Shared Spaces, Gazelle Businesses Regrow Detroit

Most Detroiters probably didn't need the recent state report to tell them that their city is in fiscal trouble. Gov. Rick Snyder is aiming an emergency manager at the Motor City, hoping to balance municipal books, says the Detroit Free Press. A look around once-glorious Detroit shows the toll the auto-making exodus took on the city. Vacant building shells compete with each other for most squalid. Abandoned businesses, derelict homes, underfunded city services, missing streetlights, defunct traffic signals -- most Detroiters are probably more concerned about these than an agenda from Lansing. But it's not all negative in Detroit. An economic spring is sprouting new life in the urban wasteland. Locals are using shared spaces, think tanks, and "gazelle" business opportunities to regrow Detroit. And these green models can be used in any financially ailing business climate. This is Trumbellplex in the photo. It operates on the shared-space concept, too. Shared Spaces, Gazelle Businesses Regrow Detroit - Yahoo! News

Cheap, Homemade, Green Spring Cleaning Tips

As days get longer and snow melts, my thoughts turn to spring cleaning: out with the old-man-winter accumulation and in with sunshine and spring-green-clean! Here are easy, cheap, homemade spring cleaning tips and earth-friendly tool swaps. Save money, labor and the environment with these solutions.  Cheap, Homemade, Green Spring Cleaning Tips

Easy, Healthy, Cheap WIC Foods Recipes

When our four kids were young, our income qualified me and the children for WIC (Woman, Infants and Children) food coupons.WIC, a USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) program, gives low-income families coupons for free food. Unlike food stamps, WIC can only be used for specific foods and baby formula. Breastfeeding moms like me couldn't use formula coupons and so WIC added vegetables, rice and tuna to supplement nursing moms' diets. WIC added Project Fresh coupons (used at farmers markets) and later produce vouchers. Here are recipes using basic WIC foods: eggs, juice, milk, peanut butter, cheese, approved cereal, tuna, carrots, bread, fruit and vegetables. Use these cheap recipes stretch your grocery budget and food stamps. For transitional housing dwellers, I've kept preparation and ingredients simple. Great for using up leftovers. Omit anything you don't have. Easy, Healthy, Cheap WIC Foods Recipes

Lenten Stations of the Cross Garden

The Stations of the Cross are an essential part of spiritual exercises during Lent in the Catholic Church. Each Catholic Church has in it's nave a series of 12 to 15 images representing the agonizing walk that our Lord made on His way to Golgotha. Each image depicts a biblical passage describing Our Lord Jesus's journey to Calvary. The Stations of the Cross are little grottos in and of themselves. Different Catholic churches represent the Stations of the Cross in their own way. I've seen lovely mosaics, sandstone bas-relief, oil paintings, stunning plaster dioramas, marble carvings, scuptures and many other beautiful images.  Lenten Garden: Stations of the Cross - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com