Anyone wandering through the maze of life insurance and the different policies must educate themselves about the different annuities that can be awarded by the life insurance company. The two annuities to compare are immediate annuities and deferred annuities. Learn the differences and choose the one that is right for you and your needs. People who need a steady income might consider choosing an immediate annuity that will provide a guaranteed income for a specific length of time.
Mesothelioma is an unfortunate and devastating illness that many people are afflicted with. If you or someone you love is undergoing treatments for Mesothelioma, research and knowledge is one of your most powerful tools. I urge you to utilize the internet to educate yourself as much as possible to empower yourself to be a strong advocate. Knowledge is power and you can use it to take care of yourself and prove to medical professionals that you are a strong patient.
Anyone else suffering anxiety lately? I’m putting my hand up. Let’s face it…economic woes all by themselves have many of us worried and anxious. I also have teenagers. That should be self-explanatory. One of my teenagers is embarking on his first year of college…’nuf said, right? I also have many younger children at various stages of childhood. It’s enough to make it necessary for me to take long pauses several times during the day to make sure I’m still on top of my game.
Exploring anxiety…we are programmed to feel anxiety because it helps keep us safe and productive. Anxiety is an internal reaction to stress. It is when anxiety becomes a chronic negative mindset that problems arise. We can train ourselves to respond to stress in a positive way instead of a negative way.
We can compare anxiety to a mild physical ache that we sometimes feel when we are tired. Anxiety is actually a mild fear. Often we cannot even pinpoint the exact cause of anxiety. Anxiety is pervasive and fear has a definite source.
When we are confronted and feel fear, we respond in one of three ways: fight, flight, or freeze. Let’s plug these responses in to how we deal with anxiety.
Fight: When we are fighting anxiety, we tend to feel irritable and often are short and impatient with those around us. Often we don’t even understand why we feel irritable, but it is usually coming from feeling anxious.
Flight: Often people feeling anxious try to avoid what makes them anxious. They don’t want to think about it or talk about it.
Freeze: Does procrastination sound familiar? Often people feel frozen and unable to accomplish things that need to be done when they are feeling anxious.
Self-doubts, worry about the future, fear of failure, and high self-expectations are all common threads among people struggling with anxiety.
Sooo…what to do about it? How to transform anxiety into something productive and positive? Here are some suggestions:
- Simplify everything you can. Pare down and get down to the bare bones in life. Eliminate as much of the “fluff” as you can.
- Keep a complete calendar and list of everything you have to do and all appointments. Trying to carry all this information around in your head adds to frustration and a “muddled” feeling. Let it go, get it out of your brain, and record it somewhere else!
- Relax when you feel stressed. Make a conscious effort to take deep breaths and physically relax your body.
Here’s a novel idea. Instead of fighting your weight and spending a miserable life always trying and wanting to be something you are not. How about eating sensibly and choosing healthy foods…and letting your body find its own natural set point? Instead of always looking for the best diet pills out there…how about trying a natural approach and experiment a little bit? If you eat to hunger and stop when you are satisfied. If you choose healthy food choices and try to eat a well-balanced diet…Your body will naturally gravitate to the point you were meant to be. There will be no pain, there will be no suffering. Forget the “No Pain No Gain” mentality. It doesn’t work.
Let your body find its natural place and find peace with it.
I just realized we are almost at the end of the last bottle of homemade lotion that I made a few months ago. Of course, my lotions are nothing compared to some of these uber-expensive anti wrinkle creams, but we like my natural lotions just fine.
Here is my face cream lotion:
1/2 cup witch hazel
1/2 cup aloe vera gel
1/8 teaspoon borax
3 drops orange essential oil
3 drops vanilla soap fragrance
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
1/4 cup grated beeswax
3 drops orange soap color
Combine the witch hazel, aloe, vanilla fragrance and borax in a food processor. Blend until liquefied and the borax is dissolved.
Combine the grapeseed oil and beeswax in a small glass measuring cup. Microwave for 30 seconds and then for 20 seconds, checking until the mixture is melted.
Start the food processor again and drizzle oil mixture into the aloe mixture. Add the essential oil and soap color, very slowly. Mix well until the mixture emulsifies and looks like mayonnaise.
Pour into jars while still warm. It will thicken as it cools.
I was on the hunt the other day. My three-year-old son has outgrown his church suit and I was sure that I had one packed away that his older brothers had worn when they were his size. So…I located the correct bin and sure enough, there was the great-looking suit all folded nicely and there waiting for my little guy. I pulled it out of the bin, shook it out, and…SIGHED. It had set in stains on the lapels and various other places on the front of the suit. I am not one to give up easily, but I did not think the suit was salvageable.
I tucked it under my arm and headed to my arsenal of stain lifters and stain fighters. As I scanned my options, my eyes set on a box of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers that I had just purchased the day before. I figured I had nothing to lose, and decided to try it. I cut a little square off and dampened it slightly. Deciding to just try it on one inconspicuous stain, I lightly rubbed the damped eraser over the stain. My pressure was enough to dampen the fabric of the suit slightly, but not much. I stopped after about 30 seconds of rubbing, set the suit coat down to dry, and went away for about 30 minutes.
Can you predict what I found when I came back? NOTHING. NO STAIN. It was completely and absolutely GONE! As if it never existed. I excitedly worked on the rest of the stains in the same fashion and the coat now looks like it has never been worn.
So…I’m excited. I knew these little eraser guys were good at getting out surface stains around the house, but this opens up a whole new area of stain-fighting opportunities.
Here are some other uses for Mr. Clean Magic Erasers that I have recently discovered:
- Remove food stains from the insides of plastic containers
- Remove stains on leather
- Remove mildew from fabrics
- Clean doll faces
- Remove hairspray build up from floors, walls and counters
- Clean oven doors
- Clean up old shoes
- Remove hard water build up from surfaces
Any more you know of?
Hey…have you seen any good sales on outdoor furniture? If you are like me…you start looking at all of the end-of-the-season sales for outdoor items right now. There are some beautiful things out there right now, too.
My wicker furniture is still in good shape, so I’m good there. I would really like a pair of new chaise lounges, though. Hubby and I love to sit out under the stars on autumn evenings with a cozy fire going in the fire pit. Chaise lounges would make this ideal, I think.
End of the summer sales are the perfect time to shop for new outdoor furniture.
We are refinancing our home and so are in the middle of sprucing up a little before the appraisal. I know that little things like address plaques aren’t that significant…but the other day I was browsing online and I fell in love with some of the beautiful outdoor address plaques, house numbers and address signs that this website offers.
My husband has just finished pouring new concrete at our front door. We have brand new steps and a new side walk in the front of our house. It seems fitting that we need a new house number to match the great new look!
I recently decided to do a deep clean of my china hutch. What an adventure that turned out to be! Emptying it of its contents was a trip down memory lane that I thoroughly enjoyed. Finding old china “friends” that I had long forgotten was a special treat that I would recommend. Not only is my hutch sparkling now, but I have reacquainted myself with old treasures that I will make a point to use soon.
I reorganized it as well and rotated the things that had held prominent display positions to the back and brought other things to the front for their chance in the spotlight.
In this process, I decided to part with a few things. I found one or two things that I decided to give away…always a good thing to do!
So, after completely emptying the hutch, I wiped down the entire inside well. I used a glass cleaner on the glass shelves and doors and made sure the entire inside of the hutch was sparkling. I gave the crocheted doilies a good shake and replaced them on the shelves.
Then came the task of washing all of the contents to remove dust. This was an excellent opportunity to assess each piece and make sure I wanted it to be in the hutch and decide where I wanted it to go. I made piles of pieces that would go back in and decided to part with a few things (not as heartbreaking as I thought it would be!).
I took my time putting the pieces away, making sure that everything had a perfect spot and that each piece was perfectly organized in an ideal place in the hutch.
The finished result? It sparkles and looks like a whole new china hutch. I also have reminded myself about what treasures I possess in my hutch and will be using one or two pieces very soon. The time I spent going through the contents of my hutch was a stroll down memory lane, which I recommend to anyone who has a china hutch. A very enjoyable project with beautiful results!
How’s this for simple fat burners?
I was just reading about how celery actually takes more calories to chew and digest it than it contains. This photo supposedly contains approximately 200 calories of celery. Now, if I were to eat that much celery, it would probably take me all day. That, in itself, would be quite an effective fat burner.
I’m all about all natural fat burners. What do you say?
