A way to prevent Swine Flu or any Flu: Thieves Blend Recipe (using Essential Oils)

With all the worries about the swine flu, it came to my mind sharing an essential oil blend I use against any flu, and viral or bacterial infections. I didn’t know about it until recently. It is called the Thieves blend.

The Thieves essential oil (EO) blend comes from the 15th century, where 4 thieves used a blend of Cinnamon, Rosemary, Lemon, Eucalyptus and Clove essential oils to protect themselves while robbing plague victims.

I did know of the potency of all the oils and have used them (not all in combination) for many ailments. But I didn’t know of this particular combination and ever since I keep a synergy  mixture in my medicine cabinet.

The Thieves blend is sold ready to use but for those interested in creating their own blends (like me) I guess the recipe has been a secret but many sources show that equal amounts of Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus and Rosemary EO will make the Thieves Synergy oil. I recommend to do a synergy (mix of pure essential oils), go 5 drops of each EO each round for better mixture of the oils, until your amber bottle is full (say 1oz bottle with dropper) and keep it near by. Another recipe calls for different amounts: Clove Bud Oil 200 drops, Lemon Oil 175 drops, Cinnamon Oil 100 drops, Eucalyptus Oil 75 drops, and Rosemary 50 drops. It is noticeable that the stronger the oils the more drops required, this makes this blend powerful.

Properties:

This synergy can be used in many ways as desired against any flu or infection. It has anti-bacterial, anti-viral, antiseptic and anti-catarrhal properties and stimulates the immune system, circulation and the respiratory system. According to research at Weber State University, Thieves was found to have a 99% kill rate against airborne bacteria when diffused.

Ways to use it:

- Diffuse for short periods of time at home or office

- Mix 5 drops into 1 tablespoon of Carrier Oil and use to massage feet. I do this specially with Robert, he is so used to having his smelling medicine be rubbed in his feet and chest. :)

- Mix some drops with little vinegar (or vodka) in a spray bottle then fill with water and use to disinfect any surface. I personally use this every time we get sick, to make sure we don’t pass it along!

This mix is very versatile and useful. I truly recommend to have it handy.

Once Upon a Child

Have you ever tried this service? Once Upon a Child is a store that  sells gently used stuff at great prices. They sell kids clothing, toys, furniture up to 70% off retail! They do carry new stuff too and I noticed they have also Maternity clothes and breastfeeding related products like Medela and others. The great thing is that you really find good quality brand clothes and toys!

It doesn’t only sell used stuff in great conditions, but you can stop by and sell them your used clothes or toys (or other things, see their webpage for details) and they will pay you or you can get store credit plus 10%. What they do is that they check the material to make sure is in great conditions, things with stains or slightly broken will be returned. Then they will offer you a money amount for your things and you decide if you buy it or not.

Today I stopped by, because I had some shirts, one jean and a few toys to sell. They returned me one shirt (it had an almost invisible stain, lol), the jean (they found it was slightly torn) and the toys. The toys were not in high demand right now, so they didn’t need them.  So, as you can see they really pay attention to every detail! I was offered $5.80 for the clothes they liked (about 5 shirts). I had a previous credit of $6.80. So I bought him 3 shorts and 1 shirt.

When Robert was little, we used to give away to a neighbor friend his grown out clothes. They were needing it and we didn’t considered keeping it. Our neighbor moved away. And since we are planning to have more kids, we are saving most of Robert’s stuff now. Why buy new things if you already have some? This will save us some money!We know we are buying some other things but at least we have a lot if we have another boy!

I know that in Puerto Rico we don’t have this kind of stores. I wonder if they would work!

Another Source for Sleeping Patterns

I wrote a post out of the experience I had with Robert of him not wanting to have more naps (he is 5). Now, organizing Robert’s important information binder I came across a reference letter given to us like 3 years ago when Robert was in the other pre-school. It talks about “Sleeping Issues in the Young Child” and points out 5 things:

• Infants usually begin taking 2 naps/day (instead of 3 or more) sometime between age 7-9 months.
• Toddlers usually begin taking 1 nap/day (instead of 2) between 15-18 months.
• Approximately 85% of 1 year olds take 2 naps/day
• 50% of children at age 4 take a daily nap
• Most children under age 6 years sleep 10 to 11 hours each night. Only a small percentage sleep 12 hours each night. The rest of a child’s sleep requirements is met with naps.

They post a table, similar to the one I included in the other post. This table, as well as the other one, gives you and idea on how much your child should be sleeping. Remember that this varies from child to child. I guess that’s why instead setting up specific numbers, they rather offer a bracket of time.

Age	Average Sleeping Time
0-3 months	14-16.5
3-9 months	14-15
1	13.75-14
2	12.75-13
3	12-12.5
4	11.5-12
5	11
6	10.75-11
7	10.5-11
8	10.25-11
9	10.25-10.75
10	9.75-10

All this information was adapted from:

• Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems, by Richard Ferber, M. D., 1985, Simon and Shuster
• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Marc Weissbluth, M. D., 1987, Ballantine Books

This information was extracted from an article written by Nancy Birkenmeier, RN, BSN, Sleep Medicine Center, St. Luke’s Hospital, Chesterfield, MO.

Our Famous Menjunje… our homemade way to attack coughs and cold.

Since we were little, our mothers and grandmothers had their ways to make us feel better with homemade remedies. As in the past, medicines were not as available as today, many ways were developed to treat common illnesses or injuries. Teas, balms, juices, clay etc are some examples.

One way that has been done in my family to treat common colds is the MENJUNJE. Yeah, I know its name is weird but that’s how my sister baptized it! Others call it “emedol” (that’s how my mother in law call it). But independent of the many names it can have in Puerto Rico, it just have 3 ingredients: ALOE VERA, HONEY and LEMON JUICE. All these ingredients work their magic when put together and drink daily.

When Robert is starting a cold, his cough gets to be annoying for him and wakes him up all night. The first thing I do is to put the humidifier with its essential oils. Second, I give him 2tsp of the MENJUNJE mixture in the morning and before going to bed. It works like a charm!

I need to advice that since it is not recommended for children under 1yr. old to eat honey, then this mixture is just recommended for children from 1-200 yr. old. lol :)

RECIPE:

• 3” x 3” approximately of Aloe Vera plant crystal (~2oz) (this crystal is extracted from the leaf)
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 lemon’s juice
• water to taste

Instructions:

1. Take out the crystal from the Aloe Vera leaf. Carefully with a knife peel away the green part and wash the crystal until is not slimy anymore.
2. Put the crystal, honey and juice in a blender and blend until a smooth juice is formed. Is supposed to be liquefied, if is not and a lot of crystals are still there, add some water.
3. Taste it and make sure that no flavor is over the other. That’s my mother in law’s trick.
4. Strain this liquid and put in a jar.
5. Take 2tsp at mornings and nights. You can mix with juice if you want to (citric juices recommended).

It tastes good. My son calls it the Winnie Pooh’s medicine! (inverse psychology as I call it). He even asks for it when he starts to cough! Hope this helps anyone!

Toys Toys and more Toys!!!!

I was searching the web and found this video talking about stuff taking over your house. They show a play room full of toys all over the place! This reminded me us when we moved here to Ft. Collins, CO.

We moved here in August 2005. Robert Enrique was 1.5yr back then! We live in a small apartment of two bedrooms, one bathroom (all upstairs) and of course, kitchen, dinning and living rooms (downstairs). We have limited space but this was not kind of understood by Robert’s grandparents (Robert is the first grandson in both parts, you get the idea!). When we went to PR for Christmas, we came back with 2 suitcases of toys! Can you imagine this? Were could we put all this? He seemed not to care about them all! They were so many! We had two baskets downstairs and the rest in his room. But when he was getting older and we were using his room for time outs, instead he was playing! Definitely we were feeling overwhelmed!

Then I watched an episode of Super Nanny about toys! And voila! She has this method of just picking certain amount of toys, say 10 in our case. Your kids get to choose them. Leave them in their toy chest or baskets and the rest you put away in boxes. After a week, a month or whatever you decide, you rotate them. You take down the boxes, let your child choose again and put the old ones back in the boxes. It worked like a charm! and these are the things we observed while doing this:

• We didn’t had the mess we had before! :) More clean spaces!
• We had the toys organized!
• Robert Enrique was proud to choose the toys he wanted.
• He learned to respect that the other toys were not allowed.
• He learned to put his toys away every night before going to sleep (it was easy, not overwhelming to him because they were not as many as before).
• He got to appreciate every single toy he have. He plays with them as if they are new! Every time we rotate his toys he gets exited; is like going to Toys R Us!

Definitely this technique has helped us a LOT!

Another thing we have adopted (because of our limited space) is to re-evaluate his toys once a year to see if they are or are not age appropriate. This is a great way to keep up with the toys. The ones that are not, we send back to PR for a future baby, but if we were not to use them anymore is a great way to donate, sell, give away what you are not using and not allowing toys take over your house!

I really recommend these techniques, specially if you don’t want your whole house become a nursery or a huge play room! :)

EcoConscious: What are you doing on EARTH DAY?

  There are so many ways to celebrate Earth Day tomorrow! Me? For instance I will take some actions:

I will make sure that all the lights are off and all the things that are not in use are unplugged.

I will prepare lunch bags from my DH, DS and me!

I will walk to my school.

I will bring my reusable water bottle.

I will turn off my monitor when I am away from my desk.

I will make sure to recycle any un-usable paper at work.

I will bring my own coffee cup to the coffee store.

I will do groceries and bring my own reusable bags.

I will cook meat and veggies and feed my composting worms with the food veggies scraps.

I will water my seedlings.

All these things I am doing… WAIT A MINUTE! I do 99.99999% of these things every day! Big pat in my back! hahahaha What are you doing?

See other EcoConscious posts!

When you hear “I don’t want to nap” …

Napping, I think is one of the great breaks mommies and daddies have! When our kids are babies they nap all the time. You can get so many things done when your kids are napping. The silence invades your home and sometimes, when you feel overwhelmed, is during this time where you recharge your batteries.

When they are babies, the rule of thumb says, mommy sleeps while baby sleeps. Yeah right! Who did that? Not me! :( And being a first time parent, yes, I was watching all the time to make sure he was breathing! (why do we do this?)

As your kids grow their sleeping needs change. You can browse all over the internet and can find all sort of guidelines to let you know how much does your kid needs to sleep. My son is 5 years old now. He is the type that gets SUPER CRANKY when he doesn’t nap. Right now he is going into the transition of not napping at school. He is still a “napper” at school but on weekends its been months since he doesn’t nap at home and yes, we have to deal with his crankiness!

One day he asked his teacher if he could not nap anymore. She told him he had to ask us and so he did. My husband was traveling at that time so I told him I had to discuss it with daddy when he came back. It was a great time to show that decisions like that mommy and daddy have to decide together. He respected that but was asking all the time if we talked about it. When my husband was back, we discussed and decided to leave it to Robert’s choice, but didn’t talk to him about it yet. It our next parent/teacher conference we discussed the topic and the teacher brought to our attention an interesting plan. Since he still gets cranky most of the times that he doesn’t nap, they were going to wean him from napping. It was obvious that giving the kid all the power to nap or not to nap was not a good idea. In case he needed to nap, it was going to be a power struggle with him (it has happened in the past in that school). So we created a plan to gradually wean him from napping. AND it was going to be in effect just JUST JUST if he asked not to nap. He was not going to be offered the option.

Yesterday he asked about the topic and, as we decided, I told him to talk to the teacher about it. Apparently HE DID and she explained to him that 3 days a week he was going to have a nap and 2 days he was not if he didn’t want to. And that eventually it was going to be the other way, 2 days napping and the other 3 not IF he didn’t want to. HE FELT LIKE HE OWNED THE WORLD! lol As he was explaining to me what the teacher told him his face was shining! and the most important thing… “ONE DAY HE WAS NOT GOING TO BE A NAPPER ANYMORE!” hahahahahaha He was so cute! So, let’s see if the plan works. He is going to summer camp this summer (duh!) and I don’t think they nap there. Then start kindergarten on Fall and usually Kindergardeners usually don’t nap in his school.

Here is a chart I compiled from information in the internet (Baby Center). I hope it can be helpful to someone! :) I think is work printing and keep it nearby.

Age	Nighttime Sleep	Daytime Sleep	Total Sleep
1	8.5	7 (3)	15.5
3	10	5 (3)	15
6	11	3.25 (2)	14.25
9	11	3 (2)	14
12	11.25	2.5 (2)	13.75
18	11.25	2.25 (1)	13.5
2	11	2 (1)	13
3	10.5	1.5 (1)	12
4	10 to 12	0 to 2.5 (1)	10 to 13
5	10 to 12	0 to 2.5 (1)	10 to 12.5
6	10 to 11.5	no nap	10 to 11.5
7	9.35 to 11.5	no nap	9.5 to 11.5
8	9.5 to 11.5	no nap	9.5 to 11.5
(#)= Naps

There are articles also that relates sleeping with growing. You might want to take a look! Link #1 (Pre-schoolers), Link #2 (Big Kid).

EcoConscious: My Worm Pets! – Vermicomposting at home (composting with worms)…

When you think of composting, even the word sounds complicated. By composting you reuse your food scraps as fertilizer and don’t dump them in your trash. People think that food scraps decompose in the trash easily BUT they forget that they need oxygen to decompose. By throwing them in the plastic trash bag, oxygen is restrained, making it longer for the scrap to decompose. 2+2=4. lol But composting is easier than it sounds!

There are different ways of composting. But given that I live in a small apartment I explored VERMICOMPOSTING or composting with worms, where the worms casting is the composted food. Last year I watched a video on youtube that showed how easy you can built and maintain a worm composting bin.

Here are some picture of my worms.. I need to update them... But these pics are from when I started my worm bin.

View Full Album

I followed this video for constructing my bin...

and followed other links ideas...

I used the typical blue bin. I got the worms at a local gardening store. I bought 1 pound of worms (baby red wiggler worms, the ones used for composting) for $30. My DH almost died because of these! lol He was like WHAT! (eek) But he knew I was very into this project, so he bought them and was checking them to make sure they didn’t die! lol You can buy the worms in the internet too, for example from the Worm Guy.

You can go to here to read about some composting with worms tip. But I will list my own few ones.

• I keep a cheap spray bottle of water nearby to spray the top of the bin. If you keep your bin outside your house and you live in a dry climate, this is a must, because keeping your compost moist is very important.
• Keep the dry paper bedding in top of your compost to the top. As time passes by, the lower layer will get moist and your worms will eat this too, so you need to keep watching when to put more shredded paper on top.
• Don’t feed them everyday. Overfeeding can kill them. I feed them almost every other day, but sometimes, it takes more days for me to feed them some scraps.
• Pulverize eggshells and throw it on top. This along with coffee grinds will help them composting food. Remember they don’t have gizzards. :)
• If you have too much food I recommend to cut it as small as possible (or better put them in a blender!)
• If everything goes well, the compost smells like dirt. Really, is not smelly at all. If it doesn’t smell like dirt, something is wrong. Food is not supposed to smell rotten.
• Don’t get surprised if some seedlings appear in your compost. Once I put a carrot head in the composting bin and days after a 5” plant appeared in this dark container. This is normal. If you want the plant to grow, just plant it in a mix of 50% potting soil and 50% compost. Mine didn’t survived. I still don’t know why! But it happens! That’s how rich this compost is!

Where I live is dry and cold weather most of the time (northern Colorado), so this has worked well... so far... no dead worms... and I started it back in June. So far, is coming great... again... I need to post updated pics. But I hope it helps someone these setting up pictures.

Enjoy! Yuck! lol

Other ways to be EcoConscious: Recycling, Reusable Bags, Gardening, Energy Saving,

EcoConscious: Bags Bagging Bags and more Bags! REUSING BAGS!

When I moved here in Ft. Collins, only some supermarkets were selling reusable bags. We bought some (around 5) and used them ALMOST every time we were shopping. Not many people were using them, we felt like WEIRD BIRDS! All the sudden all the stores were selling their own bags with their logos on. It was funny to go to King Soopers and bag with a Sunflower Market’s bag lol. Ever since we have bought some more and we have a trick to not forget them when going shopping. When we come back home with the groceries, we put them away and then put all the bags inside one of them and hang it in the front door. So, when we go out to the car next time, we take it with us. We did this because we were forgetting to bring the bags with us and what was the point to have them then?

The funny thing is that because we were using them we ran out of the plastic ones, that we used to use in the little trash cans around the house (bathroom, bedrooms, office, etc.)

Those bags are so versatile that you can use them for all sort of things. I use one for my gardening stuff. I give them as gift for Christmas. I have one for on the go toys. I have used them when I go to the public library. Virtually you can use them for everything! There are many places in the we that sell cloth fashion ones. They look chic! lol Like these form EcoShopper.

I wonder if in Puerto Rico the “moda” is arriving? If not, I should stock on them before we move! :) Is nice to have them and reduce the use of plastic ones. Is chocking to see the pictures of turtles eating them thinking that they are jellyfish! Many animals die doing this!

I encourage everyone to take this next step to be EcoConscious … some stores offer 0.05 discount for every bag that you bring to use! :P

Other ways to be EcoConscious: Recycling, Composting, Gardening, Energy Saving,

EcoConscious: Want be green… is easy when you take one step at a time!

Many people think that being green is way uphill and expensive and simply impossible. In my experience I have learned that it just takes one step at a time and consciousness. There are a lot of articles that have list of things that you can do to be green, environment aware, etc. But I haven’t seen in those articles taking about the determination and consciousness behind every action.

In our case, we come from a country (Puerto Rico) where recycling is not well planned, advertised or practiced. Is thought that it is so complicated that people just don’t even try it or care about it. When we moved to a town and university where is totally the opposite we were shocked! We started recycling few materials at a time. Aluminum  and glass were first since I think is these are the first materials in our country that people associate with recycling. When recycling aluminum was automatic we found out that placing a recycling bin besides our desk made it easier to recycle paper stuff. When we were used to it we paid more attention to the plastics numbers since our town didn’t recycled all the plastics. That made us more conscious about what we could put into the recycle bin or not. This was a very important step. You are creating a conscious habit. It took one step at a time.

Another detail is the cleaning of the material thing. People think that if they DON’T clean it they can’t recycle it. And it is not true. Cleaning keeps critters out of your bins and don’t bring unpleasant odors around your house. That’s it! Who wants a mouse wondering around your house because you didn’t washed a can? Nobody! So we made it a habit that every recyclable that has food we put it in the sink to wash as any other dish. Is just automatic! We made a habit out of it!

Consciousness is one thing, but making things easier to people makes it interesting. When you make things easier to people they might try it and stick to it. After a while, it was easier since it was allowed to recycle all types of plastic, so we didn’t had to look in the bottom anymore. Then you didn’t had to sort because it was now single stream recycling. Easier and easier.

When recycling was natural to us, we started to think of other things. Doing too many things at a time can be overwhelming and make you quit before you know it. Other things we are doing is using reusable bags for shopping, composting, gardening, use reusable water bottles, lunch bags, we are more conscious on what we buy, ect. So if you really want to be green, start by recycling one thing at a time and believe me, is going to come natural to you!

Other ways to be EcoConscious: Composting, Reusable Bags, Gardening, Energy Saving,

The Easter Bunny Saves the Day!

Ok! Parenting is not always perfect! For us grad students with super busy schedules makes it worst. Last week I had a mayor exam. I was super busy and thanks that my mom was around to help I survived! My DH was super busy too trying to get up to date in his class work since he had to travel to Puerto Rico for a family emergency. So we BOTH were super busy. WE TOTALLY forgot the neighborhood Egg Hunt! Our so was so expecting the Easter Day (he doesn’t distinguish that he can go egg hunt any other day too) and when he reminded me, “Mom! 4 days for Easter!” OMG! A flash went to my mind and while I was feeling terrible I was remembering that right at that moment all the kids around my neighborhood were Egg Hunting in the playground! :( I felt like the worst mom on the whole wide world! Oh well, my exam was the next day! My DH’s midterm too! So, I postponed dealing with it and excitedly shouted, “you are right honey! whooohooo!” I told a friend about it, after practicing my presentation. She kindly told me she was going shopping and that she and her husband were going to buy him an Easter Basket for him and leave it at our door (and they did), for us to use it as we decided! Wow! How kind! She saved us! BUT….oh well, then recovering from all the stress lived in the past 4 months I totally forgot again! Yes! I did forgot AGAIN! Then the day before, he reminded me… that just one day left! Hmm… at 9:30PM. No where to go Egg Hunting.. Think Leyda, THINK FAST! And then I remembered I had empty Easter Eggs somewhere! I waited for him to fell asleep. Then I found the empty eggs bag nearby, got a bag of Hershey Kisses and fill them all. Put some around the house and some outside (backyard). Then the basket on a corner. When we woke up, he came to our room excited because the Easter Bunny left some eggs for his neighbor friend (he was using his imagination, because those were color balls in the floor, and he has never peeked for the eggs before!). He wanted to get outside to go Egg Hunt! At 7AM! Oh my! Then I told him to put his robe on and to go downstairs with me “to make some coffee”. He brought his basket and THERE in the stairs some eggs! Every time he found a new egg he shouted louder! and louder! Then he saw the basket … His face was PRICELESS… then he opened the curtain to look outside and there were eggs everywhere for him! What can I say!

Those moments with your kids are precious! Enjoy their innocence and how they make up stories that even in our adult mind make sense. How come he didn’t hear the bunny at all! How sometimes he leave eggs in the playground and sometimes in children’s houses! How generous the bunny was!

We were lucky I remembered we had empty eggs and a bag of Hershey kisses… but we were luckier to have friends that cared and supported us in this stressful time! They have NO IDEA how we appreciate it!

EcoConscious: How Green I am…

How green I am? Well, that’s a tough question! Don’t ask in the scale from 1-10 because I will not grade myself but I can make a list of things I do that makes me green-conscious!

-I Recycle!: Yeah! You might think.. who doesn’t? Well, in Puerto Rico, the recycling program is not one that has been well organized. It is not as easy as here in “the states”. Here at CSU they are so pro recycling. I think I am going to miss that when I go back to PR. But for now, recycling is BIG and is in auto-pilot all the time. When we moved here, my DH took out the trash every other day! Then we started recycling and noticed a HUGE difference in trash. We cut down trash by 50-70%! That made us take out the trash weekly and almost every week and a half! Ever since, we have committed to recycling. And we have to admit, the beginning was not easy, but bad manners are GONE! :)

-We use reusable bags when going shopping. We have bought from time to time new ones and now we have like 10! We use them every time we go shopping, their place is the trunk in case we forget bringing them when getting out of the house.

-We don’t drink bottled water! We use our own bottles for a while now! We got used to get it full before getting out of the house.

-We compost kitchen scraps with VERMCOMPOSTING. It’s been almost a year now and our worms are huge, fat and keep reproducing! It has been a success and we are happy about it, though sometimes we feel just one bin is not enough!

-I use my own coffee cup. Even though in CSU they have recyclable coffee cup I bring my own! :)

Food Storage Made Easy Binder

For those who check around here… Food Storage Made Easy has put together a Binder that has all the Baby Step Checklists available all at once (you can still sign up for the emails for free). This manual will be a download e-book for you to purchase. They are having a Giveaway raffle of 10 Binders between those who spread the word!

Going to Grad School while having kids

Everybody that knows my story ask me how I can manage to go to Grad School and still manage my household and survive. I have heard many friends, married and not married without kids, saying the same thing: “I will have kids when I graduate” “I can’t have kids while doing MS or PhD”. Let me tell you, I was one of them. But I had a great mentor that had kids while she and her husband were doing Masters and PhD degrees. I can remember her telling me her story and her experiences and I could not imagine living that. And bum, I got pregnant while doing my Masters. Robert was not planned but my mentor was completely right when she told me about that “explosive combination” as many people see it. My husband is a Master student now and I am completing my PhD. How do we manage? We are not surviving, we are LIVING our lives! and enjoying the great opportunity we have been given. There have been tough times but most of them have been blessed ones!

We don’t have family where we live now, like when we were back in Puerto Rico, but we as a couple complement and support each other to 100%. That I think is the #1.

#2 Having kids while going to Grad School, MAKES you, OBLIGATES you to be ORGANIZED and to make the max of every minute you are at the office. I was told that by my mentor and I couldn’t understand it then. NOW I DO AND TOTALLY AGREE!

#3 It makes you set up your GOALS very clear and you are totally committed to them! You work every second toward those goals.

#4 You appreciate more your time together! You enjoy and value family time! You find more creative ways to spend time together!

#5 You explore new places! Here were we live we have done more tourism than when we were back in Puerto Rico! lol Is true. You enjoy the experience to extremes!

#5 You take turns in caring for your family when work has to be done at home. Thankfully, we both are in the same page! When I NEED to work at home my DH takes over, and vice versa. And that way we are teaching our son to respect each other’s space and time.

#6 You learn to prioritize! Oh yeah! You learn your priorities in life and what is really worth it! Then you value it most and make the most of it!

#7 and most important… DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF THE EXAMPLE YOU ARE GIVING YOUR CHILD!? They will remember this and will appreciate all the sacrifices you have made for them and how the helped you be a better person, student and parent! And you are teaching them that THEY CAN DO IT TOO! Nothing is impossible!

What a great lesson right? and what a beautiful number… 7! :)

I love the TIMER!

Really... is a must baby shower or 1st year's gift for mom (not the kid). You know, I don't know what it is about us first time parents, that EVERYTHING seems GIGANTIC to us. Days are never ending, nothing can be done on time. We feel so overwhelmed those first months that when you realize and stop for a moment and ask yourself "what the heck is going on with me?" then you look back and laugh at yourself. For those early months is a great tool. It gives yourself some time to control stuff instead of stuff controlling you. When they grow up is a MUST tool around the house. With Robert it helps me control his timeouts, cleaning up time, BATHING, TV, outside time at playground... EVERYTHING IS MUCH EASIER! Robert is so used to it that he even looks for it when is time to do something with it! Recently Robert had some trouble staying in time out at school. When talking to the teacher, we decided they were going to use the timer with him as we did at home... LIKE A CHARM! He has his timeout timer at school and at home. Parents and teacher in the same page! The picture I am showing with this post is the actual timer we use at home. It can be bought in any supermarket! :) Is really worth a try! Believe me, it will change the way you manage things around your house when discipline is REQUIRED!

Freezing Dinner Leftovers...

We've been using leftovers from dinners for lunch bags for a while, and it has for sure saved us some money. But believe it or not I still don't have a system in managing leftovers when not used for lunch right away. When I cook, I usually do it in a way that we have exactly for that night and for the next day's lunch. As I clean up the kitchen, I prepare the lunch bowls, but sometimes there is a little more. So, I save it and freeze it. It is recommended that you put on a label on what it is and the date, so you know when to throw it away in case you haven't consumed it in a while. I wonder what other people's system are in managing frozen leftovers other than transforming them in a different meal. Do you have a guideline in expiration dates? Do you check them up regularily to make sure you consume them? How often then? Hmmm. I am a very organized person (not to the extremes, I let myself some relaxing brackets) but I haven't come with a system with this! Sometimes this drives my husband crazy! He feels bad when we throw some food away, even when it's just two ounces of cooked ground beef! :( Another question I have is about the freezing containers or bags. I know that there are some that are specifically for freezing. Are they worth it. I've always tried the old ways, reuse butter spreads bowls. lol.... Actually all my butter spread bowls are reused to freeze the cooked beans (since I learned how to soak and cook dry beans for later use, I've never bought a bean can ever again!). So, when I open my freezer I know if I am running out! Freezing, Freezing, Freezing, leftovers...

Cool Stuff: Hands-Free Toothpaste Dispenser

Has anyone tried this one? Is incredible what people can engineer! (Touch N Brush)A Hands-Free Toothpaste Dispenser! Looks cool, seems cool, great idea.. it even comes in chrome finish! :) I would try it! As-Seen-on-TV stuff are usually junk stuff. I am not a compulsive shopper. The only As-Seen-on-TV thing I have is the Magic Bullet and IT WAS A GIFT! (a great one, I use it a lot!) But as well as most are junk stuff they are always ingenious ways to assist in your everyday activities. When I was a kid, I participated in a Science Drawing Contest. I draw My Mom's Magic 8 Trunks Elephant. Yes... she always prayed that some day this will be invented. This magic Elephant: did the dishes, swiped and mopped, did laundry, washed the car, went shopping, put the groceries away, and kept the budget! lol May be I should build it and sell it in As-Seen-on-TV; I might get to be millionaire!

What's your trick for not letting 'things' interfere with your family life?

At home, I am a PhD student and my husbands works full-time and is a MS student and we both have a part-time as community coordinators (it pays our rent plus its lots of fun learning about other culture). MEANING... WE ARE ALWAYS BUSY. But my husband and I came up with some compromises:
#1 Not plugged to computers (unless we are studying or doing homework). I know.. sounds weird, but as well as we try our best, we HAVE seen the picture of Robert asking us to play Candy Land while we are surfing the web. Is that normal? I think it is when both parents like to surf the web. But our compromise have brought to us more time to spend as a family. Right now, I am not busy at work as I used to, but in the past my dear husband took over when I was busy and viceversa. We made sure that Robert got our attention and we shared with him.
#2 Another compromise it NO TV for mommy and daddy before his bedtime (there are exceptions during the weekend). That way my DH can watch WWF and we/I can watch our novela and he is not around interrupting when the main couple is about to kiss, when the wrestling guys are hitting each other, or when a gun shot is going to pop! :) It has worked beautifully thanks to our TiVo! God Bless Tivo! It records our favorite programs (not that we watch TV every day, we don't) for later and we can sit calm and enjoy some GET DISCONNECTED time. What are your tricks? We may implement some of your ideas!

My iPhone is not a toy!!!

I love my iPhone! It's been a great tool for me. But showing it to my son was a big mistake. Robert Enrique is 5, he doesn't have a DS. Actually, recently is when he has been exposed to the magic existence of the DS, Playstation, Wii... Guess what he is asking for Christmas! ... a Playstation. OH MY! (starting to save) But with my iPhone! Every minute he is not playing with it, he is asking, can I use it? can I use it? can I use it? (It truly reminds me the movie "Are we there yet?") I have to admit it, it has cool games for kids, but is anoying and useful when you simply need your kid to be calm and sitting down while you do something very important. Bottom line, he ask me the big question: "Did grandma shared with you her iPhone when you were a kid?" Funny the concept of kids and the things they take for granted. I told him, that when I was a kid, there were no cellphones and that the telephones, were stucked to the wall. He gave me this funny look of... "you are kidding! right?" But when the take things for granted, is where our parenting plays its mayor role. To direct them in a right way. When he was born I always asked myself for how long I could stall the video games thing. With this fast going society! I guess the question is answered. Don't get me wrong! He has a V-tech! lol At least he is used to time controlled video gaming! :)

Ok, I am back!

I decided to write more frequently. There are so many things I want to share with all of my friends! Hope you visit me more often! :)

Hugs Fuertes!

Leyda