Health Advice for Women

Plumber, tiling,  clogged drains and raising the kids.

Is that what my life boils down to?

I went to college thinking I’ll make lots of money and hire someone to do home improvements and home repair when I’m older, but I have come to find great joy in doing some of the work around the house!

You may have read my articles on “killing your carpet”. Carpets are really bad for your health. When they are new the chemical off-gassing is enough to fry your brain, but over time they collect ever germ, dust ball, food spill in your house.

I ripped out every carpet in my house and installed tile and wood flooring. My allergies and chemical sensitivities improved more than they’ve ever improved in my life!

So last month, I moved to a few house and ripped all the carpets out. This time I decided I was going to learn how to tile. It was hard work but not that difficult to learn. The best part is that I get constant gratification walking on these floors, knowing I took part in the creation. So be it tiling or a plumbing repair job, take heart, you can learn new skills! Here’s another one of my favorite websites for home repair. http://www.louisvilleplumbingandheating.com/

Are you one of those women that turns over any home repair job to your husband? Toilet clogged, put it on the honey-do list.

Well honey, it’s the 21st Century! Home repair jobs are not that hard, it’s just having someone show you how to do them. Believe me, now that I’ve learned a few new skills, I’m wanting more. I find a lot of my information online.

We have used the longmontplumbingandheating.com website many times and they have consistently had reliable, trust worthy and great information. When we have a plumbing, heating or air conditioning problem we always check this website to get the issue fixed. Look for their eco-friendly advice on clogged drains.

There are lots of sites like to to give you step by step advice on repairing heating, plumbing, etc. Good luck ladies!

The most expensive thing we ever buy in our lives is usually our home? The repairs or improvements to our home are also big expenditures. But the crazy thing is that most of us are completely lost when it comes to anything to do with home repair! If something breaks we call our local plumber, heating, air conditioning or electrical repair guy, right?

The biggest secret is that you can easily fix many of the things yourself! We’ve just never learned how to do it. Now, don’t get me wrong. If the compressor is broken on my air conditioning, I’m calling an air conditioning repair service, pronto. But do you know what you can fix and when to call a repair guy?

So take control ladies. It’s the greatest feeling in the world to fix something in your house. The internet has provided our generation a plethora of information on just about everything you can imagine. Some of it takes a little googling (searching on google.com) but you would be surprised at the information available. Go to google and type on “plumbing repair” and you will be surprised at what pops up.

I’ve found some websites that give tips on how to fix common plumbing repairs and what things they recommend a professional for. Some of these websites give written instructions as well as videos. Louisville Plumbing and Heating is a website that I’ve used with great tips on plumbing, plumbers in my local area and air conditioning repair. For a natural way to unclog a drain check out Erie Plumbing and Heating.

Take the challenge ladies, next time you have a home repair get online and see if you can fix it yourself.

As the winter months progress I tend to feel less connected to the wonderful outdoor spaces that reach out to me like an old friend during the spring and summer months. Trapped inside all day as the cold wind blows, I yearn for the feel of fresh dirt in my hands and find myself counting the days until I once again have the pleasure of planting new flowers in my garden and tending to the perennials and bulbs that start peeking out in the spring.

Other gardeners have told me that they’ve been able to find enjoyment tending indoor plants during the winter months. I’ll admit that I do keep African Violets and Orchids indoors year-round, but growing indoors is a lot more challenging! Indoor plants, like all plants require the correct amount of light and proper watering and finding this balance indoors has been tricky for me.

I’ve thought about buying grow lights and setting up a small system, but frankly I haven’t had the time to do the research or the testing required for different plants. Also, the space needed for an indoor growing system, is more than I can spare in my small house. My friend Trina purchased an AeroGarden from AeroGrow, at their website www.aerogardening.com, which is a complete indoor garden. She kept raving about how fun and easy it was to grow herbs in her AeroGarden. So I ordered one and was equally impressed! I love that everything grows so easily, but I also love that I can put my African Violets next to my AeroGarden and they love the light it throws off and have bloomed like crazy!

It’s February and I’m starting to think about what to plant in my summer garden and guess what, my next test is the AeroGarden Starter Tray. I can start up to 66 seedlings indoors in my AeroGarden with no dirt and no mess, then easily transplant them into my outdoor garden when the weather allows.

I’ll let you know how that goes come May.

Looking to save a little money on your Christmas shopping this year? Well it’s safe to say that shopping coupons are the new black! This year you can find many great deals online with coupons. We are big into organic and eco-friendly gifts, so our favorite website to find shopping coupons is www.bestorganiccoupons.com. We can each make a huge difference in the world we live in! So give gifts that are good for humans and the earth we live on. Shop online and you save gas, time and money with coupons!

For many of my friends and family, the carefree spending and impulse purchases of the last few years will not be a part of their holiday this year. Many are cutting back on the number of toys they are giving their children and on the number of gifts they give to each other. And they are looking for gifts that have a lasting impact. They are looking for gifts that have special meaning rather than just a high price tag or a fancy gadget.

My favorite gift this year that falls into this category is AeroGrow’s indoor gardening appliances. I found the AeroGarden www.aerogrow.com online this year while looking for a gift to give a friend of mine that is a long-time gardener. When the winter months come around, she always bemoans the fact that she cannot get out into her garden. With the AeroGarden, she doesn’t have to wait for spring to appear, she can garden all year-round right in her own kitchen.

AeroGrow touts its product as “The World’s First Kitchen Garden Appliance”, but I think that makes it sound like something you stick under your kitchen sink. In fact, the AeroGarden sits right on your countertop. You can fill it with herbs, flowers, vegetables or greens. There’s a grow light on the AeroGarden that turns it on and off automatically so you can place the garden anywhere you like, and it will still grow. And it only takes a few minutes to set up, so there’s no impossible set of directions to follow or four hours needed to get this gift up and running.

The best part about the AeroGarden is that it truly is the perfect gift for all the people on my list this year. Amy, who likes to cook, will absolutely love having fresh herbs right on her countertop. Doug, who we all tease about his black thumb, will appreciate how easy it is to set up and grow things. And Kate, my environmentalist friend, will appreciate the fact that this is a long-lasting gift – no waste or pollution to think of, and yields hundreds of dollars of herbs.

The only thing I do not like about this product is that I did not discover it for my grandmother. She lived in an assisted living home, and spent much of her time in her own room. Since flowers are proven to increase happiness and overall emotional wellness, this would have been the perfect gift for her. And the products are so small that they do not take up a lot of space, which is important to the elderly in these situations.

So this year, I plan to give a gift that brings year-round joy to those people on my holiday list. No fancy gadgets, no fancy boxes; just a lovely little AeroGarden that provides for flowers, herbs, vegetables or greens. It’s a gift that will make my friends and family smile everyday and think of me. What more could you ask for?

Not that long ago, the term “going green” conjured up thoughts of radical environmentalists going to extremes to save a forest in the name of “The Movement.” Today, however, “going green” means so much more. As individual awareness has grown regarding how behavior affects greenhouse gas emissions or hurts local water supply, home recycling and home energy efficiency has grown from energy efficient light bulbs to entire energy efficiency home conversions.

As an extension of this personal impact awareness, businesses are giving serious thought to how they can “go green” while continuing to make their businesses more efficient. Beyond in-office recycling and re-using coffee cups, companies are searching for solutions that provide the right combination of savings and benefits for both employer and employee, while enabling employers to give some intangible benefits to employees during tight economic times. One such solution is phone and web conferencing.

Phone and web conferencing by companies such as www.webpresentnow.com allows employees to hold virtual meetings from their own offices. It gives them instant access to co-workers, customers and clients without having to travel, thereby eliminating the environmental impact while lowering company costs.  When you consider that a roundtrip flight from New York to Los Angeles emits 2.46 metric tons of CO2 — the greenhouse gas that goes directly into the most sensitive portion of our atmosphere – you realize how much you can make a difference by simply introducing phone and web conferencing into your company culture. [1]

Phone and web conferencing also allows individuals to reduce personal stress and increase productivity by giving them the option to work from home on one or more days a week. Being able to meet virtually wherever they are means they can still hold impromptu meetings or keep recurring ones with ease. Phone or Web Conferencing enables individuals to use their time more efficiently – scheduling and keeping other appointments becomes easier.  Additionally, telecommuting using phone and web conferencing equates to cost savings on vehicle use — less wear and tear on vehicles. The result of using phone and web conferencing is that employees strengthen the work-life balance and, ultimately, companies are able to hire and retain happier, more productive workers.

Environmentally speaking, encouraging staff to use phone and web conferencing has many benefits. Already 12 million employees and another 16 million self-employed people work at home at least one day a month [1]. Collectively, these home-based workers now save the equivalent of 24% of Gulf oil imports and avoid producing 33 million metric tons greenhouse gases a year [1]. Also, according to a report released in April 2008 by the American Electronics Association, if every U.S. worker telecommuted 1.6 days per week, an estimated 1.35 billion gallons of gasoline could be conserved annually.

The positive results that phone and web conferencing make for the environment and in an employees life is something that any company can feel good about. What’s more, shareholders, clients, employees and investors, will feel confident supporting a company that employs such forward thinking, cost efficient and eco-friendly policies.
[1] American Electronics Association Report- April 2008

About the Author:
Heather Bishara lives in South Riding, VA, is a mother of two boys ages 1 and 4 and works as a business consultant for www.tricalyx.com part-time from home.

Are you looking for that perfect gift for your woman for Christmas 2008? Well look no further.

We have polled women far and wide to compile the 2008 Christmas List for Women. Here’s your top no fail gift list.

1. Jewelry – Guys if you want to score big go for the jewelry! I love the jewelry at Just Metal Titanium and you get Free Shipping on ALL US Orders.
2. Chocolates – Go for fabulous organic chocolates from Dan’s Chocolates.

3. Gift Certificate to a Spa – Pamper your love to her favorite spa with 60% Savings in trips to the Bahamas!

4. Gift Certificate to a great restaurant – Its an event & fun. bestorganiccoupons.com

5. Trip for Two to an Exotic Getaway – Enough said.
6. Indulge her Favorite Hobby – If she loves the outdoors here’s some options for you at e-omc.com

Can one person save 86,000 barrels of oil in a day. Yes! If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25oz petroleum-based diswashing liquid with a plant-derived product we would save 86,000 barrels of oil. This is enough oil to heat and cool 4,900 U.S. homes for a year.

That’s inspiring to think of how much power we have with our purchases! So here’s my challenge to you. Convince one relative or neighbor to do this and ask them to do the same. Don’t just replace your dishwashing liquid, replace your laundry detergent, shampoo, liquid soap, and household cleaners with a plan-derived product! Think of how much oil we will all save then. We could end the oil crisis with our choice of purchases. To top it off, plant-derived products are much more healthy. It’s all I have in my home, in fact there are no products in my home made with petrochemicals. It’s time to move into the 21st century, get rid of those petroleum based products and help save our world!!

I went online and sent my sister a complete array of personal and household products that are plant-derived versus made with petrochemicals. Go to mothernature.com and the shipping is free.

I remember the day that my soon-to-be husband got his first pager. He was so excited to be considered important enough to be given a company pager because, to him, it meant that he was now the new go-to guy – the guy who could be trusted to fix any problem that came up, day or night. He could hardly contain himself!

I, on the other hand, wanted to throw the pager in toilet after its third day on my sweetie’s hip. He had received no less than 25 pages during the few hours we had spent together during these three days. This left me wondering where the line had been crossed between work and home. It also made me think about how I was going to get my fiancé to become more engaged in his life outside of work when he was so unfairly lured by the demands of the people who support his self esteem and who also pay his bills.

What we needed was a work-life balance plan. I had heard of these before, but had never put one together myself. After going through the process, here’s what I have learned:

1. In order to achieve a work-life balance you first need to figure out what really makes you happy. Is it your family? Your friends? Your career? Something else? Take a moment to write down, in order of importance, what really matters to you most. This will help you establish what it is you really want to spend your time on. If something is not on the list or is rated a low priority, you need to give serious consideration to eliminating this item from your life altogether. By sticking to mid-to-high priority items, you can start building a life that you can be proud of and are excited to actively participate in, not one that you are just going through the motions with.

2. Focus on a few activities. Let’s face it. Most of us are extremely over-programmed. Every minute of our lives is taken up with various activities that, at some point, we thought we wanted to participate in. The reality is that some or even most of these activities are just drains on our time. If you are serious about achieving a happy work-life balance, then you need to figure out which activities you just can’t live without and focus solely on them. You’ll be amazed at how much time, stress, and energy you’ll save by whittling your activity commitment down to just one or two really rewarding ones.

3. Learn how to say no. One of the things that gets us into the most trouble with our work-life balance is our inability to say no. As human beings we have empathy for one another and we really do not want to let anyone down. In the meantime, we are letting ourselves down because every time we accept a new responsibility, we are taking time away from our personal priorities. Saying no is not easy and it can takes lots of practice in order to find a way that makes both you and the person you are saying no to feel comfortable with the outcome. But in doing so, you are freeing yourself and your time to focus on things that matter most to you.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Life can be overwhelming, even when we are organized and have our priorities in line. The fact is that everyone needs help sometimes. By not asking for help we are creating more stress in our lives that can be damaging to our overall health. Stress alone can bring on other health issues. As an example, pre-diabetes can be caused by Insulin Resistance-related obesity which, in turn, may be brought on by stress. Various forms of stress release the steroid cortisol and this process may result in weight gain. And we all know that added weight can bring on additional complications like high cholesterol and heart disease.

So what types of things can you do to relieve some of this stress and avoid potential health risks? Ask a neighbor to watch your kids while you go to dinner with your spouse. Or have a neighborhood kid mow your lawn so that you can spend some quality doing something else that you love. The extra effort is worth it as you keep your life and your relationships on track and keep stress down to a minimum.

5. Always have something to look forward to. We all are a little happier when we have a vacation, fun activity or big family gathering coming up on the calendar. Everybody’s work calendar is booked with various activities so why not your home calendar as well? Planning special events will enhance your life by allowing you to keep those personal relationships with friends and family strong. So turn off your cell phone and make the most of these special occasions. You might find that you have more of a skip in your step at work because of it!