Looking for fun events to attend this fall season? Don’t miss these great local options happening in and around Birmingham! Click on the event name to get more details.
The holiday season is a time for family and friends. We gather around the table and tree with the ones we love. Then, just like clockwork, a mouse chooses now to dash across the floor and Aunt Gertrude comes unglued. We’d love to earn your trust in protecting your family from the pests that can make your holiday gatherings go from a Hallmark Holiday special to a scene from Home Alone.
Pests crash winter parties too. While pests aren’t as active during cold weather months, they’re still present and the additional activity, food, and warmth found indoors can be very attractive. Whether you choose our monthly or quarterly service, we will ensure pests aren’t on the guest list. We will do it all at a price that won’t affect the gift giving budget too. Thank us later kids!
Why choose us? Steel City Mosquito & Pest Control is truly local, and veteran owned. We give each family the remarkable service and attention to detail they should expect when offering us the opportunity to earn their trust. This is how we’re building our legacy for our family!
Erin K. from Birmingham says about her experience, “Steel City is the best company we’ve hired for ANY service in Alabama! The customer service is EXCELLENT and they are thorough, professional, responsive, and the pricing is excellent. I really can’t recommend them highly enough!”
Brought to you by: Holliman & Holliman, LLC, Estate Planning, hollimanlegal.com
October is a busy month with art festivals and Halloween, but it is also the month for Mental Health Awareness Week on October 2-8, Stroke Prevention Day on October 29, and Domestic Violence Awareness recognized with purple ribbons all month. These three situations have legal protections that you should know if a family member or heir has one of these issues.
Domestic Abuse. In a domestic abuse situation, the abuser often attempts to control and dominate the victim mentally, physically, and financially. Preventing an abuser or spendthrift spouse from access to an inheritance gives your heir more power and options. A good estate planning attorney can create a spendthrift trust in your estate plan for an adult heir with an abusive spouse or mental health issues. If your adult heir is the one with spendthrift tendencies, a spendthrift trust can protect the adult heir, too.
Mental Health. According to John Hopkins Medicine, one in four Americans have a diagnosable mental disorder. A durable power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney for a family member or heir with mental issues can help in future crises. Thinking long term with no crisis in sight, one grandmother set up a trust in her estate so that her grandson with significant mental disabilities would be cared for by a guardian and conservator long after she was gone. The parents were not viable options. An estate planning attorney can advise you about whether a guardian or a conservator is right for your situation.
Stroke. The CDC reports that in 2020, someone in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 seconds or about 795,000 people a year. Strokes remain a leading cause of death even though huge advances in treatment now exist. A complete estate plan including financial and healthcare power of attorney and healthcare directive can be invaluable when an individual has a stroke. While the stroke victim is in rehab, the financial power of attorney ensures that bills are paid. If the stroke victim doesn’t recover, the healthcare directive and healthcare power of attorney allow someone to make the hard decisions about life support based on the stroke victim’s preferences. And with about 37% of Americans living alone, it’s important to have an estate plan in place to manage any eventuality.
Make sure your estate plan can manage these situations.
The 2022-2023 Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School (OLS) Peer Helpers have been chosen! The students were selected based on their teacher recommendations, grade point average, individual questionnaire, and personal interviews. These ambassadors help host special school events. They also tutor and help other students with reading, writing skills, math facts, and art projects, in addition to assisting teachers with various bulletin board projects in the school.
The 2022-2023 Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School 8th-grade Peer Helpers are as follows (from left to right) Left to Right (top): Olivia Sapalaran, Sofia Arteaga, Caroline Von Hagel, Isla Rohling, Linley Sparks, Sophia Bell Left to Right (bottom): Hannah McMillan, Joseph Fuller, Caleb Brown, Max Sullivan, Delaney Sparacio
Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School fosters the religious, academic, and social development of every child, recognizing that knowledge enlightened by faith and realized through service is at the heart of Catholic education. Accredited by Cognia, we provide a curriculum that combines Catholic faith and teachings with academic excellence. We offer a partnership with parents in the religious formation of their children through a family friendly environment to prepare our students to be productive citizens and future leaders. Our school consults with the Diocese of Birmingham Catholic Schools Office, the CDC guidelines, and the recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics to maintain a safe environment for our students. To learn more about Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School, visit olsschool.com. †
Just because you see fewer pests in the fall and winter doesn’t mean they aren’t around! In fact, many bugs will seek your home out for shelter once the weather starts cooling down. Make sure you have a pest control plan in place before they make a home out of your house.
Things You Can Do Now. Before fall sets in, there are several things you can do to pest-proof your home. Make sure your home is properly prepared, and that you have a pest control plan in place!
Inspect Your Home for Entry Points.Take this opportunity to do a thorough inspection of your house. Note any large cracks or gaps in the exterior, as well as larger gaps around doors and windows. The same goes for your house’s interior- try to find any spots where pests might come in while seeking shelter in the fall and winter. Replace old or worn out weather stripping. Added bonus: this will help with your heating bill too!
Don’t Forget Your Attic. Give your attic a thorough inspection. When the weather gets cold, your attic is the perfect new home for squirrels, mice, and other furry pests. Be sure to check your insulation as well. Some pests will chew through it- and cockroaches can even make a meal out of it!
Be Aware. One of the best pest precautions you can take is simply noticing pest and their activity. As you’re inspecting the exterior of your house, make note of any insect nests you come across. If you see any chewed wires, animal droppings, or other signs of pests in your home, be sure to tell your pest control service providers. This will help them make an accurate diagnosis, as well as come up with the most effective solution.
Pests to Look Out for in the Fall and Winter.The pests you’ll need to look out for during the colder months are called overwintering pests. That term simply means that they survive through the winter. These are the pests that are most likely to seek out warm shelter in your home. Some of the most common ones include lady beetles, rodents, ants, stink bugs, box elders, and stinging insects.
Now is the time to start pest-proofing your home for winter! For all your pest needs- whether you have mice, termites, or wasps- you can trust Vulcan Termite & Pest Control to get the job done and done well. Contact us at 205-663-4200 or visit www.vulcantermite.com to get started on your pest control plan today.
“The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money…but rather a legacy of character and faith.” –Billy Graham
The purpose of a financial plan is more than just earning money. It’s to grow assets that enable you to live an abundant life and steward the resources God has given you. The following three questions are helpful markers to help illuminate your legacy.
1. What goals have I achieved? A legacy filled with redemptive stories doesn’t just happen. You must dream big, set goals, and work hard every day to make progress. If you want to be thought of as a faithful steward of your resources and gifts, start small. Identify small goals to achieve in six months to a year that build towards bigger overall goals. Long-term financial goals might start with a brown bag lunch three days per week while increasing monthly contributions to your retirement accounts.
2. How did I learn from the mistakes I made? No person’s life journey avoids every bump in the road. There will be times when you make the easy choice instead of the right choice. You’ll do things that hurt others or embarrass yourself. You might lose perspective and place your friends and family behind things of less importance. Although these kinds of mistakes happen, don’t let them define you. When you’re looking back on your life decades from now, these stories of growth will be far more important than the stumbles along the way.
3. How did I impact others? You may not love everything about your job, but you can choose to show up to work and love your neighbor. You may not be rich, but the way you give your life away will point you and others to the truth proclaimed in Mark 10:45 where Jesus says, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.” When considering your legacy, you won’t regret spending more time with your family, whether that’s taking your kids to school, or coaching their sports.
Authoring these kinds of life stories doesn’t just happen. Living an abundant life is a process that combines long-term vision with intentionality. If you need help writing your next chapter, OneAscent Wealth would be honored to talk about your life, goals, and legacy.
Investment advisory services offered by OneAscent Wealth Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Every business is unique, and that often includes the security measures you employ to protect your network and data. Here are three “universal truths” that every business needs to consider when evaluating their cyber-defenses.
1. Protection. No matter the industry in which you work, your computer devices, networks, and databases contain valuable information. That’s why every business should put protection measures in place as a first line of defense against hackers and cybercriminals. One such defensive measure is a reliable antivirus software package. This program, or set of programs, scans for, detects, and removes malicious software, and prevents it from gaining a foothold and spreading on your devices and/or networks. Other ways to protect your business include multi-factor authentication, cloud-based backups, updating your operating system, email filters, and more. Also, remember that not every threat comes from a malicious source. Protection against power surges that may lead to data loss is also a must.
2. Response. While being proactive is the best way to protect your business, having an incident response plan in place helps ensure an issue doesn’t turn into a full-blown disaster. Keep track of how many devices you have and where information is being stored. It’s also a good idea to have a backup in place in case data gets stolen or deleted.
3. Training. Uninformed employees can be one of the biggest threats to your security, due to their access to your information and unfamiliarity with cybersecurity concerns. On the other hand, well-informed employees are a critical first line of defense against cyberattacks, including phishing campaigns, malware, and viruses. For example, something as simple as educating your employees on what a suspicious email looks like can deter more attacks than you may realize. Having policies in place to prevent downloading unauthorized applications or clicking on ad links will instruct your employees on what they should and should NOT access on their work devices.
While these “top 3 things” shouldn’t be the extent of your cybersecurity strategy, it’s a good place to start. Sawyer Solutions has the experience and expertise to determine what your business needs and implement it in a way that allows you to be as hands-off as you desire so you can focus on serving your customers and running your business. Would you like a snapshot of your company’s current IT security risk level? Take 5 minutes to answer 15 quick questions and find out whether your business is at risk. Visit www.sawyersolutionsllc.com/risk-assessment to take the complementary quiz.
-Sawyer Solutions
We do I.T. so you don’t have to!
Our promise to you:
1. We Keep You Safe
2. We Serve You with Care and Compassion
3. We Respond To You In A Timely Manner
If you are not satisfied with your onboarding, you don’t pay for it.
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
I can still remember the long, awkward ride from my “home” to Big Oak Ranch. It was April of 1990, and I was 14 years old. It’s my most vivid childhood memory – arriving at Big Oak Ranch. As I was welcomed into my new home, I watched my dad drive away and I stood there uncertain and angry.
After arriving at Big Oak Ranch at 14, Ranell Tillet still calls the Ranch home today.
All I had ever known was a life of brokenness, instability, and chaos and I didn’t see how Big Oak could change that for me. In fact, I was determined to let no one pass the protective walls I had built around my heart. The walls seemed like a refuge from the cycle of disappointment to which I was accustomed. But little did I know, Big Oak was being written into my story because God wanted to reveal Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise to me. One year from that day, I realized His provision in my life. I experienced the love of Jesus through the lives of selfless, seed-sowing, faith-filled people – a love that would tear down my well-built walls. My biological sister also arrived at Big Oak during this time, and I began to see a work unfolding in both of our futures. I was finally able to reflect with gratitude and praise because God had not only provided me with a home that day in April, but a place I still call home today. I grew to trust His plans for me, and I stayed at Big Oak through college.
Ranell Tillett is seen here with her four children.
The care I received then prepared me to be the wife and mother I am today. I have been married for 23 years and I am the mother of four children. As my husband and I raise our children, I am blessed to return to the examples of my childhood at Big Oak. The powerful love of God that intervened in my life continues in my children. Even more, because of the generational impact of Big Oak, my biological parents experienced the love of Christ and, later in life, came to know Him as their Savior! From an untrusting 14-year-old girl who knew nothing of the plans God had for me, I now stand boldly upon them as a daughter of God who repeats Philippians 4:16, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
To believe, or not to believe, is a question surrounding Christmas. For Christian families, the answer would seem obvious. After all, we are believers. And yet, when it comes to Christmas, the talk of believing is all about Santa Claus and Christmas magic.
Commercialism in Christmas has concerned parents for generations. It’s hard to combat the onslaught of shiny new toys, the latest electronics, and the hope in a child’s eyes. Let’s be honest, it is our Christmas joy to give children gifts that make their faces light up. The idea of a Santa Claus gives parents a story and a fun way to enjoy Christmas giving. Cartoons and Hallmark specials light up the season with warm thoughts of Christmas miracles and magic. For young Christian families, it’s a time to create childhood memories. It can also be a time to lay a foundation for the truth of Christ, and the man their classmates call Santa. Parents no longer have to choose between celebrating the birth of the newborn king, and Santa.
Santa Claus is the evolution of the Dutch name Sinterklaas, which means Saint Nicholas. Who was in fact a real man. Not only did he live, but he also followed his faith, just as his mother taught him as a child. Living during a time of severe Christian persecution, his good works were in stark contrast to the world around him. And like the Apostle Paul, he spent part of his ministry in prison. In The Legend of Christmas:An Untold Story of the Real St. Nicholas, children are introduced to a rugged man in tattered clothes being cared for by a cellmate. The stories of his kindness, bravery, and powerful prayers had spread throughout his small Mediterranean village. The scruffy younger man is amazed that a good man like Nicholas could be in prison with a thief.
Historically accurate, with beautiful images spread over each page, parents have a new story to give their children–and something more than an elf to believein. Parents are encouraged to try new traditions of honoring the birth of the savior by following Jesus, with childlike faith, just as St. Nicholas did. Whether or not to believe in Santa, is arguably the first time Christian children are confronted with the fantasy of our culture, and the faith of their family. This true story of Christian history, untainted by secular commercialism, gives families a deeper sense of their own spiritual heritage, and inspiration to create new faith-filled traditions this Christmas.
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