Sonia Marsh - Gutsy Living

Please don’t laugh: I was on a panel to explain what blogging is all about.

July 12, 2009 by Sonia Marsh

I attend two different writers’ meetings a month.
One meets on the second Saturday of the month, the other on the third.

Yesterday was the California Writers Club–Orange County Branch, and I was asked to talk briefly about blogging to an audience of approximately 30 aspiring authors, and published authors.

Before the event, I proudly told Austin, my 18-year-old and Jordan, my 15-year-old, that I had been asked to participate in a tech panel on blogging.

“Mom on a tech panel,” they said snickering. “You’re joking, right?”
Aren’t teenagers the sweetest?

So much for my teenagers’ confidence on my computer skills.

I had prepared a five minute presentation, a basic introduction to test whether the audience wanted to learn more about social networking and blogging, at a future date. To my surprise, very few in the audience knew about blogs. I had to remember how overwhelmed I felt myself, just over a year ago, when I first started blogging. I came away feeling like quite the expert, and told my kids, “I know a heck of a lot more than you think.”

Here are some tips on why it’s important to have a blog if you own a business, are a consultant, an author or simply want to share your thoughts through writing on the Internet.

So what about you? Did you teach yourself how to blog? Did you figure all the gadgets yourself, linking, uploading photos, facebooking and twittering etc. on your own?

Have you seen this ad for Evian?

July 10, 2009 by Sonia Marsh

Creativity, babies, great music and laughter, a recipe for SUCCESS.

I loved this ad. Very few ads have an affect on me, but this one certainly works. I’m heading out the door to buy some EVIAN water.

For those of you still wondering about the results of the exam I took for the FSOT, Foreign Service Officer Test– well I didn’t pass. Although a little disappointed, it’s also a relief as there would have been a timing conflict with my volunteering in Belize in October, The FSOT requires a six-month training period in Virginia.

Instead, I’ll watch the babies dance one more time to stay positive.

Have you already seen this ad?

Does advertising have an effect on your purchasing habits?

Laughter: We Need More.

July 7, 2009 by Sonia Marsh

Do you remember the last time you laughed so hard, you cried?

Last night, warm tears meandered down my cheeks like lava trails. So what if my mascara messed up, I hadn’t laughed so hard since childhood. It was the kind of laughter you can’t control, it just takes over, and you can’t stop.

Jordan, my youngest son and I, have the same sense of humor. It seems strange that my 15-year-old son can make me laugh more than my husband. Sometimes I feel guilty about it, but he imitates my laughter to perfection–snort included–and I become a kid again. One giggle leads to another and quickly spins out of control.

If you don’t laugh, this Panda will make you smile.

We imitate others and so the following quote from Science Daily makes sense: “It seems that it’s absolutely true that ‘laugh and the whole world laughs with you’,” says Dr Sophie Scott, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. “We’ve known for some time now that when we are talking to someone, we often mirror their behaviour, copying the words they use and mimicking their gestures. Now we’ve shown that the same appears to apply to laughter, too — at least at the level of the brain.”

So when was the last time you laughed? I mean really laughed?

Do you use humor in your daily life?

Are you good at telling jokes?

When your teenager shows initiative: even if it’s paintballing

July 2, 2009 by Sonia Marsh

My son, Jordan, is on the left in the green shirt which he designed using photo shop.

As with most families in the northern hemisphere, it’s summertime, which means twelve weeks off. What to do? sports, summer camps, summer school, volunteering, or jobs? With a fifteen-year-old, it’s different. They’re a little too young to get a summer job, and often quite lazy.

Well this year’s different. Jordan, my youngest son, has shown some initiative, and I’m feeling quite proud of him. He wants to earn some money for his passion: Paintballing. Now, don’t get me started on the pros and cons of paintballing, instead, let me focus on initiative.

“Mom, I’d like to come with you to the gym,” Jordan said.

“You sure you want to wake up at 6 a.m.?” I said.

“Yep. I want to run faster, for paintballing.”

So for the past ten days, Jordan has been going to bed around 9 p.m., and waking up on time so he can jog on the treadmill for an hour with his i-pod glued to his ears.

He researched jobs online and filled out and faxed a lengthy application for Yogurtland.

He ordered a couple of DVD’s on paintballing, with his birthday money, and the minute UPS delivered them, he got out his notebook and wrote down seven pages on paintballing techniques.

“You should start your own paintballing blog,” I said. “Perhaps you can form your own team and get sponsored.”

I wanted to plant the seed in his head.

So whether it’s paintballing, coin-collecting or skate-boarding, I really don’t mind what his passion is. All I care about is that he shows initiative.

Do you have or know of a teenager who has shown initiative?

The Heart of a Volunteer

June 26, 2009 by Sonia Marsh

“There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer. With it beats the spirit of service, generosity and compassion…and the health and well-being of our community, our country and our world.” KOBI YAMADA

I have reached a point in my life, where I want to make a difference. Some reach that point at a young age, and others, like myself, are late bloomers. On January 9th, 2009, I met a nurse and soon realized this was not a coincidence.

Barbara was my nurse during a scheduled procedure, and the moment she smiled, I felt the connection. She placed her warm hand on my arm and said, “I was in Belize last June volunteering at a clinic. I met an amazing Belizean nurse. She was a combination of Mother Theresa and Indiana Jones.” (this is a photo of nurse Judith Krieg above in her small clinic in Belize.)

Barbara and I had never met, and yet she brought up Belize, the country that changed my defiant teenager and showed my boys gratitude instead of entitlement. The country that gave us the joy of little Sergio, a four-year-old Belizean boy, whom my three sons “adopted” as their little brother and taught how to speak English and read simple words.

Only three weeks after I met Barbara, she introduced me to Carol Mikan, RN and her husband Rich, who set up a small family foundation called the World Hospital Project. When I saw photos of some of the children they helped last year, kids who otherwise wouldn’t get treated due to a lack of supplies and finances, I realized I wanted to make a difference.

This boy has a clubfoot.

Nurse Judy trained at Saddleback College in Orange County, California, and moved back to Belize where she built a home with a free clinic attached and called it “Equity House Clinic.” She, ALONE, provides medical care for 17,000 local people, and her goal is to see each one of the 8,000 kids in her area. Last year, Carol and her team treated 400 kids during their visit, based on the medical supplies and medicine they could bring.

This year we have a “wish list” for the children in Hopkins Village, a small village that Duke and I visited in 2003, when we researched where we’d like to move to in Belize.

“We’d like to bring combs, flip-flops, socks, nail clippers, small mirrors, small bags to put everything in, tubes or foil packets of Neosporin and band aids,” Carol said. “The kids use the same pair of socks daily, and their feet often get infected.”

These are ankle sores from worms

Simple things, we take for granted, can make a HUGE change in a child’s life. Carol told me about the deaf 10-year-old boy. His parents said he was born that way, and after looking into his ear, Carol’s team removed a build up of ear wax. For the first time, he was able to hear.

I don’t usually ask for help, but this time I’m going to. There are so many simple things that can change a child’s life.

As Carol says, “ANY amount is gratefully appreciated.” Just giving up one Starbucks coffee drink a week, or skipping one pizza over the entire summer and donating to World Hospital Project, makes a huge difference. All donations go 100% toward World Hospital Project’s commitment to improving medical care in Belize. All volunteers pay their own expenses and promotion, mailing and other miscellaneous expenses, come out of the Mikan’s own pocket.

I shall be volunteering for ten days in October 2009, giving back to the children in Belize Thank you for helping the kids.