Happy November! We’ve turned back the clocks an hour in Pittsburgh and are now enjoying so many more hours of darkness. Seriously, how can one hour create so much havoc? The weather is turning cooler and we survived one of the rainiest Halloweens on record.

We hope you enjoyed our October 2019 issue of This Awful Awesome Life. Many thanks to our talented writers and guest contributors for bringing their best every issue

This month we will be celebrating Veterans Day, World Kindness Day and Thanksgiving/Indigenous People’s Day and Native American History Month.

One of the things I love about our magazine is our readers have the ability to access our past issues and read about any subject we have covered. This means whatever we wrote about in 2017, 2018 and this year is only a click away using the search feature. It also means we can’t just rehash the same information every year. Let’s face it, some facts won’t change, but we can present them in new ways and keep you updated about new trends or forgotten traditions that are making a comeback.

Happy Veterans Day! We want to say thank you to the men and women who have served in our military and their families who have been so supportive.

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush proclaimed November as Native American History Month.

In honor of Native American History Month, we decided to take a peek at the National Museum of the American Indian which has been part of the Smithsonian Institution since 1989.

Native American or American Indian?

What is the proper term for the original inhabitants of North America?

While some indigenous people are comfortable with the word "Indian," others believe it is derogatory or dismissive by nature because it erases indigenous cultures by mistakenly combining Indians from India with Native Americans when there is no actual physical or cultural commonality.

“Native American" refers to Indigenous peoples of the United States and includes groups within the United States who are not American Indian, such as the Iñupiat, Aleut, and Yupik peoples. Aboriginal peoples of Canada include the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.

Though the following terms are correct, a growing number of Native people prefer to be called by their specific tribal name instead of being referred to as Native American, American Indian, Indian or Indigenous American. 

Orlando Bartro is helping us celebrate Movember with a famous author known for his mustache and this year I’m sharing the rules for the perfect Movember stash.

Linda Cahill has some delicious brunch and holiday dinner recipes from the Pampered Chef.

Thanksgiving weekend is the busiest travel week of the year. Can you go home again? How can you make sure going home or playing host for Thanksgiving goes smoothly this year?

We have a new quiz and reading recommendations as well as a review of the classic Hemingway novel, A Moveable Feast.

Samantha Sayers is still missing. She disappeared on August 1, 2018 after a day of solo hiking at Vesper Peak near Seattle, Washington. Sam was raised in the Erie, Pennsylvania area where her parents Ron and Lisa still live. Her family is exploring all avenues of inquiry to find and bring her home. In the face of such an enormous challenge, they have chosen hope. Please keep sending positive thoughts to Sam and her family. As promised, we will be displaying a yellow ribbon for Sam on the opening page of each issue of This Awful Awesome Life until she is home.

The holidays are an especially difficult time for families with missing loved ones. Please consider displaying a yellow ribbon for Sam and posting a photo of it on the Facebook page, Ribbons Across the World for Sam Sayers. Please include your city and country. If you are a person of faith, please pray for her safe return to her family. Because we are an online publication, we are able to update this article with any news. We will also post information on our Facebook page. Thank you!

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Happy Reading,

Fran