Sneaky Hacks That Will Convince The Whole Family To Exercise More

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Being a mom is a full-time job. Not only do you have to wash clothes and cook meals, but you’ve got to safeguard everybody’s health and wellbeing, too. And yes, that goes for the man of the house as well! Apparently, he’s too lazy to bother about cholesterol and working out and thinks he can get himself go.

Reasons to Keep a Journal When You’re a Creative Person or NOT!

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Whether you’re a writer, graphic designer or artist, maintaining your creativity can sometimes prove to be a real challenge. So, what can you do if your creativity starts to falter?   Really though who cares if you characterize yourself as a "creative"?  We all need help sparking our creative juices sometimes.

A journal is an excellent tool you can use to keep your creativity alive. This isn’t the type of journal you use to write your innermost thoughts and feelings (though you could use it for that purpose if it helps). Instead, a creativity journal focuses on helping you to solve problems, brainstorm ideas and practice creativity.

Here, you’ll discover just some of the reasons to keep a journal when you’re a creative person.

Helping you to practice and refine your skills

One of the best reasons to keep a creative journal is because it helps you to practice and refine your skills. Creativity doesn’t always come naturally. In fact, it often takes a lot of practicing to maintain it.

There’s always something new to learn and existing skills need to be maintained. By writing your ideas down, or practicing your drawing technique in the journal, you’ll continue to develop your skills.   

They have multiple uses

Creative journals tend to be disorganized in comparison to standard journals. This means they can be used in many different ways. 

You can turn it into a sketchbook, notebook, scrapbook or day planner. Whatever function you need it to meet you can use it for that purpose. 

Ideal for brainstorming ideas

One problem you’ve no doubt faced many times is coming up with new ideas. 

For example, a writer often struggles with “writer’s block”, finding it hard to know what to write. In this instance, a journal could be used to write down ideas, in no particular order. Free-writing can really help to get the creative juices flowing and help you to overcome that mental block.

You can use the journal to draw your ideas. You may find after doodling your ideas down, it all starts to come together. 

Silencing your inner critic

If you tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to your creativity, it could really be holding you back. That inner critic can literally kill creativity, with everything you create seeming to turn out wrong. 

A journal can help silence that inner critic. There’s absolutely no rules as to what you can and should put into it. There’s no wrong thing to write, plan or draw. It’s a safe space where your creativity can flow without being judged.


These are just some of the reasons to keep a journal when you’re a creative person. They really can help you to not just maintain your creativity, but nurture it too.   

Flawesome Award

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The fabulous Imogen nominated me for the Flawesome Award. This award was created by Sophie Ismaa and is all about celebrating our flaws and turning them into strengths.

The Rules

• Link back to the creator and thank the person who nominated you.
• Display the award on your blog.
• List three flaws and turn them into strengths.
• Tag 10 other people to celebrate their flaws too.

My Flaws

1.  Perfectionism

I tend to be extremely hard on myself.  I used to cry in grade school if I couldn't figure out a math problem.  I also beat myself up when I got my first B in 3rd grade and cried to my teacher and mom.  This, however, is a good thing because it has made me successful and driven my life long love of learning.

2.  A Superior Need for Control

I get seriously freaked out if things are out of my control.  While I was struggling with PPD, this became even more apparent.  As we all know, most of our life is outside of our control - you can only control yourself and your reactions.  It has made me a great planner at work at parties.  You name it - I own what I am doing/trying to accomplish.

3.  Extremely Emotional

I cry at commercials.  Yes, I'm that teary-eyed one if there's a baby on the TV.  My friends have made fun of me for years for how sensitive I can be.  I honestly don't know any other way of living and it has given me a huge heart.  I will give you the shirt off of my back if you need it.  I'm a great hugger and always there to be a shoulder to cry on.

Sorry for the brevity in the post, my 2-year-old is trying to attack me while I'm typing this!

I nominate

Joan Senio

Work Play Chardonnay

Victoria Austin

QuietStorm

Llama Punch

Tales From Home

Real Mom Blog

Sam Bolton

Hello Bexa

Momleficent

Does Your Child Need A Little Extra Confidence?

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Most of us know just how difficult it can be to find your confidence. After all, it's something that most of us struggle with on a daily basis. Which only serves to highlight how much harder that is when you're a kid. When you're a kid, the world is a big and scary place and you're only just starting to figure out your place in it. This can make it feel near impossible to bring up your confidence or self-esteem. It can be just as hard to be a parent watching your child go through that but you don't have to let them struggle with it alone. Here are just a few things that you can do to help your child develop a little extra confidence.


Give them some extra independence


It can be tempting to try and protect your child at every opportunity. And of course, you're going to want to do that, after all, they're your child and taking care of them is your job. However, you need to make sure that you're not smothering them. If you try to protect your child from everything and never let them have any real independence, then you run the risk of making them feel afraid of just about everything. Let them do things for themselves and show them that you trust them. That way they'll feel much more confident when it comes to taking control of their own lives.


Focus on positive reinforcement


One of the most important things to remember is that it's not always your job as a parent to say no to things. Again, this often comes from a place of wanting to protect your child but if you're only ever telling them what they can't do, then they're going to end up feeling unable to do anything. The key is to make sure that you're putting just as much effort into telling them what they can do and positively reinforcing the things that they're doing. This isn't always easy but it really can make a huge difference to how positive your child feels about their actions.


Encourage them to find a hobby


One of the very best ways to help a child feel more confident is to give them something to focus their energy onto. If your child doesn't have something like that, they can end up feeling directionless and as though they're not good at anything. Whether it's buying them a computer or typewriter if they love to write stories or poems, or maybe buying them some sports equipment or signing them up for swimming lessons if they're really active, finding something that your child enjoys and encouraging it is one of the best ways to build up their confidence. Not only that but it can help them develop really important skills that they could end up using throughout their life.



Of course, it's important to remember that your primary job when it comes to helping your child become more confident is to support them. You should make sure that you're not pushing them too hard to do one thing over anything else. Otherwise, you're almost certainly going to end up having the complete opposite effect that you were hoping for.

Does Happiness Start With Money?

Is this even a question that need answering? Because yes, at the route of everything, we think that money does equal happiness. It controls us. From the foods we buy, to the clothes we wear, to the lifestyle we’re able to live. There’s not much you can do without money, and there's not many people out there who are constantly on the hunt for more money at some point! Of course, things such as family, friends, and pets all give us a large amount of happiness, but for the most part, it’s money that we’re searching for. But, how often do you think we’re actually happy with our financial situation? Do you not think we’re more focused on the negative aspects of money, rather than focusing on the positives? We think that most people are. So we want to show you why, and how, your happiness can start with money, and that money actually does make you happy!

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How Can Money Make Us Happy
Money can and does make us happy, as we have stated. But we want to go into more detail about the things in life that just give us freedom. Money can pay for a lot of things, and one of them is the freedom to own a home and have independence. We always view owning a home as a negative. They cost so much, things seem to break a lot and we always have to buy new things to keep it up to date. But, without owning a home, we wouldn’t be able to live the life we want to live. It also allows us to travel, which is probably the best thing that we could mention! Travel is exciting, yes costly, but truly freeing. All you have to do is save for as long as you need to save, and make sure you plan in advance. Half of the reason why money does the complete opposite but give happiness is because people really aren’t preparing for the worst!

When Doesn’t It

The question for some of you should be when does it. Situations where money might not make you happy, is when you might not have much of it. If this ever happens, you should look for the quickest and easiest solution, which for us, is a small loan. Loans are easy to take out, easy to pay back, and a real big relief when you feel like you’re running low. You can use personal loan interest rates comparison to make sure that you’re getting the best deal that you possibly can, and you should definitely never take out more than one loan at a time, just to make sure you’re keeping on top of your finances in the future!

How To Live With Minimal Money In The Bank

Sometimes you’re just going to have to come terms with the fact that you won’t have much money in the bank, and that you’ll need to cut down on things just a little. Our best advice would be to do a money plan, cut out pretty much all luxuries for a while and wait until your finances rise again! The less you spend, the quicker they’ll recover.