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Posts Tagged ‘moms’

As mothers we lead very busy and stressful lives and through out our day…we often forget to take time out for ourselves. We are always busy making meals, cleaning the home, running household errands, playing “mom” taxi, taking care of the children and then you throw in working in our outside the home and by the end of the day there is no time left for yourself. Does this sound a lot like you? If so, it is time to make a change!

For many years I was one of those “moms” who did everything for my family and I mean everything! By the time bedtime rolled around every night, I would fall into bed from complete physical exhaustion. What I realized towards the end of all of that madness is that I was overly tired, very stressed out and had little patience for the things I normally had a lot of patience for. I knew emotionally I had to make a change.

What I decided to do was to spend 15 minutes on myself each and every day. It didn’t matter if that 15 minutes was bright and early in the morning, in the middle of the afternoon or late in the evening after everyone went to bed., but I was determined to squeeze 15 minutes out of every day just for myself. Once I decided to do this I sat down and made a list of things that I could do for myself in that short period of time. Here are some of the ideas I came up with.

Manicure and Pedicure.
Read A Good Book or The Bible
Take A Hot Bubble Bath
Do A Relaxing Workout (like yoga or pilates)
Take A Swim (if you have a pool)
Craft (crochet, scrapbook, cross stitch, whatever it is you like to do)
Enjoy A Nice Cup of Coffee or Tea
Take A Walk Outdoors
Write A Letter To A Friend (for postal mailing)
Pamper Yourself With A Homemade Facial
Nice Quiet Phone Call To A Friend or Family Member
Massage (yes, you can give yourself a massage)
Meditate (light a candle and spend some time just reflecting)

As you can see, there are many things you can do for just yourself every day in just 15 minutes of time. If you take time out for yourself, you will find that you will be less edgy and be in a better mood and not only that, when you are under too much stress it can cause physical health problems. You do everything for your family and that is great…but you also need to take care of yourself!

This article was written by Shelly Hill, copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved.

A few times a year, I like to plan and host a tea party for a few of my closest girlfriends.

What exactly is a tea party? A tea party is a social gathering at which tea and light refreshments are served. This social gathering is usually held during the mid-morning or mid-afternoon hours.

When it comes to hosting a party, you will need to make your plans 3-4 weeks in advance. Here are the things that you need to plan for.

Date and Time – You will need to choose a day and time. This social gathering typically lasts for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Location – You can hold the gathering at your own home (indoors or outdoors) or find a relaxing location such as your local country club or garden park.

Theme – What kind of theme would you like for your party? You could do a mother and daughter, school friends, neighbors, co-workers or a moms/grandmothers theme.

Invitations – Your invitations should fit the theme of your party. They need to include all of the necessary information such as: Who, What, When and Where. Your invitations should be mailed out to your guests 2 weeks before the party date.

Supplies – What kind of supplies will you need? You will need: a variety of teas, food, teapots, tea kettle, teacups, tea bag holders, sugar, creamers, demitasse spoons, dessert plates, silverware, serving plates, napkins and a lace tablecloth.

Food – The food that you serve during a tea party should be on the light side. Scones, muffins, pastries, fancy cookies, tarts, biscotti and small sandwiches work best. You could also offer a full-size dessert cake, chocolate covered fruits and chocolate truffles.

Teas – You should serve your guests a variety of teas. Black teas are the most popular here in North America followed by green teas. In addition to your teas, offer some accompaniments such as creamer, milk, sugar, sugar substitutes, lemon and honey.

These are the main steps that you will need to take to have a successful tea party. The most important part is to make it enjoyable, fun and stress-free, for you and your guests.

This article is copyright 2009 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved. If you would like to reprint this article on your site, please contact Shelly for her official author’s resource box which must be posted with the article.

If you ask any woman here on the planet earth, they will honestly tell you that women do indeed think differently then men. I can remember when that book came out that men are from mars and women are from venus and I ran right out and bought it, and read it cover to cover in 2 days!

Let’s take a look at a few ways that women and men differ on how we think.

A woman loves to spend one on one time with her man and loves to frequently get that one on one attention from him. However, a man will often say that his ‘woman’ is being too needy by wanting a lot of attention from him.

Then we have the man who wants to have intimate relations with his woman numerous times a week but yet…when the woman says she is too tired or not feeling well, they take it personally as something ‘against’ their manhood. (you know what I mean LOL) Men often don’t realize that after taking care of the house, kids and errands all day…that the woman might just be tired and that is all there is to it.

Then we have men who think that women can’t do the same things that they can do. For the most part, they are wrong…we can do just about anything a man can do and sometimes we can do it even better.

The reason for my post today is that I had a nice friendly debate with my husband of 24 years on some of the ‘issues’ that men and women think differently on.

So let’s hear it from our blog readers. What issues do you and your spouse think differently on?

Shelly

Now that summer is in full swing, do you and your family enjoy outdoor picnics? I am not talking about big family reunions & gatherings, what I am specifically talking about is some family time with just your spouse and kids?

One of the things we enjoy doing as a family is going out to remote areas, public parks, etc. and planing an afternoon picnic.

Now if you have never done this for your family, here is a list of things you will need:

Picnic Blanket or Picnic Table
Picnic Table Cloth (if using a table)
Plates, Napkins, Plastic Utensils and Cups
Picnic Basket and/or a Cooler with ice
Trash Bags (for clean up)

You don’t need to get all elaborate with your food choices…you can plan simple sandwiches/subs, macaroni or potato salad, some chopped up fresh fruit, potato chips & pretzels and perhaps a few pickled eggs.

While out on your picnic, you will want to bring along a few things to keep the kids busy or activities that the entire family can enjoy such as: a ball, kites, fishing poles (if near water), bubble blowing machines, bocci ball, frisbee or any other small & portable outdoor activity that you can think of.

The most important thing is to keep it simple so that you don’t stress yourself out. Remember, this is family time so you will want to plan ahead for a stress-free afternoon outdoors!

Shelly

In just a few short weeks, the children will be out of school for the summer vacations. Once that happens, many parents will be scrambling for ways to keep the children busy.

As a mother and grandmother myself, I am not fond of letting kids sit in front of a television all day long or allowing them to play video games for hours on end.

So, my blog post today is to give you some ideas that you can utilize to help keep the children busy this summer.

* Invest in some new board games that are appropriate for their age, including puzzles.
* Plan to have mini arts and crafts days a few times a week.
* Exchange babysitting services with another local mom for 2 afternoons a week. (play dates).
* Invest in some new reading books that are appropriate for the childs age.
* Invest in some outdoor games such as Bocce Ball, Volleyball, Badminton, Croquet, etc.
* Plan to take your children to the neighborhood park 1-2 times a week.
* Visit your local library 1-2 times a week.
* Plan afternoon trips to: the museum, the zoo, rollerskating and ice skating rinks, amusement parks, swimming parks, movie theater, etc.
* Volunteer this summer in your community. There are many organizations that will accept an entire family to do some volunteer work for them.

As you can see from this ‘short’ list, there are many things you can do that don’t cost a fortune to keep your children busy this summer. If you ask me, these ideas are so much better for them than letting them sit all day long in front of the tv or video game console!

How do you plan on keeping your children busy this summer?

Shelly

We all know as parents how important it is to start reading to our children when they are small. As a new grandmother to an 11 month old grandbaby, I am building a book collection for her and was thinking about all of the classic books that I used to read to my daughter when she was a little girl.

Here are some of the classic books that I think every small child needs in their library book collection.

Clifford The Big Red Dog – Norman Bridwell
Dr. Seuss ABC – Dr. Seuss
Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown
Pat the Bunny – Dorothy Kunhardt
The Little Engine That Could – Watty Piper
The Poky Little Puppy – Janette Sebring Lowrey
The Owl and the Pussycat – Edward Lear
The Real Mother Goose – Blanche Fisher Wright
Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams

Do you have a small child? What are some of your children’s favorite books? Do you have any favorite books that you can remember from your own childhood?

Shelly