't find Nazareth mentioned as a city in the OT.

Yes or No: Quoting a verse in the OT about Israel exiting Egypt is not much of prophecy of Jesus going home from exile in Egypt.

Yes or No: Matthew knows nothing of homes in Nazareth, taxes, mangers, shepherds, staying in Jerusalem 40 days for Mary to be purified according to Moses, turtle doves (offerings of poor people) and the long quiet trip home to Nazareth.

From Luke 2

Yes or No: Making everyone return to their city of birth to be taxed sounds like a formula for empire wide chaos.

Yes or No: If Jerusalem was able to care for the tens of thousands who came each year to the three great Festivals, one might think there would be more than a few places to stay comfortably especially if one was a young pregnant girl.

Yes or No: It seems odd that Joseph would take a nine-month pregnant Mary on the dangerous trip to Bethlehem when it was not necessary for her to go.

Yes or No: It seems odd that if Zechariah was a Priest in the area of Jerusalem, they might not have thought to let Mary and Joseph stay with them. Mary had just been to see them three months earlier when finding Elizabeth to be six months pregnant.

Yes or No: It is interesting that angels and the heavenly host went out into the fields to sing and witness to a few shepherds who then had to find Jesus and tell everyone else themselves what had happened. (Can't the heavenly host sing for the entire town?)

Yes or No: The Shepherds seemed to know just where to find Jesus without the star.

Yes or No: Eight days after his birth, Jesus was circumcised in Jerusalem.

Yes or No: After 40 days, a time of ritual purification for Mary, they walked peacefully back to Nazareth, to their home, with no mention of fleeing to Egypt.

Yes or No: Living in Bethlehem in your own home, having Magi bring expensive gifts including gold and causing you to have to flee to Egypt for your lives as Herod slaughters all your neighbors children, is not the same story as trekking to Bethlehem to be taxed, giving birth as if no one knew you, and hangin' out for 40 days to safely return home to Nazareth.

Yes or No: If Nazareth was a safe haven, fleeing all the way to Egypt seems unnecessary save for Matthew's need to find more OT prophecies about Jesus.

OK, OK, enough! This "yes" or "no" game can be played with many many Biblical references. Just a few more outside of the Birth Narratives to illustrate.

Yes or No: If in the beginning, there was only Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel, (Seth was called the third child of Adam and Eve after he was born after Abel's murder), it seems strange that Cain was worried about those that would kill him if God banished him to wander the earth. There was no one else. Was he waiting for Seth to grow up, marry an as yet unborn sister, and hunt him down with his kids? Did God forget there were no others out there to hunt him?

Yes or No: Jesus overturned the money changers early in his career as John said. (Jn 2:13).

Yes or No: Jesus overturned the money changers just prior to his arrest and crucifixion as Matthew said. (Matt 21:12).

Yes or No: John names turning water to wine as Jesus first miracle.

Yes or No: Matthew, Mark and Luke never heard of it.

Yes or No: Paul seems to know nothing of the Gospel accounts of Jesus real life, and says he was simply born of a woman like everyone else.

Instead of "apologizing" which I know is a sincere defense of scripture as presented, the ability to think for oneself and come up with a yes or no is also an excellent exercise in being honest with a presentation. 'Nuff said....the birth narrative realities are my way of asking us to think about what we have always been told by others and honor your own observations about the Bible, without fear what your minister or organizations might think or do.

DennisCDiehl@aol.com

Dennis Diehl is a former church pastor and currently has a therapeutic massage practice in Greenville, SC.

Your skin is a reflection of your underlying health. Good nutrition including fresh vegetable juice such as carrots can play a role in creating better-looking skin. Carrot Juice is used for skin health to provide curative and preventative properties for healthy glowing skin. The largest organ in the body, our skin is the first defense against germs and the environment. One of the best ways to slow the aging of skin is to ensure the skin is well hydrated by consuming fresh juice and plenty of water each day.

Carrots are regarded as the 'herbal healer' of skin diseases as they promote the repair of skin tissue. Carrot juice is a valuable source of Vitamin A, which is a major vitamin for skin health. Carrots are rich in antioxidants, including phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals, which protect, nourish and moisturize the skin. Nutrition received from carrots helps to reduce photosensitivity to promote skin renewal and protect the skin from sun damage.

Carrot juice acts as an anti-inflammatory and revitalizes and tones the skin. Cosmetically, carrots are used to treat dermatitis, eczema, rashes and wrinkles caused by free radicals. Carrot juice is also used to assist in the healing of cuts and abrasions. Complexion problems due mainly to toxic overload in the body and an acidic condition in the blood can be stabilized through consumption of carrot juice. Potassium in the carrots helps to neutralize the excess acid and the vitamin A assists the liver in flushing toxins from the body.

A recent study in the Netherlands found a significant link between skin condition and the level of vitamin A in the blood. Natural vitamin A in the form of Beta Carotene is abundant in fresh carrot juice thereby negating the need for vitamin A supplements.

Vitamin A deficiencies in the body include: premature wrinkling, skin impurities, acne, dry, scaly and rough skin, especially on the arms and legs. Carrot juice applied daily is great for uneven skin tones due to blemishes and pigmentation. Extract juice from carrots and pineapple using a juicer: mix pineapple juice and carrot juice together, apply it on the face and wash off after 15 minutes. Use this daily to achieve clear and even toned skin.

Drink carrot juice in small doses, as the body is unable to assimilate more than 8oz of carrot juice at a time. Large consumptions of carrot juice daily over a period of weeks may result in a yellow tinge to the skin. At best it will give a healthy glow to your tan. The skin discoloration is completely harmless and occurs primarily on the hands and feet. Either your body is unable to process carotene properly or your liver is toxic. Either way for healthy nutrition it is important not to concentrate on only one juice source.

A healthy skin is achieved internally through a nutritious diet incorporating fresh vegetable juice. Carrot juice is effective in maintaining and enhancing a soft, smooth disease free skin. An invigorating and refreshing juice, start drinking carrot juice today and tell me if you see a difference in your skin

For more juicing tips and reviews on Breville juicers, Omega juicers,Citrus juicers and more try visiting juicertips.com where you can quickly and easily find tips, advice and resources on the benefits of juicing