Happy Mothers Day to All Beautiful Mothers - 14 May 2017

Happy Mothers' Day to all beautiful mothers on 14 May! May your children and their dads spoil you rotten!

The meaning of being a mother is virtually endless. A mother is a protector, disciplinarian and friend. A mother is a selfless, loving human who must sacrifice many of their wants and needs for the wants and needs of their children. A mother works hard to make sure their child is equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities to make it as a competent human being. Being a mother is perhaps the hardest, most rewarding job a woman will ever experience.

Hats off to all mothers!

How to Eat Healthy

 

We are what we eat.

Cut down your consumption of red meat to reduce the chance of heart disease; and if you do eat red meat make sure it is lean and cooked by a healthy method, such as grilling.

Eat fish at least three times a week. It is a good source of protein and the oily varieties give us essential fatty acids. 

Eat at least five portions of vegetables, salads and fruit a day. One portion is an average size fruit like an orange, an apple, a pear, etc. A small glass of juice, about ⅔ cup, is a portion, but restrict juice to one glass a day. A small bowl of salad greens, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, etc. is a portion, or two tablespoons of vegetables such as peas, beans, spinach, sprouts or cauliflower. The more fruits and vegetables you eat the better.

Restrict excess fat in your diet, particularly saturated animal fats from meat and dairy products. Resist spreading butter too thickly on your bread and piling it on your vegetables. In some cooking, oil can take the place of butter. Try adding olive oil to your mashed potatoes and enjoy the flavour. Lower-fat cheeses are available, or stick to the normal ones and reduce the amount you eat. The same applies to yoghurt and cream. Low-fat and skim milk are sensible options because they are lower in fat but still contain all the valuable nutrients of full-fat milk. 

Hidden fat is the greatest enemy in prepared foods like cakes and snacks. Try to avoid these foods if possible, or read the label and try to choose lower-fat alternatives. Remember, though, that a low-fat diet is only a healthy option for those aged 5 and over - below this age a child needs easily accessible energy.

Eat more whole-grain cereals. Instead of white bread, eat whole-wheat and multigrain varieties and change to a high fibre breakfast cereal or granola. Try whole-grain pastas and brown rice.

Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. You will feel healthier and your body will benefit. Limit tea and coffee because they contain caffeine, a stimulant that will keep your body in overdrive. 

Always taste food at the table before you add extra salt. Restrict salt in cooked dishes and try to cook vegetables without salt in the water. Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure.

Remember, eating healthily will not stop you getting some diseases but it will affect how your body deals with them. A healthy diet will help you have a healthy life.

Danie de Villiers - Freelance Writer

Tips to Manage Small Stressful Events

Here are some valuable tips to manage those small stressful events in your daily routine:

1. Plan ahead for the morning crunch. Set the breakfast table and make packed lunches the night before. Plan what you will wear. Check clothing for rears, runs, or missing buttons.

2. If a child needs help deciding on clothing of gathering papers for school, get this organized the night before. 

3. Get up before the rest of the family in order the have some time to yourself. Read the newspaper or do a crossword puzzle.

4. You can use a standard kitchen timer to help manage yours schedule. If you don’t want a telephone conversation to get too lengthy, set the timer for 15 to 20 minutes. 

5. Get an aquarium. They come in all sizes, for any size room of budget. Watching colourful fish swim gracefully through the water will distress you in no time. 

6. Spend time with your children. Flying a kite or playing a favourite board game is replacing makes the whole family feel closer. However, spend time away from your children as well. 

Occasionally hiring a babysitter can make a big difference to your stress level. To save money, consider sharing a babysitter with other parents. 

7. Take time out for a hobby you truly enjoy, whether it’s knitting, playing the piano or pottering around the garden. 

8. Listen to music. Start with lively music that matches the way you feel, and work into slower pieces. Or do the opposite-start with soothing melodies and end with energizing music. 

9. Get enough sleep. Most adult’s need at least eight hours sleep a night. Your efficiency the next day will more than make up for the extra time lost to sleep. Go to bed at the same time eve night and wake at the same time every morning – even on weekends – if possible. This way you won’t tamper with your body’s rhythms. 

10. Try volunteer work. Nothing wild take your mend off your own troubles and  give you  a greater sense of accomplishment than volunteering your time and energy to good cause. 

11. Buy cards and gifts throughout the year. Then you won’t have to rush around before birthdays and holidays.

12. Keep a record of the things that make you feel stressed. This will help you become aware of the real stressors I your life. 

13. Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Let the dishes go unwashed one night.

Getting a pet is another excellent way to reduce stress. Not only will a pet give you warmth and unconditional affection, but merely petting a friendly animal can help lower blood pressure. 

Danie de Villiers 

Is Your life Dominated by Television?

Is your life dominated by television or do you use it sensibly as a source of relaxation, information or stimulation when you choose?

It is very tempting after a hard day’s work to sit in front of the telly - switch the set on and yourself off. Indeed, from time to time, this passive form of entertainment can be very therapeutic. 

However, too many people keep their television on constantly, giving it half an eye even when they are occupied with other things. It means that neither the programme nor what they are doing is getting their full attention. They are, in fact, gaining little from either.

Glued To the Box

If the televising is always switched on, family conversation is bound to suffer. We all want to feel that others are eager and interested to hear what happened in our day. But, however amusing a little anecdote or thoughtful an observation, we don’t want to compete with a favorite soap opera in telling it. Children, too, do not like to feel pushed aside for television. If they want or tell you something it is immediately, as they come rushing in from the garden or home from school. If you put them off because your gaze is wandering to the television screen, you will spoil this spontaneity, and communication, which is so essential in your relationship. 

Read further . . . . 

How to Cope With the Empty Nest Syndrome

Many parents feel lost when their children grow up and leave home – but it can mark the beginning of a new found freedom.

Many parents at home looking after small children feel as if they will never again have time to themselves. They long for the freedom to go out just when they want to, without complicated arrangements with friends or babysitters. Later, with older children, they may sometimes resent the demands for food at odd hours and the piles of dirty washing. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, many parents feel an emptiness, which is hard to fill when the children leave home. 

If we can see bringing up children as just one stage in our lives, we are less likely to be frustrated by the limitations it imposes, or to be saddened when it ends. The  more we have relaxed and enjoyed our children, the more we are likely to see their growing up and leaving home as a satisfactory achievement, rather than as something to be longed for or regretted. 

Widening Your Experiences  

The experience of having children and responding to the first a babies, then later as adolescents and adults, can make a great contribution to our own maturity. But, of course, we are never just parents; we are people in our own right, just as our children are. Although we need to give our children lots of time and attention, we also need to save some of our energy for the world outside the home. 

Try to maintain contact with old friends and to make new ones. Keep up your interests, especially those that take you beyond the home, and where possible envelop new ones. The more experience you have of the world outside the home, the more interesting you will be, to both yourself and them. 

The less dependent you are on you children for fulfillment, the more you will enjoy their company - not only while they are at home but also later when they have left. They will see you not just as a parent but as a person with ideas and doubts, faults and virtues, someone they can turn to and confide in. 

But however varied your life, there will inevitably be a gap when your children leave home. Not only is there less cooking and shopping, they are no longer there to talk to or enliven the house. Even if you complain when they turn up the volume on the radio, you may be surprised just how much you actually miss all the noise when it is no longer there.   

Rediscovering Your Partner

For some this can be a time for rediscovering their relationship with their partner, going out and doing things together as a couple rather than as a family. For others, especially single parents, this is not possible, and parting with children may be an even greater wrench. The house may, quite literally, be silent without them. 

The best time to face up to your children leaving is not when they go, but several years earlier while you still have an important role as a parent, though many of your responsibilities have eased. Now is the moment to look at yourself and decide what you want to do with the rest of your life. Try to see the years ahead as full of opportunities which you can really enjoy and make the most of it – then you will be able to accept your children’s departure more easily, when it comes.  

American Bondage by Sallie Holt. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Reversing Roe v. Wade is just the beginning. Abortion is no longer legal under any circumstance. Rape victim, Hope Archer must give up her scholarship and carry the rapist’s baby to term. After she and the baby die during childbirth, her mother vows revenge. Brilliant scientist, Margaret Archer finds the ultimate revenge on the presidential candidate, who she believes is most responsible.

Book Review: Ivan and the Magic Ring

A South African, Danie De Villiers has recently published his first book ever, Ivan and the Magic Ring. It was published in eBook format and it is a book that is recommended.

This is a story for children of all ages; even for adults who still believe in the magic of being a child!

It is about Ivan, a little boy living with his grandparents. They are not rich but they have love in their hearts and this love takes him on a journey of discovering the beauty in life and nurturing the blessing to forget and forgive those with ulterior, selfish motives.

 Yes, it is all about a magic ring, but don’t we all, not only children, want to believe in magic once in our lives? 

Take this journey of discovery with Ivan and let us all see the beauty all around us! Maybe we will complete this journey as better and wiser people!

You can check out more detail on this book by following this link

Five Kid's Jokes

To be a kid is certainly the best time of your life. It is especially the innocence of a child that is the source of many kids' jokes. Here are my five favorites.

1. Count vs. Talk

Sitting opposite a little girl in the train, a man asks her, "You are so cute. How old are you?"

She holds up four fingers. 

The man repeats his question and again she holds up four fingers.

"How many is that," he asks, "can't you talk?"

"Yes I can. Can't you count?"

2. Emptiness 

Six-year old Mary comes home from school complaining that she has stomach ache.

Her mother tells her that it is because her stomach is empty but she will feel better once she has something in it.

She gives Mary a healthy snack and some juice and sure enough, she feels better!

Later on, during the afternoon, their Reverend drops in for a visit and while they are talking, he tells her mother that he had a headache all day.

Then Mary pipes in, "It is because your head is empty. You'd feel better if you had something in it."

3. Must I Eat Spinach?

A five-year old girl is refusing to eat her spinach.

Her mother says, "Eat up your spinach darling, and you will grow up to be wise and beautiful."

The little girl thinks about this for a while, looks her mother up and down and then innocently asks, "Didn't they have spinach when you were young, mother?"

4. Not Now, Please!

A woman is trying to get the last bit of tomato sauce out of the bottle when the phone rings. Her six-year old daughter answers the phone, "Oh, hello Reverend. Mommy can't come to the phone right now, she's hitting the bottle," and she puts the phone down!

5. Tooth Fairy

After losing another tooth, Jimmy became more curious about the mysterious tooth fairy.

Finally deriving a conclusion, he came right out and asked his mother, "Mom, are you the tooth fairy?"

Assuming he was old enough to hear the truth, she replied, "Yes Jimmy, I am."

Jimmy seemed to take this news quite well.

However, as he headed for the door, he slowly turned back toward his mother with a curious look on his face and said, "Wait a minute mom. How do you get into the other kids' houses?"