The cheerful wife, mom and homemaker
An old Cherokee told his grandson, “My son there is a battle between two wolves inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth.”
The boy thought about it, and asked, “Grandfather, which wolf wins?”
The old man quietly replied, “The one you feed.”
– Author unknown
Not so long ago, once the children were born mom stayed home. Dad would provide for the family. It was mom’s responsibility to raise the kids and to take care of the household. Now this has all changed.
Nowadays it is normal that both parents work. Some of them want to because they enjoy working. And some of them have to because they need the money. Life is getting expensive. And we all notice this. No matter which part of the world you live.
When both parents are working a lot of organizing needs to be done. Who will pick up and drop of the kids. Where will they have the lunch. And then who will make the lunch boxes? In Holland for instance it is normal that children have lunch at home if they are in primary school (age 4 -12). So there is another pick up and drop off moment. ( Although this is changing, some schools end at 14.00. The kids have lunch at school.) Where will they go after school. Who will bring them to the soccer practice, who will help them with their homework. Things get even more difficult when you’re a single mom or dad.
And then there are chores to be taken care of. Once you arrive home after you picked up the kids, you start with dinner and tell the kids to do their homework. Meanwhile husband comes home and he may help you. Several studies have shown that most men do not help around the house.
Then there needs to be vacuumed, bathrooms to be cleaned, bed linen to be changed, laundry to be done, floors to be scrubbed and….. well the list is endless!
How to manage all this effectively? First of all we must acknowledge the fact that we cannot do all chores at once. There are just too little hours in a day.
Would you like to have some bonus time during the weekends? Extra few hours to spend with your family. Or just some time for yourself (to try out that new make-up tutorial) ? Without feeling guilty. Without thinking I have to do this or that. The only option to do that is doing some extra chores during weekdays. You can for example do 10 minute chores during the morning and 10-15 minute chores during the afternoon. What? 10 Minutes chores in the morning? We are already very busy! True. If you really want more free time during the weekend you have to wake up 10 minutes earlier. I totally agree with you. Waking up in the mornings is hard. And getting out of bed earlier is even more harder. But remember practice makes perfect and we do get free time during the weekend.
A few morning chores examples: cleaning the bathroom, emptying the dishwasher, load the washing machine or ______. Fill in the blanks. And let us know what chores you do in the morning.
A few afternoon chores examples would be: changing and washing the bed sheets, vacuuming, sweeping dusting, unload the washing machine or ________.
Ask your hubby to help you with the chores. Together Everyone Achieves More.
Be creative with your time. You could do chores during commercials, 10 minutes before you will have dinner. Let the kids help you. Let them shine the microwave or oven for you. When they are bigger they could even unload the dishwasher for you or some other chore.
Set a time for each chore. Did you know that you can get a new load of laundry in the washing machine and fold the washed laundry in 15 minutes? You can for instance iron for half an hour. Or pluck weeds for 15 minutes.
Do you do all your chores during the weekend? Please comment and let us know.
Changing your eating habits is not easy. Especially when it comes to snacking. There is temptation everywhere. The hotdog stand, the French Fries cart, the ice cream parlor and the list goes on.
When you fall into temptation, don’t give up! We are human we make mistakes. Pick yourself up and try again. It is an art to resist temptation. It is an art which can be mastered over time. If you really want to, that is.
Here’s a list of snacks you could have. Pick one for each day.
1.One slice of watermelon
2.Small bowl of strawberries with a scoop of low fat whipped cream. (Great dessert for family dinners)(Don’t be tempted to eat all the whipped cream.)
3. 2 to 3 tablespoons of raisins
4. Small bowl of salted popcorn (homemade, no microwave popcorn!)
5. One piece of fruit like apples, pears, oranges and so on
6. 2 Marie biscuits
7. 10 Plain almonds
8. 15 Salted sticks
9. One rice cake lightly spread with peanut butter, Nutella or jam
10. Small bowl of pineapple
11. 2 Ladyfingers (Sponge fingers)
11. What would you recommend? Please leave a comment.
One small bowl = 100 grams or 0.2 pounds.
Allow yourself to have a piece of cake, muffin, kids size fast food menu or any other unhealthy items every 3 weeks. If you really are craving for it. Oh yeah please do not overeat. Your body is your temple, do not torture it.
Happy snacking!
Sometimes we crave for some snacks. Most of us (including myself) will not settle for a healthy fruit salad or sticks of cucumbers. We want a real snack that makes us happy.
Unfortunately the snacks we are craving for have a lot of added sugars and fats. So the cravings stays. While working or for example reading a good book the only thing on your mind is eating a tasteful snack. A snack with a lot of satisfaction!
I am always on the search for good and much more healthy recipes for my craving moments. I saw this recipe for baked chicken nuggets and thought this is what I need to make. To make it a whole meal just add some roasted potatoes and veggies to it such as roasted broccoli. Absolutely yummy yummy, can you already feel it in your tummy?
So here’s my recipe for a healthy baked chicken nuggets:
Recipe “chicken nuggets” baked
1 kilo or 2.2. lbs. chicken thy filets
250 grams or 0.55 lbs. flour
2 eggs
Salt to taste
Garlic powder
Paprika powder
Black pepper
2 Spoons oil (I use sunflower or olive oil)
A non-stick baking pan
You can easily triple or double this recipe.
Bon Appetit!
Fact: most people who want to lose weight FAIL. Why? Because they tend to overdo it. If you really want to lose weight start “slow”. Take it step by step. After all you did not gained weight overnight! Or did you? Losing weight is hard.
Gaining weight is very easy. We just eat all the yummy food. Do little or no workouts. Within a few weeks we will be happy to notice our body has changed. Your underarms are flappy, they look like wings. Your butt is bigger. Your jeans will not fit. Or any other garment in your closet for that matter. Time to buy new clothes……. Then you come to this point, enough is enough. You want to lose the extra weight!
The day you decided you wanted to lose weight. You just ate everything you could find because tomorrow you are going on a diet! (More calories to burn…… but just don’t think about it. Makes life much more easier!)
The next day you go to the supermarket buying healthy food like salads, fruits and vegetables. Maybe even soy milk because they say it is good for you…… For two weeks you are so motivated. You are one healthy fruit, veg lady. Then comes the point that you are craving for something sweet. You buy a bag of candy promising yourself to eat one only. Or maybe two. In the end you ate the whole bag. You are now so not motivated that you chuck the whole idea of losing weight in the bin.
What happened here? Well overdoing it, happened here. Most people cannot just change their eating habits overnight. One needs time. So take it step by step.
Eating habits? Yes to lose weight one really needs to change the way they eat. And you have to add some kind of exercise to your lifestyle.
Are you ready to change your lifestyle? Step by step?
Step 1
Write down ALL the things you eat, a food diary. Do this for five days. (No cheating please and yes write down e v e r y sugar cube). Include one weekend, during the weekends we tend to eat too much! Yes I know, not all of us…. While making the list add some exercise of any kind to your daily life. The exercise should be at least 30 minutes. Exercise 2 times during these five days.
Exercise…… (please don’t huff and puff you are not the wolf from the three little pigs). Yes they are very important if you really want to lose weight. And exercises are good for body and mind. You really don’t need to go to the gym. exercises you could do:
In short: Take it step by step.
If only it were true that we could tone our body in just one week. Unfortunately we need more time. How to achieve a toned body? Well first of all, stop thinking, fantasizing or dreaming about a toned body, just start today. Don’t try to find an excuse it will only take less than 5 minutes of your time.
Let’s start with the following exercises, twice a day for a week:
5 x 30 crunches
2 x 30 second side plank
2 x 30 seconds plank
For some of you this may be difficult but keep trying, in the end you will succeed! If you don’t know how to do these exercises, aren’t we lucky that we have a channel called YouTube.
A bowl of tortilla chips and a nice salsa is so yummy. I never buy any salsa’s, I make them myself with only a few ingredients. The salsa is much more tastier than store-bought, it does not contain any preservatives, chemicals or “secret ingredients”, like loads of sugar. Manufacturers are smart, they just give this “secret ingredient” another name like fruit juice concentrate or fructose…. My motto is “know your food”, know what you eat.
Recipe homemade tomato salsa or tomato chutney
Ingredients
1 teaspoon oil
1 small clove garlic, minced
Any kind of chili peppers to your taste*
1 can (400 grams) peeled tomatoes, drained and cut into smaller pieces
Coriander to taste, chopped
Salt to taste, I used about half a teaspoon
Directions
If you like onions you could add some finely chopped raw red onions ones the salsa is done.
*I used Scotch Bonnet peppers, be careful they are HOT.