Sometimes, no matter how safe you think your friends are…there really is no way to know how other parents will handle these types of situations. It is impossible to know what type of parents they might be behind closed doors.
I blamed myself for this night because I left my two children in the care of a good friend.
My choices were limited as I tried to handle an emergency with my new baby. I assumed my friend would take care of my children in the same manner that I had cared for hers. As a result, my child was traumatized by a very long and unpleasant night. I realized that morning that a sexual abuse attempt had knocked at my door. And, I let it in! I felt so guilty and angry! I was so proud and amazed by my son and the safety plan he developed during that night. I never told him that this type of thing could happen with a friend. And, I did not explain to him the techniques sexual abusers us to get their victims to cooperate. The books we read didn’t cover that. I didn’t think I needed to explain to my 5 year old what a threat, bribe, blackmail, peer pressure and manipulation were. Sadly, this is the reality! We cannot prevent everything from happening in our world. We can’t roll them up in bubble wrap and keep them in the house. Sometimes, I really wish I could because this would eliminate all of my various panics and trips to the doctor’s office and ER! But we can limit the chances our children will experience something like a very bad sleepover by studying up on this topic with our children.
Education and awareness are key for parents as they attempt to keep their children safe. Please visit the non-profit organization “darkness 2 light” and read about the 7 steps for parents on sexual abuse prevention. Read and research! www.d2l.org
children or adults without your presence.
2. Think carefully about the safety of any
one-adult/one-child situations.
Please visit our new blog: www.sexualabuseprevention.blogspot.com or our website www.kid2kidpublishing.com
There have been times when I didn’t offer my help to someone who may have needed it. Usually because I felt awkward, or I didn’t know how they would feel about it. On a drive home last year I saw an elderly man attempting to shovel his walkway while using a walker. I did not know him and felt strange about stopping to offer my help, because I had no idea how he would receive it. This year I vow to offer my help and let go of fears of what others might think, and allow them to decide if my help is wanted.
There is so much we can do to make this world a more loving, beautiful place, but it takes courage. Courage to ACT!
This is the year to give and to act!
Many blessing will follow.
Apologies in advance to any gardening enthusiasts who have have happened upon this post looking for hints and tips on sprucing their garden up. This IS about bush trimming but is probably not what you are looking for.
The trimming of the bush!
It’s the beginning of a new year and many of us have decided to ditch the crap and lose weight, becoming healthier as we go. After reading a post by Liz Jarvis about wanting to ditch the bigger knickers, I vowed to ditch the M&S belly grabbers and get into smaller and more lady-like knickers. The only problem with is, what do I do about the topiary?
I’m a Northern gal, it gets cold up in here in Yorkshire and I believe that the fuzz is there for a reason, it’s to keep us warm obviously. That said, there is a difference between warm and protected and looking like there is an escaped fur-ball on the loose in your granny pants.
What IS the “best” way to sort the shrub? I vividly remember someone telling me once about their Brazilian Wax appointment (we don’t talk any more, clearly we had nothing in common), and I’m told that you can indeed shape your urm bush topiary-style if you wish. What do you do? I’m quite happy as an established married woman to give myself a quick short back and sides with a razor but is it enough? What if my lady garden is no longer up to spec in the design department? Should I be shaping, tweezing, waxing and buffing?
More to the point, how does one know what is fashionable? I am not going to Google “how to shave my mary” because I am pretty sure my laptop will explode. I have never seen a tweet that goes “Hey guys, my bush is overgrown, what do I do?” so I’m guessing that is not the done thing to do do either. I know, I’ll do a post about it, that’s nice and discreet!
So come on ladies, what is the right way to spruce the bush?
I was always the one who got excited by a new school year when I was younger. Brand new sharp pencils, the smell of the new books and that first clean page on the exercise book. Apart from the fact that I don’t wear school skirts rolled up short or indulge in ridiculously heavy eye make-up any more, little has changed, I still love a new year!
Every January I lovingly unwrap the new calendar and fill in it and get the diary set up (this year it’s a Dodopad Pax – for a stationery tart such as myself, this is like heaven!). Then it’s money time!
I’m told money can’t buy you happiness. I’m sure it can’t, but being skint can make you pretty miserable too. After Kieran was born I gave up my well paid career to work from home. An income that disappeared overnight was a challenge and a half and taught me a lot about not only how to budget better and save but also about my attitudes towards money. Even now, with my income restored I’m still careful and hate waste.
I set myself a few tasks at the beginning of each year:
Three simple steps when set me up financially. I do check tariff info throughout the year and when contacts expire but it’s important I start the year off properly.
Record keeping.
My business books are always kept up to date and I file my tax return in May every year (I like to get it out of the way). My household books are run the same way. I use free bookkeeping software to track my spends. Knowing whether or not you are keeping within your budget is important but looking closer can be helpful! Last year I looked back at my spends and realised I was doing a lot of top up shopping, despite doing a weekly shop. I was going mainly for fresh fruit and veg and while there I always managed to pick up some unneccesary items. Looking at this I decided to have a veg box delivered weekly and this has saved me a fortune.
This is just one example that shows how a bit of planning and organisation can make a big difference.
I enjoy my new page at the beginning of the year and getting organised. What do you do at the beginning of the year to start it off on the right foot?
I am not much of a resolution maker usually. Unless you count the one I make every year, since high school: to exercise more (or at all) and eat healthy. As 2011 came to a close, I couldn’t help but think that this should be the year I actually make, and stick to, some resolutions. The big resolution I wanted to make is unfortunately not really in my control, so I thought long and hard about the resolutions I can make that I can control and here’s what I came up with.
read more
Remember the “Human Barbie” mom Sarah Burge, who gave her 7-year-old daughter a certificate for a boob job for her birthday? For Christmas, what could top that—except a $11,000 voucher for liposuction?
Plus: Top 10 Parenting Fails of 2011
Tue, 01/03/2012
Uni-O Industries
0
The regulator on the grill can leak gas which can ignite, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers.
About 4,530
Consumers should immediately stop using the grills and contact Uni-O to receive a free replacement grill.
For additional information, contact the firm toll-free at (888) 847-8968 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s website at www.regcen.com/OGRILL
Uni-O has received 10 reports of grills catching fire. No injuries or property damage have been reported.
Farewell to 2011- to all your happy memories, the tough moments, and the love. This year past was a gift. One I will be eternally grateful for.
I look forward to the New Year- the fresh start, adventures to come, and time with those I love! This year make time for YOU to increase your well-being. Exercise, create healthy meals, meditate or take quiet time, and spend time with friends, because our time here does not last forever. Connect with people. They need you as you need them.
Ring in the New Year with harmony, peace & love! You are a child of the universe *~*You are AMAZING!
Happy New Year ♥ With much Love!
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” ~James Dean
I don’t do New Year resolutions. I might as well write on a piece of paper “Things I will not achieve”. Of course there are things I’d like to achieve but I don’t see how putting the “extra special super duper resolution wish and promise” on them will help.
This post is therefore not a list of “I will’s” but me taking 5 minutes to stop and think about the fab people I’ve come across in 2011. Social media is a poweful tool but if you use it in the spirit that it is intended ie socially you can get a lot out of it. I have interacted with many fabulous people this year, some I’ve been lucky enough to meet in person, some I might speak to on the phone or via video, and some I’ve tweeted with. These few really jump out at me so I wanted to introduce you.
People I am glad I’ve interacted with in 2011
Liz Jarvis – Liz has a wicked sense of humour, can be very witty and is one of the few people whose tweets, posts and the like I look forward to because I always get a lot out of them, be that a belly laugh or something to think about. More importantly, Liz is the only other person I know who has watched and loved Green Fried Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. This in itself makes her someone worth knowing in my book!
Helen Lindop. Cool, calm, collected, professional. Helen also has a wicked sense of humour! (No really, truly wicked!). Helen is my first port of call for all things business-like and the one I run things past because I know she’ll be honest yet constructive, despite perhaps wanting to say “What on earth…..?!”. Helen started off the year as a colleague of sorts and I now think of her as a friend.
Claire Lancaster – I love this gal! Always a pleasure to talk to, be it work-wise, or just general nattering, Claire is someone I’m very glad to have got to know better in 2011!! I love the way she writes and also that she doesn’t gloat when she beats me at WordsWithFriends which is very kind of her seeing as she does it so well. This year would have been missing something if it hadn’t had Claire in it!
Jay Mountford. Hugely talented photographer, someone who blogs purely for herself (the results of which being bloody fantastic posts that with either make you scream with laughter or sob into the sofa – but either way, you just couldn’t not keep reading!) and who has kicked my arse more than once this year. Jay doesn’t follow the crowd and is entirely herself all the time. I admire this. Advice from Jay (after kindly letting me whine on for far too long) has really turned things around for me. Love you woman!
There are of course many more and I have a mental list of people I am looking forward to getting to know better in 2012 (in a non-stalker way of course), but these four lovelies are the four I am infinitely glad to have got to know better in 2012.
Happy New Year all – and thanks x
It was a long and exhausting bedtime routine, as they sometimes are. I was looking forward too much to them being asleep instead of enjoying the moment fully with them.
When I watch my son read, slowly attempting to sound out each word, and when I hear my daughter’s imagination at work as she adds a mixture of her own words to the ones she recalls from a book, I am in awe of how adorable they are. Children are precious angels here to be with us. Here to teach us. I never want to lose sight of that!
In my mind, I thought about the possibility of hanging a sign around them that says- I never want to take you for granted! That way each time I look at them I will be completely conscious of what a miracle, a true gift they are, even when I’m tired, even when I’m exhausted, even when I don’t feel like saying one more time “Remember to flush the potty!” The fact is, my children are a miracle all of the time, and they deserve the best of me 100% of the time. At the very least the feeling of warm love and kindness emanating from my soul to theirs.
I truly believe our lives are meant to be enjoyed. That God wants the best for us if we just allow that to happen instead of fighting life or trying to force it.
Children see life as a playground and so should we. We can only see clearly when we stop taking things for granted, especially people and nature.
Let’s be aware today and not take the gifts for granted.
With Love ♥
