Contagious Lifestyle

Archive for November, 2010

Millions of women who work from home and take care of their children have forgotten their beauty. Mothers have a habit of putting themselves last when it comes to their children, but it does not have to be that way. Mothers who do not take pride in how they look oftentimes become depressed and it shows to their children. There are many simple ways a mother can revamp her style without neglecting her children.

The easiest way to recharge your self-esteem is with a new hairstyle or hair color. Leave the kids with someone you trust and have some alone time at the salon. Even something as little as a new haircut can make you feel like a million bucks and typically inspires a few minor changes that change the way you look at yourself in the mirror. Shopping for clothes is not a priority for most work-at-home moms because there is no need to get dressed up. It is true that you may wear jeans to work in instead of professional wear, but you can still spice it up a little bit.

Instead of putting on your lazy jeans every day, go out and buy a pair of jeans that are comfortable, stylish, and fit your body style. Having a good pair of jeans that fits can make all the difference in the world. Once you put on those new jeans, you will not want to stop there. Shoes always make a woman feel more feminine and you cannot go wrong with a pair of wedges when you are chasing down the little ones. Moms everywhere are taking advantage of Toms Shoes. Toms shoes are stylish and when you purchase one pair, the company gives a pair of shoes to a child that needs them. The boost of self-esteem will not only be from looking great but also helping those in need.

The thoughts a young woman has when she is making plans to spend the rest of her life with the most fabulous guy seem to come right out of a fairytale, and to be honest they do. Although I would want no other role in the world than that of a stay-at-home-mom, it does come with its own set of challenges.

For instance, this morning I burned the kids’ breakfast and had to prepare it again, couldn’t find my daughter’s other sock, managed to have them late for school (again), and just discovered the bill, that my husband told me to pay a week ago, somehow managed to slide off of my dresser and underneath it.

Still I wouldn’t have it any other way. Sure there are challenges, but there is also nothing that to compares to seeing your child take their first steps. That experience alone is just breathtaking and makes everything else worth it.

Another area I wasn’t quite prepared for was the weight gain following each of my five pregnancies. The photo I took at our annual family picnic put things into perspective though. Now I embark on one of the hardest parts of being a mother and that is being a good example to my kids in the area of taking care of my physical body. I figured it was time to invest in some good running shoes.

I recently got a great deal on some Nike Air Pegasus+ 27 sneakers which have, in my opinion, helped me to lose over 30 pounds. Although my son says he misses the “pillow” he used to snuggle up to in my mid-section, I know that the changes I made to my lifestyle will positively affect my children.

There’s a delicate balance to strike when you have an adorable child. Do you keep quiet to avoid annoying people with excess sharing? Or do you let the pictures and stories spread like wildfire, enriching the lives of (and possibly aggravating) all those who cross its path? One great way to find a middle-ground is to start a "baby profile" on a major social network.

One of the best places to do this is Facebook. As the largest social media company, Facebook provides a lot of great sharing options. From picture and video sharing to blog entries and more, a Facebook page provides every format that you’ll need to let people keep up-to-date with your beautiful bundle of joy.

Here’s how you can set up your baby profile:
1) Make sure you have an email address that you aren’t already using on Facebook.
2) Visit the Facebook signup page and register as you normally would. The only difference is that you will now be entering information as if you were your child.
3) Upload a profile picture of your baby, and otherwise enrich the page with "so cute I could just eat you up" media.
4) Send out "friend suggestions" or "friend requests" to everyone you think might want to get updates. This unobtrusive method of asking "do you want to hear" is a great way to decide who sees these updates.

Once you’ve established this profile, all you need to do is check back in every once in a while. Your check-ins will allow you to post baby status updates, add new pictures, post videos, tell stories through the "notes" section, and otherwise let people know what’s going on. Don’t be surprised, however, if you also have some new "friend requests" for your baby to accept, since friends and family may find the profile and decide they want to keep tabs on the little angel.

One of the perils of being a mom who works from home is that you have to keep pretty careful track of your finances. It’s not like being retired because you’re still going on your active income (income you work for) instead of your passive income (income that works for you). But it is still a little stressful to not go into an office and be handed a regular check every so often. If you’re like most people, it can put you a little on edge, especially in the beginning. After all, you’re probably used to your finances being really easy — just work, get paid, pay the bills and then spend the rest on whatever you like.

Of course, having kids takes away some of that blessed simplicity. But they make up for it, don’t they? The real problem happens when you start to think of "creative" things you can do with your finances. Buying stocks and bonds online is great, but it’s all too easy to tread a little too quickly into the realm of credit cards. And if they get to be too high, you end up having to go to a debt consolidation service to keep yourself from having a major setback (not to mention a pretty bad ulcer).

After awhile, when your nerves stop jittering and you get into a kind of at home flow, you start to relax on your finances a little bit. You’d be smart to still stay on top of things, like making your bill payments automatic and getting onto the list of people they don’t send junk mail to anymore. Really, it’s the little things that you do every day that really add up in life, whether you realize it or not. And when you take care of a lot of little things, pretty soon the big ones don’t seem all that big. Just more little things!

It’s a fact of life that accidents are bound to happen around your home. While you may have something like 21st Century Insurance covering big problems like fire or flood, you have no one but yourself to rely on for those little dangers. When you’re a stay-at-home mom it’s up to you to take the initiative on a lot of things around the house. This includes safe proofing your home to avoid accidents. This is duly important when you’ve got little ones in the house.

First and foremost, you need to keep all dangerous objects out of reach and in secure locations. Most households for instance keep toxic cleaners in the bottom cupboards of their kitchen. Unfortunately, this presents an easy opportunity for children to get into them. Keep children out by placing knob covers on doors, preventing children from being able to pull them open.

Another thing you want to prevent children from getting into are electrical outlets. We know kids love to wander around with their toys and we also know their endless curiosity prompts them to stick them in random places. Using outlet plugs will prevent them from jamming anything in there and avoid the chance of electrocuting themselves.

To keep kids from wandering at all, just simply place retractable gates around a room in your home. This will keep them in a safe area and keep them from leaving your sight.

The reality, however, is that it is impossible to make your home 100 percent safe proof. You can spend an entire day going through your home trying to come up with every scenario in which an accident can happen, and you’ll ultimately be surprised by the one that does. This just means you need to be prepared for it. Make sure you have a first aid kit in the house. Also, keep all emergency numbers near the phone.