The Park

Published by Estrella Publishing LLC, PO Box 6962, Goodyear AZ 85338. Additional copies can be obtained

I was scrolling on the internet recently and a headline jumped out at me, “3 Scary Noises Your Furnace Shouldn’t Make.” So I immediately thought, “I should read this so I know if my furnace is making any unusual or dangerous noises!” Now I should note that my furnace is not making any odd noises that I am aware of, and if it was I wouldn’t hear them anyway because it is in the garage. But that did not stop me from scrolling to learn all I could - from the font of all wisdom, the internet.

Did you ever think that there would be too much information? That having access to all the knowledge out there would cause more problems than it would fix?

Let me give you another example. Someone in our family recently had regular blood work done. “Not a problem!” You say. Well, have you visited a doctor recently? Gone for any blood tests or scans? Then you too are a victim of the ‘knows too much’ family. Those incomprehensible lists of names you almost know from all those hours of watching Grey’s Anatomy, the scary numbers

that seem so high and low compared to the ‘normal range’ presented to you.

So you do what we all do. Google it. This, my friends, is the rabbit hole of information that always ends with you convinced that you have at the least a serious, if not terminal, diagnosis. Once an actual doctor was consulted there was nothing unusual in the tests, but the temporary terror we experienced was not good for our health. In this world of law suits and commercials claiming that everyone has been exposed to some terrifying chemical or other, it can be hard to reign in the terror that a medical report instills.

A little knowledge is apparently a dangerous thing, and I will try to reduce my internet based research in the future. Now excuse me while I check out my furnace, I swear I heard it making a noise just now...

Catherine Uretsky

Editor, Estrella Publishing info@estrellapublishing.com 623-398-5541

Gifting

The holidays are approaching, which means it’s time to start thinking about gifts for your loved ones. This year, consider giving the gift of an experience. When you give the gift of an experience, you’re providing opportunities for the recipient to make memories that will last longer than any fad or gadget.

Check out these four experiential gift ideas you can use to up your gift-giving game this holiday season.

1.

Learn a new skill together

Have you always wanted to learn how to ski? Or have your kids begged for guitar lessons? Try something new and take a class together this holiday season. If your family enjoys the activity, it could become a tradition you all look forward to each year. Even if you decide it’s not for you, you’ll still have the memory of trying something new with the people you love.

2. Take a trip

It’s fun to get away with the whole family during the holiday season, especially if you can head

somewhere warm during the colder months. Once you find the perfect spot, you can turn a family trip into an annual holiday tradition where you continue to make memories year after year.

3. Buy a family membership

If you’ve wanted to spend more time exploring attractions close to home, consider buying a family membership. Not only are you more likely to go if you’ve already paid for a membership, but you can use it immediately and start making memories during the holidays. Best of all, you can continue to visit throughout the year and make memories year-round.

4. Encourage experiences with gift cards

Gift cards don’t need to be limited to retail stores and restaurants. Take note of your family members’ interests and buy them gift cards that support and encourage exploration. For example, if your youngest is a budding film critic, get them a gift card to your local movie theater. Give Grandma and Grandpa a gift card to the local museum or your spouse a membership to a yoga or Pilates studio.

Using these four ideas, you can gift your family and friends experiences that create memories that will last a lifetime.

Home Sweet Home

As temperatures fall and we begin to spend more time indoors, many of us are looking for ways to make our homes more snug and cozy. After all, the winter months can be much easier to withstand when our homes become havens. As British poet Edith Sitwell once wrote: “Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand, and for a talk beside the fire: It is the time for home.” Here are some key decor elements that can go a long way toward making your home seem warm and inviting.

Soft and luxurious textiles

The upholstery, drapes, curtains, linens, bedding and throws you pick can have a major impact on comfort levels. It may be worth spending more to purchase high-end textiles with high thread counts.

Rich-looking hardwood

floors

Hardwood floors offer unparalleled warmth and beauty to any home regardless of its architecture and design style. “Engineered hardwood floors are a great home decor choice,” says Jen Meska, Director of Merchandising at LL Flooring. “They’re built to withstand changes in temperature and humidity in your home, while delivering the warm, organic benefits of hardwood that can make your home feel cozy and welcoming.”

Peaceful atmospheric lighting

Our natural human circadian rhythms dictate that warm yellowish-white light helps us relax and unwind. In general, light bulbs marked “soft white” or “warm white” will warm up any room.

Comfortable furniture

Perhaps it’s time to invest in a new pillow-top mattress, a cushy sectional couch that can seat your entire family around the TV or dining room chairs comfortable enough for game-playing and lingering conversations.

Warm color schemes

Because warm colors such as reds, yellows, oranges and yellow-greens tend to remind us of sun, sand, and heat, they can make us perceive rooms as warmer and cozier. You may wish to paint one or more of your rooms in those colors.

Seeing the holidays through the eyes of a child is a remarkable experience. Children take extra delight in twinkling lights, festive songs and stories, and the excitement in the air. Involving our little ones in ongoing celebrations not only offers great bonding opportunities, but it can also benefit their long-term growth. Here are four activities that will subtly activate physical, emotional and cognitive development:

• Baking cookies

“Think about all the steps that go into baking, from scooping and measuring to mixing and pressing cookie cutters into the dough. All these hands-on skills are beneficial to promoting fine motor and early math skills in children,” said Joy Turner, vice president of education for the Kiddie Academy brand. Baking and decorating cookies is a great way to increase children’s upper body strength, pincer grasp, hand/eye coordination and more. Invite your children to stir, roll, touch, smell, feel, count and taste your cookie creations for a full sensory experience.

• Making homemade cards and decorations Let your children color, cut out shapes, glue and write on the cards to practice dexterity, handwriting and visual processing skills. Take stamps and decorate plain brown paper and ask your children to help you wrap gifts in it. Build a popsicle-stick Christmas tree or menorah to focus on engineering basics. Use a hole punch to allow

tree lights to shine through cardstock ornaments while building hand strength. Find activities that are fun and that also focus on necessary abilities.

• Building a countdown chain Use strips of construction paper and tape or glue to build a chain with a pattern of alternating colors and one link for each day until the big event. Your children’s brains will have to access memory to remember to remove a link each day and you can prompt them to practice counting the remaining chain links as well.

• Giving gifts and volunteering Character values are a very important and easy skill to practice during the holiday season. Let your children see how it feels to select and give a special item to a family member or neighbor to build kindness and generosity. Gratitude and good citizenship can be developed by even our youngest children through helping others within the community by volunteering or donating to a toy or food drive. Because the whole purpose of the holidays is to show kindness and helpfulness, numerous benefits come from engaging children in these activities at a developmentally appropriate level.

Holiday activities that serve a twofold purpose of celebrating the season while also focusing on child development abound. In addition to the benefits of physical, creative and personal growth, a completed craft or activity also offers a self-esteem boost that will keep the holiday spirit alive.

Get Out Of Your Own Way

Have you ever wondered why you react so strongly to certain things? Why someone says a specific thing or acts a certain way toward you and you have a big reaction that later seems disproportionate to the event? I can promise you it’s because at least one of your self-limiting beliefs is being triggered. Let’s look at a couple of examples here:

For instance, your partner goes out with friends, comes home later than expected and doesn’t call or return your texts when it gets really late and you’re trying to check in with them. When they get home, you go off on them and rant and rave about them not caring about you, or maybe you even accuse them of cheating. Chances are, those situations are triggering your fears of abandonment. When that fear is triggered, like it or not, you are instantly transported back to

when those fears first arose. It’s not a conscious process, but it’s one that will continue if you don’t do something to overcome it by exploring and changing the self-limiting beliefs that lie beneath it.

Or let’s say your friend becomes really successful with an opportunity that was presented to both of you but you didn’t take because of a fear of failure. When you see her, she talks about how her career is rocketing to the next level and how she’s so happy that her hard work has paid off. You say that you’re happy for her but then you cry on your way home and snark at your spouse or kids when you get home. But aren’t you happy for your friend? Yes, of course you are, but you’re also jealous, which is triggered by your selflimiting belief of not being worthy or capable of good things. You have to annihilate your selflimiting beliefs in order to respond differently to both the opportunities and the successes of others.

DISCLAIMER: Material is for informational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for evaluation or treatment by a licensed professional. Material is copyrighted and may only be reproduced with written permission of Dr. Bellingrodt.

Submitted by Jennifer Bellingrodt, Psy.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist. For the full article and more, visit www.doctorbellingrodt.com.

‘The Talk’

When you hear the term bullying, the thought of children heckling a student on a playground or in the classroom comes to mind. However, with the age of social media, bullying can extend far beyond the classroom, and parents may not always know what bullying looks like outside of school.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Education, bullying is defined by three core elements: Unwanted aggressive behavior, a power imbalance, and repetition or high likelihood of repetition of bullying behaviors. While broad, this definition includes many types of behavior that can affect your children.

While some people may want to downplay the issue, bullying is a serious problem. According to StopBullying.gov, bullied children are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, health issues and decreased academic achievement, which often follows children into adulthood. As for the bullies, they’re more likely to abuse substances and engage in violence and other risky behavior as they grow up. While you can’t prevent bullying, you can spread awareness and tackle the issue head-on by talking with your children about bullying.

Frank Viscuso, author of “Sprinkles the Fire Dog” - a children’s book about a puppy who must overcome physical limitations, bullying and selfdoubt to achieve his dream - has offered three tips for talking with your children about bullying.

feeling. Your child is more likely to confide in you when they see or experience bullying.

2. Prepare responses

If your child does experience or witness bullying, they may be hesitant to stand up for themselves or others. Help them become more confident by practicing what to say and do when bullying occurs.

3. Share your experiences

It may be uncomfortable to relive your own bullying, but by doing so, you are creating a positive example for your child. Whether you were bullied, were the bully or simply a bystander, your experience is invaluable.

Yum Yum

Texas Sheet Cake Cookies (for Santa!)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for COOKIE EXCHANGES! Many of us have been to one or hosted ~ depending on the number of guests, instructions are given for how many cookies to bring so that everyone goes home with a bountiful variety. The recipe I’m sharing this month comes from a neighbor, Kelly, who brought these to last year’s event ~ and they were one of the hits of the party! And what are the origins of Texas Sheet Cake, you ask? A reference for a large chocolate sheet cake published in the Galveston Daily News back in 1936 as well as a 1967 recipe for another chocolate sheet cake with pecans in the frosting that was published in the Huntsville Heritage Cookbook. Yes, Huntsville as in

Frosting:

½ C unsalted Butter

Alabama, not Texas!

Helpful Hint: Purchase a bakery box for each guest for ease in transport home.

Cookie Ingredients: 1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix

2 Eggs, whisked 1/3 C Vegetable or Canola Oil

2 T unsweetened Cocoa Powder

3 T whole Milk

2-1/2 C Powdered Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cookie ingredients in a large bowl until mixed thoroughly. Dough will be thick.

Using a medium cookie scoop, place dough on parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake for 7-8 minutes; remove from oven then let cool on the cookie sheets for 4-5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

Combine first (3) frosting ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and whisk until melted. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar ~ whisk until smooth. Using a small spatula, spread frosting over cookies.

Let frosting set; cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature up to (3) days. Optional: Place a Pecan Half on each cookie after frosting is spread.

Submitted by Maureen Woods

Winter is here, at last! With lows already in the 40’s I wonder what December will bring? Could it be cold enough for snow as we get deeper into winter? Maybe, maybe not, we will just have to wait and see. As our winter season progresses it’s important to remember to reach out to your friends and family to stay connected, not just during the holidays, but all year long.

Regardless of whether or not the cooler weather is appealing to you, we anticipate certain insect activity will decrease; however, other ones will increase. I know that we are all enjoying the cooler temperatures and are enjoying the comforts of opening our homes to the fresh air, however, we need to be mindful to keep our window/door screens shut and in good repair to keep the creepy crawlies out of the house.

The cooler weather changes the types of insects that are more prevalent around our homes but doesn’t remove all of them. Be on the lookout for an increase in more flying bugs as well as spiders. The big jump in the quantity of spiders is primarily based on the increase in their food

source, flying insects. Don’t worry though, the dangerous spiders we have like the black widow, shelter down for the winter.

On another positive note, with the colder weather the rattle snakes are trying to stay warm and are mostly not interested in getting out of their den for the season. Keep in mind, however, that a warm day may bring them out of hibernation. So, if you are out on our trails and its warm you should keep an eye out for snakes.

With the return of cooler weather, we also see the return of the great horned owls. Not only are these beautiful raptures, but they will also help control the native rodent population as rodents are their natural prey.

Continue to be mindful of your surroundings to keep your family safe from our typical winter pests. Enjoy your holidays!

Submitted by Larry Cash, of Estrella Mountain Pest Control

Holiday Joy

Seeing the holidays through the eyes of a child is a remarkable experience. Children take extra delight in twinkling lights, festive songs and stories, and the excitement in the air. Involving our little ones in ongoing celebrations not only offers great bonding opportunities, but it can also benefit their long-term growth. Here are four activities that will subtly activate physical, emotional and cognitive development:

• Baking cookies

“Think about all the steps that go into baking, from scooping and measuring to mixing and pressing cookie cutters into the dough. All these hands-on skills are beneficial to promoting fine motor and early math skills in children,” said Joy Turner, vice president of education for the Kiddie Academy brand. Baking and decorating cookies is a great way to increase children’s upper body strength, pincer grasp, hand/eye coordination and more. Invite your children to stir, roll, touch, smell, feel, count and taste your cookie creations for a full sensory experience.

• Making homemade cards and decorations Let your children color, cut out shapes, glue and write on the cards to practice dexterity, handwriting and visual processing skills. Take stamps and decorate plain brown paper and ask your children to help you wrap gifts in it. Build a popsicle-stick Christmas tree or menorah to focus on engineering basics. Use a hole punch to allow tree lights to shine through cardstock ornaments while building hand strength. Find activities that are fun and that also focus on necessary abilities.

• Building a countdown chain Use strips of construction paper and tape or glue to build a chain with a pattern of alternating colors and one link for each day until the big event. Your children’s brains will have to access memory to remember to remove a link each day and you can prompt them to practice counting the remaining chain links as well.

• Giving gifts and volunteering Character values are a very important and easy skill to practice during the holiday season. Let your children see how it feels to select and give a special item to a family member or neighbor to build kindness and generosity. Gratitude and good citizenship can be developed by even our youngest children through helping others within the community by volunteering or donating to a toy or food drive. Because the whole purpose of the holidays is to show kindness and helpfulness, numerous benefits come from engaging children in these activities at a developmentally appropriate level.

Holiday activities that serve a twofold purpose of celebrating the season while also focusing on child development abound. In addition to the benefits of physical, creative and personal growth, a completed craft or activity also offers a selfesteem boost that will keep the holiday spirit alive.

samurai sudoku puzzle is a great way to engage the brain and help develop logic skills. To solve this Samurai puzzle use standard sudoku rules for every 9x9 grid: