Search Results for: blog balance your life

Re-Evaluating your Family Media Boundaries this Summer

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While driving on a trip or around town do you find yourself yelling, “Look up! Baby cows, or bald eagle!” or pointing out some other exciting view out the window? The goal is for your kids to disengage and not miss the world passing them by. Take time this week to sit down and make a plan for your family digital diet.  For everyone.  In 2015 we struggle with all the media options we have starting at a very young age.  Take the time to set boundaries for this diet to keep your life balanced. Look for our upcoming series … Continue reading →

How to Prepare Your Child for a Real Job

If you don’t want to be the family with the 20-something adult child laying on your couch, then you have to get started early with helping to prepare your kid for his or her first real job, one that can support a basic lifestyle and have an expectation of self sufficiency. Ideally, you have been giving your child or children important money lessons since they were preschoolers, but the most critical time comes when they reach the age of 13 or 14. That is when they need to know that when they become adults, they will be expected to hold … Continue reading →

Helping Kids Balance Electronics and Life

With Christmas around the corner electronics are in high demand. But, how do we as parents teach our children to find a balance between technology and their other everyday activities? Our kids are living in a digital world. They instinctively know how to work just about every electronic device out there. I have been amazed at the things my 4 year old can do on Grandma’s Ipad. He knows how to work it better than I do. He can navigate and find his favorite shows in a matter of seconds. He knows right where his games are and can go … Continue reading →

Five Signs that You Are Living Beyond Your Means

You could be living beyond your means and not realize it. Why is this a problem? Well, when we live beyond our means, we can quickly run up debt. This debt can snowball until it becomes hard to manage, a real crisis. That is why it is so important to recognize the early warning signs and make the changes that are necessary to get your finances back on track. Sometimes it seems as though you are supporting your lifestyle and don’t have a problem paying for anything. After all, your credit cards aren’t being turned down at the store, and … Continue reading →

Detoxing your Life

The other day, I was on the phone with my best friend. We were complaining about aches and pains and how we didn’t think it could be stress because we just didn’t feel stressed. Then, we proceeded to complain about different things in our lives for the next 30 minutes. She laughed and said, “But, we aren’t stressed about anything!” Stress can affect our health – both mental and physical. But how can we detox ourselves of poisonous stress? First, ask yourself some honest questions. Do you get irritated easily? Do you always feel like you are rushing from place … Continue reading →

Care of Your Washing Machine

You never realize how much you appreciate an appliance in your home until it breaks down. At the same time, you don’t realize how much you appreciate Mr. Handyman until he figures out how to fix it. A couple of weeks ago, it appeared that my washing machine was done. It was making a loud clunking sound and when it was finished with the final cycle, the clothes were sopping wet. It was bad timing (isn’t it always?) with a trip we have coming up. Buying a new washing machine was not in our budget. Thankfully my husband was able … Continue reading →

Your Typical American Mormon Family

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So, I was watching the Today show this morning and there was a lot of focus on Mitt Romney and the Republican Convention. Big surprise there, I know. The story also included the subject of MItt Romney’s faith because apparently he is going to speak about it in his speech tomorrow night. So, once again, Mormonism is in the spotlight. But, one thing that surprised me was that they said that most people don’t know a lot about our faith. And, I thought, really? Sure, maybe you don’t know a lot about specific theology, like the fact that we do … Continue reading →

Affording Life Insurance

While no one really wants to think about life insurance, if you have a family it is an important to have it in place. Life insurance can pay for final expenses, as well as leave your loved ones in solid financial shape. Even non-working parents should carry life insurance, since the death of a stay-at-home parent means that the remaining spouse may have to incur new expenses related to child care. Should both parents become deceased, life insurance money can ensure their children’s future. The bottom line, is that your family cannot afford to be without life insurance. So how … Continue reading →

Letting Your House Go

Are you a busy mom? I know…that’s an oxymoron. What mom isn’t busy? Just thinking about this upcoming week has my head spinning. A full workload, preparing paperwork and other documents for my son’s leave for basic training, finishing touches on a creative writing class I will be teaching for a week, professional pictures being taken, a going away party for my son, appointment with the recruiter and well, you get the picture. Although the details are probably different, I would guess you have a lengthy list as well. So when we have days, weeks or even months where it … Continue reading →

Balancing Your Time

Childless couples face some different problems than couples with kids, but some of our issues are the same. One problem that I think any married couple has is spending time with one another. The specifics of the problem, however, vary whether or not children are in the equation. It’s well-known that finding time, period, when you have kids is a common conundrum. Finding time to do household chores, take a shower, spend time with your spouse, and still have some alone time can all be troublesome depending how many and what age children you have. Obviously Jon and I don’t … Continue reading →