Cherish the Moments

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matroskaThe Holiday’s are stressful enough.

Between dealing with family rifts, sniveling with neighbors over your mooning Santa on the rooftop, or debating how much you really want to spend on gifts for everyone – there is always something ridiculous to deal with.

How about sitting back and taking it all in for once.

Seriously, do you recall seeing your child’s facial expression while?

  • Turning on the Christmas lights for the first, second, or third time?
  • Playing with the icky sticky cookie dough and dumping an excessive amount of sprinkles on those sugar cookies?
  • Lighting the Menorah during Hanukkah?
  • Waiting in line forever to sit on Santa’s lap?
  • Building a snowman during the first snowfall of the season?
  • Singing carols even if you do not know the words, while sipping on hot cocoa or apple cider?
  • Opening up presents EARLY Christmas morning?
  • Watching them interact with their grandparents – 10 to 20 times their age?

The list could go on and on…

Put the credit cards away, set the camcorders aside.  Be involved.  Be around.  Be active!

The moments you remember now, they will cherish at your age.

Peas Out!

~daddy b.

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Holiday Giveaway! Win a Complete Holiday Dinner From Save A Lot!

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MomActive is budget conscious and loves a good deal. When I was asked if our readers would be interested in hearing about how to put together a meal from Save A Lot for under $20 I immediately though “absolutely!  If your family is watching budgets as closely as mine is, you’ll be pleased to know that your holiday meal doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg!

Take a look at what $19.31 would get you at Save A Lot:

9 lb Sugardale Shank Portion Ham

2 Lbs Fresh Jumbo Sweet Potatoes

Fresh Express Garden Salad Mix

16 ounce bottle Portman’s Salad Dressing

2 Cans Wylwood Canned Vegetables (corn, peas or green beans)

20 ounce can of Libby’s Pineapple

So-Cheezy Shells and Cheddar

Grissom’s Brown & Serve Rolls

Mrs. Smith’s Apple or Cherry Pie

(** we recognize that there are a few choices on here that MomActive wouldn’t ordinarily recommend but it’s a holiday and we’re splurging a bit!)

Two lucky readers will win a complete holiday dinner from Save A Lot!  For those who don’t win, Save A Lot has offered a coupon for $5 off your next purchase of $20 or more.  With this savings the above meal could be purchased for under $15.

SAL_300x250v2click this image to print your $5 coupon!

TWO MomActive readers will win a $20 gift card from Save A Lot to cover the cost of their holiday dinner!  Winners will be announced on Friday 12/18/09

To Enter (please leave a comment for each entry):

1. Leave a comment and tell us how you plan to spend your holidays

2. Subscribe to MomActive blog feed HERE

3. Fan MomActive on Facebook HERE

4. Sign up for the MomActive Forum HERE and introduce yourself!

5. Follow @momactive on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway

Dinner is on us!  Enter to win a Free Holiday Dinner #momactive http://bit.ly/7Ub0NJ

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The Power of a Smile

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1207721_happyThis weekend my mother and I went to afternoon tea.

We skipped the holiday hustle and bustle and we went to a little tea room that made us feel as if we were a world away. It was painted on the inside as an English garden, complete with sky, clouds, and a gazebo where my mother and I sat. We had a nice view of a painted pasture. All we needed was a little wind and maybe a bird and we would have, indeed, thought we were outside.

For a couple of hours, we reconnected. We did what we do best: we talked. And talked. And we talked some more. And we took down two pots of Cherry Caramel tea.

We closed the place down.

The owners, who were a mother and a daughter just a little older than us, began to clean up. The daughter waited on us and I hadn’t seen her mother until she came out and started to take the linens off the tables.

She was a short, petite woman with shoulder-length brown, wavy hair. Her face was drawn and hardened and with her olive skin, appeared statuesque. At first, she intimidated me. She didn’t look happy as she went about her work, clearing tables and folding linens, and I found myself sitting at my table watching her, wishing I knew what her day was like.

My mother and I have always dreamed of owning a tea room together, of coming in early in the morning and turning on the radio in the kitchen, singing and dancing while we baked away and talked about new recipes and what my crazy toddlers were up to. I envied this woman for making our dream come true with her daughter.

I continued to watch her going from table to table with a stoic expression and then she turned toward me and our eyes met.

She smiled at me as if she recognized me even though I knew she really didn’t and I smiled back.

What struck me most was how, with one smile, her entire face had changed. She had softened. With one smile, she was unlike anything I had thought while I watched her work. With one smile, her entire personality on the outside was entirely transformed. With one smile, my perception of her had changed, and so too, had the mood of the room. It was no longer cold and intimidating. It, like her face, became soft and welcoming and comfortable. I felt ashamed for thinking what I had thought about her and I was so pleasantly surprised inside to see such a wonderful, glowing, happy mother smiling back at me. She told me her entire life’s story with just one smile.

How interesting that an entire climate could change with one smile. How the outcome of an entire experience or entire day can change with just one smile.

How one little tiny expression can say so much.

How often we go about our day to day, stuck in our own minds, our own worlds, our own agendas, without acknowledging the people around us all doing the same. Serious, solemn expressions and looks of concern on the outside, which may not even be what’s going on in the inside at all!

There is just something wonderful about a smile. How it literally, physically, softens someone’s face and makes it just so beautiful. How it can take years off a person’s face and how layers of troubles and worry and concern can just melt away with a smile. How a smile can make a person who seems so unapproachable and “Closed for Business”, so open.

I realized from her smile that I forget to do it myself. All the time. Especially during the holiday season when I’m supposed to be the cheeriest, and instead I find myself stuck in the house with two sick children, behind in my cleaning, shopping, exercising and everything else in my life and so overwhelmed that I don’t even remember, let alone make the time, to smile.

One simple little gesture that can lift the moods of my children, my husband, even the sales clerk who refuses to double check a price for me. And more importantly, myself.

Even if, like me, you can’t keep up with the holidays, you worry about being able to afford all the gifts and the bills, you worry about the health of your families and you find yourself overwhelmed, try to remember to do one small thing. Smile. It doesn’t cost a thing and for even just a moment, a smile makes everything okay. It can change someone’s day, someone’s week, or someone’s life. Maybe even your own. And it’s so worth it.

For the first time this weekend, I was lucky enough to witness it. The power of just one smile.

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10 Ways to Enjoy the Holidays and Health

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1244412_christmas_background_2With the holidays upon us I wanted to take some time to talk about the effects that this busy time of year can have on our health.  It is tempting to push yourself with the amount of activity on the calendar this time of year.  Here are a few tips for taking care of yourself while still enjoying this joyful time of year.

  1. Pace yourself. It is not wise to plan several events in one day, especially if you don’t allot any time for rest in between.  It is better to attend a few get togethers and truly enjoy yourself than attend many and end up feeling yucky!
  2. Remember to maintain  a healthy diet.  Pigs in a blanket and eggnog do not a healthy diet make!  Certain medications need you to maintain your intake for your body to metabolize them properly (such as anti-coagulants).  So, don’t forget to eat and when you do eat, try to keep the foods as nutritious as possible.
  3. Be careful with alcohol, especially if it is contraindicated with any of your medications.  Even if it doesn’t interfere with any meds, alcohol can impair your balance.  So again, be careful!
  4. Take a nap.  Even if it is just for 15-30 minutes it allows your body to re-energize. You will feel better physically and mentally.
  5. Take time to enjoy the little things this holiday season.  There are a lot of ways that limitations may affect your holidays but there is so much more to be thankful for so focus on the positive!
  6. Do a lot of your shopping online. This avoids exposing yourself to the crowds at the malls (and the germs if you are immuno-compromised) and allows you to save your energy for spending time with family and friends.
  7. Keep it simple.  If you are entertaining or participating in holiday events, resist the urge to go all out, thus exhausting yourself.  Your guests are coming to spend time with you.  So, if that means sticking a frozen lasagna in the oven leaves you feeling up to visiting and enjoying your company, that is just fine!
  8. Get some sunlight.  Being indoors too much limits your Vitamin D intake.  Vitamin D is not only good for your mental health but your neurological health as well.  Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a risk this year, especially for those of us cooped up.  Ways to avoid this are to spend time doing things you enjoy, with people you enjoy and to get outdoors when you can.
  9. Laugh! Laughter is awesome medicine and the holidays are usually full of opportunities to laugh at others and yourself (in a nice way of course:-)
  10. Remember the true reason for the season.  The birth of Christ, being thankful and making goals for the new year that is almost upon us.  The world is about so much more than just us- so reach out and help someone less fortunate.  That will always make you feel better!
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Effective Discipline

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195274_look_me_in_the_eyeNo matter the age of your child, one of the major components of healthy parenting is BALANCE. You can give allllll the positive reinforcement in the world, but if negative behavior is not met with appropriate consequential action, your child is never going to become a disciplined individual. The goal is to help your child develop self discipline so that they are proactively making good decisions on the front end without your intervention. In order to do this, you must first reprimand them when they make bad decisions. Don’t just stop at rebuke, however. You should always combine whatever punishment is necessary with an explanation as to not only exactly WHAT your child did wrong, but WHY that was not the right action to take. Some things may seem as though common sense should serve as proper explanation, but not when it comes to children. They need to hear it… and they need to hear it repeatedly.

Consistency is a key factor which decides whether or not your discipline strategies are going to be successful or not. If you are consistent, chances are that even if your techniques are flawed you will still have a much stronger impact on your child’s behavior than someone who practices fly-by-night disciplinary action simply because your child at least knows without a doubt that SOME action will take place when they mess up. The moment your child figures out that all you are going to do is threaten them with actions that are never carried out, your authority in their life becomes null and void. Unless your child just reaaaaallly wants to mind you { … LOL … } then you can kiss any control you had over them goodbye at this point. If you tell your child they will be grounded, get put in time out, or receive a spanking if they repeat such-and-such behavior, you should NEVER fail to enforce the consequences assigned to that behavior.

Children may rebel against you. They may act angry. They will likely be resentful. Parents are easily manipulated when children play on their emotions. Remember that your child needs you to be the authority in their life. They have friends – you should not compromise your role as their parent by trying to fit into the role of being their friend. When it’s all said and done, sacrificing that moment of friendly tolerance is going to instill priceless values in them and is going to save them from a great deal of bad experiences in the future. Above all, discipline should always be done out of love - not frustration and CERTAINLY not anger. You’re enforcing consequences for their benefit, so that they grow up to be productive contributors to society and so that they are afforded every possible opportunity in life to reach their highest goals.

What are YOUR best discipline tips?

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Now is the time.

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It never fails. May rolls around and most woman start scrambling to get their workouts in because the dreaded idea of getting into a swim suit is looming over them. They get discouraged and frustrated when they don’t see the results fast enough. Typically for the average person working out consistently (depending on how much they need to lose) it can take 4 weeks to a solid 3 months to see major results and body transformations. Obviously this depends on the person, but the point is it takes time.

“Your body gets used to whatever workout program you are doing in roughly 3-4 weeks, so if you don’t keep changing SOMETHING about your workouts, you may find yourself reaching what’s called a “training plateau” and stop making noticeable progress. Rule of thumb: whenever you start to get a little bored with your routine, it’s time to change things to keep it interesting and varied. If you are not getting the results you want in 6 weeks, its time to make some more dramatic changes!”

-Body Results

This is why this time of the year is the BEST TIME of the year to workout. This is my favorite time to put in the hard work. Yes it can be harder to find the motivation when its cloudy, cold, and raining… but soooo worth it. Nothing is better than busting your butt now whatever way you can. Get in the runs whenever the weather permits and save the workout DVDs when you are holed up in the house. This is what I try to do.

It’s way too easy to not pay attention to your weight when you are covered with the bulky winter clothes. NOW IS THE TIME TO START. It does feel pretty amazing to be able to strip off the sweaters and feel confident about your body. Imagine actually feeling excited to jump in the pool and enjoy the summer time. To not dread bathing suit shopping? It’s a pretty neat feeling.
START NOW.
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One Woman’s Story of Triumph over Tragedy through Crocheting

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martha harrisAfter being hit by a moving car and thrown from her bike while returning home from dinner with her husband, Martha Harris awoke in the emergency room to some harsh realities.  She was told in that moment she may lose her leg by amputation, and though her leg was later saved, Martha was only at the beginning of a long road to recovery.

I stumbled upon the story of Martha Harris in the December 7th, 2009 issue of First For Women magazine.  This article moved me so much that I reached out to her asking if I too could interview her to write an inspirational article to be featured on my blog.  She graciously obliged me.

This story is inspirational because Martha, a young woman, found success and purpose crocheting hats after a tragic and random, near death accident left her wondering if she would walk again.

“Many bones were broken in my body, and I have had 4 separate surgeries to reconstruct my leg, arm and collar bone.”

But shockingly, not so much as a scratch or bruise on her head or back.  Her body required a lengthy healing time, which included lots of therapy and prayers.   However, she did bounce back to her pre-accident self…but with a new perspective on life.

“It was amazing to see all the mercy and love poured out to me by loved ones and strangers alike.  It put more of an urgency in my heart to give back to others that are less fortunate than me.”

modernvirtue hat with buttonsCrocheting as a part of her therapy to soothe and help with hand dexterity, she began creating hats and scarves and before long, people were asking if they could buy them.

“Last Christmas Eve, I was able to go into the slums of Camden NJ to give out hats and winter clothing to the children that lived there.”

Giving away these adorable hats and scarves to needy children gave Martha a great sense of purpose and it became clear, she had found her calling.  Martha even started a crochet circle and charitable group called Crochet for Cause, creating hats for little girls in need living in Camden, New Jersey.

modernvirtue scarfYou can buy her lovely creations at Modern Virtues on Etsy.  10% of all proceeds are donated by Martha to Covenant Mercies, a non-profit organization helping impoverished people locally and globally.  So when you purchase a one-of-a-kind, crocheted hat or scarf you are also helping someone less fortunate and supporting a real stand up gal, whose real-life story should inspire and motivate all of us.

You can contact Martha Harris directly at mlouwright@gmail.com.

If you have a story that you think is inspiring, and want to tell, please contact me here.

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Keeping It Healthy While Traveling For The Holidays

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1105898_vacationThis time of the year, many people spend a lot of time traveling on road trips to see extended family. I know from my own experience that traveling can really throw a monkey wrench into a family’s healthy eating habits. I implement a few simple ideas in our household which helps to keep us away from junk and fast food as well as keeping the anxiety of traveling with children to a minimum.

Get small insulated cooler to travel with. I have a small, soft sided cooler similar to this that I keep right next to me in the front seat. That way I can easily access a snack when little tummies begin to rumble. It is also a great idea to invest in a water bottle for each child to carry a healthy drink along. Our girls’ drink of choice is milk, so I also choose insulated water bottles to keep the milk fresh for a couple of hours.

Pack a selection of snacks for the children to choose from. We pack a variety of healthy food:

Cut vegetables (carrots, cucumbers, celery, etc.)
Small bowl of a dip (hummus work great as it is thick enough not to spill in the car.)
Small cut up sandwiches (can be peanut butter, ham & cheese or some other favorite) It is a good idea to cut into quarters to make easy for little fingers to handle.
Wraps work well for this too. Make some roll ups and cut into child sized pieces.
Granola bars.
Fruit: grapes, apples, orange slices (pre-peel to save a mess in the car).
Crackers, rice cakes, popcorn, pretzels, etc.
Cut cheese

I try to avoid any snack that takes a spoon (yogurt, applesauce, etc) or that might be messy or crumby (muffins, etc.) However, if you will be eating in the car, make sure to keep a large tub of wipes handy for cleanup.

Prepare and pack the cooler a day or 2 ahead of time. All of the foods I listed can be assembled a day ahead to alleviate stress on the actual day of the trip. And, if your children are anything like ours, you will want to make enough of each snack for each child, since what one wants- all others will too.

These tips really aid us in keeping the peace during our long road trips and also keeping us out of convenience stores and fast food restaurants. There are many studies linking convenience store foods to the pediatric obesity epidemic and we all know the downfalls of eating calorie and fat laden fast food. Most people are already lax on their nutrition during the holidays with snacks and desserts, so following these tips will help keep some semblance of a wholesome diet while on the road.

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Are you a FB Fan? Win a $50 Amazon.com Gift Card!

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What Healthy Habits Do You Model For Your Children?

This is the question MomActive is asking you!  Become a fan of MomActive on Facebook and enter a message on our wall telling us what Healthy Habits you model for your children.  You could be the lucky winner of a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate!

*Fiona will be announcing the winner LIVE during the MomActive webcast on MomTV.com December 16th at 10pm ET. Be sure to visit the MomActive Channel on MomTV.com and sign up for a reminder!

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PJ’s For the Cure to Raise $1 Million for JDRF

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CharlieLizKomar

MomActive believes in Giving Back and so does Komar, the largest sleepwear and intimate apparel manufacturer in the United States.  Komar has set up a website called PJsforthecure.com in an effort to raise $1 million for the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).  100% of every sale on Pjsforthecure.com will be donated to JDRF.

From the website:

The inspiration for PJs for the Cure originated with Charlie Komar, President & CEO of the 101 year old family company. Charlie explains, “In 1990, my wife, Liz, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. She was suddenly completely dependent upon synthetic insulin to keep her alive. She checks her blood sugar levels several times a day and is very careful of her eating habits and activities to ensure that she does not fall into a diabetic coma or worse. The realization of how serious her condition is and the dangers associated with it completely changed our lives.”

The efforts of JDRF and finding a cure for Juvenile Diabetes is a cause that MomActive has committed to being a part of.  One of our loyal community members was recently touched by this disease when her daughter was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes.  Later this week on BTR, MomActive Live will be speaking with Kelly Loubet @childhood about what led her to test her daughters urine for sugar and the blur of events that followed, ultimately resulting in a life-changing diagnosis for her daughter Ali.  Tune in Tuesday at 11am ET HERE.

We encourage you to visit PJsforthecure.com to support this great cause and give recognition to a company that is giving back.

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