Black & White

Don't you just love black and white photos? I found a few of my favorites and set them to black and white. It just makes them... I don't know... seem timeless or something. Enjoy!

Holly in Gracie's Bed

Ginga and Jack


Nana and Holly


Maddi and Jack

Daddy and Jack



Jack's Arrival

Holly & Daddy

Ginga and Holly

Daddy & Maddi

Grandma & Jack

Tips From the Rivers Kitchen

OK, so I'm feeling a little Martha today. I was talking to Maddi's mom yesterday about saving time at dinner and I realized I have quite a few handy-dandy tricks and tips in my arsenal that might be worth sharing.

Make a giant batch of homemade meatballs and freeze then in gallon-size freezer bags. Pop open a jar of sauce, throw the meatballs in and they're defrosted by the time the pasta is done.

Speaking of meatballs... instead of trying to eyeball the amount to use when forming the balls, lay the meat mixture out on a cutting board or clean counter. Shape into a rectangle that's about an inch and a half thick. With a knife, cut the slab like you would brownies that are also an inch and a half square. Shape the little squares into balls and viola, you've got 900 meatball that are exactly the same size. Oh, and bake them instead of pan-frying, it's easier and less messy!

I throw leftover sandwich bread, hot dog buns, etc. into the freezer and toss in my food processor anytime I need breadcrumbs. Toss in some Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese if you like using the Italian variety.

Keep rice wine vinegar in the house. It is a perfect replacement for lemon juice in savory recipes. You can also add it to milk to create a buttermilk substitute. It's also wonderful on fresh cucumbers and tomatoes as it's very mild.

Toss leftover grapes in the freezer. They are a perfect way to keep a glass of white wine cool in the summer heat.

Fill freezer bags with the amount of chicken or pork chops your family will eat at one meal. Add marinade to each bag. The night before you're planning to cook them, toss in the refrigerator and they will marinate while they defrost.

Cook giant batches of spaghetti sauce and freeze in individual meal-size containers.

Make meatloaves, salmon patties (great!), lasagnas, etc. as you have time and keep them in the freezer to save time in the evening.

Cube leftover cake and layer with pudding or cherry pie filling and cool whip in a trifle bowl for a new dessert.

Don't bother peeling potatoes for potato salad - just cube and boil. The peel adds great texture, flavor and vitamins!

Speaking of potato salad - gently add whole eggs to the boiling water the last 5 minutes. No need to wash two pots!

Make a dozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and freeze in individual bags for bag lunches.

Always salt water for cooking pasta, potatoes and rice.

When you drain your pasta, don't rinse. Add back to the cooking pot and ladle some sauce in and toss. The sauce keeps the pasta from gumming up and sticking and really adds to the flavor.

Freeze OJ in ice cube trays and use in kool-aid (sugar-free of course!), fruity drinks, etc. so your kids get the healthy benefit and their drinks don't get watered down. I do the same with milk to use when packing the diaper bag for a day trip.

Make "soda" for your kids using cranberry juice and tonic.

Please add comments with your tips and tricks! I'd love to know what you have up your sleeves!

'At-a-boy for me!

I'm so excited about this! Our number one order of business at Ryder is safety - or more so, safety expenses. Inheriting a location with a multitude of historical shortcomings (injuries and collisions to name a few), I set out to create a good safety culture here and more importantly, shave off the costs associated with safety incidents.

I created posters like the one shown here with pictures I collected of our employees families. As luck would have it, one of the safety big-wigs noticed them during a visit and viola, I'm getting some serious 'at-a-boys!

Following is from a feature page on Ryder.com. This is a pretty big deal considering Ryder is an international company!

Oh, and another thing I'm pretty jazzed about is that Ryder was just voted #1 in the world in third-party logistics (which is the division I work in). Oh, happy day!


Safety Best Practice Features
Family Posters Drive Safety Home

Mandy Rivers, Location Manager at Ryder's Bellsouth (AT&T) account in Columbia, South Carolina, knows that safety awareness should be emphasized on a daily basis. It is important that all Supply Chain Solutions employees understand the importance of returning home to their families each day in the same condition in which they left. Ryder and its customers all depend on employees to do their job safely, but most important of all, their families depend on them.

To drive this message home, Mandy used posters with family photos to remind all employees about who is depending on them the most to perform their job in a safe manner. The posters feature actual pictures of employees' children and grandchildren with various safety messages. Employees see their loved ones' pictures before they begin their run or perform various warehouse duties. Posters like these can be displayed in the driver dispatch area and/or employee time card area (any visible place). This is a great way of going the extra mile in "driving safety home" to all employees.

Here's the link: http://www.ryder.com/employees_safetyzone_bestpractice.shtml

Quiet Blessing

I think God blesses us when he can with quiet little miracles that help us through the rough times when they come around. Who would have ever imagined what a blessing we would find when we bought our home.

Jeff and I both wanted to buy a home in the country but had neither the money or time to find what we wanted. Instead, we settled for a house in a small neighborhood near work and my folks. We were somewhat resistant to suburban living, but chose to settle there all the same.

If you've never experienced it, it may be hard to describe to you, but I submit to you that our little neighborhood has been my salvation and means to sanity time after time. It's an "L" shaped street with two cul-de-sacs and we live at the end. Every evening, after supper or perhaps to chase down the ice cream man, we all seem to meander out and about and have come to know and love one another. Sometimes it reminds me of living in the dorm... leaving our doors open, wandering in and out of each other's spaces and never hard pressed to find an ear or a hand.

I have to start with Baba (Holly's abbreviated version for Barbara). Barbara has been my saving grace more times than I can count. My babies love her to pieces - especially Holly. Holly's first order of business when we get home is to head over to Baba's. When I'm sick or tired or both, she's always there to help me with the little ones, the house, the pets, supper or even putting a cool rag on my neck when I've overdone it - true story, it happened yesterday! She could very well have been in the cast of Designing Women as she is a true Southern Woman.... strong, soothing, determined, funny and persistent.

Baba in the Mojitos

Lane and Jill live across the street. Add these two to the cast and things really start to get happy! I'll never forget driving home from the hospital with Jack to find our yard filled with a double-stroller, a baby gate big enough for an elephant, gifts, balloons and more! My heart was truly filled with warmth and I knew that we were home. Jill and I have walked similar roads and I take so much comfort in her - she is a special soul. Lane is the only guy I've seen Jeff be himself around so easily - maybe this is because they both share the same philosophy on the fart-n-fluff. Our kids adore them and feel just as comfy walking to their front door as they do to ours.

Lane & Jill

Our latest members are Katy and Chisholm - die hard nature buffs who know way more than I need to about anything and everything that has a nucleus. I just love to watch the way Katy's face lights up when she talks about a lizard she's seen - my bad Katy, I meant to say "anole"! They are newlyweds and it's nice to see the energy they have for each other. Katy has a natural curiosity about life that makes me smile. Since Katy and I share a passion for cooking and Jeff and Chisholm always seem willing Guinea pigs, they are great to have over on a Saturday night. I can't wait until they "take seed!"

Katy & Chisolm

There's Terry who just asked her aging mother to move in with her and her son, Carson - aka hell on wheels. There's Vance and Lisa and Lisa's insatiable need to clean and prune which means they have the best looking place on the street. There's Tippy, the neighborhood organizer and resident grandmother with the Easter egg trees, inflatable Santa and screaming ghosts that drop out of the trees right on cue each holiday. There's the crabby old farts that wear sweatpants year round and fuss at the kids when they run across the grass. There's Ron - single and shirtless. They are everywhere and they are each wonderful. They are family.

Aside from the fabulous cast of characters I get to have in my life, we are all extremely active with neighborhood events. We have a Easter Egg Hunt, yard sales, a Halloween Festival, a Christmas party - complete with Santa, and this year, our first annual Red, White & Blue Party for the 4th.

Holly & Katy

I miss my old friends from my younger, less married, less mothered days and wonder if we'll ever be as close as we once were. Jobs and families leave little time for much else - maybe that's why it's been so easy for me to find comfort in my own front yard.

I know we won't live here forever - we're busting out of the seams now - but I'll always hold a special place in my heart for the quiet little blessing we found here in our own front yard.

What's New With Us!

This summer has been very busy for us!

Jeff is starting a new job with Richland School District One as a plumber. This is great news for us as he will no longer have to work late at night or weekends. He will be off at 3PM each day and be off for all of the traditional school holidays!

Holly is hitting the Terrible Twos hard! I can't help but to laugh at her little behind, though. She was recently asking me for something and Nana suggested she wait until after supper. Holly very clearly said, "No, Nana, I'm talking to my MAMA." I should have given her a swat for that but instead I laughed. You just can't take life too seriously when you have three kids. I'd love to be the perfect mom with perfect kids but that's just not ever going to be our reality so I laugh sometimes when I shouldn't and just try to live in the millions of little moments God gives us.

Another thing that we all find funny about Holly is her name for her Granddad. Dad has always said that he wanted to just be called "Granddad".... not PeePaw or PooPoo or any other cutsie name, just Granddad. Holly, who has beautiful enunciation and an extended vocabulary, chooses to call her granddad "Ginga" (GEEN-ga). She can clearly say the word granddad but when you point and ask who he is, the answer is always the same.... Ginga!

Jack just turned a year old in June and is wearing 18-24 month clothing. He's a little haus like his sister was. He crawling all over the place but still not walking. He loves to throw balls and flip his little arms out to try and catch them too. Bless his heart, he goes to sleep at 7PM on the dot every night and sleeps till morning. As Mom loves to say, he's such a gooooood baby.

Maddi just wrapped up cheerleading camp, swimming lessons (though she can swim like a fish), vacation bible school and will soon be enrolling in gymnastics again. Her mom keeps her busy, which is good, I suppose, because Maddi is very social. She is best buds with two little girls in our neighborhood - Katie Brice and Logan. She is very protective of her little brother and sister and sneaks kisses when no one is looking - she's still got to be cool, you know!

I'm good too.... my job is terrific and keeps me going sometimes. It's a wonderful outlet for me to grow and stretch and learn. I have a new rule for myself as a go forward in life - I will never work for anyone ever again that does not have children and a family. I am blessed with two supervisors who talk about their kids as much as I think of mine. We work hard but when it's quitting time, everyone's out the door to be with what's important to us. I feel like I've finally struck a balance and it's good!

Political Rants

OK, so I've got to have a place to vent my political rants.... I'll start by sharing with you excerpts of a letter that I wrote for Keven Cohen - a local conservative talk show host that I listen to occasionally on-air. We don't usually agree on everything but I think he respects my opinion and knows a little of my story. Here it is....

Hi Keven,

What I love about your show is that, though we seem to differ on our political positions, you are open to hearing the perspectives of others and do not take an "all or nothing" stance when it comes to politics. It seems these days, political personalities in the media are so extreme Left or Right that common sense and conversation regarding opposing ideas are nonexistent. What I'm saying is that I appreciate the way you convey your beliefs and still keep an open mind for those who may bring something different to the table.

You've put me on the air several times and I know that my perspective is not that of your target market so I've taken some hits from callers who call in after me. Each time I've called there's been one thing I wish I had time to talk with you about - Why I'm a Democrat. It could turn into a long dialog so I've never brought it up - out of respect for your time and your producer's sanity.
It seems that "Democrat" and "Liberal" are dirty words here in the South for some reason. The perception is that we are either bums looking for a free ride, tree huggers, moral-lacking freaks or socialists - none of which am I. I've heard you say you want to get back to "conservative values" before and I don't know what that means - I'm a liberal and I think I have outstanding values.

To get back to my point, I want to tell you who I am and why I'm a democrat. I am a thirty-something, married, mother of three. My family and I are Episcopal and go to church as often as we can. I own my home and am a senior manager in the business sector. My performance at work is measured by P&Ls and productivity. I have owned a handgun and love to fish (got rid of the gun when I saw that commercial that said "So-and-so hid his gun so well it took his daughter 6 years to find it." - that hit home). I grew up in an upper-middle class Republican household.

Growing up with two die-hard Republican parents, I, of course, started my adult-hood as a Republican too. As I moved away from the security of my parents into the real world I started to see things differently. The things that I had been taught all my life started to conflict with the way I felt inside. My roommate in college - who is still to this day one of my favorite people on earth - is Lesbian. She did not know it or (or would not accept it) the first 2-3 years that we lived together. She came from a small mountain town in Georgia from a very religious, conservative family. Being Lesbian was the last thing on earth this woman wanted. I watched her struggle with who she was for years and helped her deal with the realization that she is, in fact, Lesbian. Now, I was raised to dislike gay people and was taught that sexuality is a choice. But I submit to you - if it truly is a choice, my dear friend would be married to someone named Earl with 6 kids making her parents proud. My point here is not to debate homosexuality, but to tell you that this was one of the first trials in my life that made me question my political perspectives.

As I got older and started paying more attention to the economy, I also started to question these perspectives. In a nut shell, I came to believe in demand-driven economics. Put the money in the hands of the people and they will energize the economy. Where we live in the world is among laborers, small business owners, teachers and policemen. People love the idea of Tax Cuts but it's my belief that if we aren't building schools, then Joe Roofer isn't making money so he can't buy a new car, so Bill Car Salesman isn't getting a commission, so he's not buying his kids a new swimming pool, so Main Street Pool Store isn't selling a new pool, so Joe Backhoe isn't digging the hole for it and on and on and on. This is why I'm for raising minimum wage - these folks spend 100% of their income - putting it right back into our local economy. I believe that the benefit of taxation is greater than tax cuts for people like me and that tax cuts only benefit the wealthy. I could write a dissertation for all the reasons I believe what I believe about economics (as could you, I'm sure!) so I'll leave this point.

I was raised to believe that welfare recipients were drug users and too lazy to work. In 2005 I walked into work the day after Christmas and was told that my position had been discontinued. I had been with the company for almost 10 years and was 4 months pregnant. Now uninsured and unable to find work, I found myself and my children on Unemployment, Medicaid and WIC. Standing in line to obtain these services with my pregnant belly and two children at my side humbled me to the bone. Once I had our third child, I was able to find a great job, but for almost a year, I shopped with my WIC vouchers and withstood the glares from those around me. I announced across the waiting room when asked by the receptionist in my pediatrician's office that yes, little Holly's insurance had changed and we were now on Medicaid. I laid my head down every night and thanked God for our health and prayed that we would make it. God answered but so did the State of South Carolina.

I believe that as long as the American oil companies are lining their pockets with trillions of dollars and passing those dollars to Republican campaigns, we will never see alternative sources of fuel and the same goes for the insurance/drug industry and health care reform. I believe that more people than not judge people based on race, sex, sexuality and religion and it sickens me. And I wonder what happened to the term, "Southern Democrat?"

So, here it is. This is me and this is why I'm a Democrat. I will continue to listen to your show and hope to maybe one day have a chat with you about what you believe in too.

Sincerely,
Mandy Rivers