Anne is a 30-something full-time SAHM mom of 5 ranging from 3 to 17 and grandma of 1 who resides in Ashwaubenon (Green Bay) Wisconsin. She started blogging in 2008 as a way to regain her sanity. She enjoys coffee, chocolate, cheeseburgers and vodka along with spending time with her husband and kids.
Let’s face it, a good night’s sleep is like a gift from the gods above when you are a Mom. It probably started when you had a newborn in the house with frequent nighttime feedings but has progressed to habitual wakings or maybe other reasons like a snoring partner. Whatever the cause, if getting a good night’s sleep seems to be impossible, these tips and tricks will be sure to rope you a better night of sleep and needed rest.
Shut Off that Phone
Many people bring their phone along to bed in hopes that maybe a few online games or Internet surfing might make them drowsy and ready for sleep. However, the opposite is true. According to the American Chemical Society, your smartphone emits a blue light that actually tells your brain to stay alert. Turn off your phone or leave it on the counter instead of bringing it to bed in an attempt to make yourself tired, it isn’t working.
Start a Bedtime Routine
Just as you have a routine for your little one to go to bed, so should you have a plan in place for yourself. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or too involved but it should involve doing roughly the same thing nightly as much as possible. Even though it may take a few nights to see any affect on your nighttime sleep quality, a routine will train your brain that it is now time to shut down and rest. By doing this “training”, you will allow yourself the downtime needing for a better night’s sleep.
Look at Your Diet
It is very possible you could be sabotaging your own sleep quality just by some of the foods you are eating. Caffeine is the biggest culprit in disrupting your sleep and is not just found in coffee. Look for caffeine hidden in other things such as chocolate, tea and soda. Instead, turn to foods rich in tryptophan to help induce that sleepy feeling you need. These foods could include: dairy, nuts, bananas and seeds.
Exercise
Although it is not a favorite word for many people, exercise can promote better night’s sleep. As a mom, you may not have a lot of time in your schedule but even just 30 minutes a day could make a difference. You don’t need an expensive gym membership either, a simple walk around the block will get your heart pumping and your body moving. Not only does this help physically but it gives time to clear your head.
A good night’s sleep won’t cost you anything but it is worth million dollars to sleep deprived Mom’s. With a busy schedule, it may seem impossible to get in enough quality sleep to actually feel rested. Following some of these tips mentioned will give you results in a short time and you will find yourself able to stay awake throughout the day unlike before. This will help improve your mood and productivity too; a winning situation for yourself and everyone around you!
You may not consider yourself to be a cool mom or dad, but you can find awesome ways to keep your kids’ company. Forget about what you like for a second, and think about what excites your kids and how you can make the experience something fun and memorable. Let’s look at these five family friendly activities that you can incorporate into your family time.
Get in the Kitchen
Food equals fun and there are plenty of easy recipes that you and your kids can test in the kitchen. Maybe your kids love chocolate chip cookies. If so, pull out a recipe and have fun making your own fresh batch of homemade cookies. You can delegate tasks, ensuring that nobody feels left out. They can be your sous chefs for the moment. You’ll have a great time interacting and connecting.
Scrapbooking with Kids
No, scrapbooking is not for grandmas; it’s a fun craft activity that you can work on with your children. It’s a great way to bring out the artist in your kids, while revisiting happy moments and preserving them. Start a scrapbook for each of your kids, with pictures from birth and continuing through the years. Let them pick the pictures and out embellishments that they like. Don’t make a big deal if things get messy because it’s a part of the creative process. Relive past moments and how they are important for the family, and be sure to applaud your kids’ efforts at scrapbooking.
If your family travels a lot, let your kids put together their own travel scrapbooks with memories from your journeys together.
Get them Gardening
Engage your kids’ natural curiosity by planting a garden. As dirty as gardening can get, the fun of planting seeds and watching the plants grow before their eyes, to harvesting, will produce excitement and even wonder in your kids. You and your kids can plant vegetables, herbs or flowers. If you have toddlers, a little watering can to tend to the sprouts they planted is a good way to keep them involved in the process.
Check Out Your Local Library
Reading is fun, and at your local library, you can find books for every one of your kids, regardless of age. Plan a trip every week or every two weeks to the library, and have your kids pick the books they want to read. Whether it’s a handful of books or bagful, you are well on your way to creating bookworms. Don’t forget to read to them from their collection-the best part of the experience.
Play Video Games
Video games are not just for the young at heart. There are awesome lego games for xbox that you can explore with your child if he or she is interested. If your child is already into video games, you can join in the fun as well and get your game on too. Showing an interest in a favorite activity of your child will give you cool mom or dad points. It also provides an opportunity for conversations and to learn even more about your child.
Finding fun way to spend time with your kids is a lot easier than you may think. There are a host of activities that you can pursue. This can include scrapbooking, gardening, playing video games, visiting the library together, getting them in the kitchen. Whatever it is, make it fun and exciting.
Cutting down on your monthly expenses can be more difficult than it seems. Even if you brew all your own coffee at home and take sandwiches with you to work so you’re not tempted to hit the vending machine, you might struggle with your family budget. That’s because there are monthly expenses that you’ll need to deal with every month – no matter what.
Energy is one of the most expensive things you’ll have to pay for every month. While we can’t sweep those bills off your table, we can offer a few helpful hints and tips that might help to cut down your spend, without compromising on home comfort. For instance:
1. Change Your Energy Supplier
If you haven’t switched out your energy supplier for a while, then there’s a good chance you could save some serious cash by checking out what’s available on the market. The great news is that there are plenty of fantastic comparison websites out there that can help you to find out which deals are available for someone in your position.
If you’ve already switched your supplier but you’re struggling to save money, find out whether you’re on the cheapest possible tariff. You’ll get some serious savings just by switching to pay by direct debit, instead of paying monthly.
2. Turn Down the Heat
Now that spring has sprung, it should be much easier for you to turn the heat down a notch or two on your thermostat. However, make sure that you keep money saving in mind throughout the rest of the year too. Reducing your room temperatures by only one degree can be enough to reduce your heating bills by as much as £85 per year. Rather than turning the heating up to max level, put on a jumper or throw a blanket around you.
If you’ve already turned down your thermostat, you can also consider turning the radiators off in rooms that aren’t used very often, or by programming the heating to turn itself off when you’re not around to enjoy it. The less heat you can use, the better off your family will be.
3. Replace your Lightbulbs
Now here’s another bright idea. If you haven’t switched to energy-efficient LED light bulbs already, now could be the perfect time to make a change. According to some studies, an LED bulb will cost you an average of around £1.71 a year to run. This means that you could save a serious amount of money if you replace all the energy-draining bulbs throughout your house with something more energy efficient.
The best news is that your energy efficient bulbs will typically last you a lot longer than your standard bulbs too. This means that over the course of their lifetime, these accessories could save you hundreds of pounds.
4. Keep the Heat Inside
One of the biggest drains on your energy bill is a set of windows or doors that allow the heat to escape whenever you crank up the radiators. You can save some serious cash by investing in draught proofing to help make your home more airtight. Consider asking a professional to come out and evaluate your home, or simply take some time to assess the windows, doors, chimney, and fireplace. Floorboards and skirting can also be a common concern for people who experience regular draughts.
If you’ve already spent some time dealing with your loft hatches and windows, you can also think about some of the smaller areas that are likely to let cold air in, and hot air out. Letterboxes and keyholes can cause more damage to your heating bill than you think. Remind the kids not to leave the doors open when they’re walking around the house too.
5. Invest in a New Boiler
Finally, if you want a quick way to upgrade your saving potential, then there are few things more effective than changing your boiler. While paying for a new boiler can be expensive, this investment could save you hundreds of pounds every year. After all, the less energy your boiler needs to use to heat up your home, the less you must pay for. You could even consider getting a personal loan to fund the new boiler if it’s easier to spread the expense out.
If you’ve already updated your boiler, then make sure that you’re using it as efficiently as possible. Make sure that your radiators are working properly and considering investing in a smart thermostat like we mentioned above.
Are you a cat person or a dog person? It’s always seemed like such an odd dichotomy to me. It’s like when someone asks if you’re a Beatles or an Elvis person. They say that Elvis people are allowed to like The Beatles and Beatles people are allowed to like Elvis but apparently nobody likes them both equally. So it is with dogs and cats. Although many dog owners may have a fondness for cats and vice versa, popular myth would have us believe that absolutely nobody can like both equally. While you may have a natural affinity for dogs, when your son or daughter starts pestering for a pet, it behooves you to consider the potential advantages of a fluffy feline over a cuddly canine, especially when you have young kids…
Cats smell nicer and are generally neater
Okay, so this is more a consideration for Mom and Dad, but it’s hard enough keeping the home clean when accommodating small children. Dogs are wonderful companions but they’re also inherently smelly and messy creatures who need regular grooming to keep your home free of that infamous “doggy” smell. Cats on the other hand are famously neat and tidy creatures. So long as you keep on top of their litter tray and use an odor neutralizing cat litter cats can make for a cleaner, tidier and nicer smelling household.
They invite less stress
Many are put off the idea of getting cats because unless you keep them as house cats there’s a strong likelihood that they’ll go missing and stay missing. This is something of a false flag as both cats and dogs have natural roaming instincts and both can be microchipped. If you’ve done this it’s far easier to find a lost cat. Not only do dogs slip their leashes and go on adventures of their own, they are also prone to fits of excited or territorial barking which can upset sensitive children or those of a nervous disposition.
Cats are less likely to maul visitors
Dogs are naturally excitable and inquisitive creatures. It’s part of why we love ‘em. But your visitors may not appreciate being pounced upon and covered in saliva and muddy paw prints as soon as they walk through your door. Cats on the other hand will keep a respectful distance and assess newcomers from a safe vantagepoint before sauntering over to receive their adoration.
It’s much easier to integrate a dog into a cat home
If you intend one day to keep cats and dogs, this is far easier to do when bringing a dog into a cat home. In order for a successful integration the cat needs to be inconvenienced as little as possible, and it’s far easier to manage a controlled introduction between a cat and a dog when it’s on the cats home turf where they are allowed to feel safe and in charge.
So the next time your kids start to ask you for a dog, talk with them about the advantages of a loyal feline friend.
What kind of music do you love? Various genres resonate with people in different ways. Teenagers, in particular, have a taste of certain music that becomes part of their livelihood. Music can be either inspiring or depressing. In as much as we are told to listen to music when anxious, studies show that some music may increase depression.
The positive and negatives of music depend on a listener. It may give you a new way to view life or influence you to habits such as drug abuse. Genres such as hip-hop and rock have been found to have an impact on young people as they encourage the use of substance abuse. This discussion is about how music affects a person and ways in which we can choose music to influence our lives positively.
How does music affect a person’s identity?
Most young people explore their feelings through music. What you listen to may make you start rebelling against authority if it encourages vices. Most teenagers find a way of expressing their emotions through music. Young people take musicians as their role models and follow their actions. Most hip-hop artists manage to have lots of young people admire and follow them on social media platforms.
Such artists have been reported to encourage youngsters to abuse drugs such as Marijuana, Suboxone, and Alcohol. They lead people who are trying to find their identity astray causing conflicts with parents. Suboxone treatment is a good step for such teens to recover from drug abuse.
Some types such as rock and hip-hop may promote violence. Young people who follow these genres pick up violent habits as they emulate videos through television. This is a big concern to most parents as they are forced to ban such kind of music at home. It may be an outlet for a child to release their frustration and anger against parents and teachers.
Music and depression
Pittsburg University researchers reported that some teens develop more depression when they spend excessive time listening to depressing music. Many ladies who go through first-time breakups spend days sobbing in love songs that lead to bitterness and anger. Remember that too much of anything is poisonous. Even if you may like slow music, alternate this habit with watching and reading books so that you can control your feelings.
Effect of high volume music
Doctors have found a correlation between listening to music at high volumes and hearing difficulties. Most teens who are going through tough times, isolate themselves through playing music at maximum volume through headphones. You may be listening to inspiring music, but such high volumes affect your ears. People with this habit have problems hearing well and tend to shout unknowingly.
Making music
Some youngsters go beyond listening and admiring musicians. The desire to create your own music may lead you to join music bands. Talented people who engage in such groups find their identity in playing instruments and practicing their vocals. The urge to understand one’s personality through music makes some people get exposed to drugs.
Many music managers encourage youngsters in the field to abuse substances to cope with stage fright. Get clean from Suboxone clinics if you are injecting Suboxone to help relieve opioid withdrawal symptoms. These facilities prevent drug addiction and teach you ways of dealing with stage anxiety. Come up with your standards and say no to poor influence as you focus on nurturing your talent.
Finding good music
Identify what you love
Luckily, all types of genres are available for you to choose what resonates with your taste. You may like many types, but narrowing down your search according to the frequency of a specific type, can help you identify your best genre. You can do this through your iTunes library; filter the songs according to a style and see where each song lies. Surf the internet for more songs in the kind that you have identified.
Hear beyond the song
If you have an interest in instruments, listen more to the types of tools used in different songs. While certain classes such as rock prefer guitars, blues may put more focus on using pianos and trumpets. Hear beyond the words of the song and select songs that appeal to your type of instrument.
Look at the type of artists in songs
Different artists concentrate on specific themes when producing songs. Genres such as hip-hop have artists that influence teenagers negatively. Do not admire bad examples from artists who take pride in violence, sex, and drugs. Download lyrics of songs to understand the message of each song before liking a song. Most artists use their lifestyle to portray a particular kind of example to fans. Avoid following such celebrities blindly because of their fame or lifestyle.
Select songs randomly
You may be inclined to a certain type of music but randomly selecting songs will make you have a great collection. Check out different types on YouTube and watch their videos before you add them to your playlist. A random selection enables you to explore more so that you can delete those that you don’t like and get new ones. There is a broad scope of inspiring songs out there waiting for you to discover them. Therefore, drop lyrics that don’t make you a better person and sing along to good motivational songs that bring you closer to God.
Attend local concerts
Feel free to get tickets for local shows when you have the chance. This will make you discover more about your favorite artists and give you new opportunities to grow your music adventure. If you want to pursue a career in the field, concerts are outlets for you to meet people who can help you out. It also gives you a chance to experiment with various artists so that you can discover a passion for a different kind of music.
Final thoughts
Music is referred to as food to the soul. Use it as a tool to build your character instead of destroying it. Your parents may not have full control of what you are listening to, but poor choices of music can directly affect your life. Therefore, let the words in every favorite jam that you listen to, inspire you to live right.
