Making A Journal Jar

It's hot enough for area meteorologists

Summer has its perks.

I love stepping into the backyard, picking some lettuce and making a salad. My tomatoes are ripening, and I'm going to be canning as many of those suckers that I don't eat off the vine like apples, if I can get to them before any critters do.

My mom canned tomatoes every year when I was a kid, and I tried it for the first time last year. No one got botulism, so I'll make a bigger batch this time and maybe put up peaches and pickled jalapeños as well.

There are a lot of things to like about summer, but for me, heat, humidity, air conditioning and higher energy costs are not among them. When people tell me "at least you don't have to shovel" hot weather, I say let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Last week's marathon heat wave was nice if you were a basil plant, but I found it oppressive.

However, in an informal survey, five of six local television meteorologists disagreed with me, saying they preferred hot and muggy weather over cold and snowy weather. All of them replied by email.

WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) meteorologist John Malan was the exception.

At first, he tried to split the difference.

"I prefer hot and dry," Malan said. "Retire out west, I always say."

But when pressed, he said that "cold and snowy would be my preference," since it cannot be "too" cold if snow is falling.

"I am not much for humidity, and it taxes me more than most people," he said.

The other five disagreed with him.

"It just seems easier to cool off when it's hot and muggy than it is to warm up when you're in the cold and snow," said Lance Hill of WDJT-TV (Channel 58). "Plus, I've been in pain while standing outside reporting in the cold and snow. I don't ever recall being in pain while reporting on extreme heat."

And, Hill added, "I've never slid into another car" while driving in the heat.

For Sally Severson of WISN-TV (Channel 12), hot and muggy weather in the summer is the exception, not the rule.

"Around here, a heat wave usually only stays around for a few days, and we typically only have a couple of them a summer," which she finds "more tolerable than months of snow and cold!"

Her WISN-TV colleague, Mark Baden, agreed: "Our winters seem to last forever . . . so when it is hot outside, I try and enjoy it." The recent heat wave, he said, brought "back memories of our hot and humid summers" growing up in St. Louis.

The Journal Jar - Scrapbooking - Families.com

The Journal Jar

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

30 Jul 2011 08:53 PM

When I first started scrapbooking I used to keep a journal jar. It was one of the first ideas I employed following a beginner's workshop I enrolled in at my local scrapbook shop. Back then, I didn't have a clue about scrapbook journaling and how the concept can add depth and clarity to a layout.

At the workshop, we were taught that journal jars were excellent ways to keep the ideas flowing, especially if we were pressed for time. Since expressing one's emotions on paper doesn't come easy to most folks, the journal jar helps alleviate anxiety related to writing.

To create a journal jar all you need is an empty container, a pen and a few scraps of paper. The idea is to jot down journaling topics, anecdotes or other shards of brilliance as you think of them. Instead of making a mental file of your thoughts, feelings and ideas, you simply jot them down on pieces of paper and deposit them into the journal jar. Then, when it's time to scrapbook, you can empty out the jar and expand on the ideas you wrote down on paper. Simply put, a journal jar can is designed to take the stress out of scrapbook journaling by providing prompts that can be used to create future layouts.

Most people use journaling to provide context for photos. With this in mind, you can also use your journal jar to jot down names of people in a specific photo, plus the date the picture was taken. You might also include a line or two describing the photo's subject matter. For example, if you plan to add a photo of your nephew with his hand in a piece of cake at a picnic, jot down that fact that no one remembered to bring along utensils. While the jar is designed to record thoughts and feelings, there's no reason you can't use it to also jot down other facts that you want to add to potential layouts.

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