Our Love Affair with a Floor Steamer

Well, I’ve been wanting a floor steamer for a while, and we finally got one! We took the plunge. Would it be a household help or an extra chore? We purchased the unit from Target and were ready to go. Like any new toy in the house, my husband and I battled over who would get to try it first. I wanted the steamer for deep cleaning without using chemicals. My husband wanted it as a substitute for the everyday mopping we had been doing with the Swiffer Wet Mop. We are analytical people and were ready to converse on … Continue reading

Is Something Better Than Nothing?

It may be if you are trying to teach your two-year-old manners and are only able to extract a sheepish “Peeaz!” after he’s already stuffed his mouth full of chocolate cake. However, when it comes to preserving the health and well being of your child, most parents aim for the 100 percent mark. I wouldn’t consider myself an all or nothing type mom, though my parent receptors were raised after reading Newsweek’s article on the effectiveness of hand sanitizers, and then seeing Purell listed on my daughter’s new school supply list. According to the magazine’s crack research team, alcohol-based hand … Continue reading

Appreciate Working from Home

Last week I was reminded of one of the great benefits to working from home. I live in Wisconsin and we got hit with a wallop of a blizzard that went from Tuesday evening until Wednesday. I couldn’t believe what I woke up to Wednesday morning. My van was completely buried, our alley had four feet high snow drifts and the side door to our house was unreachable because it was snowed in. It didn’t take long for my husband to discover he wasn’t going anywhere. He tried to leave for work but our alley prevented him from even getting … Continue reading

Fitness Journal – Welcome Back from the Weekend

Welcome back to my personal fitness journal and I hope you had a great weekend. One of my primary goals is to demonstrate how you can incorporate fitness into your every day lifestyle whether you have kids, you work out of your house or you work in an office. You can do it whether you are male or female, married or single – all you need is the will to find the way that works for you. I’ve discovered over the last couple of years that while working with a personal trainer was a powerful motivator for me, I had … Continue reading

The Fitness Blog Week in Review June 25 – 29

My week in fitness was affected by a small problem with a pulled muscle in my face, but we’ll go into more on that as we get started. In the meanwhile, let’s take a look at our last week in June’s Fitness Blog Week in Review: Monday, June 25 Ten Fitness Facts That You Should Know is pretty self-explanatory and useful information. I didn’t get a lot of writing done today, but we explore the why of that in Tuesday’s articles. Tuesday, June 26 My Face is Killing Me and it turns out that I have a pulled muscle in … Continue reading

10 Things Pulling My Face Has Taught Me

Yes, you read that blog title right. I described to you earlier that My Face Is Killing Me and why. Now I feel compelled to share with you the 10 things that pulling my face have taught me. 10. First and foremost, learn to tell the story of what happened with a straight face. Grinning hurts. Laughing hurts. Snorting, grinning and laughing in quick succession can leave you gasping for breath because your face cramps and that just makes it all the funnier (if you appreciate black humor). 9. Don’t tell guys that you have a pulled muscle in your … Continue reading

My Face Is Killing Me

Yes, you read that correctly – my face is killing me. I mentioned my migraine last week and the difficulties of coping with it and trying to get over it. What gets more interesting is that Saturday morning, I woke up in pain – my face hurt. The pain was with my jaw – opening my mouth, closing my mouth and don’t get me started on chewing. The pain came in pulses, when the pulses were on – I felt nearly blind with the pain and the relief afterwards was intense. I went to the see the doctor at one … Continue reading

Are Media Rating Systems Working?

In March families.com computer writer Adam West described video game ratings, as did parenting writer Niki Bradley, and everyone knows what movie ratings stand for, T.V. ratings are understood by most parents as well. Yet recently many parents and politicians are arguing that the ratings are not doing their job. The number one reason is that the ratings vary so much from media to media. Every media has different rating labels: E for everyone on a video game or G for general audience on a movie. Music doesn’t even having a rating system, just warning labels if the music contains … Continue reading

Rhinos and Elephants in Danger

As you might guess, it is illegal to kill elephants and rhinos in Africa. However, with ivory and horns in high demand, it hasn’t stopped poaching. Most of the world’s population of rhinos is found in Africa – about 25,000. Of that, the organization Save the Rhinos estimates that 21,000 are in South Africa. But, the rhinos are being killed in almost record numbers by poachers. This year, 633 rhinos have been killed. The elephants of Africa aren’t faring much better. There were mass killings in both Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Why are these animals being … Continue reading

Teen Killers

My heart just breaks for the family of Jessica Ridgeway, the 10-year-old girl who disappeared earlier this month when walking to school in Colorado. Tragically, her body was found a few days later in a park. The killer? A 17-year-old boy who is also charged with the attempted kidnapping of a 22-year-old woman this past May. One of the things always looked at in cases like this is the personality of the perpetrator. This teen was described as quiet, shy, wore black clothing and pretty much kept to himself. Another story heavy on my heart is the death of Autumn … Continue reading