Dental Care for Children

Last week, we took all our children to the dentist.  We usually schedule them for dental cleaning and check-up twice a year.  We try to keep that schedule to assure they get proper dental care for children.

The dentist had not so good news for Kristel and Janel.  She said that we had to do something about their cavities.  Kristel, right there and then, had one tooth applied with dental filling to prevent further decay.  Janel, on the other hand, has several teeth that are starting to have cavities.  The dentist suggested that she place sealants on them to prevent further decays.  But we decided to schedule her for another visit.

Boy gets dental xray.  Image by Kati Garner, Stock.xchng

Emmuel, my eldest son, also had his first dental x-ray.  He is already 10 and the dentist suggested that he should be seen by an orthodentist.  His teeth are getting crowded and are not growing properly, so we need to seek advice from the orthodentist what is the best thing to do about his teeth.  Since the orthodentist was not available, we also had to schedule him on another appointment.

It is important for our kids to take care of their teeth. It will help them have a healthy smile and boost their confidence.  We, moms and dads have a role to play in teaching them how to. I have made a post before how we can take care of our kid's teeth.  I also found a website called Children's Choice Pediatric Dental Care.  They have informative articles published in their site that would help us in our children's quest for healthy teeth.

Join XLEON Tips Contest

Noel of XLEON Tips is asking What is the best and simplest birthday gift he can give to his wife's 33rd birthday?  Let me suggest: the best  - a gold bracelet; the simplest - a warm hug and sweet kiss.  I've received both from my husband.  You want to make it memorable - then invite your close friends, honor your wife (say why you love her in front of everybody) and give both gifts to her.  I would find that really, really sweet.

Would you like to join XLEON Tips' contest? Find out the complete details of how you can join by clicking here.  Prizes include Paypal cash, Ad Spaces, and EC credits.  The contest will be running until Sept 30, 2010. On that day, the winners will be drawn randomly.  Thanks to the sponsors of this contest.

Major Sponsors:

• Baul ni Noel (XLEONTIPS' sister site)
• Stay at Home Blessings ($5 + Ad Space) (That's my blog)
• Pinay Mom ($5 + 5000 EC + Ad Space) 
• Blog De Manila (12000 EC + Ad Space)

List of other Sponsors:

• Online Mommy's Corner (Ad Space)
• Obstacles and Glories (Ad Space)
• Kaya Mo Pinoy (sister site Blog de Manila)
• World Travel and Vacation (sister site Blog de Manila)
• Philippine USANA (sister site Blog de Manila)

Teaching Kids to Color by Number

During the summer vacation, Kristel was busy coloring this numbered coloring pages.  The numbers tell what color goes into that part of the picture.  This helped Kristel develop in some ways.  First, she was able to practice reading the numbers and the spelled words of different colors.  Second, she was learning what color objects should have.  She used to just color pictures monotone - most toddlers do.  But now, she's learning to mix and match colors to the right objects.  Third, she has improved her coloring strokes, though it's not as polished yet.   I think she did pretty well in these 2 coloring pages.  She's getting ready for school, she's Kindergarten 2 come this school opening.

Here are some websites with coloring pages where your kids can color them by number or letter. Activity Village  Hello Kids Crayola Coloring.ws

 This is a repost from my other blog Praise Memoirs.

Red's Having Her First Blogversary Contest

Marose otherwise known as RedAmethyst is celebrating the first year in her blogging career.  Congratulations, Marose for a fruitful one year blogging experience and more blessings to come.

To celebrate this milestone, Red is inviting all bloggers to join her first hosted blog contest.  Hooray!  There are three ways to win lots of prizes (Paypal cash, Adgitize advertising, EC credits, dotcom domain and hosting, and blog makeover).  Required tasks are not that difficult.  So what are you waiting for? Click over to Red's complete contest details and join.

MAJOR SPONSORS

☺ Filipina Mom Blogger ♥ Hire Filipino Writers ♥ I am a princess.. all girls are ♥ My Thoughts, My Heart, My Turf ♥ WAHMaholic☺

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Yz Mamaril ☺

MINOR non-cash SPONSORS

☺ DeeJ Speaks ♥ Earn Money Online ♥ Kizuna ♥ Life Can’t Wait ♥ Make Money Online ♥ Sweet as Candy ♥ Up Now and What’s Next☺

My Blogs

☺ Earn Money Online With Red ♥ Simple Pero Rock ♥ My Red Hot Reviews ♥ The Adventurous Little Prince ♥ Contest & Giveaway Craze ☺

How Can I Lose Weight?

Weighing.  Image by Laura Nubuck, Stock.xchng

It's been a year and a half since I gave birth to my 5th child.  What is not so good news about it is that I have not been that successful in losing the extra pounds gained during the pregnancy.   I don't know about other moms, but as for me, it was so much easy to gain the pounds of fats but very difficult to lose.  Could boot camps like that of Fat Attack be the answer?

I've read that Fat Attack helps people from all walks of life get the best shape for their bodies by offering fitness boot camps that can easily fit into anyone's weekend schedule.  With this program, you will work your way to health under the guidance of World Champion class fighters.  You can also have fun at the same time as you train with friends, family, office and sports team mates.

Fat Attack is based in the UK.  So, any other options for me to lose those extra pounds?

• I'm still breastfeeding my baby and studies say that it helps burn an extra 500 calories a day.   
• I do need to eat right, watch the amount of food I consume.  I can't continue to eat the way I eat when I was pregnant.  I just need about 1500 to 1800 calories a day to supply the energy I need everyday.  
•  Lastly, I need to do regular exercise like walking, jumping rope, dancing, or doing some aerobics exercise to help me burn the extra fat in my body.

You think I can do it?  With persistence and discipline I can.

Can't Do Much? Time Management Tips

Precious Time. Image by Gürkan Kurt, Stock.xchng

There are so many things that I want to do.  Unfortunately, I cannot do all of them.  Lately, I am feeling some pain in my right arm near the elbow also. My husband said it is like Tennis Elbow though I don't play Tennis. 
Because of that, my right hand feels weak and I can't lift heavy objects with it.  Because I'm right-handed I can't do much of the things I used to do effectively.  I still can but slowly and not without the aid of my left hand.    

Anyway, because of this recent development including the regular part-time online job I have, I need to manage my time more efficiently.  One of my decisions concern my blogs.  Since I cannot update all of my blogs regularly, I decided to just merge them.  The new blog I started, Mommy Quiet Time, instead of it being a separate blog, will now be just part of my Inspirational Life Quotes blog.  My Praise Memoir blog, instead of posting my personal thoughts there, either I just keep them offline or I'll post some of them here.

Doing that alone would free up my time to do other more important things.  If we want to accomplish more every minute of the day, we need to learn to manage our time.  So, here are some Time Management Tips that can help us be more productive.

1.  Prioritize.  We need to determine which of the things we need to do is more important.  Which one needs to be done first? It is also good to ask ourselves "Which one can be done the easiest? Which one will take more time?"  If it can be done quickly, you may want to do it first so that it can be taken out of your to-do-list giving you some feeling of accomplishment.  We also need to learn to say NO to many of the non-essentials.  If we just evaluate all the things that we do, we will discover (I have) that many of them are non-essentials and are just a waste of time.  So let us be wise.

2.  Schedule.  I find it helpful to make a list of the things I need to do (either everyday or weekly) and schedule them in what day of the week I can devote my time to do them.  When I do my list, I also try to be flexible so that I can squeeze in tasks which are more urgent in nature.  Having a list will help me evaluate whether I am accomplishing anything or I am just wasting my time.

3.  Delegate.  We will never run out of things that needs to be done because most of them are routine tasks.  It would be helpful to delegate some of the work with others in the family.  Get the children involved.  Make it their duty to clean up their room, make up their bed in the morning (and maybe assign some other chores) and this will also teach them the value of responsibility.

4.  Take Breaks.  We need to take some time off as well to relax, refresh our minds and replenish our strength.  Overwork will just make us more unproductive. 

5.  Avoid Procrastination and Perfectionism.  "Don't do tomorrow what you can do today."  He who follows this rule is wise.  Perfectionism in itself is not bad.  Who doesn't want to excel in everything he does?  But if it will hinder you from leaving behind one job in order to accomplish another, that's another issue. 

Have a more efficient and productive day!

How to Take Good Birthday Party Photos

Happy 4th Birthday JANEL!

Last Thursday, we celebrated Janel's 4th birthday.  Thank God for His faithfulness in her life.  It was a simple celebration at a friend's house, just like what we did during Kristel's last birthday.  We shared lunch together then all of the kids and some parents enjoyed dipping in the pool.  Others enjoyed watching a movie.

When it comes to occasions like this, it is important to put your camera to work.  Take some photos so that there will be fond memories to look back to.  Of course, there were times that we were not prepared like when we forgot the camera, or we forgot to charge the batteries or delete some of the old photos to free up some space in the memory card....  Really frustrating....

So, I looked up a video which might give us some tips on how we can take good birthday party photos.  Hope you'll be able to take memorable shots on your child's next birthday celebration.

What is Fatty Liver?

Image by Sanja Gjenero, Stock.xchng

Last month, my husband had his executive medical check-up.  The results were not that bad except that it showed he has a fatty liver?  What is a fatty liver? Is it dangerous? Is it something that can be cured?

A fatty liver is the result when fat accumulates in the liver.  It can progress to more serious liver problems like cirrhosis, liver failure or liver cancer.  Most people would be surprised to have this (just like my husband) because usually it does not cause any sign or symptom.  Thank God because now we know and he can be more cautious in his food choices.

Based on my readings about it, there are 2 types of fatty liver disease: Alcoholic (fatty liver due to excessive alcohol intake) and Nonalcoholic (fatty liver not caused by alcohol intake).  Alcoholic fatty liver disease is easy to reverse - just stop drinking (easier said than done for many) and soon the patient will be having normal liver again. 

With a nonalcoholic fatty liver,  there is no specific medical therapy for treatment.  Doctors do advise that a person with this condition should try to lose weight and exercise, eat more fruits and vegetables and foods with unsaturated fats (the healthy kind of fats from fish, olive oil and nuts).  If they have other medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol, they should also follow strictly medical recommendations for their treatment.

If you want to know more about this condition, I wrote 2 articles about it: Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Digital Scrapbooking for Fun and Profits

Last week, I was so happy to have received in the mail the mouse pad from ArtsCow that I ordered.  Actually, I got it for free (should have cost me $13) just for posting their promo offer on my Facebook wall.  My daughter Kristel said she likes it.  It is quite nice, I must say.

I've been wanting to do digital scrapbooking for a long time but never got to do much about it.  When I saw this freebie offer from ArtsCow, I grabbed the opportunity and was able to design this mouse pad using their free software.  It allowed me to use it to make a simple scrapbook.  They also have lots of free scrapbooking kits available on the site courtesy of contributing members, so it's quite easy to make scrapbook pages.

They have lots of products that they can customize with your photos or designed scrapbook pages like photo books, calendar, totes, playing cards, mouse pad, mugs, jigsaw puzzle and more.

When I joined ArtsCow (free to open an account), I received 1200 free print credits which I can use to create 3 8"x8" photo books and other great photo gifts.  I just need to pay for shipping costs.  I actually am waiting for the photobook I ordered.  This offer still open for all new members who will register.  Want to sign-up (that's my referral link, ok)?

Not only does ArtsCow gave me an easy, fun way to do digital scrapbooking, it also gives members earning opportunities in 3 ways.

• Earn from your creativity.  You can create your scrapbook designer kits and sell them to photo book buyers for their photo book design.  A designer kit includes design elements and ready-to-use scrapbook pages.  Using the ArtsCow designer kit system, you can set the price and get 70% of sales revenue with no hosting fees, marketing fees or credit card charges. You receive profits twice a month through PayPal.  For complete details, go here.

• Join the Bi-Weekly Scrapbook Kits contest.

• Share and Earn.  Share your finished design products on Facebook and get paid up to $1 per post depending on the number Facebook Friends you have.   The more friends you have, the more cash reward you will receive.  You can cash out your earnings through Paypal when you reach $50 or you can spend it for your ArtsCow product orders.  (This program is no longer offered in Artscow.)

Hope this post was helpful.

Review an Online Education Program for Kids

I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

I am excited to let my 4 kids try this online program  as their afterschool enrichment activity.  I'll let you know in 30 days or so how it goes.

I Need a Mommy Quiet Time

I've been busy lately.  I can't believe that somebody actually hired me online to do writing jobs.  The opportunity came about when I joined an online contest writing this post.  I won that contest and was offered the opportunity to do freelance writing.  Thank God for an additional source of income for our growing family.

I had to reevaluate my priorities and adjust the things I've been doing.  God really spoke to my heart that I cannot keep up with everything I do relying on my own strength.  It's a tough job being a full time mom, wife, tutor, freelance writer, and all other jobs included with in the package.  The more I become busy, the more I need Him.

Therefore, I have resolved to really seriously spend time each day to meditate upon His Word for it is the lamp to our feet and guide to our path (Psalm 119:105).  I have decided to journal my thoughts daily (Oh this is a commitment that I praying to keep) and I have created a new blog for it.  It's called Mommy Quiet Time.

If you are a mom like me who feels the same way about the importance of spending time studying God's Word, then I invite you to join me at Mommy Quiet Time.  I pray that it will bless us all as we take our journey in having a quiet time with the Lord.