Jewish Mom Link Up- Me Time

I am really excited to be a part of the Jewish Mom Link Up hosted by Shaindy over at Happily Hectic.

My contribution to the link up is going to be talking about "Me Time."

Over a week ago, I began to develop a really bad headache in the front part of my head. I took an aspirin and relaxed but it didn't seem to go away. The interesting thing is, I rarely get headaches, so this was a red light for me. I hoped it would go away by the end of the day, but it didn't.

The headache lingered on for about 4 more days, and when lots of water and no medication was working, I got a little worried as I began to think the worst, G-d forbid. I told my husband that if I woke up on day number 5 with this dull headache, I was going to the ER to get an MRI.

Low and behold, the next morning it was still there.

The funny thing is, I am a pretty calm and laid back person, but I was beginning to freak out just a little bit.

We have a very good friend who is a doctor in the ER where we live. My hubby suggested we call him before we do anything. I spoke with him and he asked me a bunch of questions and after hearing my answers, he put any "worst case scenario thoughts" I had at ease.

He did tell me that before going the medical route, I need to get a deep tissue head, neck and back massage as well as visit a chiropractor right afterward and to call him the next day with a follow up.

We are very blessed to live in a place where many of our friends are massage therapists, so I made an appointment with a good friend for the next day as well as a great chiropractor for right afterward.

My massage therapist told me that the muscles along my spine were as hard as "the chains holding up the Golden Gate Bridge" and my neck was so tight she literally broke a sweat loosening it up.

My chiropractor "cracked" me back together again and I went home and had a really good night sleep.

Needless to say, the next morning I woke up and on a scale from 1-10 (my previous headaches were either 9 or 10) this was barely a 1, meaning it was ever so slight... and as the day moved on, it gradually disappeared.

Yes, just like that.

I called our ER friend and told him. He laughed and said he thought that was the answer. He also told me that as much as I think I can just keep going and going and going, the body will ultimately catch up with us.

He also told me that for my physical health, I need to take an hour a day and do nothing. Lay down, relax, stop whatever I am doing and just put my feet up.

Whether we work full time, homeschool, stay at home mom, work part time, whatever, it is an actual necessity to take some Me Time every day.

Everyone has their own way of doing this, but not only do we need it, we absolutely deserve it.

Don't let your body have to notify you to stop like mine did. Do it a favor and let it recharge for a little bit each day. There are many ways we can do this and different things work for different moms-

I hope that after reading this post you can look at your day and build in a time slot of "Me Time" so you know you have this time every day to let your head and body recharge.

What are you currently doing to give yourself Me Time?

Have a great week everyone, and enjoy the Link Up,

Always,

Parshas Lech Lecha and keeping the little ones entertained...

My little guy just loves being read to- so reading about the Parshah is actually such a treat for him, he always asks me to keep reading on to the next Parshah to see what happens next:)

So today we read from Parshas Noach until Parshas Chayei Sara in My Parshah Reader which he just loved and then went on to make a cute little project on this cool paper that a friend of ours gave us. It is plastic, multi colored and painted black. He used a tooth pick to make stars in the sky just like Hashem told Avraham that his children and grandchildren would be as many as the stars in the sky... and next thing I knew, the little guy ended up making a bunch of shooting stars and planets and rockets etc all in this cool sky of his:) hey, that's the beauty of Homeschooling, let them make their own creations, let those little imaginations run wild!

Here he is in action:

We also read this fabulous book from Hachai called "A Little Boy Named Avram" all about how Avraham discovered Hashem at the age of 3- it is very sweet, highly recommend it!

Here are 2 songs from 613 Torah Avenue on this weeks Parshah- we have the CD, its adorable:

Song for Parshas Lech Lecha

Song about Avraham discovering Hashem at the age of 3

Then for quiet time (for those in the family who outgrew their naps) we watched Malkali Bereishis, also a wonderful DVD all about the Parshahs. You can get it here. In fact, ALL here DVD's are so great for little ones, we have a bunch of them

And here are just a few great activities my munchkin did today, she's almost 3...

And my luck, my little guy is obsessed with doing Science experiments. Too bad Daddy is a Rabbi and mommy barely passed her way through every Science in high school AND college! But thanks to other mom blogs and websites, we manage to keep him entertained:)

This one was cool:

2 cups of water, blue was cold, red was hot (we used food coloring to color them)

Then using a piece of thin hard card board, we turned the hot water upside down and placed it on top of the cold water. Due to the density of the hot water, the two did not mix! Now even I found that pretty cool:)

Hey, we do what we can to keep those little tykes happy!

A great week to all,

Souper Suppers and Keeping the Munchkins busy

Ok, I will admit, my kids are all picky eaters- except Munchkin- she LOVES veges, we're talking broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes and more...

But the others- nope. Nothing doing.

So I got myself 2 cookbooks which I have listed below: The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious and from there, I got tons of great ideas how to hide great food in my kids favorite foods. In fact, I actually started a blog, but just couldn't keep up with it- but here it is, just a couple of ideas that I've done and worked like a charm- http://hidden-treasures-for-kids.blogspot.com/

And I try make a different vege soup with dinner every night so I know that they are getting a nice full serving of veges every day. I never use soup cubes, just plane old salt'n pepper with whatever veges I throw in there and puree. And they love Osem Soup Croutons that we find at the local Safeway supermarket (for a ridiculous price but I tell my hubby that its worth it if it gets the kids to eat the soup:)

And our cleaning help and babysitter both quit so this week has been so challenging... but thanks to a few great new toys that our good friends gave us (they are moving to Israel and getting rid of everything) the tots have been busy and happy which means mommy is happy too:)

I posted the toys that they gave us and highly recommend them-

Okay, my feet are up and I'm off to watch my Grey's Anatomy reruns (my hubby bought me the entire set!!!- yes, I am a total sucker for this show)

Here's to a great week and getting ready for the upcoming school year~

A Jewish Atmosphere Always, Down time, MESSY finger paints and a DIY Hotel with a moving elevator

Since we don't live in a Jewish community, we really try to always have a Jewish atmosphere going on all around us... that means that our home is FILLED with Jewish books and DVD's and there is ALWAYS Jewish music playing in the house AND the car... here are a few of our favorites and if you need a review on any music, books or DVD's, we have quite the collection so don't be shy to ask!

I usually only do QUICK and EASY arts' n crafts, but we decided to MAKE our own finger paints- it was definitiely time consuming and messy, but the kids LOVED it and made fabulous pictures and hand prints and foot prints and painted the table and the floor and each other and then I hosed them down and since it is made with dish soap, next thing we knew we had a whole bubble fest! So yes, I only reccomend this activity if you have the time, the patience and the space and the freedom to let your kids get REALLY messy:)

Here is the recipe which I got from the Family Fun book listed in one of the previous posts:

Mix together 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/3 cup of cornstarch in a small pan, then slowly add 2 cups of cold water.

Cook over low heat, stirring until the mixture becomes a smooth, almost clear gel (about 5 minutes).

When it's cool, stir in 1/4 cup clear dishwashing liquid.

Scoop equal amounts of the mixture into containers and stir in food coloring (or, for even more vibrant colors, use food coloring paste).

We had a nice big box and my Little Einstein decided he wants to make a hotel with an elevator... so we cut windows and a door and then made an elevator that he can put his little mentchies into and pull the elevator up and down with a string attached to a hook on the top of the hotel...

The Elevator with passangers ready to ride:)

And then for down time, while the little ones nap, Little Einstein usually watches a DVD, plays a computer game or does a work book which we get from Costco or Borders- here are some of the work books he loves:

Wishing all a Good Shabbos!