Mothers. When you need them the most … there they are.
Last week at the ball yard, they were everywhere. Shouting words of encouragement to their sons and daughters — to no end. Just knowing: they’re there, is comforting.
A mother’s love is like a camp fire, burning long and brilliantly. She is the green grass and the sun that makes the bats come alive. And … the energy to hurl strike after strike. A mother’s heart is pure, much like a northern Michigan lake. Endless and devoted … for nothing can dismantle it.
They believe beyond the top of the tallest trees. The golden treasure of a mother’s love really defies all explanation. But, win-lose-or draw … mothers are there. If you still feeling the need of a life coach then please contact life coach Chicago and they will help you deal with any problems you may be facing in your life. Their pricing is super cheap and affordable and they make you feel welcome so you feel comfortable talking about any issues you may be facing.
Mothers — Life’s First Coach
Remodeling Our Old House on a Budget
Two years ago, we found the perfect neighborhood and almost, the perfect house. We loved the space, but the house looked like something out of an old magazine. There was 1980’s wallpaper covering almost every surface of the house, except for the dated cream that coated the den and living room areas. The kitchen came complete with dated appliances and an orange sink. The only space in the house that had been remodeled was the master bath. We loved the master bath; it gave us vision to help us take on a 2800 square foot project.
Once we moved in, my husband and I were overwhelmed with the enormity of the project. I assured my husband I could live five years until we could afford to renovate our home. Within two months, I was stripping wallpaper and painting like a mad woman. We had moved from an updated, newer home and I could not take the scenery any longer. The wallpaper was glued tight, so tight, we should have left it on and textured over the wallpaper. The wallpaper would come off in small stripes, even after covered in gel to remove it. When we learned we could have textured and painted over the wallpaper, it was too late, I had already done most of the damage. Hours and hours of work, we could have avoided.
We set the budget at five hundred dollars to texture and paint ourselves. My husband borrowed a spray gun from a friend and the fun began. We taped off the doorways and trim, then he sprayed the walls down. We had it down to a science. He would spray and then spread the texture for a nice Spanish drag. I had the lucky job of clean up and to look for any spots he missed with the trowel. When we were finished, we headed straight to the paint store.
After learning that good paint was not as affordable as we had previously thought, we raised the painting budget to six hundred dollars. Each room had to have primer and paint, almost thirty-five dollars a can for paint. We started buying the cans with the primer and paint-in-one. This made the paint more expensive but easier to paint the second coat. I love color and picked Martha Stuart yellows, greens, and tans for the house.
With new color on the walls, our house began to feel like a home. There were just a few minor issues; the stovetop was only working on one side. The trash compactor in the kitchen was a daily reminder of another time period and the orange sink was unbearable. As was the nasty, rusty white dishwasher. When my father-in-law came to visit, I begged my husband for a “small” budget for updated appliances. We sat down and made a realistic kitchen budget for our kitchen remodeling. No, I wasn’t going to get stainless steel to match my refrigerator, but I could get a new working black stovetop, a stainless steel sink, a shiny black dishwasher, and top it off with a beautiful wine fridge to fit in the space of the trash compactor. With some help from our savings account and I’ll admit, we did pull out the plastic. We invested in eighteen hundred dollars’ worth of new appliances.
Six hundred dollars in paint and eighteen hundred dollars in appliances including the sink, our home feels and looks like it belongs in the twenty-first century. We have taken a long breather to reload our bank account and our physical stamina. Mentally, we are thrilled with the progress of our old home. I love that I can look around and see us, not just a shell of someone’s old memories. Five or ten years from now, we will tackle the carpets.
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Remodeling Our Old House on a Budget
How to Get More Shelf and Display Space Using Remodeled Ladders
Do you need more shelf space or a display area for some interesting pieces you’ve collected over the years? You probably don’t think of a ladder as being a great display piece, but with a few minor adjustments it can add additional space and character to a room. Here’s how to use ladders to give a room a decorative flair as well as provide more shelf space:
More shelf space: Buy your ladders.
The next time you’re making the local tour of yard and garage sales, ask if anyone has ladders with wooden rungs for sale. You should be able to pick these up for under $20.00 each. Pick up several ladders to use in this project.
More shelf space: Trim the ladders.
Using a wood or power saw, trim each of your ladders to a height of around eighty-five inches or less, depending upon how tall you want your display to be. You may want to subtly angle the bottom legs of the ladder as they’ll be resting twelve to fifteen inches from the wall. To keep the legs from slipping on slick flooring, apply rubber pads from your local hardware store. You have the option of finishing the wood on the ladder with any finish you like that will compliment the décor of the room.
More shelf space: Buy glass shelves and molding from your local hardware store.
Purchase glass shelves the appropriate length and size to set onto the rungs of the ladder. You’ll be laying the shelves onto molding attached to the rungs of the ladder. Ask the hardware sales person to direct you to the appropriate molding for this job. Be sure it’s the right size to fit on the ladder rung from end to end.
More shelf space: Attach the molding and lay down your shelves.
Use two nails and a level to attach the molding to each end of the rungs of the ladder. Once the molding is secure, attach small rubber pads to the underside of your glass shelves to stabilize them and gently laying them on the wooden molding.
More shelf space: Display your ladders.
Lay your remodeled ladders against the wall They should be secure without any additional attachments if you angled the lower leg slightly to stabilize them. Place several in a row against a wall and add your collectibles such as old books, seashells, ceramic vases, old boxes, and anything else you’d like to display.
Your remodeled ladders will give your home a contemporary flair and provide a showcase for your most beautiful pieces. Plus, they’re so easy and inexpensive to make, you’ll want some for every room!
How to Get More Shelf and Display Space Using Remodeled Ladders
Ulcerative Colitis & Acupuncture
In the quest to alleviate the symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis, we will try nearly anything. Most of us who have had the condition for any amount of time have tried both the pharmaceutical medications that are available and some for of naturopathic medicine as well. Personally, I tend to want to support natural remedies as much as possible. I truly believe that there are natural ways to heal our bodies without the use of chemicals and Chinese medicine, in particular, has a lot of potential for helping us achieve that healing.
My pre-existing feelings aside, I must confess that I cannot in good conscience recommend acupuncture as a therapy for Ulcerative Colitis. In the early stages of my condition – when the symptoms were in full bloom, but before my actual diagnosis – I tried this form of natural medicine hoping that it could cure my chronic digestive issues. I lay in the room for about 15 minutes as the practitioner gently tapped needles into strategic locations. If I remember correctly, the main points were in my forehead and feet, with a couple of spots in between. While the idea of having needles systematically poked into your flesh may not sound comfortable, let alone pleasurable, I actually rather enjoyed the whole process. I rested with the needles in, supposedly restoring the correct and harmonious flow of my life energy, or chi, for about 45 minutes or so before the naturopath returned and removed them. Afterward I felt rested, energized and a bit euphoric. It was quite a nice and relaxing experience. But it did nothing for my Ulcerative Colitis symptoms. Not a lick of noticeable difference. I would love to say that it did, that it fixed all my problems, but it just isn’t true. I think that things like acupuncture take a certain amount of belief in order to achieve results, and at that particular time, I was beginning to lose faith that anything would work. I had been through tests for parasites, months of dietary restrictions, different herbal medications, colon cleanses and fiber drinks. I had been through so many things that hadn’t worked, I wasn’t ready to believe that this would finally fix me. I think that had a distinctive effect on the outcome. For me, acupuncture had no place in my healing process, but that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t work for anyone at all. I can see how the relaxation and de-stressing properties of the treatment alone would be helpful, but for my money, this therapy wasn’t the answer.
Ulcerative Colitis & Acupuncture
Psychotherapy: Who Needs Counseling?
The data is clear; millions of American seek help for emotional problems, and most have them get better. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that approximately 1/3 of American adults experience a mental health or substance abuse related problem. About ¼ of the population experiences a diagnosable depression or anxiety at some point in their life. About half of all visits to family doctors are due to conditions that are caused or exacerbated by mental or emotional problems. Depression is known to increases the risk of developing heart disease. In fact, people with depression are four times more likely to have a heart attack than those with no history of depression according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Treatment for emotional problems is the key to improving mental health as well as preventing devastating health problems.
People generally seek treatment for emotional problems when they recognize that their feelings and symptoms have begun to cause problems in their day to day life. These people realize that what once may have seemed to be a relatively minor problem, has taken over their life. Other people may seek treatment as the result of family, friend, work or the court system’s encouragement or insistence. At the point when a person enters therapy, they may feel overwhelmed with their life problems and unable to cope. Whether the problem is depression, anxiety, anger, substance abuse or a combination of symptoms, their life has become difficult to manage. Professionals trained in the treatment of mental health problems are psychotherapists.
Training and licensing for psychotherapists is different from state to state and there are a variety of training programs, degree options and specialties within the field of psychotherapy. Therapists generally have a Masters Degree minimally and may have PhD’s. The degree may be in psychology, counseling or social work and can be an M.A, M.S.W, M.S, a PhD or a PsyD. Many psychotherapists have broad-based training but there are also therapists that specialize in specific areas such as children, marital, sexual abuse, delinquency, serious mental illness, and substance abuse. Some are more comfortable working with families, while some prefer individual work and yet other prefers to work with groups of people experiencing similar problems.
According to the American Psychological Association, there is evidence that people with emotional issues who have at least several sessions of psychotherapy are much better off than people left untreated. While some have challenged the benefits of psychotherapy, the bulk of research supports the benefits of talk therapy. People generally feel better after working through problems and examining behaviors, learning new ways to cope. A referral to a psychotherapist can be obtained by talking to you family doctor, insurance company, community mental health center or even the phone book. Be sure to ask questions about treatment modality and training as well as information related to payment and insurance plans that the therapist accepts.
To get the most out of therapy, be honest, open and willing to try new strategies and techniques as recommended by the therapist. Psychotherapists can not generally prescribe medication, so if that is a necessary component of treatment, as close working relationship between your doctor and therapist will be important.
Psychotherapy: Who Needs Counseling?
Chicago Local Towing Service – Chicago Towing
Throughout Chicago there are a ton of cars streaming through the intersections of the city and rushing around on the freeways and frantic speeds. It’s safe to say that the freeways are the veins of Chicago, and the constant flow of traffic at all hours of the day are the consistent blood flow of this city, it’s just how it is out here and throughout a lot of California.
But where there are a lot of cars there is a lot of different types of car trouble, and everyone who lives in Chicago knows that you’re going to need your car as much as possible and you’re going to need to take care of your car frequently. If only that was the reality that we all lived in. No, people’s cars are always messing up and needing to be towed on a constant rate, but it’s not a big deal because of the great local towing companies like the Chicago Towing Company.
If your car is broke down and you need a tow you shouldn’t have to go through a crappy service like AAA or something else that’s going to take forever and completely ruin your day when you can use a reliable local towing company that cares about their customers and getting you and your car safely off of Chicago dangerous roadways.
So the next time you need a tow, go local, and you will be happy that you did so because you’ll get a great, reliable service from the Chicago Towing Company.
School and home planners are a great way to be organized. The trouble with purchasing a planner, though, is you run the risk of paying for unnecessary pages, not enough pages, or no pages for what you need. Fortunately, there are easy ways to create a planner with or without a computer.
Creating Templates
If you’re using a computer and need assistance making templates, search “help” in a new Word/Excel document (sometimes “help” is a “?” symbol). Type “creating templates” into the search bar, choose a specific topic, and follow the instructions. It’s reasonably easy.
After formatting templates, be sure to give each one a name and click “save as” for each template name. For instance, instead of saving one template under “Homeschool Planner,” save each individual template according to its contents, i.e., “Attendance,” “Medical Records,” “Courses,” etc. You will later organize the individual pages into a planner with the ability to print the desired quantity.
If you think attendance sheets are unnecessary, reconsider. Even if you have one child, this should be included and is easily created by inserting a calendar. Simply record attendance with a check mark.
Downloadable Forms
If you’d rather take advantage of preprinted forms, Donnayoung.org has free printable pages and resources. Grade books, report cards, awards, and more are available at Printable Homeschool. There are hundreds of homeschool sites offering free downloads, or you may simply want to consider their ideas when creating your own.
Printing and Binding a Planner
There are a few ways to compile your planner. Print the pages you will need, punch holes along one side of each page, and insert (or remove) as needed in a three ring binder. Another option is to print pages and bind them with a Plastic Comb Binding Machine. Or, you may prefer to jot down information in a notebook.
The Notebook Planner
Not everyone enjoys working on a computer. (Many times, I still enjoy the smoothness of a ball point pen swirling around on paper). If you like simplicity, a basic notebook (or “composition book”) may be all that you require. A three or five subject notebook would be perfect for keeping records on each child. Or you can choose different colored notebooks for each child’s records. Lines and charts can be created with a ruler and pen. Notes can be jotted down where necessary. This option certainly eliminates a lot of prep work.
Chinese medicine is the oldest, professional, continually practiced, literate medicine in the world. This medical system’s written literature stretches back almost 2,500 years. And currently 1/4 of the world’s population makes use of it. One can say that modern Western and traditional Chinese medicines are the two dominant medical systems in the world today. Isn‘t Chinese medicine just a system healing? No. This system has been created by some of the best educated and brightest scholars in Chinese history. These scholars have recorded their theories and clinical experiences from generation to generation in literally thousands of books. It is estimated that there are between 30-40,000 extant books on Chinese medicine written before the turn of the century. Since then, thousands more books and articles in professional journals have been written and published in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
How does Chinese medicine work?
Chinese medicine works by re-establishing balance and harmony within the body. This means balance between yin and yang, balance between the five phases, balance between the viscera and bowels, and balance between the qi, blood, and body fluids. This balance is re-established by supporting the body’s healthy or righteous energy and attacking any unhealthy or evil energy.
How does the Chinese medical practitioner determine what is out of balance?
Practitioners of Chinese medicine diagnose what is out of balance in a person’s body by employing four basic examinations. The first is questioning about one’s signs and symptoms, medical history, and course of disease. The second is visually inspecting one’s face, body, and especially one’s tongue and its coating. The third is listening to one’s voice and the sound of one’s breathing as well as smelling any odors emanating from one’s body or excretions. And the fourth is palpating various areas of the body and especially the pulse at both wrists. Using a combination of one’s signs and symptoms, tongue diagnosis, and pulse diagnosis, the practitioner can determine the pattern of disharmony which requires rebalancing.
How is this rebalancing accomplished?
If something is too hot, the practitioner seeks to cool it down. If something is too cool, they try to warm it up. If something is toowet, they try to dry it, while if something is too dry, they try to moisten it. If something is too much, they try to make it less. And if something is too little, they try to build it up. If something is stuck, they try to move it, and if something is flowing inappropriately, they try to make it flow in the right direction and amount.
What methods are used to re-establish balance within one’s body?
The main professionally applied methods of re-establishing balance are Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture/moxibustion. Chinese herbal medicines may be prescribed internally or applied externally. Acupuncture and moxibustion seek to regulate the flow of qi and blood within the body by either inserting fine, sterile needles at certain acupoints or warming certain acupoints by various methods. In addition, Chinese medical practitioners may also use tui na or an rna, styles of Chinese massage, they may prescribe remedial or preventive exercises, such as tai ji, qi gong, or dao yin, and they typically counsel their patients on diet and lifestyle, all according to the theories of Chinese medicine.
