La La Land

So yesterday, (May 5th) I was in "la la" land. Here is a picture of the house I own there. Nifty huh? Here's what happened. I woke up yesterday morning feeling really good. I said to myself... "Today is my day off, and I can do anything I want."

So, I got up, took care of the dogs, puttered around some, played on the computer uploading pictures to my two picture blogs, and then I looked outside. And I thought about how pretty it was and I decided to work on the Prosperity Project later. I went outside and napped in my hammock and played with the dogs.

Then, since it was "my day off and I could do anything I wanted", I went up to the corner store and got a six pack of beer. I visited with my daughter, and was well on the way to a really relaxing and wonder filled afternoon of total relaxation.

About that time, Michelle called me. She's moving this weekend, and we were talking about when I would be able to come and help her move. And we got into this huge (friendly) argument about what day it was. She was trying to tell me that today was Saturday, and I knew for sure that she was wrong because I work on Saturdays, and today was my day off.. ergo it had to be Sunday.

And of course, she was right. It was Saturday, and I was 3 hours late for work... plus I had been drinking beer... and was fairly well lit... Anyway, I took a cold shower, gathered my wits about me (what few there were) and dashed off to work.

The Luck Dragon

Here is another symbol for luck... Chinese Dragons.

The Chinese dragon is a symbol of wisdom, power, and luck in Chinese culture. Unlike Western dragons, oriental dragons are usually seen as benevolent and kind. Dragons have long been a symbol in Chinese folklore and art. Temples and shrines have been built to honor them.

Through the symbol of the dragon, many Chinese see divine attributes which they aspire to themselves. In fact, the Chinese are sometimes referred to as "descendents of the dragon." The dragon is held in reverence and respect in Chinese culture.

Chinese dragons control the rain, rivers, lakes, and sea. They can ward off wandering evil spirits, protect the innocent, and bestow safety unto all. They are called "lung" or "long" in the Chinese language.

Four Leaf Clover for Luck

The four-leaf clover from the White Clover plant, trifolium repens, considered to be the Original Shamrock.

Other plants sold as four leaf clovers are actually Pepperwort or Water Clover (Marsilea Quadrifolia) or Oxalis (Oxalis deppei or Oxalis tetraphylla) plants that produce all four leaves. Another way of identifying a real four-leaf clover is that the fourth leaf is usually smaller than the other three leaves.

What do the leaves symbolize?

• One leaf is for FAITH...
• The second for HOPE...
• The third for LOVE...
• And the fourth for LUCK!
  

In Irish tradition the Shamrock or Three-leaf Clover represents the Holy Trinity: one leaf for the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit. When a Shamrock is found with the fourth leaf, it represents God's Grace.

Here is some "history" of the four leaf clover:

The four leaf clover is a universally accepted symbol of good luck with its origin ages old. According to legend, Eve carried a four leaf clover from the Garden of Eden.

"The clovers also occupied a position in the cultural life of early peoples. White clover (T. repens L.) in particular was held in high esteem by the early Celts of Wales as a charm against evil spirits." Clover Science and Technology". N.L. Taylor, 1985.

Druids held the 4 leaf clover in high esteem and considered them a sign of luck. In 1620, Sir John Melton wrote: "If a man walking in the fields find any four-leaved grass, he shall in a small while after find some good thing.

The mystique of the four leaf clover continues today, since finding a real four leaf clover is still a rare occurrence and omen of good luck.

It occured to me that (according to our Feng Shui information)it is advantageous to have an aquarium in your career area. How cool would it be to grow this aquatic four leaf clover in the fish tank? It's not the "traditional" shamrock, but it's clover and it has four leaves and not only that, it's cute! Here is the info on the Clover Fern:

The Four Leaf Clover, also known as the Clover Fern, originates from inland Australia. It has two pairs of leaflets arranged in a four leaf clover pattern. The Four Leaf Clover can grow in a number of different soil types, ranging from sands to clays.

Under the proper conditions, this fern will form a thick carpet with its numerous runners. It is amphibious, and will grow either partially or fully submersed.

The Four Leaf Clover requires high light conditions and water temperatures between 68°-84°F for best growth. It prefers water that has a neutral pH, but can be housed in water with a pH of 6.2-7.5 and still flourish. A nutrient rich substrate will promote growth.

Planting the runners that grow from mature, healthy plants is the best way to propagate the Four Leaf Clover. When the "baby" is approximately half the size of the "parent," cut the roots apart so they may grow separate from one another. They may occasionally produce seeds that can be used to cultivate new plants, and can also produce adventitious shoots to be used for propagation.

Breaking the Bank

The year was 1873 when Englishman Joseph Jaggers (1830-1892) made his fantastic run on the Beaux-Arts Monte Carlo Casino. An engineer and mechanic in the cotton industry in Yorkshire, his nuts-and-bolts background led him to ponder the mechanics of roulette wheels. Were they perfectly balanced? Were the numbers the shiny little ball landed on truly random, or were some numbers more likely to come up than others?

Those questions in mind, Jaggers hired six clerks to record every number that came up on the roulette wheels in the 12 hours a day the casino was open. He then spent the next six days poring over the numbers, searching for patterns that randomness alone wouldn't account for.

He found what he was looking for. Though five of the casino's six wheels produced predictably random results, nine numbers in particular kept showing up on the sixth at a rate far exceeding what natural probability would have indicated. Clearly, the wheel was biased.

The first day's foray against the casino netted him roughly $70,000. By the fourth day his winnings pushed $300,000.

The casino fought back. In the dead of night each of the wheels was re-housed into a different table. The next morning though Jaggers went to his usual table, he was up against an unbiased wheel.

He lost (some say heavily). It was then it dawned on him that a certain miniscule scratch he'd previously noted on his Jaggers-friendly wheel was no longer in evidence. Finally, suspecting a switch, he made a quick survey of the other roulette tables, and the discovery of a certain scratch led him to be reunited with his faithful lady. From there he went on to push his total winnings to $450,000, an astronomical sum for 1873.

In the end the casino prevailed. They had their wheel manufacturer in Paris design a set of movable frets, the metal barriers that separate numbers on the wheel. Each night after closing, the frets would be moved to new locations around the wheel. Playing into the teeth of this, Jaggers went on a two-day losing streak. He finally bowed to the inevitable, escaping with his $325,000 remaining profit. He left Monte Carlo, never to return.

The song "The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo" was written the year he died.

Lucky Penny

Find a penny, pick it up
And all day, you'll have good luck.

So the saying goes. And that would be especially true if you were to find this particular penny.

It's the Lincoln Cents 1943 Copper Penny. Each one is very rare, the only year they were minted was 1943. Interestingly, they will not stick to a magnet, as will other pennies of that time period. How much is it worth?

A whopping $20,000.00 - $40,000.00 for circulated coins
$60,000.00 - $95,000.00 for uncirculated coins. WOW!

Other pennies that are worth more than a penny include the following:

Indian Cents
Rare: 1877, 1909;
Scarce: 1859-1879, 1908; 1859 - 1909
$0.50 - $3.00 circulated coins
$15.00 - $50.00 uncirculated coins




Lincoln Cents Steel w/Zinc Plating
Will stick to a magnet.
1943 is the only date
$0.05 - $0.10 circulated coins
$0.50 - $1.00 uncirculated coins



Wheat Penny
The date determines the worth - too many to list here.
$0.02 - $0.05 circulated coins
$0.05 - $0.50 uncirculated coins



To learn more about rare coins, to view larger images, and to find out if you have a "lucky penny" in your piggy bank, you can go to: The Heritage Auction Galleries Rare coins page

A Lucky Winner

Phyllis Penzo was a waitress at Sal's Pizzeria in Yonkers, New York, for twenty-four years. During that long tenure, she saw nice customers, difficult customers, generous tippers, and skinflints. But Robert Cunningham, a police detective from nearby Dobbs Ferry, was in a class by himself. Cunningham gave Penzo a tip of $142,857.50 a year for twenty years.


Cunningham, a thirty-year police veteran, was a regular diner at Sal's, where he liked to order linguine with clam sauce and maintain a steady flow of banter with Penzo, other employees, and regular customers. True to his lighthearted style, Cunningham was making a sort of joke on Friday evening, March 30, 1984, when he offered his favorite waitress an unusual tip: a half-interest in a lottery ticket. Each picked three of the six numbers; Cunningham walked across the street and bought their ticket.

Penzo laughed, then forgot the incident until the next night, when the detective walked into Sal's Pizzeria after work with the winning ticket triumphantly clutched in his hand. It was worth six million dollars: three million for each of them. Cunningham, who ordinarily might have left a couple of dollars on the restaurant table, had no regrets about splitting the prize. After all, he says, Penzo helped pick the winning numbers.

A Good Luck Story

I found this story at Snopes.com, and since today is Sunday, and because we are working at activating our luck, I decided to share it here.

It happened on the evening of March 1 in the town of Beatrice, Nebraska. In the afternoon the Reverend Walter Klempel had gone to the West Side Baptist Chruch to get things ready for choir practice. He lit the furnace -- most of the singers were in the habit of arriving around 7:15, and it was chilly in the church - he then went home to dinner.

But at 7:10, when it was time for him to go back to the church with his wife and daughter Marilyn Ruth, it turned out that Marilyn Ruth's dress was soiled. They waited while Mrs. Klempel ironed another and thus were still at home when it happened.

Ladona Vandergrift, a high school sophomore, was having trouble with a geometry problem. She knew practice began promptly and always came early. But she stayed to finish the problem.

Royena Estes was ready, but the car would not start. So she and her sister called Ladona Vandergrift, and asked her to pick them up. But Ladona was the girl with the geometry problem, and the Estes sisters had to wait.

Sadie Estes' story was the same as Royena's. All day they had been having trouble with the car; it just refused to start.

Mrs. Leonard Schuster would ordinarily have arrived at 7:20 with her small daughter Susan. But on this particular evening Mrs. Schuster had to go to her mother's house to help her get ready for a missionary meeting.

Herbert Kipf, lathe operator, would have been ahead of time but had put off an important letter. "I can't think why," he said. He lingered over it and was late.

It was a cold evening. Stenographer Joyce Black, feeling "just plain lazy," stayed in her warm house until the last possible moment. She was almost ready to leave when it happened.

Because his wife was away, Machinist Harvey Ahl was taking care of his two boys. He was going to take them to practice with him but somehow he got wound up talking. When he looked at his watch, he saw he was already late.

Marilyn Paul, the pianist, had planned to arrive half an hour early. However she fell asleep after dinner, and when her mother awakened her at 7:15 she had time only to tidy up and start out.

Mrs. F.E. Paul, choir director and mother of the pianist, was late simply because her daughter was. She had tried unsuccessfully to awaken the girl earlier.

High school girls Lucille Jones and Dorothy Wood are neighbors and customarily go to practice together. Lucille was listening to a 7-to-7:30 radio program and broke her habit of promptness because she wanted to hear the end. Dorothy waited for her.

At 7:25, with a roar heard in almost every corner of Beatrice, the West Side Baptist Church blew up. The walls fell outward, the heavy wooden roof crashed straight down like a weight in a deadfall. The blast forced a nearby radio station off the air and shattered windows in surrounding homes. But every one of the choir's fifteen members escaped injury.

Why? Because of such matters as a soiled dress, a catnap, an unfinished letter, a geometry problem and a stalled car, all of the members of the choir were late - something which had never occurred before.

Firemen thought the explosion had been caused by natural gas, which may have leaked into the church from a broken pipe outside and been ignited by the fire in the furnace. The Beatrice choir members had no particular theory about the fire's cause, but each of them began to reflect on the heretofore inconsequential details of his life, wondering at exactly what point it is that one can say, "This is an act of God."

On a lighter note

A young man asked an old rich man how he made his money.

The old guy fingered his worsted wool vest and said, "Well, son, it was 1932. The depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel.

"I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the end of the day, I sold the apple for ten cents.

"The next morning, I invested those ten cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I'd accumulated a fortune of $1.37."

"And that's how you built an empire?" the boy asked.

"Heavens, no!" the man replied. "Then my wife's father died and left us two million dollars."

Flight Of The Apples
by Mikhail Gorchounov

Skyrocket your Chances of Winning the Lottery

Here's an article I found about "how to" win the lottery. I wonder if the method actually works or not. It might be fun to try it, but I don't know if we could pull it together or not, and I don't know if it would "pay off" or not. At any rate, here it is:

Want to know the secrets to winning the lottery? It's easier than you might think once you understand the secrets those in the know use. Read this article to discover how to skyrocket your chances of winning and winning more often...

If you're like me then you probably enjoy playing the lottery but are still waiting for the 'big win'. You may even be disappointed you don't seem to get very many of those 'little wins' either.

I used to be one of those disappointed every week too..

Although everyone knows that the chances of winning the jackpot are astronomically high - many thousands of people still win smaller (and not so small) prizes on games like the UK National Lottery every week. I just didn't seem to be one of them.
That was until I started discovering some of the secrets a few select people in the know are using every week to -

• a) massively increase their chances of winning the jackpot and
• b) win smaller prizes on a more regular basis

So, just what are these secrets? I'm glad you asked..

One of the easiest ways of increasing your chances of winning is to simply play more times.. ''Duh, obviously!'' I hear you say, ''But that means I have to spend more money.. and the whole point is to win it, not spend it!''

Well you're correct, but did I say anything about paying to play more?

I simply said.. to increase your chances of winning.. play more times. There are ways of playing multiple times at the fraction of the normal cost.. there are even ways you can play entirely for free!

How? Here's the secret..

To play multiple times for the fraction of the normal cost you need to be part of a well organised lottery syndicate.

Now I've heard all the horror stories about lottery syndicates winning and someone running off with the winnings.. or one time friends fighting each other through the courts..

Notice, however, I referred to being part of a well organised lottery syndicate. A well organised lottery syndicate that uses a proven mathematical formula.. a formula that lets you win more with the same numbers than you would had you played alone... even on lotteries as highly regarded as the UK National Lottery.

I know what you're thinking - ''How can that be? If you have to share your winnings as part of a lottery syndicate how can you win more with the same numbers?'' It's a good question, let me explain..

As part of a lottery syndicate you can combine your spending power and play smart. This applies to any lottery but for the time being let's use the UK National Lottery as an example..

To play the UK National Lottery you choose six numbers from between 1 and 49. Now let's say that you are part of a lottery syndicate with 49 other people. Every week the lottery syndicate has the same five numbers and uses its spending power to buy
44 tickets.

Why 44? Another good question..

If you need to choose six numbers per entry (and you already have five numbers) then all you need to do is buy 44 tickets using the 44 numbers you don't already have as your sixth number.

The brilliance behind this approach is you are always guaranteed to have at least one ball every draw - which means, in the case of the UK National Lottery, you only need to match two of your lottery syndicate's numbers to win a prize rather than match three if you played alone.

And because of the way the maths works out there will be multiple winning lines within the 44 when you win.. which leads to more money to share within the lottery syndicate.

Your winnings as part of the lottery syndicate using this method are actually higher for matching the same numbers than had you played alone. You also have more chances to win more often too.. In fact your chances of winning the UK National Lottery Jackpot are increased by an amazing 702%!

Now can you see what I mean by playing smart and the power of playing the lottery as part of a lottery syndicate?

-oOo-

Found at: Article Warehouse
Date : Friday - November 11, 2005
Campbell Forsyth

Campbell Forsyth makes it easy for you to win more and win more often playing the lottery (he'll even show you how to play for free!). To discover how you can play for free from wherever you are in the world visit: Free Lotto Secrets

The Wheel of Fortune

Because we are working with "Lady Luck" this month, it occured to me that we are "riding the wheel of fortune" and I thought it might be a good idea to post some information about it.

The Wheel of Fortune represents chance, fate, and inevitability. This is the "Lucky" card of the Tarot deck. It represents the ups and downs of life but more importantly it represents that there is a time for everything.

Usually the Wheel of Fortune can be divided into four parts representing the four seasons of the natural universe.

Spring: a time for new beginnings
Summer: a time for growth and bloom
Autumn: a time for reflection and maturation
Winter: a time for rest and releasing.

When a new endeavor is started the wheel begins anew and one can be assured they will go through all of the aspects the wheel has to offer.

The Wheel offers everyone success and eventual release, but it is the acceptance of change the wheel offers that most find hard to accept. Although "fortune" always offers us another chance to make things right, there inevitably comes a time when one must let go.

Outwardly the wheel offers chance or even luck, it also offers faith in that it guarantees that things will eventually change for the better.

The Wheel of Fortune Card is the number 10 card in the Tarot Deck. Ten is the number of completion and wholeness. As we ride the wheel, we experience all the ups and downs that life has to offer.

Win Cash and Prizes

Yes, that's exactly what we have set out to do. Yesterday, we met at a little coffee shop and filled out our sweepstakes entries. You can do the same today. At Sweep Sheet, you can find out all kinds of interesting information about sweepstakes - tips, tricks and best picks. They have a nifty little newsletter too. Melissa had everything so well organized! Thank you Melissa! It was just awesome. We all appreciate you so much!

Here are links to some of the sweepstakes we entered:

• Tap Into Frozen - $5,000 (other prizes also)
• Let's Scream for Ice Cream - $2,500 (lots of other prizes)
• Take Home a Knorr Chef - $2,500 cash, plus professional chef prepares a meal for 10 at your residence (lots of other prizes)
• Garden Makeover - $2,500
• Scotch Tapes - Get Cooking - $3,000

Some things to remember when sending in for sweepstakes:

• Read and follow the instructions carefully
• Mail your entries from different mail boxes - you might find that some mail boxes consistently bring you more winnings.
• Many people have reported having more luck if they chant "ling" over their sweepstakes entries. This is the seed mantra for the Goddess of Luck and Prosperity.

I can't wait to see what we win! The whole thing was so easy, and so fun that I can't imagine that we wouldn't win something.

Sweepstakes and Cappuchino

Tonight is our night to get together over cappuchino and hot cocoa, and fill out our sweepstakes forms. For those of you who are unable to join us, tomorrow I will post pertinent information so that you can find and fill out your own.

If there is anyone who is still unsure about when and where we will be meeting, send me an email or call me. We are not posting the information on the internet due to privacy concerns.

If he can - we can!

Sullivan Trucker Wins $19,500 Day Before 60th Birthday

A Sullivan man added $19,500 to his bank account one day before turning 60 when his six Pick 4 tickets with the combination 1-7-3-7 matched the four numbers drawn to win six prizes of $3,250.

George Lahmann said he’s "just had these number on my mind," so he decided to play them in the Missouri Lottery’s Pick 4 game on March 29. Lahmann, a truck driver for Woody Bolger in Rosebud, said he bought his winning tickets at Shell, 18201 Highway 66 in Pacific, on his way to Kentucky with his job. While he was in Kentucky, he looked up the numbers in USA Today and discovered he was a winner.

Lahmann plans to use some of his prize money to set up certificates of deposit (CDs) for his three grandchildren and two twin grandchildren that his daughter is expecting. He also plans to pay some bills. Pick 4 is a twice-daily Numbers Game that allows players a chance to win up to $6,000.

More Winner News

This is how my week is going.

By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.

~Ashleigh Brilliant

This is how my week is going. How about you guys? Updates anyone? Comments? Experiences? Stories? Encouragement? Humor?

Feng Shui for Good Luck

For good luck, you can take a look at the Prosperity Area of your home and decide if any changes could be made.

Not sure where the prosperity area is? Check these two links:

• What is a bagua
• Making a bagua for your home

Here are the links to the Prosperity Area information we covered during our Feng Shui Project:

• Overview of the Prosperity Area
• Adding Symbols to your Prosperity Area
• Adding Color to your Prosperity Area
• Removing Hazardous Element in your Prosperity Area

Here is a Feng Shui tip:
Make your own Wealth pot for wealth luck - fill a pot with coins, crystals, animal figurines and rice. Hide the pot in a cupboard.

Lucky Numbers and Numerology

What's in that Lottery ticket Anyway?
By: Keith Abbott

I can't tell you if you'll win the Lottery or not, that's up to your own personal fate, but if you do win, I'll bet I can tell you some of the numbers on your winning ticket.

Numerology predicts that certain numbers will show up in important combinations in your life again and again. You will literally draw them to you like a magnet. These numbers vibrate with you - are lucky for you if you will. Your lucky numbers come from two sources: your date of birth, and your use name (what you go by).

Your date of birth gives us your Life Path, birthday, and your Fadic birthday, while your use name gives us your Name lucky numbers. To show you how there values are calculated, lets give an example.

Actor Orlando Bloom was born on January 13th, 1977. We can calculate his lucky numbers as follows:

Life Path
Your Life Path is your luckiest number. It's Numerology's equivalent to your Sun sign in Astrology. You calculate your Life Path by adding together all the digits of your full date of birth, and then repeating the process until we get a single digit. This is called fadic addition.

For Orlando Bloom, the process gives us 2 as shown below.
01-13-1977 = (0 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 9 + 7 + 7) = (29) = (2 + 9) = (11) = (1 + 1) = (2)

Birthday
Your Birthday is your second lucky number. It's the day of the month you were born on. Orlando Bloom's birthday value is 13.

Fadic Birthday
Your Fadic birthday is the result of adding together the digits in your birthday with fadic addition. If your birthday number is less than ten, then your fadic birthday is the same as your birthday number, and you have one less lucky number to work with.

Orland Bloom's fadic birthday value is 4.
13 = (1 + 3) = 4

Name Lucky Numbers
Your Name lucky numbers are calculated by converting each of the letters in a name to it's position in the alphabet, reducing each number by fadic addition, and then summing the result. Two names will give us two lucky name numbers. If you use a third name, or an initial (such as George W. Bush), you will have three lucky name numbers.

Orland Bloom's name gives us 34 and 21 respectively:
Orlando = (15)+(18)+(12)+(1)+(14)+(4)+(15) = (6 + 9 + 3 + 1 + 5 + 4 + 6) = (34)
Bloom = (2)+(12)+(15)+(15)+(13) = (2 + 3 + 6 + 6 + 4) = (21)

Secondary Life Path Numbers
Finally, your Life Path number is so strong that we count all two-digit numbers, which match it when we use fadic addition on them as lucky numbers. This series of numbers can be found by adding multiples of nine to your Life Path number.

For Orlando Bloom this series of numbers (which add up to 2) is as follows:
11, 20, 29, 38, 47, 56, 65, 74, 83, and 92.

Conclusion
So Orlando Bloom's lucky numbers are: 2, 13, 4, 34, 21, and the Life Path series: 11, 20, 29, 38, 47, 56, 65, 74, 83, and 92. This calculation can be done for anyone because everyone has Lucky Numbers just waiting to be discovered.

About The Author...
Keith Abbott is the developer and owner of "Numerology 4 You" where you can order your own complete Numerology reading, including your Lucky Numbers. Visit him on the web.

Activing our luck with prayer

Prayer is another one of the tools we have used in the project. I have been busily working to update The Prayer Request Hotline with new and interesting prayer request sites. Every day I am uploading one or two new opportunities, and as I do that, I am calling, emailing, or submitting requests for prosperity, success, and good luck.

If you want to use our prayer resources, here are pages to the prayer lines we discovered during our "Prayers for Prosperity" project.

• Silent Unity
• Some interesting links
• National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
• More places to call for prayer
• A long list of prayer sites
• Self Realization Fellowship

If anyone has any favorite places to recommend for emailed, online, or telephone prayer - tell us about it. The way I see it, the more the merrier.

There is a Power for Good in the universe and you can use it."
~Ernest Holmes

Casting Spells

The Goddess Fortuna
by Jean Francois Armand Felix Bernard

This is the first day of the new moon, and a perfect opportunity to pull out our Gypsy Magic spells for luck and good fortune. Here are the links:

• Meet With Success
• Increase Your Money
• Money Drawing Oil - at - Gypsy Magic
• Win the Lottery

These spells can all be done at your leisure during the next several days.

-0O0-

Sometimes, the best new beginnings are the ones we conscientiously give to ourselves. On April 17, 2007, you'll have the perfect opportunity to start fresh on your goals with the New Moon as your aid and inspiration!

The Moon is new when it moves into perfect alignment between the Sun and Earth. When this happens, the illuminated side of the Moon faces the Sun. The other side of the Moon, as seen from Earth, is dark. In simple terms, the Moon is new when it can't be seen. As ominous as this dark Moon sounds, you couldn't ask for a more ideal time to get started on a new venture!

Moon Info by Jamie Nishi
Published: 04/17/2007

Cashing in with Lady Luck

Welcome to the Prosperity Project! Today begins thirty days of Luck, Lottery Winnings, and Sweepsakes Bonanzas.

For the next month, we will be applying all that we have learned so far, and allowing the Universe to shower us with good fortune, money, and an abundance of all things necessary for happy, success filled, and comfortable living.

If you have not joined us before, never fear, I will be posting links to the posts that will be most helpful for this month's project. This project will not be free, in that you will have to purchase lottery tickets, and/or spend money on postage for sweepstakes entries. The cost, however will be minimal - and the rewards will be potentially astronomical. If you choose not to participate, please feel free to monitor our progress and cheer us on. We welcome all the love and support we can get.

If you plan to participate, please post a comment so that we will know who is onboard. We usually like to state our goals and objectives for the month so that at the end of the 30 days, it will be easy to determine if the project was a success. That will not be necessary this month, as our success will be determined by the amount of our winnings.

We will be getting together for a sweepstakes party on Tuesday April 24th at 7 p.m. to fill our our sweepstakes forms, chat, have something hot and delicious to drink. We will be meeting at a coffee house in Lee's Summit, email me for directions. For those of you who cannot make the party, I will post the sweepstakes information online.

Odds and Ends

Over the next several days I will be wrapping up the project, making a nice landing page for the link to "finished projects" etc.

I am also going to be working on some of the other projects that are completed, but not completely finished up. What I am wanting, is to have a nice landing page with links to each day of that specific project, all neatly labeled, and organized.

Also, I am contemplating breaking our "recommended reading" list up into separate posts, so that each project has it's own reading list. I think this will ultimately be better than one really really long list of links. If I do that, you might see a little flurry of recommended reading posts showing up out of nowhere.

Another thing I have decided to do is to go in and change the titles. I want to take off the "day one" "day two" etc... this way, if anyone is doing a google search and happens to land on a page, they won't feel too out of place, and might even hang around for a while, or even join us.

I wanted to let you guys know about this because when I update or edit the pages, if you subscribe via email, it's possible that you will receive those updated posts. So I didn't want anyone to be wondering why they were getting old posts all of a sudden.

Playing Catch Up

As you can see, I'm working hard trying to get us ready for Monday.

Each one helps the other...

Each one helps the other, saying to one another, "Take courage."
Isaiah 41:6

At work last night, I read a book about Mother Teresa, and by the end of the evening I was ready to sell everything, go to India, and start washing clothes by hand while taking care of lepers and dying children. Not only that, it was sounding good to me, like something I wanted to do just as much as, and maybe even more than, I want to hang out at the beach and drink margaritas.

As a matter of fact, I had a really great post written about it, but I got so sleepy I went to bed and forgot to save it and when I got up this morning, I discovered that my computer had updated herself and restarted herself all by herself, and that really good post is now floating in cyberspace someplace else.

What I was thinking was that it would really feel good to be doing something that basic and that compassionate and that desperately needed. Initially I wondered if I could extend myself in that way to myself.. putting in long hours of hard work pulling my own pathetic self up off the sidewalk, washing my own dirty laundry, bathing my own imperfect body, and basically committing to taking much better care of me. And doing it in that same compassionate caring way that Mother Teresa did it.

But then I realized that the reason the Mother Teresa work is so rewarding is that it is externalized and it's real. You have a real person in front of you, someone who is destitute and helpless and suffering. Plus you have a rather formidable albeit compassionate group of nuns standing behind you and telling you what to do.

Interestingly, I am not a real person to me. I live inside of me. I can't really see me. Even when I look in the mirror, I'm only seeing the mirror image of me, and truth be told, I haven't really looked at myself at all for a very long time. I glance quickly at that aging face in the mirror, focus on just the hair - is it too messed up? take a quick look at the teeth - do they look clean? And that's about it. And so how can I actually get in there and do compassionate healing work with myself? It might be a lot like trying to paint the outside of my house, and fix the roof, and mow the lawn, all without going out the door.

So, I was mulling this over when I came across this nifty little website. Kiva. I was so impressed with their concept that I put an ad over in the left side bar, right above "go shopping". The concept is to help entrepreneurs in third world countries by lending them money for their businesses and their business ideas. What's really neat about it is that you can lend as little as $25, you pick who you lend it to, and they do pay the money back.

Right now I don't even have $25, so I thought how cool it would be to make a commitment to make a loan of the first $25 that Lady Luck sends me, and to continue to make loans by investing 10% of my winnings. What's even more cool about this is that I will be able to, for a mere $25, make the transition from "flat broke" and "pathetic" and "pretty much a financial disaster" to "lender" and "venture capitalist" and "philanthropist".

Not only that, but it will feel good to my heart, and might even bring me more luck and lots of good karma. Plus, I can put off and maybe even give up the idea of selling everything, and going to India.

Smile for the camera!

I will be spending the next few days getting our finished projects totally organized, and all the loose ends tied up. Are there any changes you would like to see in terms of this website? Any tweaks you'd like to see?

In the mean time, we are getting ready for our Spring Garage Sale. We have a date for our Sweepstakes party. If you are planning to come, let me know and I'll send you the directions to the coffee shop. The garage sale is a great opportunity to work on the 200 things project.

Don't forget to add internet resources as you come across them. The link is in the right side bar under "ongoing projects".

Also, I am trying to think of how to organize our next 30 day project. We'll be winning the lottery and entering sweepstakes and making big money. So I thought I'd title it "The Wheel of Fortune". And I thought that the daily posts could be information on numerology, the Wheel of Fortune tarot card, and links to gyspy magic spells for luck and money in the mail. Maybe some obsure and interesting historical facts and stories about lotteries and sweepstakes.

Should we post the winning lottery numbers? or not? How far do we want to go into the numerology thing? Just basics about the numbers themselves? Find out our own numbers? The number of the day? What are you guys interested in? I could see if I could find stories about actual lottery winners... What sounds good?

And what's with the picture? Cute huh? It's how I feel today: squirrelly, curious, and a little bit wierd. It's also how I want to feel today: energetic, busy, creative, and fun.

Day Thirty: Are we millionaires yet?

I must confess that I feel as though I have spent the last 30 days panning for gold. Lots of little flashes in the pan. Plenty of work was done. I had to have my hip boots and my waders on most of the time ... LOL. I got my hands dirty and my feet wet. I'll even go so far as to say that I moved obstacles, and dumped plenty of little annoying rocks out of my shoes.

Do I have a million dollars yet? Not in my bank account, no. Do I think it's on the way? Actually, yes I do. I feel as if tons of energy has been moved. That the way is clearing... slowly and surely.

So what about you guys? Did you hit the mother lode? What did you learn in this 30 days of the Million Dollar Experiment? Is your million on it's way? Do you feel that it worked for you? Would you recommend it to others? What was the best part of this 30 day experiment? What part would you rather have left out? Do you have any suggestions as to how to improve our next experiment?

Day Twenty-Nine: Eye on the Prize

If the puppy in the picture represents you.. and if the cookie represents the million dollars we've been affirming all month... how will the scenario play out? What's your story about it?

Happy Easter

Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand — and melting like a snowflake. ~Marie Beyon Ray

Day Twenty-Seven: Steve Pavlina

This morning I have been surfing Steve Pavlina's website, and finding all sorts of stuff that relates to making money happen. And I am feeling somewhat disappointed in the way I organized this month's project.

Maybe, since this is the Steve Pavlina Million Dollar Experiment, it would have been better if I had taken information directly from his blog every day, instead of bouncing around all month from one thing to another in search of ... I don't know exactly what.

So, here are some links to posts that I found interesting this morning. There is a lot more there, and I may come back in the future and update this list so that at least it will be archived here for future reference.

• Five Wealth Lessons from 20% of a Millionaire
• Ten Business Lessons from a Snarky Entrepeneur
• The Best Place to Invest Your Money
• How to Make Money Without A Job
• Unclaimed Property That's Rightfully Yours

Day Twenty-Six: Your million!

What will you do with your million dollars? Do you really think you will get it? Can you "see" it happening? How does it feel to know there is that much money on its way to you? Is there an idea that you have to "deserve" the money? Why couldn't you just walk out of your front door and there it is? Have you really claimed it? When you say the million dollar affirmation, do your truly believe it? Does it make you feel excited? Would a million dollars make you happy? If someone walked up to you and said, "Here's a million dollars." What would your response be?

Day Twenty-Five: Twisted Thinking

Because we are using our thinking to manifest our millions, I thought it might be really helpful to make sure that our thinking is on track. Here is a list of ten forms of twisted thinking, all of which can lead to anxiety, depression, procrastination, and lack.

1. All or nothing thinking: You see things in black or white categories. If a sitaution falls short of perfect, you see it as a total failure.

2. Over-generalization: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat by using words such as "always" or "never".

3. Mental filter: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively, so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors a beaker of water.

4. Discounting the positive: You reject positive experiences by insisting they "don't count". Discounting the positive takes the joy out of life and makes you feel inadequate and unrewarded.

5. Jumping to conclusions: You interpret things negatively when there are no facts to support your conclusions. Mind reading: without checking it out, you arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively toward you. Fortune Telling: You predict things will turn out badly.

6. Magnification: You exaggerate the importance of your problems and shortcomings, or you minimize the importance of your desireable qualities.

7. Emotional reasoning: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are. "I feel terrified about going on airplanes. It must be very dangerous to fly." or "I feel guilty, I must be a rotten person."

8. "Should" statements: Should statements that are directed toward yourself lead to guilt and frustration. Should statements directed at others lead to anger and frustration. "Shoulds" and "musts" make you feel rebellious and you get the urge to do just the opposite.

9. Labeling: Labeling is an extreme form of all or nothing thinking. Instead of saying "I made a mistake" you might label yourself as a "loser" or a "failure". Labeling is quite irrational because you are not the same as what you do. Labels are useless abstractions that lead to anger, anxiety, frustration, and low self esteem.

10. Personalization and blame: Personalization occurs when you hold yourself personally responsible for an event that isn't entirely under your control. Personalization leads to guilt, shame, and feelings of inadequacy.

from The Feeling Good Handbook
by David D. Burns

Day Twenty-Four: Procrastination

I was looking for something to post this morning, and happened onto a book called "Shaping Your Life" by Laurel Fuller. This is the page that I flipped open:

The greatest dreams of man often die in doubt, fear, hesitation, and passivity. A well-known manufacturer of shoes recently has run a series of advertisements showing people engaged in different sports activities with the caption, "Just do it" Easier said than done! Why is it difficult to act on the ideas you have? Why do people procrastinate and then berate themselves for wasting their lives?

Interestingly, procrastinating and then berating myself for wasting my life is exactly what I spent all day yesterday doing. As a matter of fact, I managed to procrastinate every single thing I had planned for the day, even to the point of being late to pick up my granddaughter. It was an orgy of self recrimination. Intrigued, I read further, looking for answers:

Oftentimes, when there is difficulty with physical activity to reach an ideal, it is because there has been insufficient mental activity to create the desired thought-form image. We are mental creatures first, and our physical bodies merely serve as residences for the activity of our minds. When there is hesitation physically, in all cases it is because there has been mental hesitation first.

This sounded true to me. I can feel the hesitation in me, the doubt, the not quite being sure of myself or my decisions. When I am sure, when I don't have any mental hesitation at all, I leap right in, seemingly fearless - probably foolhardy. So, I read on...

The secret of "follow through" is to create a complete mental image of the desired results. When you have completely formed the ideal with visualization, it is relatively easy to determine what steps of action to take to cause the ideal to manifest. when the thought form is incomplete, it is no wonder we hesitate to take a step.

And I'm not entirely sure I agree with this part of it. I think that I often hesitate because I have no confidence in my abilities to "pull it off", or I have lost faith in my ability to make good decisions, or I am unconvinced that the outcome will be beneficial to me.

What do you guys think? What causes you to hesitate? How can hesitation be overcome? Should it be overcome? What do you procrastinate? How do you get around the "procrastination problem"?

Day Twenty-Two: Fund Raising

I think we need to plan how we can give the universe a really good opportunity and lots of avenues for our million dollars to come to us. I am pretty sure that my "day job" employer is not going to suddenly give me a raise of a million dollars, and I don't know about you guys, but I am ready for my million. I'd like to have it BEFORE I'm incontinent and in a walker and driving the assisted living nurses insane.

So, when Melissa and I met for lunch the other day, one of the things we talked about was next month's project. Melissa has graciously offered to enter us all in a number of sweepstakes, and we both thought it might be good to use some Gypsy Magic spells, and anything else we can come up with to try to win the lottery.

The postage for the sweepstakes entries will come to about $8 per person. I had hoped that we could use revenues from the Prosperity Project ads and affiliates for stuff like this, but so far we do not have enough accumulated for me to even get a check. Our Spring Garage sale will put some money in the cookie jar, but that's not until May. And we need something for the first of April which is right around the corner!

What we came up with was an eBay fund raiser. If each of us donated an item to auction on eBay, we could send Melissa the profits and she could apply that money to postage for our sweepstakes entries.

What do you guys think? We could either put items up for auction separtately, and I could make a paypal button for Melissa and post it here, and as the items sell, we could forward the money to Melissa's pay pal account. Or, you could send me pictures and other pertinent details and I could put the items on eBay and forward the money to Melissa.

Or maybe there's another way to do this that I haven't thought of? An eBay evening where we all get together with our items and list them right then and there? Whatever we decide, keep in mind that the best time for an eBay auction to end is on a Sunday late afternoon and/or evening.

I thought that if we each put at least one item up for auction, we might be able to come up with enough to cover the cost of the postage for the sweepstakes entries. And if not, we can all chip in. And if someone didn't have anything for eBay, they could just send the $8 to Melissa...

So, we need feedback on this idea.. Lots of comments, suggestions, etc. And then we need to get started.

Day Twenty-One: Jack Kerouac

Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic stricken.

~Jack Kerouac