Darfur...doctor's pictures

My family doctor works at a small, warm clinic in Longueuil (Clinique Ste-Catherine). The owner, a doctor named Yolande Leduc, went on a mission to give some of her services.  Her travels brought her to Darfur.The walls of the clinic are a testimony to what she has witnessed. Beautifully framed photographs of War Soldiers not older than fifteen years of age, little underprivileged children,  families still bonded despite an obvious scarcity of ressources: this is what we can see. The photographs are absolutely beautiful. The emotions conveyed in the faces of the subjects can't be missed, or ignored at that. Some of the photographs are joined with explanatory notes that can't do anything but break your heart. Can you imagine having been trained in war, to kill when you were merely 12... or imagine your own children???!!! Even after being saved from this life, what kind of scars do these individuals suffer from? Is there any refuge for them?

There is this one photograph, ''The Girl in Red''... It is stunning. It depicts a little girl in the middle of a dirt road. The entire scenery is drab, dirty, poor. This little girl however, despite her situation, is wearing bright red. It seems to represent that there is still a glimmer of hope of a brighter future for this girl, and others like her.

Christmas Baking, and I'm new at this! (Oreo Truffles, and Holiday Kisses, Chocolate Bark shortbread cookies

I'm 28, and I've discovered that I LOVE cooking and Baking! I also discovered that through blogs and Twitter posts, one can find amazing food ideas and recipes.

I just wanted to share my most recent cookie experience:

First, The FABULOUS Oreo Truffles:

SO, so so EASY: All you need to make 3 dozens:  1-pkg cream cheese, 1 pkg Oreo cookies, Chocolate to melt (I used one package of Baker's semi sweet and about 4 pieces of Toblerone Chocolate), and something to coat ( I used grated  Holiday Hershey's kisses), but you could use Coconut, more cookie crumbs, other chocolate, oh! Even crushed candy cane pieces:

Welcome 2010!

What are your New Year's resolutions? Do you have any? Do I have any? Are you saying goodbye to 2009 satisfied or are you anxious to put it behind you welcoming 2010?

One more day to go and I'm not sure what my resolutions are yet. Correction: I'm not sure what the resolutions that I actually plan on keeping are. Sure there are the usual '' eat better, exercise more, yadiyadiyadah'' resolutions, but, they're a given. I know that I want some change in my life for 2010... where to start?

First, I have to decide what I think of 2009 overall. What's happened? I started to work from home. Love it or Hate it? That's easy. I adore working from home and only having to go downtown to the office once a month or so. I save on transit time (2.5 hours +). I save on a bus pass (105$ +). I get to see my son every morning (he used to get up around seven thirty, eight-ish... and I left at 06h50...Now, I go in my home office at 8h20... I see him EVERY morning! I can either start a load of laundry at my break or shower, start preparring supper at my other break.... jump in the pool during lunch..... lots of perks!

Realisation... I wasn't going to be a lawyer

I used to read fairly regularly. School had never been an obstacle to this as I pretty much always found it easy (minus math the last 2 years)... but then in college, there was so much more reading to do. ( I was in Liberal Arts). I enjoyed it, but I think that's pretty much when I stopped reading for the sheer pleasure of it. Even if I enjoyed what I was reading (learning)... and I learned a lot (!)... Something changed. I skimmed books. I was always last minute. I remember opening Shakespeare's Othello the night before I had an exam on it... (I confess, I rented the movie.. and then skimmed the book). We had weekly quizzes in Humanities and Philosophy on various (long) chapters from our course material... and again... I don't remember an instance when I did not read that stuff horizontally. I to this day, never finished Wuthering Heights, or this other book from English class by this German author. . I started research and writing essays 48 hours before they were due. I'd get away with it, always with an average ranging between 85-95% I was perhaps lazy. No, I was definitely lazy... but I think I was more than lazy. I was cocky, and I didn't like the sentiment of obligation. Now, if there was something I was really into (like cadets), I would devote countless hours towards that...  What  a mess of contradictions I was!