As a kid, my mom warned me about things like sitting too close to the TV, going outside with a wet head, and not letting my food digest before swimming. She even convinced me that eating Pop Rocks and drinking soda at the same time would cause my stomach to explode. While I can attest to the fact that Pop Rocks and soda do not, in fact, cause any bodily damage (other than a fun party-in-your-mouth effect), what about those other kernels of motherly advice? Is there any truth to them or were they all just scare tactics?

If you don’t wait an hour after eating before you go into the water, you’ll get stomach cramps and drown.
False. The idea behind this is that when your blood rushes to your stomach to help you digest food, you wouldn’t have enough circulation to keep your arms and legs working properly. The tale likely gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, when kids enjoyed local pools and lakes with far less lifeguard supervision than we have now. As a result, parents conjured up a way to keep kids at bay after lunchtime while they got some rest in. But according to HowStuffWorks, we have plenty of blood to keep all of our other parts running just fine after a meal. Some competitive swimmers even eat something immediately before a big meet to give them the energy they need to perform well. Also, during exercise, our bodies produce adrenaline that actually helps deliver oxygen to the muscles that need it most.

KEEP READING>>>>

original article by Danielle Samaniego

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This is why when my daughter came home with her second grade school pictures, I couldn't fit one more picture in the frame! It wouldn't shut! I figured maybe it was time to do something about it. My mom suggested putting them in a box. That didn't appeal to me – I mean, this is my daughter's face we're talking about.

Instead, I purchased a 12" x 12" scrapbook. I picked a solid color cover with no frills whatsoever – I wanted to be organized, not break the bank. While I was at the store, I picked up some adhesive photo corners (you can find them in the scrapbook section).

Mind you, I'm not a scrapbooker – my plan was not to get carried away with embellishments and page layout fuss. That's outside my skill-set. Instead, my daughter and I sat down and from her very first studio photo to her first grade photo, looked at the way she's grown and changed in the past seven years. She smiled at seeing her baby face and her pretty dresses and her chubby cheeks. In one picture, we remembered how she had just had stitches removed from her forehead after a mishap with a chair.

We put one picture on each page, secured with photo corners only – this allows you to remove the picture later if you'd like. We also wrote her age beneath each picture. We'll continue to add to this album as years go by.

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Lady Jen of Joy Ever After has 13 reasons she loves being married to her husband:

1. He is the world's most handsome hunk!

2. He takes providing for his family seriously…and does it well.

3. He is a spiritual leader that helps keep me on track.

4. He loves me just the way I am…and always has.

5. He is a terrific father.

6. He has awesome good looks! (Oh, did I already say that?)

7. He is a real man of which I can be proud.

8. He treats me like his queen and appreciates what I do for him.

9. He never tells me to stop talking! (Yes, he is close to sainthood, as a matter of fact!)

10. He never forgets a special occasion and always treats them with importance.

11. He is simply gorgeous! (Oops…there it is again…can't help myself!)

12. He can cook. (Although I try not to take advantage of it, there is definitely a relief in knowing my children are getting more than Doritos and candy bars when I am in the hospital or otherwise incapacitated.)

13. I fall deeper in love with him every day!

Originally posted on Joy Ever After on June 18, 2009

It could be a list, a poem, a letter, a memory, whatever strikes your fancy. Do you have a reason to "Brag On Him"? We want to hear it! Please e-mail me at malia@blissfullydometic.com

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Parenting is hard work. VERY hard work with no monetary pay. But the economy still has a huge impact on the stress that comes with parenting. MSNBC ran a great story about how these troubled economic times are adding stress to clashes over parenting. It's logical that when a family is worried about how they are going to pay their bills, the tension can mount and spill over into every other area of life. Unfortunately, the kids get caught in the crossfire. And marriages suffer.

So what can we do to recession-proof our parenting? How can we minimize the impact a poor economic situation has on our family's stress-levels?

• Make a conscious decision to be on the same team with your partner. Don't let the kids know you're in disagreement regarding a parenting choice. Because saavy kids (and aren't they all saavy these days?) will DIVIDE AND CONQUER!
• Find inexpensive or (better yet) free activities you can do as a family. If you're still finding ways to play together, you'll be less likely to be at each other's throats. But if your play is further busting your budget…it will only lead to more conflict.
• Take the time to encourage one another. I know I forget to tell my husband how much I appreciate that he works two jobs to keep our family going. I need to do better.
• Make saving money a family affair. Get the kids involved in coupon-clipping or organizing. Have a family yard sale and give them their own area for selling toys they have outgrown or gotten tired of.
• When you feel yourself about to lose your cool with the kids, take a moment to evaluate the REAL source of your stress. It's not your child's fault you're worried about losing your job or making the next mortgage payment.
• Remain consistent in your disciplining. If stress makes you lenient sometimes and hard-nosed other times, your children are going to be terribly confused. Likewise, if one parent reacts to the stress by adopting an anything-goes mentality with the kids and the other becomes a drill sergeant…well…that's obviously not going to play out well in the long run.

Above all, remember that your family will hopefully be around long after our economy picks back up. Focus on keeping things as positive as possible until that happens. Hang in there!

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This post by Just Ask Baby originally appeared on Divine Caroline.

As I watched my four-year-old granddaughter, put her doll to bed, I was again reminded of the many ways in which make-believe fosters healthy growth and development. In her make-believe, Heather was not practicing for a later role as a mother. Rather, she was dealing with the fact that she had a new baby sister who was taking a lot of her mother’s and father’s attention. Sometimes children create imaginary companions who can help a child deal with socially unacceptable impulses, or avoid responsibility for certain actions. A child who broke a plate insisted that his imaginary companion, Stevie, had done it. And when children engage in dramatic play and put on adult clothing and adopt adult postures and language, this is not simply imitation. Rather in such play, children are making believe that they have the power and prerogatives of adults that are denied to them as children.

The benefits of make believe go well beyond the therapeutic. Engaging in make believe encourages children to go “beyond the information given,” to conceive of options and not to accept the first idea that is presented to them. Indeed, critical thinking has its roots in make believe play. It encourages creativity as well. Norman Brosterman in his book Inventing Kindergarten makes some fascinating observations. He found that Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Klee, and Piet Mondrian had all attended Froebelian kindergartens. In these kindergartens children create a variety of forms, structures and images with blocks of various kinds, paper cut into geometric patterns, dried peas and toothpicks (the forerunner of tinker toys) and many more materials of this sort. Brosterman found remarkable parallels between what children created in the Froebel kindergarten and the work of the artists who had attended these kindergartens as children.

Read More Here

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What are your excuses? The kids? Work? The house? Exhaustion? Headache? Americans are in the midst of a sexual famine – and Dr. Oz wants it to stop right now.

It was just about a year ago when Pastor Ed Young issued his Seven Day Sex Challenge. Now Dr. Oz (you remember him from Oprah, right?) is on the better sex life crusade. Dr. Oz's National Sex Experiment is more methodical and time consuming (90 days) but it from what I can see (the action plan is being revealed incrementally) this will be a great way to reconnect and bring some heat back into your relationship.

Even if your sex life is not in crisis, Dr. Oz's approach can be restorative for your marriage. For example,

Part 1, Step 2: Kiss and Cuddle
Set aside time to kiss and cuddle for 10 minutes, 3 times a week. No having sex during this time – it’s meant to rekindle your desire for foreplay and awaken your slumbering sexual desires.

My husband works from home and we see each other quite a bit but I've been surprised to realize that there are days when we will get several hours into the day without having kissed or even hugged. Sometimes you just have to make a conscientious effort to be intimate.

I'm looking forward to seeing what else Dr. Oz has in store for his sex experiment. I've signed up, will you?

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I needed a candy strategy to stop the constant begging, so I devised my favorite way to use up Halloween candy: baking.

I like to use my favorite brownie recipe, and coursely chop up chocolate candy (this is PERFECT for those leftover Butterfingers, Snickers, or Baby Ruth candies), mix it in with the batter and bake as directed. Those leftover M&Ms or Reese's Pieces work well in your favorite sugar cookie dough. Maybe you squash up some Hershey's with Almonds bars and substitute the candy pieces for the chocolate chips in your chocolate chip cookie recipe).

Once the baking is done and the candy supplies drastically depleted, I like to package up some of the baked goods and deliver them to our neighbors. Sure, we'll have one or two – but the idea is to get the candy out of the house. This way is fun for me and my kids – and my neighbors kind of enjoy it, as well.

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My husband isn't a romantic man. He is a wonderful man, but when it comes to the romance department I have come to accept the bare minimum. He buys me flowers on all the right occasions, and makes dinner reservations on those special nights such as Valentine's Day, birthdays and anniversaries, but that pretty much is the extent of it. Most of the time I think it is perfectly fine, but then I go and watch something like my favorite soap opera, or watch a romantic comedy and I am left to think, "Hey, my guy doesn't do that! Where is my night with dinner prepared by my husband, romantic music and a bed of roses?"  Then I feel jipped and take it out on my husband who doesn't even know what he did wrong!

That is where the problems occur, when we put unrealistic standards onto our significant other. We want the first kiss to be just right, and we want to be proposed to in such a way.  We as women make fantasies in our heads as to how something “should be” and when it doesn’t happen that way we feel let down. But when you make these fantasies are you thinking of who your man really is?

When I start to feel let down in the romance department I try to focus on what my husband does do, and not what he doesn’t do. Romance can be found in ways you don’t expect. Hey, why not be wacky and plan a romantic evening yourself? You may be surprised how it turns out! You get the night you always dreamed of, and your man gets a happy wife! A total win/win situation!

photo credit: Clip Art from Microsoft Office Online

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From Jessie of Vanderbilt Wife:

and from Tara of This magic moment…

Thank you for playing along ladies!!

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• Don't go trick-or-treat on an empty stomach. Have a light snack or meal first to prevent snacking en route.
• Tell your kids not to accept – or eat – anything not commercially wrapped.
• If juice or cider is served at Halloween parties, make sure it's pasteurized to destroy harmful bacteria.

See the FDA's full list here.

Photo credit: Juushika Redgrave

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