New Blank Journal! JB-5

JB-5

$8.99  Show price $6

Half size. A pocket on each inside cover! Glittery ivory bookmark. Light gray interior pages.

Order here!

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JB-1 $6.99 USD JB-2 $7.99 USD JB-3 $6.99 USD JB-4 $6.99 USD JB-5 $8.99 USD

Event Announcement: Craft Fair 11/19/21

Just announced! Visit me at this upcoming show! Buy there to save on shipping/handling costs!

Friday November 19, 2021

Time: Open to the public 3:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Event: Christmas Bazaar

Location: Faith Christian Academy, 138 Greensburg Rd., Martinsburg, WV.

Invite me to your event! Mail information to LAS Books, P.O. Box 2052, Hedgesville, WV 25427-2052.

Still Here! :-)

Don't be alarmed by missing posts and pages, friends! I'm still here! I'm simply moving things over to a new host / platform. Stay tuned!

Sold Out! Old Time Management Workbooks and Planners

Sold out! All the old copies (with my old website URL) of my Time Management books and planners now have happy homes thanks to this lovely customer, who is managing quite the blossoming household!

It’s such a pleasure to meet such wonderful people out there in the world, and I wish this young family all God’s blessings in the years ahead!

Thank you for stopping by! “Time be thine!”

A History of Father’s Day

In the United States, Father’s Day history begins with Mother’s Day history.

On May 10, 1908–three years and one day after the death of her mother—a West Virginian in Grafton, named Anna Jarvis, honored her mother and mothers everywhere in what is considered the first official Mother’s Day ceremony in the United States.

Fifteen miles away in Fairmont, another West Virginian named Grace Clayton (née Golden) had been mourning her deceased father at the same time the entire town was reeling from a mining disaster that had killed 361 men, over 2/3 of them fathers—leaving thousands of West Virginia children without their fathers. It was a devastating time for West Virginia, but Clayton eventually had an idea to help the community—if not herself—heal.

Clayton: Um, excuse me, Pastor Webb? I was thinking maybe we should have a memorial service here at the church to honor my father, these mining fathers, and—golly—why not all fathers across the United States, like Anna Jarvis over in Grafton just did for mothers.

Webb: Okay. When?

Clayton: Hm, how about July 5? It’s the Sunday closest to my father’s birthday.

Pastor: Sure. Have at it.

Thus (not exactly in that way), the first official Father’s Day ceremony was held in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908. But because of the mining disaster, Independence Day celebrations, the lack of event promotion, and Clayton’s reserved nature, the event was little noticed.

In contrast, Anna Jarvis decided to pursue making something bigger out of her Mother’s Day idea and began actively promoting it across the nation. Eventually, Jarvis’s idea made it into a pastor’s sermon over 2,300 miles away in Spokane, Washington, where it reached the ears of Sonora Smart Dodd.

Dodd: Pastor, the Holy Spirit has moved me to come talk to you.

Pastor: Glory be.

Dodd: As you know, my father—who fought so bravely during the Civil War—single-handedly raised me and my five siblings.

Pastor: Lord bless him.

Dodd: I heard what you said about Mother’s Day in today’s sermon, but I don’t understand why no one has suggested a Father’s Day. 

Pastor: Are you suggesting it? 

Dodd: Why, yes. Yes, I am! Fathers deserve to be honored, too! 

Pastor: Well, then, I’ll talk about fathers in a future sermon. Going now— 

Dodd: No, no, that’s not good enough. 

Pastor: Gee, thanks. 

Dodd: Go talk to the church alliance and get them all on board, too. Ooh, schedule it for June 5–my father’s birthday. Tell them I’ll even knit ties for all the fathers out there in Spokane. Go big or go back to Arkansas, I always say! 

Pastor: Ohhhkayyy. Walking away now.

The church alliance agreed to everything the pastor said, except for the date because they needed more time to prepare, so they chose instead the third Sunday in June—a tradition that continues in America today. Thus, the mother of Father’s Days was held on June 19, 1910, at a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Spokane, Washington.

(It coulda been us, West Virginia!)

The annual Father’s Day event continued in Spokane for several more years, then fizzled out there in the 1920s. But as word spread, Father’s Day celebrations were being considered in more places across the nation: Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; Vancouver, Washington; and even Fairmont, West Virginia, again after a brief hiatus.

Suddenly, people with more clout than Clayton and Dodd began promoting it: social reformer Jane Addams, the Lions Club, the US Congress, and even presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. But despite growing interest, Father’s Day gradually got erased off everyone’s calendar, even in Spokane.

Meanwhile, Jarvis was having national success with Mother’s Day; its first presidential proclamation was made by Wilson on May 9, 1909. Jarvis even went so far as to prescribe symbolic colors and flowers to use, and this helped make Mother’s Day profitable. She also pronounced the “don’ts,” such as not giving your mother candy that you eat or cheap cards she just throws out.

Well, the fathers were not to be outdone. By the 1930s, Dodd took up the Father’s Day standard once more. This time, her “Go big or go back home to Arkansas” attitude gained traction (no, she didn’t really say this or knit any ties). Dodd got support from men’s retailers and industries who wanted to gain the same profitability from Father’s Day that their ladies’ counterparts were getting from Mother’s Day.

But Father’s Day still didn’t have the full support of the public, which pushed back against the commercialization of both commemorative days. Even Jarvis, who had never gained financially from her efforts, started a campaign in 1943 to rescind the Mother’s Day proclamation, but she had to halt this campaign because she was placed in a sanitarium. Jarvis died in 1948 and is buried next to—who else?—her mother.

Meanwhile, Dodd, the men’s retail industry (particularly the Father’s Day Council of New York), and others kept pushing for a presidential proclamation for Father’s Day, but for decades it never came. Finally, President Lyndon Johnson made the first Father’s Day proclamation in 1966. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed it into law.

Press: Why now, President Johnson?

LBJ: Well, people are celebrating it anyway. 

Press: We talked it over, and we don’t like that answer. 

LBJ: Fine. How ‘bout this? In this age of hippies and free love, I can use this proclamation to remind men that they still have personal responsibilities. The children that are bound to result from their free-lovin’ ways will need these men to be stable fathers in their lives. So, too, will the mothers who openly shared in this free-love experiment. This proclamation reminds us all of the importance not just of fatherhood but also of having a strong American family.

Press: Yeah, okay, we’ll print something like that. Thanks. 

LBJ: And add that the Soviets can eat my shorts.

Lady Bird: Um, dear, you do realize that your Father’s Day proclamation covers only the year 1966, right? 

LBJ: Sheesh, Lady Bird. I’ve got space stuff happening on the moon and a crisis brewing in Vietnam. Forgive me if I proclaimed a national Father’s Day for only one year! 

Lady Bird: That’s nice, dear, now, what are you going to do about making Father’s Day an annual celebration? 

LBJ: Meh. Leave it for the next guy. 

Nixon: Hello, it’s me, “the next guy,” the guy who’s not yet a crook. On April 24, 1972, I’ll sign a Joint Resolution from Congress to enact annual Father’s Day celebrations across the nation. It may provide cover for the May 26 and June 17 Watergate break-ins, which I clearly know nothing about but will resign over them and be absolved of them nonetheless. Afterwards, I will go down in American lore as a crook. Thank you.

And so, not exactly in that way, Father’s Day was now permanently inked onto the US calendar. By the 1980s, it would grow to become second only to Christmas for American spending money on gifts for dads.

And to think it all started in the great state of West Virginia!

Of course, there are many disputes and claims that go into this history, but this is one version of events.

How do you celebrate Father’s Day?

Memorial Day and What It Means

While Memorial Day in the United States can involve fun things like parades, picnics, and time with family, when you think about the intent of this day it suddenly seems highly inappropriate to wish someone a “Happy Memorial Day” or tell them to “Enjoy the long weekend.”

Memorial Day is a special day we set aside to remember and honor US military members who died in service to the nation. The federal holiday closures and time off work are done, in theory, to give us time to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice these service members made to protect and defend our nation. While any day is appropriate to thank living service members and veterans, this holiday is specifically focused on the deceased.

The activities we engage in on Memorial Day should honor their memory and their—and their families’—sacrifices for the sake of others. I believe the deceased service members would want us to enjoy the long weekend, and all the picnic trimmings and patriotic decorations that go with it, knowing that their personal sacrifice helped us live in peace, prosperity, and togetherness. We should not feel guilty about celebrating Memorial Day or spending time together to enjoy the long weekend, but while doing so, are you also taking time to celebrate them this weekend?

In practice, I doubt many Americans spend even one minute of their long weekend honoring our war dead despite the eternal absence of the deceased. Instead of remembering our fallen soldiers, many people are forgetting them—and the somber meaning behind this day. Is it too much to ask to remember them in return for what they did for us? Not at all!

Even if you don’t personally know a fallen service member, you can still honor the more than 1.1 million US soldiers who have died during or as a result of combat. You could volunteer to clean up or post flags or wreaths at gravesites, help widows and orphans by baking them a casserole or mowing their lawn, support or donate to charities for US military families and wounded soldiers, host or attend parades and ceremonies in your hometown, and the like. You could even just raise a glass and toast the fallen at your family picnic.

Please remember: For those families left behind grieving at gravesites with an empty place at the picnic table, the day is not a happy day to enjoy—nor is the long weekend or the long years ahead without a husband, father, son, or brother; a wife, mother, daughter, or sister. So, let’s also remember the families today, along with the loved ones they’ve lost, and rethink how we celebrate Memorial Day.

Now, take a minute—just one minute of the 1,440 minutes you have today—to truly remember, honor, thank, and appreciate those who have given all for you by watching this video. Thank you.

My bestselling book -- Time Management Workbook -- On sale now!

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Let award-winning author and teacher and professor Lisa A. Sullivan guide you toward better management of your time. In this interactive book, you'll have many opportunities to learn, self-reflect, and improve your time management skills. You'll learn about the benefits of mind dumping, prioritizing, choosing the right planner, scheduling, reducing procrastination and "stuff" piles, eliminating energy drains and time sucks, reclaiming your time at work, setting boundaries, and accomplishing all your to dos in order to free up your time to do what you really want to do. It is possible, and you can do it!

About the author:
Lisa A. Sullivan has taught English and French at the college prep and university levels and managed a training program. She has won numerous awards, including most recently the American Society for Training and Development's West Virginia Chapter Learning Professional of the Year and the Eastern Panhandle Federal Executives Association's Manager of the Year Award. Get your copy of Time Management Workbook here.

Other books by Lisa A. Sullivan:
Ghosts of the Mid-Atlantic, Volume I
Ghosts of the Mid-Atlantic, Volume II

Do Less! Planner

Do More! Planner

Are Your Clothes Going To Waste?

In 1960, the United States generated over 1,700 tons of textiles waste; 97% ended up in landfills. Today, we’re generating over 17,000 tons of textiles waste, but only 66% ends up in landfills.

What’s the difference? One is recycling: 50 tons (3%) in 1960 compared to over 2,500 tons (15%) today. Another is combusting textiles for energy as an alternative to fossil fuels: none in 1960 compared to 19% today.

A third is what people like me are interested in: lengthening the life of perfectly usable textiles through repurposing them into other products, thus saving them from going into landfills for years to come.

How do you prevent textile waste?

What is Sustainability?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines sustainability as creating and maintaining conditions where humans and nature can exist in "productive harmony." Sustainability efforts support present and future generations socially, economically, and otherwise. Sustainability is a national policy of the US government and today considers environmental factors such as air, water, energy, and the health and well-being of humans as well as natural ecosystems.

Can you think of a place in your community that serves as an example of this "productive harmony? One thing that comes to my mind is the restoration and ongoing maintenance of a riparian zone at the entrance of my development. Humans care for this natural area through work parties that manage invasive species and clean up litter, and nature reciprocates by sharing with us its beauty and vitality. It is now a welcoming sight for residents and guests as well as the lush vegetation, wildlife, and songbirds who live or roam there.