The Saturday Post

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While still feeling bad about myself for being such a cry baby, I experienced a moment of serendipity in coming across a post from Sandi at Deva Coaching on finding our signature strengths. Her post directs readers to Authentic Happiness, an awesome site filled with personality and character assessments and more.

So to pump myself up a tad, I took the Brief Strength Test to find my signature strengths. Here's what I learned are my top five character strengths (out of 24):

Love of Learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums - anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

Love
Capacity to love and be loved - You value close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated. The people to whom you feel most close are the same people who feel most close to you.

Fairness
Fairness, equity, and justice - Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.

Humility/Modesty
Modesty and humility - You do not seek the spotlight, preferring to let your accomplishments speak for themselves. You do not regard yourself as special, and others recognize and value your modesty.

Gratitude
Gratitude - You are aware of the good things that happen to you, and you never take them for granted. Your friends and family members know that you are a grateful person because you always take the time to express your thanks.

Nary a word about crying ... which is just fine with me!

If you'd like to learn a bit about yourself, head on over to Authentic Happiness. You do need to register on the site in order to take tests, but nothing intrusive. Then I'd love for you to come back and share your tops strengths with the rest of us!

Today's question:

What is your top character strength, based on either the test or on what you personally consider it to be?

The Saturday Post

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Tomorrow is not only Father’s Day, it’s the centennial celebration of Father’s Day!
In honor of dear ol’ dad, here are a few Father’s Day facts, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau:

The idea of Father's Day was conceived slightly more than a century ago by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash., while she listened to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm.
A day in June was chosen for the first Father's Day celebration – 100 years ago, June 19, 1910, proclaimed by Spokane's mayor because it was the month of Smart's birth. The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.

How many fathers?
67.8 million -- Estimated number of fathers across the nation.

25.8 million -- Number of fathers who were part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2009.

1.7 million -- Number of single fathers in 2009; 15 percent of single parents were men.

  • 8 percent were raising three or more children younger than 18.
  • About 47 percent were divorced, 29 percent were never married, 18 percent were separated, and 5 percent were widowed.

158,000 -- Estimated number of stay-at-home dads in 2009. These married fathers with children younger than 15 have remained out of the labor force for at least one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives work outside the home. These fathers cared for 290,000 children. Among these stay-at-home dads, 59 percent had two or more children, and 57 percent had an annual family income of $50,000 or more.

24% -- Among the nation's 11.2 million preschoolers whose mothers are employed, the percentage who are regularly cared for by their father during their mother's working hours. This amounted to 2.7 million children.

Time with Daddy
53% and 71% -- Percentages of children younger than 6 who ate breakfast and dinner, respectively, with their father every day in 2006. The corresponding percentages who ate with their mother were 58 percent and 80 percent. (The percentages of children who ate breakfast with their mother or father, respectively, were not significantly different from each another.)

36% -- Percentage of children younger than 6 who had 15 or more outings with their father in the last month, as of 2006.

6 -- Average times children ages 3 to 5 were read to by their fathers in the past week, as of 2006.

66% -- Percentage of children younger than 6 who were praised three or more times a day by their fathers.

 

Happy Father's Day to all dads -- and to all moms playing the role of dad!

The Saturday Post

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The other night as I chopped vegies for a salad for dinner, the red onion was surprisingly sweet. Not in terms of taste, but in terms of what I found as I sliced the onion.

See for yourself:

 

Aren't those sweet? After one slice revealed a precious heart in the middle, I sliced ... and sliced ... and sliced. I sliced far more onion than Jim and I would ever eat on one salad, and every single slice had a heart (or two or three) embedded in the center.

I took pictures, of course, and wondered if anyone has created a website dedicated to food that looks like something else.

Sure enough. One quick google and there it is: MOFA: The Museum of Food Anomalies, "An online exhibition of the Art of Regular Food Gone Horribly Wrong."

Some of the MOFA wonders include a "happy-on-the-inside" pepper, a smiling calzone, an "Edvard Munch Honeycomb," the requisite Virgin Mary banana chip, and -- my favorite -- Happy Beer. Check it out.

Soon the museum will also include my sweet little red onion hearts -- perfect for Valentine's Day.

Eat your heart out!