A volatile stock market, unpredictably disastrous weather, home mortgage crises and tightening credit crunch all add up to increasingly difficult home environments. Some of the most at-risk members of our population include pregnant and postpartum mothers. They are already coping with tremendous hormone and brain chemistry changes, and have a biological imperative to establish a safe haven for their new charges.

Unstable world environments can make the creation of a stable home life impossible, ramping up stress and wreaking havoc in parent’s minds and bodies. A stressed mother equals a stressed baby, but the reverse is also true. Helping a new mother feel more secure will have a positive effect on the baby as well. Here are some tips to cope with difficult times:

1. Focus on the Present. It may be tempting to think about the list of problems stretched out ahead of you. This will only lead to a downward mental spiral. Instead, ask yourself if you and your baby or child are safe for the moment. If you are, take a deep breath and allow a moment of gratitude. If not, do whatever you need to do to get the two of you into a safe environment and take it one day at a time.

2. Be Honest. Ignoring your emotions or hiding your feelings can work against you. Whether you are mad, sad, glad, scared or some confusing combination of these, please know that it is O.K. for you to feel whatever is going on inside.

3. Make a Connection. You may not know it yet, but you are in good company. Reaching out to others and sharing your story can bring healing and comfort. Sometimes this is possible face to face, but other options are available. Consider connecting with an online support group. Knowing that just a single person or small group cares about you, even if they are long distance, can provide strength for you to carry on.

4. Nurture Yourself. Ask yourself what you love with each of your senses. What do you love to hear? What do you love to taste? What do you love to feel? What do you love to smell? What do you love to see? Write your answers down, and be creative. Spa days, massages and fancy dinners are great, but the object here is to find small but meaningful ways to nurture yourself every day. You may be surprised to find the variety of simple, inexpensive ways to bring pleasure through multiple senses. A cup of favorite tea or coffee can nourish your sense of taste, smell, touch, and even sight if you take the time to focus and enjoy it. Stroking a cat or dog can be tremendously soothing, nourishing your sense of touch and bringing a sense of connection at the same time. It is possible to become aware of beauty even in some of the harshest environments.

5. Attend to the Basics. You need to eat, sleep, breathe and drink water every day. Remembering these small, simple steps will increase your your health and vitality when you need it the most.

6. Ask Others for Help. This is no sign of weakness. On the contrary, you prove your competence by asking for help for yourself and your family when you need it. Do you need help finding information, food, housing, resources, or a supportive network? People might not know what you need unless you tell them. Don’t let your pride interfere. Give yourself permission to ask for help and increase your chances of finding the resources you need.

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The Dirty Truths No One Shares with New Moms | Blog Nosh Magazine

I thought back to all the times I’d tried to warn her and I knew I was partially to blame. It’s true. We don’t tell our pregnant friends everything, not because we don’t think they can take it, not because we don’t think they’ll believe us, but because it hurts to relive it and it’s easier to joke about sleepless nights than to go into details about how hard it really is.

When It Isn’t Really Senility – The New Old Age Blog – NYTimes.com

Reversible causes of dementia include the side effects of many medications. Ditropan is only the most recent addition to the list, occasioned in part by a study by U.S. Navy neurologist Dr. Jack Tsao involving 870 men and women with an average age of 75. The subjects, who were all Catholic priests, nuns and brothers, were followed for almost eight years. At a 2008 meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Dr. Tsao reported that those who were taking anticholinergic drugs — a class that includes not only Detrol but also drugs to treat hypertension, asthma and Parkinson’s disease — had a 50 percent higher rate of cognitive decline than those who were not.

BabasFarmLife

If you have lost your job during this economy slump and are wondering how to bring in cash to make ends meet, I may just have the solution for you. You probably have things laying around the house that you don’t need, or have never even used. Perhaps you have collectables taking up space or old CD’s or DVD’s that you no longer listen to or watch; or maybe you received one too many toaster oven’s or coffeemakers for
wedding gifts and not sure what to do with them; or too many designer purses in your closet?

Your Impact Matters

My passions are my children, my home and our beautiful Earth. On these pages you’ll find my personal recipes, crafts I do with my children, homeschooling information for the beginner, and homesteading advice.

THE DAILY BLONDE: The Luck of the Irish?

I am not Irish? Come on, now. I have freckles. Freckles mean I’m Irish, right? I also like cabbage and corned beef. Come to think of it, I eat anything put in front of me, so that doesn’t really mean much. But I have freckles. Not as many as my little auburn haired daughter, but I have them. I also buy Lucky Charms (because they are magically delicious) and I believe in pots of gold at the end of rainbows. Just haven’t located the rainbow yet.

Down with Facebook!

For the five or six Amish shut-ins who may not yet have heard of this scourge (your tenacious ignorance is to be admired, and I’d immediately friend you if I was into Facebook and you had electricity), Facebook is an online community where colleagues, friends, long-lost acquaintances, friends of friends or long-lost acquaintances, and perfect strangers find and “friend” each other based on their real or perceived
affinity. They then have access to each other’s web pages, and
consequently to each other’s lives, quirks, photos, jottings,
oversharings, and mental disorders, as well as to those of the
ever-expanding universe of their friends’ circles, thus increasing the likelihood that you will either embarrass yourself or be embarrassed by someone whose life would never otherwise intersect with yours. (Right about now, a Facetard is ginning up an angry letter to the editor saying this would not be the case if you know how to control your privacy settings. Save the geek speech for your Facebook friends, Facetard, I already got my eight hours sleep.)

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Yesterday I made passing mention to the time I almost blinded our oldest daughter, Rachael. I thought maybe I better start there before you think the less of me. So here is how the story goes:

This was back when Rachael was right at eye level with the gas tank opening of our car. (I bet you’re already getting the picture, huh?) At the time she thought it was great fun to jump out of the car at the gas station and help Daddy fill the tank. What could be the harm in that, right?

Well on this particular day she didn’t quite get the nozzle fully inserted and as soon as she pressed the handle, gas started splashing back into her huge and wide open eyes. Worst yet, in what seemed like one of those forever moments, the nozzle didn’t auto shut off right away so looking back it seems like gallons of gasoline sprayed everywhere.

Rachael screamed bloody murder. (Only someone knowing our Rachael can know just how high pitched and piercing that scream can be.) I scooped her up and ran straight into the bathroom yelling at the attendant to call 911 as I passed. I kept flushing her eyes with water as much as I could but she kept screaming, “Daddy, I can’t see! I can’t see!”

As I recall the ambulance showed up incredibly quickly. Even so, as I flushed Rachael’s eyes, I must have run through my mind several dozen times what it would be like to live for the rest of our lives with a daughter I blinded through my negligence. I rode in the ambulance with Rachael and the cool, calm, and professionally detached though not uncaring paramedics. Gale followed with the other kids in the car.

Thankfully somewhere along the ride to the emergency room or perhaps it was in the first moments in the examining room, Rachael was able to say between sobs that she was beginning to see again but that everything was blurry. The doctor did some doctor voodoo shining a light in Rachael’s eyes in the midst of it and proclaimed that she would be fine. I’m not sure how long it was before she actually was fine but it was quick enough that I had to pinch myself and ask, “Did that really happen?” or were Rachael’s eyes so bloodshot from playing in the chlorinated pool?

Isn’t that the way with crisis like these? They come on in a twinkling of a moment and if we’re fortunate, disappear just as quickly. Other times our lives are turned topsy turvy just as quickly never again to return to “normal.”