To find balance in daily living, individuals are encouraged to find a hobby, an activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation, primarily for pleasure. Finding such a hobby is promoted, especially during January, National Hobby Month. .
Picking up a new hobby is a great way to kick-off the New Year. Whether you choose exercise or some other health activity, such as hiking, biking, skating, swimming, walking, skiing, bowling--all these heart healthy activities provide great ways to improve your health and put some fun in your life. It is important to your hobby is enjoyable, so that it will be easier to stick to.
For those who prefer more sedentary activities, there are number of activities associated with reading: going to the library, joining a Book Club or discussion group, subscribing to your local newspaper or Internet publication, such as Examiner.com. Learning a new board game, such as chess or Parcheesi or checkers or Scrabble or something you’ve never played before, can also be fun.
The website ehow.com offers tips to celebrate National Hobby Month. In a related article Junou Mathieu offers advice on "How to Find a Hobby that Fits You."
Spotlighting Hobby Lobby
January, as National Hobby Month, seems an ideal time to spotlight Hobby Lobby, a nationwide store specializing in arts/crafts supplies, picture frames and much more.
What started as small retail enterprise in 1970 rapidly expanded from 300 square feet of retail space in northwest Oklahoma City to more than triple that capacity of 1000 square feet in 1973, as Hobby Lobby entered the scene as a store specializing in arts/crafts supplies and picture frames.
From that modest beginning, today's Hobby Lobby stores, with an average 60,000 square feet, are located in thirty-two states. Products carried include art supplies, crafts frames, candles, needlework, fabric, baskets, floral, paper party, home decor pieces, accent furniture, scrapbook supplies, jewelry supplies, as well as their famous seasonal products.
Since its beginnings in 1970, additional enterprises have been added to the Hobby Lobby Family, including Mardel, a chain of stores devoted to Christian education supplies, toys, and educational supplies, and Hemispheres, specialty furniture stores.
David Green, Founder of Hobby Lobby
Founder David Green, 71, runs one of the most successful Christian companies in the country. Green, a preacher's son from a poor background with only a high school diploma, started his business with a $600 loan in 1970; he then opened his first Hobby Lobby arts and crafts stores in Oklahoma City in 1972. The chain now has more than 13,000 full-time employees in 520 locations across the country, all of which are closed on Sunday.
Known as the “Biblical billionaire,” Green’s net worth is said to be $4.5 Billion. As of September 2012, he was listed as No. 276 of Forbes Top 400 Billionaires.
Green is a big contributor to evangelical education, with a $10.5 million gift to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in 2004 and $70 million to bail out Oral Roberts University in 2007. He has also put nearly 1.4 billion copies of gospel literature in homes in more than 100 countries, mostly in Africa and Asia. He joined the Giving Pledge in 2010.
Green and Hobby Lobby in the News
Green and Hobby Lobby made headlines in December when the Supreme Court denied their request for reprieve from the health care mandate related to contraceptives.
Foxnews.com reported that the lower court had earlier refused to protect the company from an ObamaCare-tied requirement to provide contraceptive coverage, and the fines that come with it for not complying.
Green, who had taken his case to the appeals court after losing in a lower-court ruling, had argued that his family would have to either "violate their faith by covering abortion-causing drugs or be exposed to severe penalties."
Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, who handles emergency appeals in states of the 10th Circuit, turned back a challenge by two businesses — Martel, a Christian bookstore chain, and Hobby Lobby stores — owned by Oklahoma City billionaire David Green. The businesses claimed that the women’s health coverage requirement violates their religious freedom.
“Applicants do not satisfy the demanding standard for the extraordinary relief they seek,” Sotomayor wrote in a four-page opinion.
Sotomayor noted that the Supreme Court has never addressed any similar freedom of religion claims brought by for-profit corporations objecting to employee benefit laws.
Although the Obama administration offered a compromise — the birth control coverage will be paid for by insurers, not employers — the contraception requirement has drawn legal challenges from conservative Catholic dioceses, religion-affiliated colleges and some businesses.
The Supreme Court's latest ruling is not on the underlying merits of the mandate itself -- it simply denies the company's request for an injunction while legal battle on the merits plays out. There are currently more than 40 cases pending against that rule.
The mandate requires businesses and organizations, with some exceptions, to provide access to contraception coverage -- Hobby Lobby was most concerned about coverage for the morning-after pill, which some consider tantamount to an abortion-causing drug. Hobby Lobby has refused to comply, while saying the fines could add up to $1.3 million a day.
In its earlier ruling, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said the company did not prove the rule would "substantially burden" its religious freedom. Though the mandate has exemptions for religious entities like churches, the lower court ruled that Hobby Lobby is not a religious group.
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