There is no doubt that women who work outside the home (for pay) contribute top line income to their household finances. But recently I got to wondering what a working mother's true impact is to the household bottom line (net earnings after expenses). Then I wondered...by staying home, does your average nonworking mother decrease household expenses enough to offset what her income would have been if she were working outside of the home? And how could one quantify the value of a stay at home mother's investment in direct child rearing? How could one quantify any woman's contributions to her household or, for that matter, to society at large? All women deserve to know that they are making a valuable contribution to the world around them. Let's explore some assumptions to help women quantify their value both to their immediate household and to their community as a whole.

Knitting has long had a reputation as an old woman’s past time. Images of rocking chairs, wrinkles and white hair spring most readily to mind. Contrast this image with the one you would see if you happened into the Così in Reston Town Center on any given Wednesday night. Around 20 knitters of all ages, including single women, mothers, career women and retirees gather there for the Reston Stitch & Bitch meeting.

I decided to find out why these women knit. After all, you can buy socks in the store for less than it costs to knit them. A Walmart cardigan is already finished and about a quarter the cost of all the yarn and other supplies (to say nothing of the time) needed to knit one. So why knit? What is the appeal? Why willingly associate yourself with the little old lady in the tweedy bird cartoons?

The frightening reality of the Internet is that on-line predators rarely give it a rest. It falls on the shoulders of wise parents to both monitor their children’s on-line activities and keep enough distance so that they can have the privacy they deserve.

United Parents represents a major technological advance over today’s predominant online child-safety tools, which only filter the web or block certain sites.  United Parents is an Israeli startup that has developed what was originally anti-fraud software used by credit card companies and banks in order to monitor kids where they really live online – their personal social network and I.M. connections.  Yet, it does it in a way that respects them and keeps their privacy intact.

In an effort to make integrative services more affordable and accessible, NOVA Medical Group introduces 90 Minute group naturopathic visits with Naturopathic Physician Teerawong Kasiolarn.

Here are the meeting times:

Monday, June 20, 2011 - High Cholesterol: This Group Naturopathic Visit will address natural treatment options for managing high cholesterol.  It is scheduled from 1 – 2:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 25, 2011 – Pre-Diabetes/Diabetes: This Group Naturopathic Visit will address natural treatment options for managing pre-diabetes/diabetes.  A morning session is scheduled from 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., followed by an afternoon session from 1 – 2:30 p.m.

For more information please refer to NOVE Medical Group’s Website:

http://novamedgroup.blogspot.com/2011/05/group-naturopathic-appointments.html

 

 

 

Radiance Salon and Medi-Spa Gift Cards are the prefect gift idea for just about anyone in your life! And for the month of May, you can make a real difference in someone’s life.

A portion of all proceeds of Gift Card sales for the month of May will be donated to the Ryan Diviney Special Needs Trust.

So do something you know your friends and loved ones will love, and lend a helping hand to the Ryan Diviney Special Needs Trust.

Just click here to purchase a gift card, and make that difference.

I love my brothers... If you read this blog it is probably quite easy to tell that we're a close knit bunch. So, when my brother graduated from U.V.A. yesterday with his M.B.A., I, being the die hard Hokie that I am, let it slide and traveled to Charlottesville for the ceremony.

What quite frankly was my idea of hell- driving two hours with my kids to sit and listen to speeches, keeping them occupied for two hours in the heat, only to do the whole picture thing before turning around and driving two hours all over again... turned out to be a lovely day.

With the help of playdough, my children were entertained and the first guest speaker- one of my brother's classmates- an easy on the eyes middle-aged Navy Seal- caught my attention. Easy, easy... not because of his good looks, but because of his insight. He spoke of how when he received his first degree, it was just that- a degree. He spoke of how it often takes time for one to appreciate what you have accomplished and to reap the rewards.

Coming from a family where my parents, grandparents, etc. didn't attend college, we were always brought up that not going to college wasn't an option. My mom engrained in us that we were going to college and we were going to graduate... and she told us every day, "Your education is the one thing no one can take away from you." And to this day, she says that when all three of her children graduated college, that was one of her biggest accomplishments in life.

I'm busy. Just plain, down-right busy. Back in the days as a newlywed, I was a little worker bee. While my hubby was in flight school, I'd wake up to work in the public school system. When the bell rang, I would run to my car and head over to a group home for kid's and work an eight hour shift until midnight. And on weekends, I'd pick up overnights to make ends meet. Ya know- I went to school to find me a man- and my major never did bring home the bacon. I remember I was making $7.47 an hour- and in Norman, Oklahoma, somehow that was enough to survive.

My mama always said, "There are queen bees and there are worker bees, and I for one, am a queen bee." But I think when it comes down to it, we are all worker bees... and queen bees at heart.:) Women know how to pull through. Whether it's simple things like keeping a child entertained with a pop bottle or something major like reinventing yourself for a new phase of life, we adapt.

I want to first start by saying that I love when people e-mail me.  Sometimes I think no one in the world reads this thing and I am always pleasantly surprised when I get an e-mail from someone saying that I have helped them this week by airing out my own tribulations with weight loss.  That really is my goal here.

 

I am proud to say that my baby weight is GONE!  Gone, gone, gone.  The scale is sitting at 140 and that is where I started.  This is definitely not where I should be though.  So, I really have 15 left to get to my goal of 125.  Like I have mentioned many times before, I am human like everyone else and have my days of not doing what I am supposed to be doing with weight loss.  This past week I had a REALLY bad day with eating.  I was so overly tired from work and then picked up my precious bouncing baby boy with all this energy and had a long evening.  So, I made some coffee and had some 100 calories snack packs....ok 8 of them....and 800 calories later I still was not satisfied.  So, a pop tart was eaten, some chocolate milk was drank, and even a few cool ranch doritos made there way in there.  It was bad and I felt sick since I have not eaten like that in MONTHS.  I went to bed early in hopes that nothing else would find its way in my mouth!  But for a moment, my precious little man looked up at me while I was on my 6th little bag of cookies and I thought "What the hell am I doing????  He is watching me.  I am modeling for him.  Healthy eating and good nutrition is modeled by ME.  What the HELL am I doing??".  And there it was...back on the wagon in a great way the very next morning.