This may seem like a small thing. It is, I guess, when you compare it to the grand scheme of things – but, rant I must…

I am pretty disturbed, as an eBay seller, that they have decided that I can no longer use the recourse of negative feedback for buyers. No. Matter. What. Yet, buyers can still leave negatives for sellers.

What has always kept buyer/seller relationships on equal footing is feedback fear. You take that away and there is no telling how stinky things can get. Yet, this is just what eBay plans to do in May to boost buyer confidence and make more money.

Now, I have never left a negative feedback and I don’t plan to. My issue with this is that any buyer, in a moment of stinkiness, can leave me a negative feedback without any concern for retaliation because my only feedback option for them is positive. This also means that a nasty buyer who expects more than they actually bid on can threaten to leave a negative comment to get what she/he wants. This also means that I have no way to warn other sellers about this bad buyer.

I ask myself, “If buyers will all have 100% positive feedback, why even have buyer feedback?”

I have always liked getting rid of stuff on eBay but I just can’t participate anymore. I know they don’t care about me and my opinion. They actually started deleting comments in the eBay discussion board because the sellers were complaining too much about this new policy. It’s nice to know they care about those who are actually paying their bills!

It isn’t a boycott for me. It is a reputation thing. My feedback means a lot to me and I have worked hard to keep it blemish free. Continuing to sell on eBay would open me up to blackmail and I am just not good in situations like that. If you don’t think this happens you are wrong. I have been selling on eBay for 8 years and I have had my share of nasty buyers who try to get something for nothing. I have had buyers who failed to read the entire listing and got angry with me and buyers wanting their money back without returning the item because they made an impulse decision without reading the description thoroughly.

I can’t really do anything about it but I do have this outlet – my blog – where I can make my irritations known to whoever…

This was a rant by Mel for the sole purpose of, well, ranting.

I entered a fellow blogger’s giveaway today and the requirement to enter was to give a piece of marriage advice.
I didn’t have to think at all to answer.

Laugh. Seriously.

Laughing cures what ails us.
Laughing decreases depression by releasing chemicals in the brain nearly identical to those in anti-depression medications.
Laughing makes us look prettier, makes our eyes twinkle and draws people in.
They say that people who laugh easily are sick less, and do fare better physically and emotionally when they are sick.
People who laugh have better relationships, tend to take things a little less seriously, and usually view the glass as overflowing when it looks only half full.
Easy laughers’ children tend to hang around them more. (I know laugher isn’t a word. So.)
Just anticipating laughter reduces stress hormones

Laughter is the best medicine.

My husband and I married just 6 weeks after we met. After 6 kids we still consider ourselves in the newlywed stage of our marriage. We play, giggle, and act silly. Even in public- gasp!
At the grocery store, where Ryan and I go regularly on our last minute dates, the young gal bagging our groceries remembered us from a previous trip where, apparently, we were busted skipping through the parking lot and laughing our brains out. She told me that she had told a friend about us, that we had six kids and were still just as happy and silly as ever, and that this was exactly what she wanted for her future marriage.

I have met so many stuffy people who think having silly fun is completely inappropriate. They prefer to remain in their stiff unhappy correctness with their nose turned up to the world. Some of these woman have even commented to me that God has set some kind of favor on my marriage. I wonder what they would think if they saw Ryan and I running around the house with a squirt gun and silly string or riding the carts at the grocery store?

Laughter can’t always make everything better but it can sure lighten the mood during a stout argument. It can change a bad day into a delightful evening. It can set a mood of lightness in your heart and home that will draw your family closer and create meaningful bonds.

Not Fizzy.

Hmmm.

I am going to go do a little research and see if I can remedy the situation.

Any tips for you readers? I could use a little help here!!!!

I have this Amish recipe that makes 2 gallons of Root Beer, so today we tried it our hand at homemade soda making and it was fast and really fun.
We have this plastic Mr. Beer keg that has been sitting in our cupboard for a while. I didn’t want to get rid of it because I was sure we could use it for something someday and today I found out it makes the perfect container for our Root beer brew. It holds just over 2 gallons which made it the exact size needed for our project, it is made for brewing beer making it perfect for CO2 expansion (I hope I am saying that right) and it has one of those little taps on one end for filling up cups when you are thirsty for a drink.

We made sure we had the following ingredients ready ahead of time.

• 3 Tablespoons Root Beer extract (we found this next to the vanilla extract in the baking isle)
• 8 Cups Sugar
• 2 teaspoons yeast

Gabe(7) added the yeast to 1 cup hot water and let it dissolve while Kait(13) and I added the sugar to two quarts of very hot water. When everything was dissolved I poured both the yeast mixture and the sugar mixture into the Keg and then added the root beer extract. Then we added enough warm water to make 2 gallons of soda while Joe(10) stirred the whole time.

We are supposed to let the keg sit in the warm sun for 4 hours but we don’t really have any warm to talk about here so I am just keeping it covered in a towel in a warm place in the house for the next four hours. After that I will transfer the keg to the refrigerator (its size and shape will fit perfectly on one of our fridge shelves). It will be ready to drink after about 24 hours!

Tips I have read about making soda at home:

• Don’t use more yeast than is called for and don’t use expired yeast. Your brew will not fizz up properly.
• If you add a couple of raisins to your brew you will know it is ready to refrigerate when the raisins float. I didn’t do this because I didn’t want my root beer to taste like raisins. YECK!
• You can use other containers for this but if you use plastic be careful not to fill it too full. The plastic will expand during the fizzing process and can make an overfull plastic container explode. Glass can do this, too, but you can get glass bottles that are made specially for brewing in this manner from a brew shop online. No matter what kind of container you use make sure that you leave plenty of room at the top for carbonation.
• I read somewhere that there is sometimes trace amounts of alcohol in homemade root beer. It could be a rumor but I thought I would disclose this anyway.
• If, when you drink your soda, it doesn’t seem carbonated enough you can try adding just a little bit more yeast and letting it sit for a while again.

I will let you all know tomorrow how it turned out!

I will be offering a new giveaway almost everyday this week! Each giveaway is open for a full week so be sure to take a look at yesterday’s giveaway, as well.
Giveaway number two…

I will be offering a new giveaway almost everyday this week!

• Can be used between knees for better hip, leg and back alignment
• Visco-elastic memory foam conforms to your body and reduces pressure
• Washable quilted fabric cove
• Relaxing light sage green color

Made of high density visco-elastic memory foam, the Pregnancy Wedge conforms to your body, reduces pressure and increases comfort! No other material has the custom shaping ability that memory foam provides.

Retail Value – $25!

Now, for the rules…
US and Canada residence are welcome to enter per the rules below. Pay special attention to the closing date! You can enter twice by following the directions here by 4/27/08:

• Entry #1: If you run across this blog and you want to win this item just leave a comment !
• Entry #2: Link to this entry from your blog where you wrote about this giveaway and then leave a second comment with the link where you passed on this giveaway info. This entry should be SEPARATE from your first entry.

The winner of last weeks Doormat giveaway was

Frugallm from Frugal 20! You should really pop on over to her blog. I have been reading some of her frugally ideas and they are quite useful.

Anyway, her answer to my question “What would you say if you were your home’s doormat” was…

“Warning: Toddler Area Ahead!”

Congratulations, Frugallm!!! I have already emailed you.

It is funny how, now that I have been really thinking on my assuming nature, what I think of my beliefs, other people and first impressions, how wrong I am a lot of the time.

There are some things in life that are absolute. It is a fact that the only way to eternal life is salvation through Jesus Christ.
I know what gifts I have been given by God, or at least one of them so far, and I have also been given a discerning spirit when it comes to my specific area of expertise. I know I am doing well here by the fruit that I am bearing, the positive results I am having, and the negative results I observe in others who, for whatever reason, do not heed the advice from those who are having better results.

There are other things, that I think are truths, that simply aren’t. They don’t bear good fruits, they don’t produce positive results. They don’t glorify God.
There are people I think I know, situations I think I understand – when, really, I haven’t got a clue.
A long time ago a dear friend presented me with a life altering situation. Not mine, but hers. During this time, my friend was advised to divorce her husband, take her child and go. Biblically, in her situation she wasn’t wrong to do this, but it doesn’t mean she should. I remember telling her what I would do, leave, that it was totally permissible for her to do so but she shouldn’t let anybody make that choice for her.
My friend chose to stay with her man. What their marriage was going through was not simple or straight forward. There were legal implications and my friend, in choosing to stay, had to bear many consequences of her husband’s bad decisions.
Still, she stayed, determined to be a godly wife and I kept thinking what a mistake she was making.
I thought I knew the right thing to do. I thought I could give my friend sound advice – tell her what course of action to take, assuming I knew what was best for her. Now, all these years later, I cannot believe how sure of myself I was – especially since I see things very differently now.

A different scenario -
I heard a rumor the other day. 3 of us were sitting together and a friend with a concern brought up a situation – no names, just a situation that was going on with somebody in our church. She needed advice and she did a great job in keeping the ‘gossip’ out of it.
Still, I knew enough specifics to rule certain people out and I found myself wondering and assuming about others, automatically accusing in my heart – a sin.
It actually took 2 full days for me to realize my error and repent.

My point is this; we all assume things. We do. I know people assume things about me. Many people think I am of those who think that everybody should have a ton of kids. I have had people start to argue with me on this point when, in fact, I don’t even feel that way. My idea of a quiverfull, what I think Psalm 127 means, is not what people assume I think.
People assume that we sit down and do hours and hours of school work everyday. They assume that I am rigid and organized, that I hold a strict schedule, that I am a spanking tyrant, swatting at my kids all day long. I have gotten phone calls from caring grandma types who worry about me falling into depression because I am a stay at home mom. They just assume I don’t like what I do.
They are wrong, wrong, wrong and it really bugs me that I am stereotyped this way. However, isn’t that what I do to others everyday? Don’t I pretend to know others? It is all very convicting!

There are things we can guess by looking at a book’s cover. Logical reasoning would tell you that a book with a picture of a bloody hand on it will be horror or suspense. But, it could be a drama about a medical doctor or a horrible accident.

The old saying, “you can’t judge a book by its cover” is so true. Logic can point us in a direction but we can’t really get to the heart of the story until we read the book in its entirety.

My review of
The Measure of a Lady
by Deeanne Gist

I am impressed by authors who have enough historical knowledge to write a time period piece that is relatively accurate. I enjoy stories that not only have a terrific story line, but a lesson in culture as well. The Measure of a Lady is just that.

Set in gold rush times in San Francisco, The Measure of a Lady introduces us to Rachel, a young adult, Christian woman who takes charge of her two teenage siblings after their father dies on the boat during their trip from the east. With boats returning to the east being scarce, Rachel resigns herself to finding shelter and legitimate work for herself and her charges so they can save enough money to head back east and start a life of their own when the next boat pulls out. What she did not predict was that her young sister would find that the life of a wanted lady appealing. With saloons and brothels everywhere it is a fight to keep a tight reign on her young sister and even younger brother.
Rachel is beside herself with grief. Her strict Christian upbringing does not allow for association with the likes of sinners – but Rachel quickly begins to feel that she is the only righteous in the entire city.

The Positive:
Rachel is devout. She desires to do what is right at all times. She puts God first in everything with no concern for how she looks or how people portray her. Rachel also loves. It takes her a while to warm up to those around here but she is surprised to find herself loving even the sinners. This provides her with lessons she never learned back east. Rachel isn’t too good for work, either. She is ready and willing to get her hands dirty and proceeds to do back breaking work in order to care for her younger siblings. Through the book, and through her struggles, Rachel grows from a young, stubborn, righteous girl to a woman who truly longs for God’s will in her life. When the town experiences a tragedy Rachel swallows her pride and associates with those who she has opposed to be of assistance.
Mr. Parker is a saloon/hotel owner who, against his better judgment, moves out of his small shack-house so that Rachel’s family will have a safe dwelling. He also gives her a job cleaning the beds and making meals. In Rachel’s eyes he is a sinner and she has no trouble pointing this fact out to him. The gentleman that he is causes him to look past her righteousness and he continues to provide her room, board, and a job through her insults.

The Negative:
Rachel is a righteous snob, though she isn’t wrong in her observations, she doesn’t handle the new world she is thrust into wisely. Even though I loved her from the start I noticed her stuffy ‘highness’ and knew it could very well be her undoing.
This book isn’t for younguns. It is clean but there is talk of passions, brothels, gambling, drinking, violence, and there are a number of kissing scenes.

To Sum It Up:
This was a great book! I am certainly looking forward to reading more from Deeanne Gist. Like I said, it isn’t for younger readers but if you are an adult who likes historical period dramas you will surly enjoy The Measure of a Lady.