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Technorati Tags: wordless wednesday

There was an interesting report on the evening news that I just had to look up and share tonight. It was about how broken bones are becoming more common in children. Not only that, they’re getting rickets.

Two factors are the major causes. One is that kids aren’t getting enough milk or other calcium sources; the other is that they aren’t getting enough sunshine, and so develop vitamin D deficiencies.

It’s not just that broken bones happen more easily in childhood if you aren’t building their bones either. It is suspected that osteoporosis will also become more common because bone density is not being built early on.

Rickets can be quite serious. The article noted a case where a little boy had it bad enough that his leg bowed and he could no longer run because his legs hurt so much.

Of course, there are plenty of things you can do to help your kids have stronger bones. Make sure they get plenty of calcium in their diets daily, whether from dairy sources or other sources such as broccoli. Make sure they play outside a lot. 10-15 minutes a day is a minimum. Makes me glad that I walk my daughter to and from school daily. We get plenty of sunshine during that time, and her school gives a decent recess. An hour of general physical activity is also needed, in or out of the sun.

If you’ve been having trouble getting enough calcium in your kids’ diets, think about what you can switch. Get them to drink more milk, for example, or serve yogurt sometimes for breakfast. Cheese in sandwiches or on pizza. There are lots of ways to encourage your children to take in more of what their bodies need if you fear they haven’t had enough lately.

Technorati Tags: childrens bones, rickets, health, children, kids, family, stronger bones

I’m tired today. My son’s going through one of those ‘get up between 4 and 5 am’ phases, and I am most decidedly not an early bird myself. Closer to night owl, but since I do have to be up in the mornings with my kids I don’t indulge that as much as I would like.

But, you know, that’s one of the great things about working at home. I don’t have to drive tired to work, and if I really, really need to, a nap is not entirely out of the question. I’m pretty hard on myself, and naps are quite rare, but if they’re needed I can do it.

But there are many more wonderful things about working at home, especially for myself and online.

1. Setting my own hours.
   I have one kid at school and the other is currently keeping himself entertained. But once that stops I can stop working and not have a boss telling me to get back to work!
2. I decide what to work on.
   Some days that’s really hard, because there will be many things I think I ought to be working on, but it also allows for some whimsy. Of course, there are still priorities and sometimes I do things because they need to get done, not because they’re the precise thing I’m interested in working on at that moment.
3. Setting one heck of an example for my kids.
   My daughter is definitely getting the idea that she can do whatever she dreams of. For the longest time she assumed she would be a mommy, but she thought that a part of a mommy’s job was to work on the computer. Now she’s decided that she can have the career and her husband can stay at home. It’s fun to watch.
4. I can be as creative as I want.
   Some days that’s almost torture because I’ll have too many ideas and too little time. I have so many ideas I’ve just never had the time to implement.
5. Knowing I’m doing good work.
   Sometimes it’s easy to feel like nothing has come of my work, but other times I can see near immediate results. It’s a great feeling.
6. No worry the boss won’t give me a holiday off.
   While it’s rare that I take a day completely off, for holidays and other times I may do as little as check blogs for comments, check the forum, and my email. Less than a half hour, and I’m free for the day most times. And if I really want the whole day off, I can do that too.
7. I can work when I’m sick.
   Or not, depending on how sick I feel. No guilt about getting coworkers sick, and my family would be seeing me anyhow.
8. I can work my best working hours.
   I’m more night owl than morning person, so that’s when I work. If I can’t focus, what’s the point of working?
9. I am almost completely spoiled for regular jobs.
   And I love it. While I could work for someone else if I had to, and do a good job, my heart is in my business. I like it that way.
10. Being able to provide for my family.
    I do pretty decently from home. Currently not quite at my husband’s level of income, although at times I have exceeded his. That I can do this while being there when they need me is just amazing.

I could probably go on and on, but 10 reasons are plenty.

Technorati Tags: working at home, wahm, sahm, stay at home work

One area I always have to resist going overboard on at Christmas is giving my kids books. It’s just flat out fun! They love getting them, too.

There are a few titles I already know I’m getting, such as both The Daring Book for Girls and The Dangerous Book for Boys. While both of my kids are too young to read these themselves, I expect to find some fun things to do with them.

I also want to get some of the Level 1 books for Gage, and Level 2 & 3 for Ariel. Yes, at 2 years and 9 months old, Gage has been seriously trying to figure out this reading thing. It’s been one of those amazing things to watch. He sees his sister learning to read, and wants to be like her, so he’s trying, and trying hard! We go through the books word by word with him, and while I don’t think he’s reading yet, he’s getting the idea and recognizes all the letters. It’s a nice start.

Of course I will probably end up getting a book or so for my husband, or at least I do so often enough that I can say so without ruining any sort of surprise. He doesn’t read this site much, but he does a little.

Technorati Tags: christmas shopping, books, childrens books, book shopping