Melia Lore tells the scariest bathroom story EVER.

The Official Hippymom.com Blog announces the Year of the Tiger!

Wouldn’t You Like to Know? is biding her time, waiting for the snow to melt.

Learn to Meditate with Crystals on Calming Winds.

Mama Duck has Eco-Friendly and Cheap Home Decor Ideas!

Parenting teenagers is not for the faint of heart, says SocGradMama.

Melia Lore thinks she knows more about her cervix than politicians do.  Imagine that!

Find out what the awesome events are happening in March on Hippymom.com!

Luscious Decadence has one word for you:  Cheesecake!

Snow?  In Alabama?! See the pictures on Gray Gaia.

One of the mistakes made this time of year is that we gardeners want to get out there and start digging, planting, pruning, you name it! While right now is a good time to prune winter plants, winter is not over! Those plants at your local garden shop are filling the shelves but it isn’t time. The rule of thumb is, wait until after Easter. I know! I know that seems like a life time from now. You saw my yard in Alabama in my pictures I posted. How my poor daffodils were struggling to raise their snow covered heads. As much as I am itching to get out there I know another freeze is out there, lurking to freezer burn my new plantings if I become impatient.  And if you are living in the North Country you know you are nowhere near getting out in the yard.

What to do? Last year I wrote about forcing bulbs this time of year and that is what I did. I got a delightful present this year which was a pot, soil and two Paper White daffodils from my daughter. As I looked out my kitchen window missing the sun, missing the warmth I watch the fragile blooms open up and say, “Cheer up! Spring is on the way!”

Another great success I have every year is that my Poinsettia is still blooming and will continue to thrive. So here in the middle of winter I have two great flowering plants that are keeping my orchids company!

Oh, one more great habit gardeners succumb to this time of year is the garden catalogs. So grab your catalogs and snuggle up in a cozy chair in front of the fire and dream of your flowers, the vegetable patch, or the berries you intend on cultivating! I know who hard it is to wait until after that last frost! That is why I am the Impatient Gardener!

It has been years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has had by attention. It wasn’t until my class in European History when my professor referenced a short story of Sherlock Holmes, “The Man with the Twisted Lip” that my attention was focused on Sherlock Holmes again. Doyle wrote the Holmes short stories and novels as a sideline, my professor tells me. And they were serialized in newspapers. As Doyle great weary of writing about Sherlock Holmes he decided to have him killed off by falling off a cliff. The public was in shock! I was in shock! I was not done with Sherlock Holmes anymore that the public. So with much begging Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead.

I fell in love all over again. I got all the Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett, the movies on Netflix and went to my Kindle to download some cases of Sherlock’s. I am now and will forever be in love with Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his crime fighting attempts.

Jeremy Brett does Holmes a great justice in how he is portrayed. And Edward Hardwicke does a fine job of playing Dr. John Watson. The relationship that Holmes and Watson have developed over time is a deep abiding friendship that runs through each and every story as the crime is solved.

Then I find that Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have recently redone the Sherlock Holmes but alas! There will only be one Sherlock for me, Jeremy Brett. And only one Dr. Waston, Edward Hardwicke. I fear I am love struck with Sherlock that only Jeremy Brett can portray. I fear that I will be unfaithful if I go see Robert Downey Jr.

If you go see the new Sherlock Holmes please send me your review!

Wouldn’t You Like to Know has uncovered a star in the making on You Tube.

Is Living Well Really the Best Revenge?  Find out what Spectacular Me thinks.

Melia Lore chronicles the great white winter of 2010.

MamaBirdie sheds a glimmer of hope for spring on the Official Hippymom.com Blog:  Preparing Your Garden for Spring.

The Inside Life meets her Challenges.

Moves in Curves has Nothing Substantial to Say.

Read all about the trials and tribulations of a work-at-home-mom on Moments to Keep.

Melia Lore reviews The Body Scoop for Girls on the Official Hippymom.com Blog.

The Eyes Have It on Luscious Decadence.

Tribal Style breaks down the slow moves.

Us baby boomers have a lot on our minds these days. And exercise is moving out there to the forefront, right? We know that as we age it is becomes difficult to find time to exercise but London found an interesting way to help aging boomers. A park with low impact equipment designed for improvement of balance and flexibility.

The idea is to have a playground for the elderly. And while this might sound like a novel idea Exercise areas aimed at the elderly are popular in Europe and Asia so why not the UK? And why not the United States as well? What a great idea to have a playground for the elderly. Meet friends and exercise more!

It relieves the aches and pains they we get as we age. The thing is when we are young no one tells us how it is going to feel as get older. If we have parents, older relatives or friends willing to share that information great but if not we are on our own. With our culture being youth oriented it “seems” as if the elderly just well, age. But the human body does more than that, it changes and it begins to slow down and not be as flexible.

It is never too late to exercise. When boomers were young the neighborhoods and entertainment was different you just got out there and played on the playground with all the other kids but as we got older we lost touch with the simplicity of exercise. Let’s just call it movement. For example, take a look at walking for exercise. It seems that our culture has determined that without the right shoes, the right clothes and a good pedometer we can’t walk correctly. How can that be? How long have been living on this planet and not known how to walk? We can find ways to walk more like take the stairs at work or park further out in the parking. They recommend 10,000 steps a day but I find just moving around I get that. If I have to stop and put on the right shoes or the right outfit I will never get those steps!

So when the idea of a playground for the elderly got my attention I could see how easy that would be to just play and not call it exercise that dreaded stuff that takes a plan to do. Playing is fun not work. And when I think of how our culture has made exercise drudgery I visualize runners all decked in out the right shoes, the right clothes, Ipod in ear with a serious look of basic survival fighting elements. No laughing, no playing, no friends just isolationism driven by the need to make exercise another “work” in progress in life.

Boomers know that life is too short to do that. I like the idea of a playground, don’t you? One thing I do know now that I failed to get while I was fighting my way through life is…..you don’t get a do- over on today. This one day is here for today and never again. What you do with it, how you use it will be only today. I say let’s go to a playground, do some gentle stretching and forget about calling it exercise. Let’s call it fun!

Moves In Curves gives a play-by-play comparison of two great Sense and Sensibility film adaptations.

Tribal Style has posted her February Featured Video for your viewing pleasure.

Read the stream of consciousness Grammy Commentary by Melia Lore.

Find out what February has in store on the Official Hippymom.com Blog.

Calming Winds gives her readers specific instructions for using a pendulum to Communicate With Your Inner Self.

SocGradMama shares a Precious Moment with her teenage daughters.

Equality and Justice 4 All ponders A Peaceful, Inclusive Faith.

I'm Gonna Be A Bear!

Gonna be a bear

In this life I’m a woman. In my next life, I’d Like to come back as a bear. When your a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, your suppose to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

When your a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while your sleeping and wake up to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definatley deal with that.

If your a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. you swat away anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

Modern Sage shares her weird Candy Striped Grub drawing.

SocGradMama is pulling her hair out in Homework Hell(p)!

Equality and Justice 4 All tells us What Pissed Me Off This Week.

Are you Missing the Miraculous?  Spectacular Me! says, “snap out of it!”

Calming Winds reminds us that no matter what happens around us, we can survive by Clinging to the Core.

Melia Lore is corrupting the youth with her feminist sex studies.  Read all about it:  Sex and the Melia.

The Official Hippymom Blog has a great Valentine Kid Craft Project for your family to try this month.

Wouldn’t You Like To Know what she’s watching on TV?

Luscious Decadence has come up with 10 Ways to Give Back.

Moves in Curves is Snowed In!

I don’t think you’re ready for this Jelly Jaunt on the Inside Life.

Gray Gaia is just looking for a reason to celebrate.

Don’t forget to sign up for the upcoming online workshops being offered at Hippymom.com during the month of February:

Tuning Your Senses

Scrapbooking

Freelancing

Candlemas Day and Groundhog Day are both on February 2nd. Lets hope it’s a cloudy day, not rainy of course (I
have had enough of that)!

But if you are a Candlemas Day observer I say, eat those pancakes and enjoy!

“If Candlemas Day be sunny and bright, winter will have another flight.
IF Candlemas Day be cloudy with rain, winter is gone and won’t come again.”

~Old Enlish Proverb~

Or if you are a Groundhog Day observer (that would me!)

I say,

“If Phil see his shadow, thre will be six more weeks of winter;
If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.”

~Punxsutawney Groundhog Club~

Either way if someone is praying for rain right now I think we have enough! Happy Groundhog Day.

I watch Groundhog Day every year starring Bill Murray. Does anyone else watch it?