In 2012, there were over 20 million REGISTERED voters in the United States who did not vote - many of these people are probably your readers and followers.
Image: Letta Page via Flickr, Creative Commons license
With less than a week to Election Day, over 22 million Americans have already voted. In over 30 states, you can vote early as of October 31. In some states, you can even register to vote at the same time.
We're asking all blogs and tech companies to help your users vote.
Over the past few weeks, we've built a few tools to make it as easy as possible to get out and vote, and we could really use your help in getting them into your followers' hands.
This is personally my first presidential election, as it is for millions of young Americans. It is imperative that we work together and provide tools to make voting seem as easy as calling an Uber.
Please share these tools with your followers, and let's get out the vote!
'Tis officially the season to get down to business in the kitchen! It seems like the whole world has gone crazy with gourmet versions of old school favorites - which can be fun - but when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, there really is nothing like traditional candied yams (sometimes referred to as sweet potato casserole).
This recipe for candied yams from Kidsumers will remind you of being a child and the magical feeling you got when the whole family was gathered in a warm home, eager to go to town on the delicious meal grandma made. The best part? Candied yams are a cinch to master.
Love that Mexican skull face paint you see every Halloween? You may love the holiday and rituals that go with it even more once you learn about them. Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is celebrated across the U.S., Mexico and Latin America on Nov. 1 and 2. The 3,000-year-old Aztec ritual is a time to honor loved ones who have passed in the most beautifully life-affirming way.
During this holiday, souls are welcomed to visit the families they left behind. Families decorate colorful altars with fresh flowers and bright tapestries. And of course, food is central.
That's why we've put together a full collection of our favorite traditional and modern recipes by Latina cookbook writers and bloggers just in time for the big day. You don't have to be Mexican to celebrate Día de los Muertos. We all have people in our lives who have passed on - people we miss very much. Welcome them back in spirit with your own Day of the Dead feast.
Image: Liz Smith/SheKnows
1. Pumpkin and ancho chili mole/mole de chile ancho y calabaza
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt (or more to taste)
3 tablespoons brown sugar (or more to taste)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted
Directions:
Place the onion and garlic in a baking sheet under the broiler. Char for 9 to 10 minutes, flipping once in between. Once they are soft and charred, remove from the heat. When the garlic is cool, peel.
In an already hot skillet or comal set over medium-low heat, toast the ancho chilies for about 15 to 20 seconds per side until they're brown and crisp but not burned. Place the toasted ancho chilies in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Soak for 10 to 15 minutes until they are plumped up and rehydrated.
In the same skillet or comal, toast the cloves and allspice until aromatic, about a minute. Remove from the heat. Toast the almonds and cinnamon, stirring often, until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes.
Place the onion, garlic, chilies, 1/2 cup of chili soaking liquid, almonds, cloves, cinnamon and allspice in the blender and purée until smooth.
In a soup pot over medium heat, heat the oil and pour in the puréed mixture. Add the salt and sugar. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to help prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan. The color will darken considerably.
Add the pumpkin purée and chicken broth to the sauce. Stir well until the pumpkin purée has dissolved. It will have a silky consistency. Continue to cook for about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Use the mole sauce to pour over grilled, broiled or boiled chicken, meat or fish. Sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds for some added flavor and crunch.
Mexican hot chocolate, also known as "champurrado," is famous for its thick consistency thanks to Mexican chocolate and "piloncillo" sugar, or really dark brown cane sugar. Muy Bueno cookbook writer and blogger Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack has a growing collection of Día de los Muertos recipes on her website.
Another version of "atole," the corn-based drink, is this atole de vainilla that is brightened up with the inclusion of Mexican vanilla beans - some of the best vanilla in the world.
Taking the classic and traditional sugar skulls, these sugar skull cake pops are a modern twist and fun way of presenting skulls to young ones in the family.
Make these Día de los Muertos empanadas in specialty skull molds that can easily be found online, and stuff them with traditional ingredients like cotija cheese.
Slice into this skull chocolate cake, and explain how you're celebrating your loved ones, guiding them and sharing great stories from when they were alive.
I like my job. I want to get ahead and I work hard and fast.
This irritates two of my coworkers. When I pass their desks, I overhear them make comments like, “Don't get in the way of the speed demon.” I don't understand why they resent the fact that I work fast. I'm not doing it to make them look bad. I pretend I don't hear their comments.
Although I'm the youngest in the department, I thought doing a good job would be my route to a promotion to team lead. Two months ago, my supervisor told me that I was a front runner for the next opportunity since our current team lead is planning to move out of state in two months.
This morning, I heard through the grapevine that my supervisor is uneasy about promoting me because these coworkers dislike me, and team leads have to have good relationships with coworkers. I plan to go talk to my supervisor about this. What should I say?
If you go to your supervisor with this issue as a problem, you present him with an unresolved problem. If you instead try to first solve it or come to him with a potential solution, you increase your chances of gaining the promotion you seek.
Start by learning what you're up against. Do you irritate your coworkers with your speed or do they snipe at you because they dislike you for another reason? Do you threaten them with your youth or brains? Could part of the problem be you act superior because you speed through projects and thus infuriate coworkers who work more slowly?
In short, you need more information which these two coworkers possess. The next time you hear a comment, stop dead in your tracks and say, “OK, what am I doing that irritates you? Just tell me, so I can fix it.”
The good news, you have a month to figure this out as your current team lead is in place for the next two months. Also, you're learning two valuable lessons. First, while pretending to not hear comments works temporarily, it doesn't resolve anything. Second, it takes good relationships with coworkers as well as hard work to get ahead.
Finally, if you try to diplomatically figure out and resolve this problem, when you present the situation to your supervisor, he may realize the problem isn't with you, and it lies with your coworkers – and thus it is his issue to solve.
Welsh is a language spoken in Wales, which is part of the U.K., and a few other locales around the world. Although it is situated right next to England geographically, Welsh is not very similar to English at all. As a Celtic language, it's closer to languages like Irish and Gaelic than to what many of us speak, which lends an unusual flair to those of us who are not familiar with it.
Unsurprisingly, there are a ton of gorgeous, unique baby names that spring from the Welsh language that would make an awesome name for your little girl. You'll note that many of the following 32 names include "wen" or "wyn" as part of the name - that translates to "white," "blessed" or "fair." We've included the meanings of these great Welsh girl names, which might help steer you toward a future favorite.
Last week, one of my husband's and my marital tripwires was set off when one of our sons got sent home from day care with a fever. My husband and I both work from home, which can be convenient, but also makes it difficult to drop everything and stay home for the day with a child. We have a fairly predictable fight when this happens - one borne of stress and concern that stems from a very tricky topic: Whose time and work is worth more?
As we quarreled, my 4-year-old put his hands over his ears and said, “Stop it!” Then he made us apologize to each other. You might think that would have slowed us down, but with the fight not yet over, we still bickered until our little arbiter was dropped off at preschool and we could get on with our days.
My son's chiding made me wonder, though - were we causing him emotional harm by arguing in front of him? Or is it actually healthy and normal to show your kids what a marriage really looks like? For answers, I turned to parenting expert Joani Geltman, author of A Survival Guide to Parenting Teens.
SheKnows: Is there any upside to fighting in front of your kids?
Joani Geltman: Four year olds are very sensitive to their parents; they're just starting to recognize emotions in themselves and others. They're just starting to see another person's perspective, so there is a positive side not just to seeing that people aren't always nice to each other, but modeling forgiveness. Make sure they see you kiss and make up. But otherwise, it's not helpful to hide arguments from your kids - otherwise when they argue with people, they're going to feel like something's wrong with them. Conflict is a natural part of being human. If you feel in control enough to say, “I think we need to take this into another room,” do that, but not when it's about emptying the dishwasher. Otherwise, hiding arguments is not real life. If there's never any conflict in a family, there's no roadmap for what to do when there's conflict in their own lives.
SK: But surely some arguments are not meant for kids to overhear.
JG: You wouldn't want to talk about sex in front of them. You wouldn't want to brawl in front of them. I don't like to see parents degrading each other - that is a nonstarter. Calling names, very overt aggression, saying things like, “You did something to me,” - that shouldn't be in front of the kids because that becomes more personal to the kids than just being mad at each other... They need their parents to be secure. Plus, as they get older, if that's how kids are observing how people speak to each other, it gives them permission to be bullies. Just remember that there's a difference between a personal argument and one between two people who have had a long and frustrating day. And nobody wants to sit in on anybody's fight when it's personal - and it's very scary for a child.
SK: Should parents apologize to their children for arguing in front of them?
JG: I don't like parents to apologize for it. Then that takes away permission for their kids to express their anger when they feel it. I think it's more understanding their feelings and then showing them a positive resolution. If a child is upset about an argument instead of apologizing, you can say, “I see that made you feel uncomfortable and it was scary to see Mommy and Daddy fight, but we love each other and we made up. Sometimes Mommy and Daddy disagree just the same way you disagree with the way I told you to pick up your toys and you yelled at me. Sometimes we lose our tempers.”
SK: My 4-year-old tried to get us to stop arguing even though we weren't done with our fight yet. Should we have taken his lead?
JG: Kids are very bossy at that age. You can say, “We see that you're feeling upset,” but it's not really his role to order you to hug each other. Say, “I love Daddy and he loves me” and kiss and make up, but not at [your son's] request.
Halloween inspires a lot of cocktails that look creepy but don't taste like anything you'd go near the rest of the year. Skip the sticky-sweet liqueurs and food coloring. This punch is not only on theme for the holiday, but it's also a sophisticated and seasonal drink for grown-ups.
An ice ring or ice block will keep the punch cold, but you could serve it in ice-filled punch cups instead. For an even spookier punch, soak the lemon slices in grenadine to dye them. I like the rich flavor of pure pomegranate juice, but this recipe could also work with a pomegranate juice blend, such as pomegranate-cranberry. "Juice cocktails" are cheaper because they have added sugar and water, but they also have less flavor.
Fill a Bundt or loaf pan 3/4-full of water and freeze. Once it's solid, arrange the lemon slices on top of the ice. Carefully add more water until the pan is full and then freeze.
Combine all ingredients except sparkling cider in a punch bowl. Before serving, add the sparkling cider and ice ring or ice block.
Image: Letta Page via Flickr, Creative Commons license
