Book Review- What's Age Got to Do With It?

Robin McGraw's book, What's Age Got To Do With It? is a great resource for women dealing with the natural aging process. It's not easy going down this road. Strange things are happening to our body and mind and Robin does a great job of explaining how SHE is dealing with it all. I especially liked her chapter on hormones. As a woman that is in perimenopause, I found it very interesting and may speak with my doctor about the option of bio-identical hormones.

Robin is open and honest about her life and how she is dealing with it all. I was, however, disappointed in the chapter on faith. What's Faith Got To Do With It? um, everything in my book, yet this was the shortest chapter in the entire book! But again, she is honest in admitting that when she isn't spending time with God, she can tell!

I think this is a good book for women to read, no matter what age. It can help us all prepare for what is ahead or help us through what's going on right now. Just remember to take it with a grain of salt, this is HER life she's talking about, not your life. We'll all deal with things differently, Mrs. McGraw just gives us her perspective on how she deals with it!

Click here to find out more about the book.

WFMW-Start Their Morning Off Right

This week over at WFMW it's a Back To School Theme!

Here's my little tip: Start their morning off right! I'm not talking about feeding them Cheerios! I'm talking about having God's word available for them to see first thing in the morning.

I started this many years ago but must admit that I've been VERY slack lately. So here is my commitment to start my kids day off right this school year. I'm going to print out Bible verses and glue them onto index cards and then post them on their bathroom mirror. I'll post a new verse each week.

First week of school will be:

1 Peter 3:8-9 (New International Version)

8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

Thanks to Zaankali for sharing this verse in her post today.

Go check out more WFMW Back to School tips!

Wordless Wednesday- Play Ball

Summer Baseball Memories

For other Wordless Wednesday posts head over to 5 Minutes for Moms!

WFMW-Removing Hair Build Up

Man oh man! My hair has been feeling really horrible lately. I know that it's because of all the junk I put in it. I color it myself and then I always use mousse and sometime hair putty and then hair spray too. It's horrible what I put on my hair.

For whatever reason I felt that I needed to use all of that stuff. And my hair was seriously paying for it. So I did a little search on good ol' Google and found a very cheap way to get rid of all the build up in my hair and let me tell you it worked like a charm.

At first I wasn't really sure if I wanted to try it or not because I was afraid my head would stink but was surprised when it didn't.

So, here is what I did.

Get hair wet as usual. Place about 2 tablespoons of baking soda in the palm of your hand and then wet it enough to make a paste. Massage it into your hair- scrubbing really well. Next- using a small squirt bottle-rinse with 1/2 Apple Cider Vinegar and 1/2 warm water. Yes, that's why I was so worried about the smell. But it goes away quickly-I promise. Then rinse with water as you normally would. Do not shampoo or use conditioner.

Let me tell you it worked. My hair felt so clean and smooth. I did it two days in a row- dried my hair as usual with my hair dryer but used no products at all on it. Smooth and silky and CLEAN!!!

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!!

Want to find other tips! Head on over to We Are That Family- there are tons!!!

The Noticer- A Must Read for our Reading Group

I have definitely found a new book for our reading group.

The Noticer by Andy Andrews is probably going to become one of the next books to make it on many reading group lists. This is the first book I've read by Andrews and I will certainly be heading to the library to find more. His style of writing flows so easily and the reader can quickly become wrapped up in what is happening.

Jones, not Mr. Jones, just Jones, is the main character who moves through the small beach town sharing his wisdom and perspective with many. I honestly felt that I was able to draw new knowledge from the insight that Jones shared with various characters throughout the book. Reading this book has now made me anxious to look deeper into various parts of my own life. Next on my list to read is now Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages. I want to find out more about my own "dialect" and that of my husband as well.

Our reading group has recent finished The Shack and Same Kind of Different As Me and many members quickly bought extra copies to share with friends and family. I'm sure The Noticer will become yet another of those must share books!

I could probably fill up this whole review with favorite parts from the book but one of my definite favorites was when Jones is speaking with Henry, discussing making changes.

"Five seagulls are sitting on a dock. One decides to fly away. How many seagulls are left?" "well, four?" "No", Jones responded. "There are still five. Deciding to fly away and actually flying away are two very different things"

How often do we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions?

Are you just deciding to fly or are you actually flying?

I hope your intentions to read this book are quickly followed by actions to do so. You won't be disappointed!

The Three I's

Lately I have been putting into practice the Three I's-I've been Irritable, Irrational last but not least an Idiot! Yes, I will admit it. I've been a total idiot. Let me explain-

Over the last few days, weeks, ok months I have been slowly losing my mind. Something has taken over my body and mind and it has turned me into a living breathing witch! I've been horrible. I get angry at the drop of a hat. I am amazed that anyone in my house still has a head. They must somehow be able to regenerate because I am constantly biting them off.

On top of these lovely behaviors I am also not sleeping very well at times, which only serves to exaggerate the other symptoms! And then there is the whole- I could make a wig out of all of the hair on my bathroom floor- thing! Not to mention that I feel like I am in a total brain fog 75% of the time!

As things progressively got worse I realized I needed to talk to my doctor about everything that was going on. So during my annual exam I pulled my list out and starting rattling off each and every symptom. Guess what he had the nerve to suggest? He thinks I'm going through the P word. Yep, Peri-menopause! He gave me a prescription for Ambien to help me sleep (it has become my new bestest friend on occasions) and one for Yaz, a low dose birth control. What? He just threw two words (ok, 4 really) at me that I did not want to hear. Peri-menopause and birth control pills.

Stubborn girl that I am, I thought there had to be something else wrong- no way was I going through peri-menopause- I'm "only" 41. So I quickly made an appointment with my primary care physician, who just happens to be A WOMAN! Surely she could figure out what was wrong. Because there had to actually be something wrong! Right?

She tested my thyroid, cholesterol, sugar, etc. All tests came back fine. So back to the drawing board. A friend suggested it may be a parathyroid issue. Back I go to see her and ask if she'd check my calcium levels. Guess what, she'd already checked them. They are a-okey.

So what do this mean? My stars, I really must be going through peri-menopause.

So now, here is where the whole idiot thing comes in. I was upset. I was almost in tears (there's the irrational thing creeping up again). I wanted there to be something WRONG. Hello, are you an idiot? Oh wait, I've already answered that question- yep, I'm an idiot.

It took my dear sweet DH to make me see the light! I was talking to him on my way home (using my hands-free speaker of course). I told him that all of the tests came back fine and do you know what he said? "Well, that's good news!" What, good news? Hello, that means I am in peri-menopause! Do ya not understand? Then I stopped and thought. You know what? It IS good news. I don't have anything that is really wrong with me. I'm entering a normal phase of life. I WILL survive this.

And then I stopped feeling so sorry for myself. I threw a wet blanket on my own pity party. I prayed and asked God to help me through this period in my life.

And you know what? I feel better already! And sitting here at my computer and admitting that I am an irrational, irritable idiot has made me feel a little better too.

Thanks for listening reading!

WFMW- Sleep timer on iTouch/iPhone

I love listening to my iPhone. Most of the time I listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Usually I'm listening in the car or when I'm working around the house. But once in a while I like to listen when I'm falling asleep.

So, what's the problem with that you ask? Well, if I'm not "awake" enough to shut the darn thing off it will keep playing and playing and playing.

Guess what? I found a solution!! The iPhone and iTouch have a sleep timer. Did you know that? Surely I am not the only owner of one of these fine electronic devices that didn't realize you could set the darn thing to go to sleep on it's own.

Mind you, it isn't shutting completely off, but it is going into sleep mode which will help save the battery, and will keep you from waking up at 2 in the morning with a earth shaking rendition of Mary, Mary's Shackles blaring in your ears. (During the day that is an AWESOME song to listen to as you are praising Jesus, at 2 a.m. it can be a little daunting).

Here is what you do:

• tap your clock setting on the iPhone/iTouch
• on the bottom of the screen tap Timer
• chose the amount of time you wish to pass before putting the device in sleep mode
• tap- When Timer Ends- then choose Sleep iPod. (you may have to scroll UP to find it-it will be at the very top of the screen)
• tap Start

Your ipod function will go into sleep mode after the appropriate time has passed

Please note that you could still receive text messages, e-mail, and calls. I typcially keep my phone in vibrate mode anyway so that wouldn't be too troublesome.

I really think this is a biggest advantage for iTouch users- since they don't have to be concerned about the phone ringing or text messages coming through. And you could set your device so that it doesn't automatically check for e-mail messages- that would keep you from hearing everytime a message is posted to your account.

Hope this helped someone! I know it's great for my kids when they listen to music on the iTouch when going to sleep.

Check out Shanon's site for more WFMW tips. But next week, be sure to head over to We Are THAT Family for WFMW- Kristen is taking over the carnival!