When did you last change your passwords?

So, I was online last night purchasing a few crafty things to make me smile, then I slept like a baby.

After my appointments this morning, the phone call came... from my bank!

Around 4 AM our time, someone at Forest Park in Paris, France, tried to use my debit card for a purchase exceeding $600.  When I heard that, I was soooo thankful that my bank stays on top of strange purchases and stopped it.  The charge was refused and my debit card was cancelled.  I'll have a replacement card in a few days.

If that had cleared, I would have been in a nightmare of epic proportions.

So, the bank did their job, now I am doing mine.  Slowly but surely changing my passwords online, including the passwords on my computer to even access my profile.  (I use 7, so it has user profiles, your computer may be different.)   As I am accessing each of the programs and websites that I use, I am changing the passwords.  I made sure to start with my bank! 

I wanted to share all this so I could ask, "When did you last change your passwords?"  

I think, "new year, new passwords" might be words to live by.  I have had some of the same passwords in excess of 7 years or variations on a theme.  And I could have gone on in bliss indefinitely if not for the wake up call from France. 

Please take a moment and do an inventory of your security.  If you haven't changed your passwords in the past year, please do.  We all have limited resources, so it is especially bad when some stranger tries to tap into them.

After all your passwords are updated, be sure to stop by our website GardenSourceSC.Org and come out to visit us this Sunday at the Plantory for Fellowship and Potluck at 5 PM!

Welcome to the New Year

My apologies for my New Year post happening on the 5th.  Like many of you, the barrage of holidays was overwhelming, frustrating, joyful, and bittersweet.  And I am so glad it is behind us.  Santa let me know I have been a pretty good kid and I have almost wore out the copy of Labyrinth that was found under the tree.  Rosa made me watch it 5 times in a row... not that I'm complaining, Jareth could kidnap me anyday.

Nonetheless, I wanted to share a couple highlights of this past holiday season, the first for me was epic.  Bruce Campbell of B-movie awesomeness portrayed Santa in Season 1, Episode 4, of The Librarians. Official OMG.  Click here for link if you do not have TNT or any tv, as I do not.  Bruce stole my heart in Evil Dead 2 and has never let go.  No comments from the peanut gallery, please.

The second is the New Years Ball dropping in NYC.  I did not get to see it live since it aired on one of the network channels that my poor-man-soda-can-over-coaxial-cable antenna refuses to pick up consistently.  The version I found shows the NYC mayor and his wife and family at the end.  It wrenched my heart a bit knowing all the turmoil there and around our country.  Thanks to our modern age of the internet, I was able to find the video here and shed a few tears slightly after midnight.

Finally, to finish welcoming in the new year and get things started off on the correct footing, Garden Source will be having a healing ritual as part of our January fellowship, and you are all invited!  We are sticking to our schedule of every third Sunday unless something amazing or startling blows us off course.

So, I do hope to see your smiling faces at 5 PM on Sunday, January 18th, at the Plantory, 501 West Sixth Street, Suite 250, Lexington, KY 40508. Bring a dish to share if you are able, hang around for a bit after fellowship for potluck and social time, and just enjoy yourself.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us thru our website or email.

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Celtic blessings to start your year off right:

A blessing upon your home,

A blessing upon your hearth,

A blessing upon your dwelling

And upon your warming fire,

A blessing upon your animals and land,

A blessing upon your kith and kin,

A blessing upon you in lightness or darkness

Each day and night of your life.

May peace and plenty bless your world,

With Joy that long endures,

May all life's passing seasons

Bring the best to you and yours.

Happy Holidays from Garden Source Spiritual Center

We hope this message finds you all happy and warm and able to spend a little time with your loved ones.

For your holiday entertainment, I have attached a picture of one of Santa's minions, and here are two Cracked articles that you might find amusing:

The True Meaning of Christmas

and

Bizarre Origins of Christmas

Please keep yourself safe and I hope we get to meet at the first Garden Fellowship of the New Year... more on that soon.

Brightest Blessings.

UUFMC Carol Wining Event 2014

You are invited!  And I am so slow about getting the invites sent out... my apologies.

After battling an ear infection and whatever the kids have carried home from school, I am ready for some fun.

So, here is the .jpg invite. Basically, Friday night, 7 PM doors open, food and beverages provided, have a good time.

Much love and many hugs to you and yours this holiday season.

Tis the season

Posts have been low as germs are high. But faithful blog readers are never forgotten.

For your enjoyment, a picture of my family's Christmas/Yule tree. This same tree belonged to my grandparents before I was born, only the decorations have changed over the years. In fact, there is a picture from 1972 somewhere of a five-month-old me sitting under this very tree in a Santa sleeper, hat included.

That aside, if you would like to see the 2014 version of me, I do hope you can come out to Miss Sandra's Yule gathering on December 21st. Garden Source has decided to encourage attendance at Yule rather than compete with holiday happenings by having fellowship so close to the end of the year. And wait till you see what Sandra does for a tree!

If you need information or directions to Yule, please email GardenSourceSC@gmail.com. For obvious reasons, we cannot post a private address to our blog.

I promise to take all my antibiotics and do my best to be well enough to share hugs and joy for Yule. Hope to meet you there!