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Ideas, insights and inspiration for busy people on the go Friday, September 23, 2005 |
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Editor’s Scribbles
Last Saturday night was the Mid-Autumn Festival, or what is also commonly known as the Lantern Festival. The kids were excited, of course. I took my daughters to the park to meet up with their friends to light their lanterns.
Turned out the whole neighborhood was there, and there was a party in full swing with music, food and contests. Luckily it was a warm night too and I got away without a single mosquito bite (LOL).
I’d had a full day that day and another full day Sunday. It used to be that weekends were spent at home with none of the rush of weekdays. Not anymore! Somehow more and more activities seem to have creeped into my weekends.
Well, here’s wishing you a laid-back stress-free weekend. Me? Looks like I’m headed for another full weekend of family dinners and running about town. I’m harboring secret hopes of sneaking off to a sale downtown. What? I must be crazy!!? (LOL)
I’ll see you back here next week
Kit Editor/Publisher Website: http://MinuteChaser.Go-GetGlobal.com Email: chaser@go-getglobal.com
Modern Living Dealing with Family Stress by Trevor Dumbleton One of the problems with family stress is the fact that knows where you live. After all, it tends to show up exactly where you live: at home. This tends to be a bad thing, since working people generally try to come home in order to relieve their stress. Of course, it is even worse for those who are full-time homemakers, since the source of stress is there all the time. In fact, even going to a job every day seems like it would be a nice stress relief. Thus, when family stress starts rearing its ugly head, it is time to take stock of things and figure out a way of lessening it. The first thing to do, when dealing with family stress, is to let go of the illusion that the home is somehow a place a rest and tranquility that is utterly free from any sort of stress. Let's face it, it's just not true. Though you love your family and enjoy spending time with them, home life can be very stressful. After all, you have many people there who have a lot of expectations of you and you cannot fulfill all of those expectation all of the time. So understand that stress can enter the home and you will be halfway there. The next step in lessening family stress is to actually spend time with your family. One of the best ways to spend time with your family is at the dinner table. Just sitting down with your entire family and enjoying a meal is a way to connect with everyone. Do not eat dinner in front of the television but, rather, sit in the dining room or kitchen and just share a meal. At first, it may be quiet and there may not be much to talk about, but this will come in time. As it slowly sink into your family members' minds that there is nothing to do but talk to each other, conversation will start flowing. The next step in alleviating family stress is to have fewer expectations of your family members. Yes, you expect your spouse to be absolutely devoted to everything you say and do, you expect your kids to be straight-A students and you expect your home to be immaculate all the time every day. Tip for you: Not going to happen. Homes are not perfect any more than people are perfect. As in, not at all. Imperfections are part of home life and you will need to learn how to deal with them. Accept the bad, enjoy the good, and let everyone be human. Then everyone will have much less stress and, as a result, everyone will be much happier. Next, accept the fact that you are not a superhero. Despite the fact that you want to be able to work hard every day, spend plenty of time with your kids, drive them to every sports/music/dance practice and be there for every game/recital/performance, it is not going to happen. Yes, you can make every effort to be there all the time and it is very important that you try, you cannot be everyplace all at once. Learn to appreciate the fact that you are not going to be perfect. You may try and you may be largely successful, but you cannot be everything you wish you could be. So accept your own humanity and allow yourself to be human too. Finally, when you want to relieve family stress, do not force it. Yes, you want everything to come easy and you want to be able to connect with your kids all the time, but that is not always possible. Children change, often in surprising ways, and you need to learn how to accept that. This is especially difficult with teenage children, since they tend to be moody, elusive, and sometimes even obnoxious. However, by accepting them for who they are and dealing with the fact that they are not ready to open up to you all at once, you will relieve a great deal of family stress. This is especially true if you have not been able to reach them for some time, since they tend to be closed off and reluctant to open up to their parents. So accept that it will take some time for you to make some connections and understand that things may not always be as easy as you hope. After all, if something was easy, it wouldn't be worth doing, would it? Family stress is difficult to deal with, but it is not impossible. By accepting your own limitations, as well as those of your family, you can save yourself a lot of worry and concern by simply understanding that your family is composed of different people. Different people who have their own lives, their own concerns, and their own unique way of seeing things. By accepting that, you can understand their points of view and come to grips with the fact that family stress is, oftentimes, just a fact of life. ----- About the author: LowerYourStress.com: for everything to do with stress. Get a free ebook to help with your stress levels: http://www.loweryourstress.com/stress-book.html
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Offpeak Hours Five Accessories to Brighten Your Home by Dakota Caudilla Home accessories come in all shapes, colors and sizes and there's an accessory for every room in your home. Finding creative ways to use pillows, lighting, mirrors, flowers and candles can make all the difference if you are feeling trapped in a dull home. Consider some of the following ideas for a quick makeover. A pillow's decorative punch Decorative pillows can add warmth, texture and dramatic accents to your home interior. Choose bright colors and bold patterns to add life to an otherwise boring couch or lounge chair. Add a colorful floral pattern to your stiff classical furniture to add a dash of the earth's warmth. Bold patterns always look dramatic against plain fabrics and surfaces. For every two patterned pillows, throw in a plain pillow to break the pattern. Too much pattern can become tiring on the eye. Light's subtle message Interior lighting can work pure wonders. Whether you want to create atmosphere or attract attention to a piece of artwork or special piece of furniture, the type of lighting effect you choose will make all the difference. Consider having two lighting options in your home. First, create a lighting design to suit your own practical needs when in the house alone. For example, when you are cleaning or reading you'll need a large bright central ceiling light. But this isn't appropriate when you have friends over. As a second lighting option create 'entertainment lighting' by choosing subtle small lights that you may hang behind or above furniture or on a side table or in the base of an indoor potted plant. Mirror, mirror on the wall Mirrors do two things. They create the illusion of extra space and they reflect scenes. The secret to hanging a mirror is to know just that. In a cramped room a strategically placed mirror could offer you the extra space you thought only remodeling would do. Always hand a mirror opposite things you want to see more of: opposite a piece of artwork, or window, or indoor plant. Fresh flower power Fresh flowers (or even good artificial ones) in a room can bring inside all the freshness of the outside world and literally transform a room. Match flowers with the colors of you accessories. Or place them on a table in front of a mirror. The incandescent radiance of candles Candles, whether lit or unlit, make the great final touch to your home. Use scented candles in the bathroom and votive candles to add that decorative touch to a formal dinner. ----- About the author: Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.stylish-home-accessories.com on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
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IN THIS ISSUE Editor’s Scribbles Modern Living Dealing with Family Stress Ad Board Offpeak Hours Five Accessories to Brighten Your Home Water Cooler Earn a FREE classified - easy!
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Issue 0509-23. Copyright 2004-2005 Minute Chaser Ezine. All rights reserved in all countries. |
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