Striking a balance

Sometimes, I give myself permission to be slack.

My life is crazy, hectic, wonderfully full. In addition to working a full-time job (with an hour-long commute each way), I write from home, wrangling my Regency-era characters into finding their happily-ever-afters. And then there’s my family, my husband and my three-year-old daughter. Add to this the usual demands of the home…laundry, dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing toilets, etc. (I would add cooking to that list, but I’m blessed that my hubby takes care of that for me!)

Regardless of whether we work from home, or outside of the home, or both, we all have obligations—ones that can quickly become overwhelming depending on what’s going on in our lives. I usually find that as soon as I tackle the never-ending mountain of laundry, something crazy happens and I might let it pile up for a day or so…then I’m back where I started.

In the past, I’d really let that kind of stuff get me down. I’d start thinking about how I must be the worst wife and mother in the world because it had been too long since I’d dusted the baseboards in the house. Once the guilt started piling on, I’d morph into SuperMom mode.

As SuperMom, my mantra was that I was going to get everything done even if it killed me.

It never did kill me, but those moments of single-minded determination did hurt me in other ways.

In an effort to clean the hampers out or reorganize the pantry, I would stress myself out and deny myself the things that truly make me happy—spending time with my family, reading, relaxing, etc.

I don’t pretend to know what works for every mom, but I just wanted to share how I keep myself from going crazy. A little secret that’s not really so much a secret.

I stop beating myself up. I decide to watch Beauty and the Beast for the 50th time with my daughter instead of doing some menial chore that could wait an hour or two. I hide in my bedroom and read a book. Instead of stressing out when my husband and daughter make a wreck of the kitchen while they try to bake muffins, I laugh. And I’m reminded how rejuvenating it is to relax.

Because somewhere, in the quest to be a domestic diva, I forgot the importance of my home being a haven and a place of rest…and not just another set of items on my to-do list.

Home Remedies and Natural Cures for the Common Cold

Are you one to run for the medicine cabinet the second some sniffles start? Before you hit that next bottle of Tylenol Cold and Flu, try a few home remedies. You may be surprised how well they work.

Take a Natural Antiviral. Garlic and grapefruit seed extract both have antiviral and antibacterial agents. Try mincing a clove of garlic and swallowing it every two hours. If you get grapefruit seed extract in liquid form, you can slip some into your children's orange juice. But be warned, the stuff tastes wretched.

Take Vitamin C. Already taking it? Swallow more. Try upping your dose to at least 8000mg per day. Megadoses of Vitamin C can cure cold and flu symptoms. (When given intravenously, vitamin C as even been effective in killing cancer cells. That's how strong this stuff is.) Personally, I take 1000mg of Vitamin C about six times a day. This dosage is six times stronger than the recommended daily dose of 1000mg. Vitamin C isn't one of those things you can take to much of. However much of the vitamin you can force yourself to swallow, do it.

Jump on a trampoline. Yes, I'm serious. Jumping on a trampoline uses gravity to drain your lymph nodes and even your ears. This doesn't serve as an instant cure-all for your stuffy head, but it will bring temporary relief. As soon as you feel your ears begin to clog, start jumping on one of those little jogging trampolines. I jump several times a day for about fifty times per set.

Take honey for a cough. Believe it or not, my pediatrician is the one who recommends this treatment. She claims studies show that one teaspoon of honey three times per day is more effective than the cough medication on the market. While I don't claim to be a bio-statistician and understand how all these medical studies work, the practical side of me realizes that using honey is a lot cheaper! Plus getting a four year old to swallow honey is a lot easier than pouring cough syrup down his throat.

I hope you find these little tips useful the next time a cold arrives.

Home Is Where The Heart Is ~by Desirea Packard~

In honor of Mother's Day!

 I am a step parent to two children. One is 20 and will be getting married in July, and one is 18 and will be graduating from high school in a few weeks. I met these two children when they were 8 and 10. Being a stay at home mom to my child plus these two before I had my own has been rewarding. Being a step parent can be hard especially when there are other personalities involved. I always hoped that I was doing right by them and setting standards for them that I would expect from my own children, but you just never know.

Saturday  my oldest daughter Michelle graduated from college and in the midst of all of that she still remembered that Sunday was Mother's Day. I didn't expect her to do anything, after all I am just her step mom. The card she gave me really hit home to how much of an influence I really have had in her life.

It says You're someone who knows that "family" is the people you love in your life. You're someone whose "motherly ways" have meant the world to me.

After I stopped crying I realized that I have done a good job. You do the best to teach your children the right ways and hope that they take the right path and that they learn from their mistakes. You fight your own battles and learn from your own mistakes, so that when they grow up into adults they don't have to fight the same ones. Family has always been very important in my own up bringing and I always tried to set the example for my children so that they would know, no matter what, your family is always there for you. I know that she understands that. I know that she considers me as much a mom as she does her own mom.

So as parents, step parents or whatever you are to small children who will grow up and be young adults and leave to start their own lives, just remember, that just because you might think you are not setting an example or impacting their lives, you are. There are many things to teach your children, but knowing that I have taught her that family is important and relationships that you build are important lets me know that home is where her heart is and hopefully when she has her own children she will pass along the things that are important in her life to her children.

Loving your children is easy (sometimes). Teaching them to take the right path isn't always. You do the best you can do and pray for them and hope that they will be the adults you have always hoped. But knowing that you accomplished to teach them even a few things to take along with them is rewarding.

So love your children, hug your children, kiss them. Before long (for some of us) they will be gone and grown up. Teach them what is important to you. Pray for them, and leave the rest in God's hands.

Happy Mother's Day to all moms. Being a mom is the most challenging and rewarding job there is. Embrace it.