New Book - The Beauty of Different

Karen at Chookooloonks has a new book - The Beauty of Different!  I can't wait to get my copy!
Go over and take a look!

The new book The Beauty of Different is available from Bright Sky Press and Amazon.

Settle Down Time

I was reading Simple Mom blog and I just loved this quote...

"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live." 

-Lin Yutang

The blog post, Productivity and Quality Down Time, talks about quality down time.  I call it down time.  I love "down time."  I always tell my friends, if you want to learn how to relax, I can teach you.  And this is true.  I believe people should relax and enjoy life.  I have so many friends that just work and work and work and they don't take the time to just enjoy....life.

Everyone should learn how to slow down and enjoy nature...the wind, tress, sun, moon, sky, etc...all of these things are free to everyone, but how many times do we stop to enjoy them?

For some, to stop and do "nothing" when there is so much to do is (as my husband says), 'just crazy!'  My husband is one of these people.  He always has to be doing something, but not me.  I'm totally opposite. 

And yes, I'm glad you asked, yes, we have kids and yes, I work full time.  My kids are teenagers.  Although they can 'fend' for themselves in some cases, when they were younger, we had "settle down time."  Settle down time was always one hour before bedtime.  The kids could read or watch television, but they rule was...you had to be quiet.  I came up with settle down time because I wanted the kids to have a good nights sleep and I beleive you have to calm your brain before your body will rest.  Even though I don't enforce settle down time anymore, the kids continue to do it on their own.

Here are a few ways I like to settle down:

• 
  
  Turn off the television, computer, cell phone
• 
  
  Watch the sunset
• 
  
  Read a book
• 
  
  Take a nap
• 
  
  Take a bubble bath (I do this every night)
• 
  
  Knit
• 
  
  Drink coffee or tea
• 
  
  Sitting on the porch on a cool night

LYL = Living Your Life

Living Your Life to the fullest everyday – this morning I came across the blog, Marc and Angel Hack Life and was reading this post . They take a look back on life and gives pointers. You know how you always wanted a book to tell you what to do and what not to do in life….well this is as close to the (still looking for) book as I have come.

So go get a cup of coffee or tea and sit and read. You’ll like it!