Kick off the new year right with a rousing performance by the multi-award winning tenor trio Tenore at 7 p.m. January 17 at the Pines Theater in downtown Lufkin.
Tenore’s talented singers, Mark David Williams, David Wise and Carlos Santiago, have garnered international acclaim with their powerhouse vocals and passionate performances. Since the release of their debut album in 2011, they have been awarded the GMA’s Covenant Awards for Traditional Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Fan Choice of the Year.
Tenore was founded by Jill Ann Siemens, who also discovered multi-platinum recording group The Canadian Tenors. They have a loyal international fan base, and have performed to sold-out audiences and mega-churches across North America. They have appeared on the popular Hour of Power TV broadcast from LA’s Crystal Cathedral. In 2012 they traveled to Uganda to perform with the world-famous Watoto Children’s Choir, recording the hit “Where Are You Christmas?” from the movie “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” for their 2014 Christmas album, “Christmas With You.” That album received the GMA Covenant Award for Seasonal Album of the Year and also included a cover of “Christmas with You” with Grammy-award winning vocal superstar Heather Headley.
Tickets are $40 for floor seats and $35 for balcony seats. To purchase tickets, visit thepineslufkin.com or call (936) 633-0349. Season tickets to the Pines 2017 season, “Boundless Passion, Enduring Inspiration,” are also available for $245 for floor seats ($35 per show) and $210 for balcony seats ($30 per show).
The Pines 2017 season continues with The Bellamy Brothers on February 18. On April 20, newly married Broadway veterans Jarrod Spector, Tony award winner for “Beautiful” and “Jersey Boys,” and Kelli Barrett, leading lady in Broadway’s “Dr. Zhivago,” explore love songs from storied musical partnerships with “This Is Dedicated: Music’s Greatest Marriages.”
I’m not sure who originally came up with the idea of Snowman Soup, but whoever did was a genius! It makes the perfect neighbor gift when the weather outside is frightful. It is also super easy and affordable to put together!
We have made these before, and this year we doing them again! The kiddos helped me put them together today.
To make these you’ll need:
brown paper lunch sacks
ribbon
hot chocolate packets
candy canes
Hershey Kisses
mini marshmallows
Snowman Soup printable {download below}
First, we put the marshmallows in quart size Ziploc bags. Then we put those and everything else inside the paper lunch sack.
Then we just folded the bag over. Punch two holes and attach the poem with a ribbon.
You can download the Snowman Soup file HERE. Then upload it to your favorite photo place & have them made into 4×6 prints. Super easy!
Lufkin District will be pre-treating roadways for the remainder of the day because of possible incoming freezing rain/sleet/snow later tonight.
Our maintenance departments will begin treating our normal problem areas throughout our nine counties-typically overpasses and bridges-with a salt water solution that is designed to lower the temperature at which water freezes on the roadway surface.
Our roads are wet already today and with expected temperatures falling below freezing and more rain in the forecast, we want to prepare for whatever occurs in our East Texas weather.
Motorists should be alert, drive to conditions and watch for icy patches. Don’t hit your brakes should you hit an icy patch, but steer slowly to a stop. If ice accumulates on county roads or in isolated areas, motorists are advised to stay off roadways until temperatures rise above freezing.
Every other year officials and organizations from Deep East Texas hold a “get acquainted” reception for their newly elected legislative delegation and state officials. “Given the range of issues, including the state budget, this year it is especially important the region show its unity and get re-acquainted with state officials and legislators in Austin,” said Past-President of the Deep East Texas County Commissioner’s and Judges Association, Jasper County Judge, Mark Allen. “The large number and variety of sponsors for the Deep East Texas Reception is an indication of the unity of local governments, non-profits, the private sector, regional associations and social service organizations in our region.”
The 2017 Deep East Texas Reception is scheduled for the evening of Monday, January 9th at the Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel in downtown Austin. The legislative session begins the next day with swearing in ceremonies for legislators and state officials.
“The legislative process in Texas is intense because it only meets for five months every two years and it starts the state’s two year budget cycle,” said DETCOG Executive Director Lonnie Hunt. “A large number of bills have been pre-filed for this session so we will have to work hard to see that those promoting the growth and development of Deep East Texas get considered.”
Officially the reception is to honor the State Officials and Legislators from the Deep East Texas area. A special presentation of “Deep East Texas Legislator of the Year” is scheduled to be made to Texas State Representative Trent Ashby his work on behalf of the people of Deep East Texas. DETCOG President, Lufkin City Councilmember, Lynn Torres will make the presentation.
The sponsors for the 2017 reception include the Deep East Texas County Commissioners and Judges Association; the Deep East Texas Council of Governments; Burke; the Texas Forestry Association; East Texas Support Services; Polk County; Jasper County; Tyler County; Houston County; Nacogdoches County; Sabine County; Angelina County; San Augustine County; Newton County; Trinity County; San Jacinto County; the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas; the City of Lufkin; the City of Nacogdoches; the City of San Augustine; the City of Goodrich; East Texas Electric Cooperative; Stephen F. Austin State University; Georgia-Pacific; the Lower Neches Valley Authority; First Bank & Trust East Texas; Ray Van & Associates; McGuireWoods Consulting, LLC; Timberlands Healthcare; Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, LLC; Shelby Savings Bank; PerdueBrandonFielderCollins&Mott and the Sabine River Authority.
The Deep East Texas Reception is scheduled for Monday, January 9th from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel at 701 Congress Avenue in Austin. Everyone from Deep East Texas is invited to attend. Anyone needing information concerning the event may contact the Deep East Texas Council of Governments at 409-384-5704.
The City of Nacogdoches Main Street program is excited to announce that tickets for the fifth annual Wine Swirl are on sale now!
Proceeds will be used to enhance the beautification and promotion efforts of historic downtown Nacogdoches. The ticketed wine and food pairing event will showcase Texas wineries and local and regional food trucks along the historic brick streets.
Wine Swirl will be held on February 11 from 6 – 10 p.m.
Attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy wine samples from at least 15 Texas wineries and purchase delicious fare from several local and regional food trucks.
The event will also give attendees the opportunity to interact with local artisans, enjoy live music, be entertained by various street performers, and sample the wonderful hospitality from our local Downtown merchants!
For our overnight guests, an accommodation package has been created. Whether in-town or out-of-town, we hope you will join us at our host hotel, the Comfort Suites for the entire weekend. This is your one-stop-shop for Wine Swirl tickets, event t-shirts, and special room rates.
Changes for 2017:
We will host local and regional food trucks on Main Street. A variety of food will be available for purchase, to add a unique and fun spin on this longstanding Downtown Event. Free samples will be limited (if any) in stores.
We are looking forward to announcing new wineries later this week to join our awesome event!
Purchase your tickets here or at the CVB in Downtown Nacogdoches before they’re all gone!
This event sold out in two weeks last year so time is of the essence. Cheers!
For a Limited Time, Breakfast Lovers Can Enjoy As Many of the World’s Most Delicious, Fluffiest Buttermilk Pancakes They Want at an Incredible Value at IHOP Restaurants Nationwide
The anticipation has been building since fans took to social media last year to beg IHOP®Restaurants to bring back ‘All You Can Eat Pancakes.’ So, to thank loyal Breakfastarians everywhere, today IHOP announced the return of this wildly popular promotion, which lets guests dig into unlimited orders of its freshly made, world-famous Buttermilk Pancakes for a great price* throughout the entire month of January!
Just in time to gather family and friends and celebrate the New Year, IHOP’s ‘All You Can Eat Pancakes’ offer features a great value on the fluffy, golden pancakes that set the breakfast standard almost six decades ago. After enjoying a full stack of five Buttermilk pancakes or a short stack of two pancakes with a combo plate of eggs, golden hash browns and choice of sausage, ham or hickory-smoked bacon, guests can request additional short stacks of two Buttermilk pancakes until they’ve fulfilled their craving. ‘All You Can Eat Pancakes’ is available all day, every day for the month of January at participating IHOP restaurants nationwide.
“The best way we know to kick off the New Year is to offer our guests’ favorite freshly made breakfast at IHOP’s best value. Almost six decades after serving our first stack of delicious, made-to-order Original Buttermilk Pancakes, IHOP continues to bring people together,” said Kirk Thompson, senior vice president, Marketing, IHOP. “Every year our guests look forward to IHOP’s ‘All You Can Eat Pancakes’ offer, asking for the return of a great value on our signature pancakes, to be enjoyed any time of day, every day, for the entire month.”
*Dine-in only. All You Can Eat offer valid per person, per order. For a limited time. Price and participation varies.
In a recent Washington, D. C. meeting, policymakers and researchers with the Center on Gender Equity and Health GEH at UC San Diego School of Medicine came together to lend their voices to the issues women and girls face globally.
The event was led by GEH researchers to recognize a recent $1.6 million grant they received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to improve the measurement of worldwide issues, such as partner and sexual violence, which affects one in three women, and child marriage, which affects 15 million girls each year.
“I have witnessed firsthand the lifelong effects of mistreatment and violence against women and girls across the world. At the Center on Gender Equity and Health, we envision a world where all individuals and communities are empowered to reach their full potential and contribute to society,” said Anita Raj, PhD, director of GEH and a professor in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “This new grant will allow us to improve our measurement strategies to actually make the changes needed to improve lives.”
Photo by: UC San Diego Health GEH visits Uttar Pradesh to learn more about women-led community health activism.
These efforts come after initial investments to GEH from the BMGF and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, totaling more than $1 million over the past three years.
“We need to fill data gaps that keep people, and particularly women and girls, invisible in much of our research and policies,” said Katherine Hay, deputy director at BMGF. “To know if things are working or bringing change, we need to know what that change looks like in different settings and how to measure it.”
The BMGF funds will also support a new GEH office and staff in India, considered a hub of the GEH research, as well as opportunities for UC San Diego students to train on multidisciplinary research.
“This grant will help our work in India in a critical way by supporting measurement and data quality as it relates to gender equity on a broad range of issues, including health, education, violence, political participation and economic empowerment,” said Raj.
Launched in 2013, GEH’s mission is to improve health and safety of women and girls globally. The center focuses on child marriage, gender-based violence and on reproductive, maternal and child health research. To achieve a vision of creating sustainable and large-scale change, the center maintains partnerships with governmental and non-governmental agencies.
“A social justice framework is utilized by the GEH across all efforts, and innovative technologies are employed to facilitate and accelerate change at individual, community and national levels,” said Raj.
GEH’s research has included collaboration with UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute (formerly Calit2) to develop and employ apps for survey data collection in rural areas of India. GEH has also been partnering with health systems in India for family planning and child health and to improve clinical care at childbirth, where Raj’s research team found high rates of provider mistreatment of patients.
“The approach of partnering with researchers on the ground in India will help to build stronger professional relationships that will contextualize measures and emphasize field-based learning that will serve the field beyond that country,” said Hay.
The announcement of the latest award comes on the heels of the World Health Organization’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence — a movement to end violence against women and girls globally.
In addition to the India-focused research, faculty within GEH also have active studies on partner violence and HIV risk in Uganda, adolescent reproductive and maternal health in Niger and Honduras and sexual violence and exploitation of women and girls in California and at the US-Mexico border.
“Our team has learned that there is a lot of effort, interest and a hunger from our partners around the world and in our local community in San Diego and at UC San Diego to change this situation for women and girls,” said Raj. “We are very excited to provide scientific support for broader change.”
With the new year comes new resolutions, and some people will be resolving to get more out of their memory. This can be a difficult task, but with the right techniques it doesn’t have to be.
We do not know everything there is to know about the brain. Despite the billions of dollars poured into brain research from the National Institutes of Health alone, the more we learn about the brain, the more we learn just how much we still need to learn. Take these techniques and find out which are best for you. No person is the same, just as no memory is the same.
Lose excess fat around the stomach. In a scientific study published in 2013, it was found that obese individuals were three times as likely to have memory loss than any other. “When abdominal fat was too much for the liver’s stores of PPARalpha to handle, the liver began tapping into PPARaplha reserves in other parts of the body, including the brain,” according to Medical Daily. “Soon, these proteins became depleted, causing memory and learning impairment.”
Hit the gym. Hitting the gym has a high likelihood of improving one’s memory, and it could assist in other new year’s resolutions for becoming healthier or losing weight. In a study done by the University of Texas-Dallas in 2013, it was found that participants who worked out three times a week for an hour, either riding a stationary bike or walking on a treadmill, saw improvements even though some had lived sedentary lifestyles. The study also found that the older a person is, the better exercise helps their memory.
Take plenty of naps. A Harvard University study found that students who were taught tasks and told to take a nap did much better on the tasks than students who did not take a nap.
Give brain games some credit. Brain games, games created to improve the mind’s memory capabilities, not intelligence, have been called hoaxes and not worth a person’s time. If a person wants an immediate catch-all memory problem solver, then brain games would seem like a failure. However, there is a moderate degree of scientific backing in brain games’ ability to help a person improve memory skills. More than 50 scientific studies have been conducted on animals and humans, alike.
Try practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness can go by many names, metacognition, forethought, etc. It is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. It is often used as a therapeutic technique, and it is a good way to bring about better memory performance.
Oscar Wilde once said, “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
What is in your diary? Make sure to take care to capture memories you want to remember as well as memories you have to remember. Yes, the daily to-do list is important to remember, but perhaps those memories would come easier if people would work to remember the things that deeply affect them, the things that uplift, encourage, and enlighten their soul.
This not your momma’s meat loaf! It is actually the BEST meat loaf we have ever eaten! (But don’t tell your mom we said that!) The combination of ingredients for the topping is one of the key factors catapulting this meat loaf above all others. In fact, the next time we make it, we will be doubling the ingredients for the topping because we loved it so much! If you are looking for a recipe that is out-of-the-ordinary, then this recipe is the one for you.
Kevin’s version of this recipe can be found in the January 2017 edition of “Better Homes and Garden.”
May your 2017 be filled with extra-ordinary blessings!
Happy Cooking,
Kevin Wilson &Mom
Kevin Wilson poses with the ingredients.
Jamaican-Style Meat Loaf
Ingredients:
1 pound Owen’s ground pork sausage
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup shredded carrot
½ cup finely chopped onion
1 cup soft bread crumbs
2 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup strong-brewed coffee
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium banana, cut in ½ inch slices
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 miniature sweet peppers, sliced
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pitted green olives
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
¼ cup fresh parsley
Kevin Wilson mixes the ingredients.
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the pork, beef, carrot, onion, bread crumbs, eggs, coffee, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Cut three 18 x 3 inch heavy foil strips. Crisscross the strips in bottom of a slow cooker. Place meat mixture on top of the strips; shape into an oval or round to match cooker shape, pressing mixture away from sides to prevent burning. Tuck ends of foils strips inside cooking pot. Cover; cook on low 5 hours or high 2 ½ hours or until instant-read thermometer inserted in center of meat registers 165 degrees. Use foil strips to lift meat loaf from cooker, tilting to drain off fat. Transfer to a platter. Pull the foil strips from under meat loaf. Cover; let stand 10 minutes. For topper: Heat butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add banana; cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until caramelized. Remove. Add oil to skillet. Add peppers, cook and stir 4 minutes or until browned. Add olives, sugar, zest, and juice. Cook and stir until sugar dissolves. Stir in caramelized bananas and spoon topper over meat loaf. Top with parsley. Enjoy!
New year, new me is a phrase often repeated and associated with making happier and healthier decisions during the month of January that will hopefully become a lifestyle for the new year. Often, those new year’s resolutions include exercising more and eating better, but the decision to become a healthier person can seem expensive and difficult to accomplish.
Luckily for Texans, the Texas Parks and Wildlife organization takes care of many state parks and offers activities for goals just like becoming healthier. Here is a list of some of the activities offered in Texas state parks:
Cultivate a Healthier Body
Walk One of the best ways to improve your physical well-being is to take a walk. For beginners to experts, guided hikes and trails are available, including mobility-friendly trails. If a person has not exercised in a long time, walking can be a great first step toward making muscles remember what they used to be capable of.
Bike Biking can help improve cardiovascular fitness, add muscle strength and flexibility, and decrease stress. Those who wish to begin biking can find a trail near them or join an upcoming biking event. Biking can be a great way to begin excercising again or to calm the mind.
Geocache A Geocache is a specially designed and hidden “treasure” with a list of the names of those who have found it and an assortment of items that are there to be taken in exchange for another item being left. Many geocaches are hidden in Texas State Parks. Geocaches can be found using a GPS or smartphone and are a good way to challenge both the mind and the body.
Cultivate a Healthier Mind
Enjoy Nature Nature walks and wildlife viewing are great ways to boost understanding of the natural world and its amazing inhabitants. Exploring nature can decrease the amount of things the mind has to think about so that it can focuse on destressing, solving one problem at a time, etc.
Look Up Enjoy the beauty of the night sky at a Texas State Park. Artificial light is very minimal at a state park, so the night sky is much more visible than in the city. A stargazing event is a perfect time to view the depth the night sky has to offer, but simply viewing it alone or with friends or family can also help soothe and inspire the mind.
Cultivate a Healthier Community
Volunteer at a Park Helping others is a wonderful way to help oneself. Texas State Parks have lots of volunteer opportunities for individuals to help Texas’ wild plants, animals, and places.
Be an Ambassador Becoming a State Park Ambassador can encourage people to explore the outdoors and share in a person’s love of parks. One person can inspire friends, motivate communities, and spread the word that anyone can enjoy life outdoors.
