Regifting

This past Christmas, a close relative of mine gave me a holiday package. You know the kind that contain summer sausages and cheese? This one had two different kinds of summer sausage, a package of crackers, some spreadable mustard and spreadable cheese. I was delighted! I thought this is the perfect gift! My husband and I will be able to enjoy this on New Year’s eve.

I took the package home and stored it as mentioned on the directions. I actually went ahead and put it in the refrigerator.

On New Year’s Eve, I made a beautiful snack tray for my family. It is our usual New Year’s Eve tradition to enjoy snacks as we listen to music, watch comedy shows, sip champagne and wait for the ball to drop at midnight. The champagne was chilled. The candles were lit. I had sliced some lovely fruit and decided to add the summer sausage, cheese and crackers to our snack tray. I went into the refrigerator to retrieve the snack package and went to open one of the flavored summer sausages. Much to my horror, the sausage was molded! There were large areas of mold on both packages of sausage.

I searched the package to see if I could find the expiration date. Much to my amazement, the package indicated that it had expired in February 2010! The package was almost 2 years old! Disgusted, I threw the entire package into the trash can.

I called my relative and thanked him for the snack gift and I also informed him that the expiration date was almost 2 years ago. I wanted to make sure that he had not purchased an expired package. He was embarrassed and admitted that this was a re-gift. (duh!) He said that someone had given the package to him and that he had passed it on to me because he did not eat that kind of meat. Hmmmm… As I always say, there ain’t nothing like family!

Well, lesson learned here: If you are going to re-gift, make sure that your gift is appropriate and within the expiration date.

Happy New Year, y'all!

2012 in the Middle

Well, yeah, I guess this year I’m ready to accept that I am in my middle years. For some, I’m actually a senior citizen! Yeah that’s right, I can get senior citizens’ discounts and I’ve got my AARP card! So I guess that’s it. I’m literally in my middle. I have decided that for me this is going to be nothing but positive so this blog is about how I’m going to start 2012.

I decided to take 2012 and do the 31 day reset challenge featured on the Happy Black Woman blog. I’m going to do 31 days of activities and exercises that should give me the ability to create new possibilities for my life. Give me the ability to think about my goals and actually find my way to higher place in my life and that’s exactly what I want in 2012.

To get started, I completed the first challenge. I chose a mantra for myself: Think like a queen. I chose this mantra from a quote from Oprah Winfrey and although I haven’t been a really big Oprah Winfrey fan, I do respect and admire her for her accomplishments, for her perseverance, and for all the struggles that we probably don’t even know about that she had to endure to get to where she is today. Oprah’s quote says “Think like a Queen. A Queen is never afraid to fail. A Queen knows that failure is nothing but a stepping stone to greatness.”

My theme song for 2012 is the same theme song that I have had for years and that song is “I’m Every Woman”, the Chala Khan version. With all due respect to Whitney Houston, Chaka’s version has brought me through many days and tight situations so I am partial to that one.

The third thing that I did to get started on my 31 day life reset was to choose a notebook to keep my exercises and notes. An actual physical notebook although anybody that knows me knows that I’m such a techie. I have an iPad and all of that and I’m actually recording this on a dictation app for my blog but I like the idea of a physical notebook. I like the idea of an ink pen sliding over paper. So I chose a notebook that I have been using for a few months as a kind of spiritual notebook or a gratitude journal. I really like this journal and I have plenty of room in it for my 31 day challenge.

I am excited about this life reset and ask that you pray for my motivation and perseverance. If you are interested in joining me and others on the 31 Day Life Reset Challenge, check out happyblackwoman.com. Rosetta Thurman has to the whole thing laid out for us and I think it’s going to be great. I’d love to see all of us take 2012 and make it into the most wonderful, positive, powerful, productive year that we have ever had!

Y’all take care. Happy new year!
Taviaz