First word four in a row.

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This is a game that loosely combines “Connect 4” and scrabble. It is easy and quick to play but is quite mind stimulating.

Start by creating a 7 square by 6 square grid similar to the amount of spaces in a “Connect 4” game.

Now print or type large letters on paper or cardboard.
Each player will get 21 letters. It is up to you to determine which letters to use. I suggest eliminating rarely used letters like q,z,x,w,b etc. Each person should have multiples of some of the vowels.

The object of the game is to be the first player to make a four letter word by placing the letters in a similar fashion as in the game, “Connect 4”.

For “Connect 4” directions come back because I will be posting those directions soon.

Also please leave any questions or ideas in the comment section

Pizza facts: A useful tool for an activity idea

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• In 1994, total pizza sales in the United States exceeded $20 billion.¹
• The 1995 Guiness Book of World Records lists the largest baked pizza on record was 37.4 meters in diameter (12,159 sq.ft.), in Norwood, South Africa December 8th 1990. Another notable pizza by size was a 10,000 sq.ft. pizza cooked by Lorenzo Amato, owner of Cafe di Lorenzo in Tallahassee Florida in 1991.¹
• The first known pizza shop, Port 'Alba in Naples, opened in 1830 and is still open today.²
• The first pizzeria in North America was opened in 1905 by Gennaro Lombardi at 53 1/3 Spring Street in New York City.³
• The first pizza delivery was in 1889, by Raffaele Esposito owner of the famous pizzeria Pietro il Pizzaiolo (Naples). The recipients were visiting King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. Refusing to go to the likes of a pizzeria, the queen ordered in, being anxious to try this food she heard so much about.²
• The first commercial pizza-pie mix was "Roman Pizza Mix", produced in 1948 in Worcester, Massachusetts by Frank A. Fiorello.¹
• The mozzarella originally used in Italy for pizza, was made from the milk of the water buffalo.²
• The tomato arrived in Naples, Italy around 1522 originating from seeds first arriving in Spain from Peru. Initially grown only as an ornamental plant, the 'golden apple', so called because they were small and yellow, were thought to be poisonous until around 1750, when it began to be used in cooking.³
• The origins of focaccia, one of the oldest styles of pizza (without the tomato) can be traced back to about 1000 B.C.E., when the Etruscans arrived in northern and central parts of Italy from Asia Minor.³
• Pizza is the number 2 entree in foodservice, outpacing the growth rate of all other food items. It represents more than 10% of all food sales and is expected to exceed the hamburger 1996.4
• Tuna is one of the most popular toppings in Europe.4
• North Americans eat more pizza than anyone else in the world, yet most are acquainted with little beyond the basic tomato and cheese style.³
• There are three major regional styles of pizza in the US. In the East, pizza is the traditional Neapolitan type with a light, thin crust, tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and a vegetable or meat topping. It is more commonly known as New York-style. On the West Coast, pizza takes on a sophisticated look. Individual pizzettes with light, chewy crusts and toppings ranging from sundried tomatoes to asparagus to boccocini cheese are the norm. The Midwestern states prefer the deep-dish Chicago style, a thick creation heaped with toppings requiring up to 45 minutes to bake.³
• Cookbooks specializing in Italian recipes have no reference to pizza prior to the 1950's.¹
• In non-Italian communities in the eastern states, pizza can be heard to be referred to as "tomato pie".¹

An amazing recipe with apples

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Apple Butter
3 1/2 cups apple sauce,
sugar, (the formula is: sugar equal to half the amount of applesauce) Use sugar substitute for folks who are diabetic
A heaping tablespoon of cinnamon,
Half a teaspoon of cloves ( optional)
Cook it on low all day in a
crock pot!

This is especially good to make on a cold fall day. The aroma of it cooking is a true sensory experience.

Gratitude Quotations

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Gratitude is the sign of noble souls --Aesop


The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it --Richard Bach


Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some. --Charles Dickens


Life is a paradise for those who love many things with a passion. --Leo Buscaglia


Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. --Leroy (Satchel) Paige


Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies. Charles E. Jefferson


Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. --Cicero


Take full account of what excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not. --Marcus Aurelius Antonius


Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate or value into your life. --Christiane Northrup


I thank God for my handicaps for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God. --Helen Keller


Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. --Denis Waitley


I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. --Gilbert Keith Chesterton


Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. --Melody Beattie


Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend... when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present -- love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure -- the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth. --Sarah Ban Breathnach


O Lord, who lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness. --William Shakespeare


For today and its blessings, I owe the world an attitude of gratitude. --Clarence E. Hodges


Gratitude is our most direct line to God and the angels. If we take the time, no matter how crazy and troubled we feel, we can find something to be thankful for. The more we seek gratitude, the more reason the angels will give us for gratitude and joy to exist in our lives. --Terry Lynn Taylor


In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy. --Albert Clarke


[The most fortunate are those who] have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy. --Abraham Maslow


Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind. --Sam N. Hampton


In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy. --Albert Clarke


There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. --Albert Einstein


Whenever we are appreciative, we are filled with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy. --M.J. Ryan


Let us be grateful to people who make us happy--they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. --Marcel Proust


All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child. --Madame Marie Curie


You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy. --The Buddha


Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty. --Doris Day


Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all --William Faulkner


There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. --Elisabeth Kubler-Ross


If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. --Meister Eckhart

Everyday Positive Thinking

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Everyday Psitive Thinking is a book that list positive thoughts that make your day better and your residents day better.

Positive Thinking: Obstacles Teaches Us Something New in Life

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To be prepared for obstacles is to remain cheerful under all circumstances. Generally there is always a wish not to have to face any obstacles. When we begin something new we usually have a thought to have things going perfectly well. So when obstacles do come we are not prepared and we experience dissatisfaction and sorrow. Whenever we start something new we need to prepare our mind that we are sure to be faced with obstacles. Along with it we also need to understand that these obstacles actually teach us something new and it is only with such situations we can learn and progress. When we have such thoughts we will be able to remain cheerful under all circumstances.


~ Brahma Kumaris, Mt Abu

This book teaches us a lot about positive thinking

Circus Movies

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Gail Kavanagh

TRAPEZE (1956) terific circus drama filmed at the famed Cirque d'Hiver (The Winter Circus) in Paris. The Cirque d'Hiver was an ancient, roach-ridden, damp indoor circus venue, but it had incredible atmosphere and was home to the great French Circus Bouglione. "Papa" Bouglione, the 60s patriach, is played by an actor called Thomas Gomez, and the likeness is quite uncanny. The story is a love triangle on the surface. Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster play two flyers in love with the ambitious Lola, who just wants to be famous and wear fabulous costumes. But beneath the surface is a tale of ambitious young performers and the older artists who mentor them...and then must give way to the rising star. It's marvellous stuff. The characters are spot on. You will meet people like this on any circus.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952)

CIRCUS WORLD (1964)

A big surprise, this one. Made 12 years after the Charlton Heston three ring spectacular above, with John Wayne as the grizzled circus boss, it looked like a rehash. But under all the glitz there is a very lovely story and its worth seeing if you can get a hold of it these days. Lovely Toni Alfredo (played by 60s babe Claudia Cardinale) wants to be a flyer, but Big John won't have a bar of it. Then his old flame and one time flyer, Lili, reappears and she's Toni's mum, wouldn't you know? The story is how these two gals put together a killer aerial act.

THE CIRCUS (1928) A little pearl by the greatest clown of all time, Charlie Chaplin. Charlie stumbles into a job at the circus and falls in love with a bareback rider

LA STRADA (1954) Directed by Italy's Federico Fellini, with Anthony Quinn, this was the story of a brutish strongman who buys a simple minded girl to be his assistant. It all ends tragically, but it touched circus people. The haunting theme music was used by the German Renz wirewalking act. Later it was the inspiration for a music video by Irish band U2 for their song All I Need Is You. It is one of those films that you never forget.

THE MARX BROTHERS AT THE CIRCUS (1938) One of my favorite Marx Bros films and a real comedy classic. When a circus starts to go bankrupt, the brothers bring their brand of lunacy to the rescue. The movie inspired a Spanish circus act, Los Dominis, who performed as the Marx Brothers on the uneven bars in the 60s.

INTO THE WEST (1993) OK, so it isn't about circus people, it is about travelers, but it is such a lovely, funny, touching little Irish movie that I had to include it.

You can still get some of these movies if you scout around video sales...I picxked up the Great Wallendas this way. Or watch the reruns on TV... Have a your own mini circus movie festival!



Read more at Suite101: BEST CIRCUS MOVIE LIST http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/circus_circus/57118/2#ixzz0sHXl6gF1