Tag Archives: eyes

The House that Fills and Empties

I realized this morning that my family scene is forever fluctuating–the house empties out, gradually fills, or fills to bursting in a very short time. It is not a quiet and predictable place most days, but it is also not as chaotic and loud as it used to be when my children were younger. There are elements of unpredictability about it now, but there is also an ebb and flow that living in a house with older teenagers brings… When my children were younger, we had very organized parenting agreements between their father–they would be with me during the weeks … Continue reading →

Organizing All Those Shoes

If someone was to ask me to name some of the big differences between a house without children and a household with children, I would have to say the abundance of shoes in a family scene is a dead giveaway. I had no idea when I got into this parenting world nearly two decades ago that such a huge chunk of my time would be dedicated to managing shoes. Maybe it is partly because we live in such an affluent country and most of us have multiple pairs of shoes. I am not a big shoe freak and even I … Continue reading →

Photo Tips: The Eyes Have It

I took more than 500 pictures during our recent trip to Hawaii and as I went through them the other day I noticed an interesting (translation: distracting) trend among them. In many of the shots my 3-year-old daughter is looking everywhere BUT the camera. And it’s not just in the photos I snapped—she’s looking away from the camera at nearly every attraction we visited. Luckily, I am a snap happy parent who takes more than one shot of each pose so I walked away with some real winners, but the trend did get me thinking about a photo subject’s way … Continue reading →

Taking Care of Your Eyes

Those of us who operate our own home businesses do NOT have the benefit of a human resources department or health and safety committee to make sure that we are looking after our physical bodies during the work day. Unless we tend to things ourselves, concerns like ergonomics, how long we sit in one place, lighting, etc. can go unattended to. I know that I speak from personal experience when I confess that exhaustion and eye strain can be a reality for a hard-working home business owner! It has been relatively recently that I have started wearing glasses and being … Continue reading →

Soothing Dry Eyes

Dry eye syndrome (also known as DES) is surprisingly common; it is one of the top reasons Americans visit the eye doctor! Symptoms of dry eye syndrome include: Stinging red eyes Blurry vision Sensitivity to light If you suffer from dry eye syndrome, your eyes aren’t producing enough tears to keep your eyes lubricated. Over the counter eye drops (also called artificial tears) can help bring relief, but it can be a pain to always be reaching for the eye drops! Your eye doctor may also provide a topical steroid eye drop or cream that can help your eyes retain … Continue reading →

Can They Ever Be Expected to Walk Through the House?

What parent doesn’t know the constant sound of his or her own voice admonishing children to “walk!” through the house? Running, jumping, skipping, crashing, banging, breaking–we worry and fuss that our children will learn to crawl and walk on schedule, but we don’t realize that once they start, we will be telling them to calm down and walk for the next seventeen or eighteen years! Even though my older teenagers can be sloths and slugs in many areas of their lives now, they still seem to bound up and down the stairs and tend to raise each other for the … Continue reading →

Robots Come Home

Want to have a cleaner home or clean your gutters from the ground? With the new breed of robots, it is all possible. Welcome to the age of the Jetsons. Most of us have heard of the Roomba vacuum cleaning device. It is a little robot that goes around your home vacuuming up the crumbs and then happily returning back to its base, saving you the trouble of sweeping or vacuuming yourself. The company that makes the Roomba, iRobot, now has a whole array of helpful home robots to do a variety of jobs. And, they are all available right … Continue reading →

Autumn and “Nesting”

I usually hear “nesting” as a term that applies just to pregnant, expecting moms—“nesting” used to explain that urge many expectant women feel to clean, organize and decorate their homes. I think, however, that we families (moms, dads, and kids too) feel compelled to nest at different times—not just while waiting for the birth of a baby. If spring is considered the time of year when we clean things up and air things out to move our lives outside, then I think that autumn is the time of year we snuggle in, snuggle up and nest… I am not as … Continue reading →

When Does the Child-Proofing End?

I am contemplating getting a dog, a puppy actually. I am sure that my motivation is partly influenced by the fact that my kids are all in high school and while they still need me, they definitely need me in different ways now that they are getting older. As a somewhat methodical person when it comes to making major decisions (I am spontaneous enough on the small, day-to-day things, but I like to research and mull things over when it comes to big purchases and decisions—especially as I get older), I have started the “research” and have been reading a … Continue reading →

My Personal Categories for a Household Notebook

So often others ask me how I divide or categorize my items within my household notebook. It isn’t that they do not understand the use of the notebook, only that they have trouble figuring out how to categorize it. When I discovered household notebooks, I never realized how purposeful and how incredibly important it would become to my family. We rely on this book, and affectionately refer to it as “household central”. If someone comes asking about something they hear “Check household central”. Because I figure if they cannot find it there, it probably is not anywhere in the house … Continue reading →