Search Results for: life on hold

Are You Putting Your Life on Hold?

Are you waiting for something to happen? Are you waiting for another person to do something for you or to arrive in your life or waiting until you lose weight, get that promotion, or are able to afford the right house or car? After a person has been through a tough, traumatic event or suffered a loss it can feel absolutely natural to put everything on hold and wait for a better day. Somehow, however, we have to find a way to move on with our lives and NOT put everything on hold in hopes that “something” will change or … Continue reading →

Household Management: Life Skills 101

What do you need to know when you move out? If you’re the parent of a teen who’s looking at college in the next few years or simply a parent who wants the kids to know how to survive in the wilds of real life, you know that the kids need to know a few things. But what are the essentials of household management? Once you’ve been doing it for a while it’s hard to extract exactly what it is that you do to manage the house. In my humble opinion, here are a few of the basics: Houses need … Continue reading →

The Secret Life of Devon Delaney By Lauren Barnholdt

If Devon Delaney’s mom is right about karma coming back to bite you, then Devon knows she’s in big trouble. Devon isn’t unlike most kids her age. She’s not aloud to wear makeup; she isn’t part of the popular crowd, but she does have a great best friend, and she’s got a crush on the most popular boy in school–Jared Bentley. The problem is, he doesn’t know she’s alive. When Devon gets sent to live with her grandma for the summer, while her parents work out their “issues,” she befriends a girl named Lexi. Caught up in the whole “summer … Continue reading →

6 Steps to a Simple, Nonmaterialistic Life

Six easy steps you can take, starting today, to live a more simple and debt-free life  Live Below Your Means Did you know that the average American spends $1.25 for each dollar he or she actually earns? Scary isn’ it? We live in a culture where living above your means is so normal, so casual, that we don’t even realize it. Create a budget and aim to live below your means, not above. Value Usefulness Over Status The clothes we choose, the cars we drive, the homes we live in and the electronics we carry sometimes are often purchased for … Continue reading →

Life Provides Many Lessons

As I sit here thinking about the day that my boys and I just enjoyed at home, I realize that without any effort, we have all learned quite a bit. There was no lesson plan, we just woke up and started the day with our usual morning routine of making breakfast. As I made breakfast, Dylan chose to stay in bed and watch Clifford. Although he was awake, he said that he still felt tired. At that point, he was learning to recognize a feeling in his body and to choose an action based upon what he felt that his … Continue reading →

What’s Holding You Back?

Logan and I both went to the doctor today. We both have Influenza Type A, which basically means we both have this tiny microscopic germ that has taken over our bodies and left us feeling rather miserable. Not only are we both feeling a little miserable, we’ve also been banned from going back to school for the rest of the week. Logan’s not too concerned about this of course, but I know it will leave me trying to play catch-up in the weeks to come, which as a single mother is rather daunting in and of itself, but to be … Continue reading →

If I Had My Life to Live Over

I believe in stockpiling. I really do, but what happens when saving something for someday means that you never get to enjoy it? Erma Bombeck was a well-known humor writer who succumbed to illness. When she found out she was dying, she wrote a poem called “If I Had My Life to Live Over.” One of the lines of the poem was “I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.” Isn’t it so true? How many of us save stuff for someday? Someday comes in many forms: someday when there is scarcity … Continue reading →

According to a New Report, Household Debt is Increasing

Maybe it is because basic things required for living costs more these days. Food, healthcare, utilities and clothing have all seen a rise in prices. Maybe it is because we simply haven’t learned from the last economic crash. While home prices are slowly rising, so are sales of the latest electronic gadgets that sell out hours or days after being released. At the same time, U.S. income has fallen overall by 1.5 percent. Whatever it is, a need study has confirmed what may be surprising to some: household debt has seen the largest rise since 2008. How much household debt … Continue reading →

Are Your Trust Issues Holding You Back?

After a divorce it is natural to have a few trust issues. The person you put all of your trust in betrayed you and hurt you deeply. It is difficult to open yourself up to the possibility of that kind of pain again. You don’t want to feel vulnerable, and understandably so. Nobody expects you to rush into anything, so give yourself some time to deal with these trust issues now, so that they don’t continue to hold you back in the future. I’ve had a fair number of bad men in my life, as a result it has been … Continue reading →

Detoxing your Life

The other day, I was on the phone with my best friend. We were complaining about aches and pains and how we didn’t think it could be stress because we just didn’t feel stressed. Then, we proceeded to complain about different things in our lives for the next 30 minutes. She laughed and said, “But, we aren’t stressed about anything!” Stress can affect our health – both mental and physical. But how can we detox ourselves of poisonous stress? First, ask yourself some honest questions. Do you get irritated easily? Do you always feel like you are rushing from place … Continue reading →