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Mamma Fairy

Features

Living Arrows – 13/52 – and breath

Kahlil Gibran – “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”

Second week in a row now having rejoined Donna from What the Redhead Said linkie inspired by the above quote, delighted with myself.

This week its all about about re grouping, enjoying the simple things in life. We were supposed to be back in Iceland this week but that couldn’t happen so im just happy everybody is safe and well and we are learning to enjoy a much slower paced life.

This week was all about getting fresh air, stretching the legs while observing the imposed restraints. The boys are thoroughly enjoying the scooters Santa brought. Who knew back then we would be getting so much use out of them for this reason. It does the head and the heart good to get out so we try every day to get out for a breath of fresh air, always conscious of social distancing.

Keep safe, keep well and keep following the advice. We can and we will come out the other side of this.  Each night going to bed myself and the boys plan what we will do once all this is over and we cannot wait.

 

Living Arrows
Features

KEEPING YOUR DISTANCE WITH MIGRAINE: Some simple steps

migraine relief - relaxing

Pic Credit: Pixabay

I think its important to set out at the outset, that I am not a medical professional, im actually an accountant, who enjoys blogging and sharing useful content. I happened across this very useful article and though in the times we are facing, it was an opportune time to share in the event it could help somebody. Other supports and resources are available on www.speakyourmigraine.ie or from the Migraine Association’s website www.migraine.ie. It goes without saying always consult a medical professional if you have any concerns. 

Migraine is Ireland’s fifth leading cause of disability, affecting over 10% of the population.[i]. Managing the condition can often feel like an uphill battle on any given day. Now, along with the usual symptoms and fears surrounding a chronic migraine attack, navigating our new ‘normal’ during COVID-19, brings additional challenges – from working at home and keeping the kids occupied to social distancing and drastic changes in daily routines.

Here are 6 simple tips and actions that can help you to manage your migraine during this uncertain period.

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Mamma Musings

Living Arrows 12/52 – Our new norm

Kahlil Gibran –  “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”

During 2018 and 2019 I took part in the fabulous linkie run by Donna from What the Redhead said. It is inspired by the above quote and runs each week. I really love reading other peoples post in this linkie so despite vowing for months to get back to it, I have finally decided to get back to wring more on the blog. 

Our New Norm

It’s all a bit surreal isn’t it? Hard to know what day of the week it is. Working from home for the foreseeable, kids off school for the foreseeable, social distancing the new norm.  One thing I have learned so far is that kids are super resilient. Every day my pair wake up full of life, happy out. The roles have been reversed they are now teaching me how to live a “slow life” , to enjoy the little moments, to live in the present, to not be stressing about rush here and there.

Our days are filled with board games, socially distanced walked, facetime calls with grandparents. Very different to the rush and fast paced of the ‘norm’ for us. So rather than fret and worry, we are doing our best to embrace this new norm for the next while.

So take care, stay home, stay safe and we will meet on the other side of this when im guessing many of us will have a renewed appreciation of life and our loved one. We can and will do this. Lets learn from the example set by our kids.

 

 

Living Arrows
Features

Practical Tips for Working from Home with Children

Glandore, Ireland’s longest serving & leading provider of serviced offices & coworking spaces, have very kindly shared helpful advice for those trying to juggle working from home whilst keeping their children occupied.   I am very thankful for their kind permission to share the below in these highly unusual times.

tips working from home laptop phone

Pic Credit: Pixabay

1.            Set up a daily structure: Childcare professionals’ advice is that routine is vitally important when it comes to maintaining happy children. If your children’s day starts at 8.30am in crèche or school, try to start their home care at the same time. Establishing a routine at home will help everyone transition to this new ‘norm’ more easily. If your children are used to breaks at certain times, make sure to build those into your day. As we all know, children’s attention spans are much shorter than ours, so exercise and snack breaks are important to schedule in, for both the child and the parent. Try to finish up your home crèche or school at the same time as their regular day. 

Top tip: set an alarm to go off, so everyone knows that it’s family time now. The alarm doesn’t have to be the sound of a school bell ringing, it could be one of your children’s favourite songs instead.  

 2.            Have a designated space for mess: The length of time that we will be working and schooling from home is unknown and therefore it is recommended to designate a school/crèche area in your home if possible. Children need space to play and that play can often be messy so it might be wise to make the kitchen your home childcare centre. With paint, glitter, Lego, dolls and action figures, children’s toys can easily take over the house. They are used to being in the same room for the day, whether in crèche or school, so keeping the home childcare space consistent will help with their sense of routine. Again, be mindful of your child’s attention span; they may only stay with an activity for 10 or 20 minutes depending on their age. This should also match the projects you are setting yourself; if you have something that needs your focus then perhaps leave that until everyone is in bed.   

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Fairy Travels

Creating an Adventurous Life For Your Family

It’s commonly assumed that a person’s adventurous side comes to life when they’re younger, and then, once they have children, they settle into a life of responsibilities and quiet joys. While this might be true for many people, it’s not as if it’s a force of nature that everyone must bow to. It is possible to have a life filled with adventure, even if you have three children and a full-time job. Want to know how? Check out our tips below.

Ask For More From Your Weekends

woman hiking with child in carrier

Pic Credit: Pexels

Life will give us what we ask of it, so why not ask for more? If it’s an adventure that you seek, then make the most of the weekends. You’re given two full days to live life to the fullest, so don’t settle for a couple of days pottering around the house. Instead, see what’s possible. What this will be will depend on your interests and where you live, but whatever and wherever that is, you’ll almost certainly find something fun and exciting going on near to you. It’s all about having a can-do attitude and mustering up that little bit of energy that’s required to make things happen.

Trips In the Outdoors

We spend so much of our time in urban areas, that we tend to forget that the bulk of the UK is rural. Indeed, only around 10% of the UK is built on — that’s all the roads, shops, homes, everything. So there’s a lot of land to discover! The outdoors can give us virtually everything that we seek, including an adventure. So why not look at taking a trip to one of the beautiful corners of the UK for a weekend of camping? You’ll need a few essential camping supplies, and a reliable car that can handle rural terrain; if your current vehicle isn’t up to the task, then take a look at Reed Autos and find something more suitable. You’ll find that a few days spent in the outdoors can provide a level of adventure that city-life just can’t provide. 

Adventurous Holidays Abroad

There’ll be times when you want to go on fun family holidays: the question is, what kind of holiday will it be? While there’s plenty of fun to be had by taking a trip to a sunny destination for a week of fun on the beach, that’s far from the only option. If you’re looking for adventure as a clan, then take a look at visiting those destinations that are more off the beaten path, or that have adventure running through their veins (any mountain area, for example). Another option is to look at alternative trip options, such as those offered by Workaway or HelpX. You can meet interesting people from all over the world, learn a new skill, and all-around find yourself in interesting and adventurous scenarios, without even trying.

Incorporate the above tips and adopt an adventurous, ‘anything is possible’ attitude, and you’ll find that your family life is filled with plenty of memorable and exciting moments. 

Note: This is a collaborative post
Mamma Musings

Tips for Taking Care of Your Jewellery

Everyone knows that person (or maybe it’s you) who has all their jewellery shoved into one box. It’s full of tangled up necklace, miss-matched earrings and likely a lot is broken. When properly taken care of, your jewellery can last for many years and stay in the same condition it was when you first bought it. If you invest in beautiful, quality jewellery pieces, you want them to last, so that one day you can pass them on to someone else. 

Use these tips to take care of your jewellery pieces and ensure they stay in tip-top condition. 

1.      Store in a cool, dry place

pocket watch

Pic Credit: Pixabay

Humidity and moisture are the biggest enemies of jewellery. Couple that with heat from either the sun or internal sources and you’ve got a potentially volatile situation for your precious pieces. Over-time heat can degrade certain materials and sunlight can distort colours. Humidity can lead to tarnishing, so keep it in a cool, dry space. 

2.      Keep chalk in your jewellery box

If you have quality silver pieces, like those from Fjewellery.co.uk, store them with a bit of chalk. Chalk is known for its ability to absorb moisture, so it will ensure that your silver stays completely dry. On top of that, it can also filter out chemical residue that could cause damage to your jewellery. Chalk will not cause any damage to your pieces even if some of the dust gets on them. 

3.      Don’t stack it

Stacking jewellery on top of each other is asking for damage. When you pile things up, it can lead to chipping and scratching. Store your jewellery in a way that your pieces aren’t being thrown against each other every time up put something away. Any plated jewellery will easily chip, and even your non-plated items can become scratched. If you’re storing necklaces than they will become tangled and can easily break if you’re piling them all together. Instead, hang your necklaces and get a jewellery box with individual slots for your rings. 

4.      Avoid swimming

Don’t wear your jewellery when you’re swimming. Whether you’re at the beach or in a pool, both contain harmful substances that will damage your jewellery. If you’re at the beach, the saltwater will get into all the nooks and crannies of your jewellery. It can be extremely damaging and hard to clean out. Beyond that, the moisture will encourage tarnishing. If you’re swimming in a pool, you’ll be subjecting your jewellery to chlorine damage and the chemical can wear away at your pieces, making them appear dull. 

5.      Store diamonds on their own

Diamonds are the hardest stone on the planet. Though they might not feel it to the human touch, they are much harder than any other gems. If you have sapphires, emeralds, rubies or any other stones or crystals, make sure you keep them separate. Diamonds can cause severe damage to the surfaces of different gems and scratch gold and silver jewellery. Store your diamonds in their own pouches to keep them from coming into contact with any other pieces in your collection.  

 

Note: This is a collaborative post
Home & Interiors

ENERGY STAR APPLIANCES CAN SAVE YOU MONEY BY LOWERING YOUR ENERGY COSTS

Save on Your Energy Costs With Energy Star

One of the complaints I hear from some folks thinking about a new appliance is that Energy Star certified appliances are too expensive and don’t really save you a lot of money on your prepaid energy bill.

Well, the first part is true. Energy Star certified appliances are more expensive because they are more energy efficient. The part about them not saving you a lot of money is… well, wrong. The truth is they do save you money. However, consumers must face the hard part: educating themselves about the appliance they are looking to buy. Just because something has the Energy Star label on it doesn’t mean it will save you money if it doesn’t do the job you need it to do. Different consumers are going to use different appliances different ways. You need to keep you usage habits in mind when you go shopping.

The big energy loads that are going to make a difference when it comes to Energy Star compliance are refrigerators, air conditioners, furnaces, washing machines, and water heaters. Take for example water heaters. Water heating can account for 14%–25% of the energy used in your home. Generally speaking, consumers have three options (not counting solar) when it comes to water heaters: the standard tank, an energy star compliant tank, or an on-demand system. Water heater tank will heat the water but they have the hidden cost of stand-by energy use. In other words, they keep the water hot while its waiting to be used. The only way to save money on a tank is to make certain that the energy used to heat the water has as much thermal energy wrung out of it as possible.

The Department of Energy estimates that in 2018 most residential hot water in Texas is heated in a hot water tank heater that is 5-9 years old and does not have a heater blanket installed. A 50-gallon standard electric tank water heater costing about $200 rated at 0.86 to 0.95 efficiency can use $370 to $410 per year.. Electric heat pump water heaters can cost 3 to 8 times more but use half as much energy to provide the same amount of hot water (compare these two hot water energy guides for a standard and a heat pump from Lowes). Gas waters are also available with similar comparison results. One of the chief differences is that more efficient heat transfer means it is more difficult to vent cooled exhaust so heaters now have fans built into them.

Most tank heaters will last about 10 to 12 years depending on the water. Like it or not, the tank will eventually rust out and begin to leak. The best way to beat this is by using a whole-house tankless on-demand system. By heating water only when it’s needed, gas tankless water heaters cut water heating expenses by 30% to 60%, while also providing continuous hot water delivery. The drawback is they cost about on average 5 times more (about $1000; not including labor and additonal parts). Lifetime averages are 20 years. The point is that if you can cut your yearly bill in half, you are saving money. Let’s look at the costs this way:

If you go the tankless route, you can also eliminate the expense of replacement every ten years and save even more. Either way, you DO save money with Energy Star appliances and add value to your home.

Note: This is a collaborative post
Features

3 Signs Of A Strong Blog

blog letters

Pic Credit: CCO Licence

If you are hoping to make your blog a success, there are many things that you are going to have to focus on to make that a reality.  Whether you are looking to monetize it, or just run a good blog for the sake of it, much of what you need to do will be the same, and it is all the kind of thing that you can work on whenever you like. Many people who run blogs are not aware of much of this, but the best bloggers are, and if you want to be one of them then these are all issues you will need to think about too. In this article, we’ll go through three of the signs of a strong blog – as long as yours has all these, you are probably moving in the right direction. If not, you have work to do.

Good Name

One of the first things you will do is to name your blog, and it is also one of the most important. After all, people are going to talk about it, and you want them to be able to remember clearly what it is called and that it will be something that sticks in people’s minds in conversation. You also want to be able to get the appropriate URL for that name too, so you should seek out domain names at the same time as trying to title your blog. Otherwise you might be scrambling round to try and make it all fit together later on, and that will generally be much harder to achieve. Do it all to start with, and you will find that it is much easier to get right.

Simple Design

In many respects, the design of the website that hosts the blog is the most important thing, as it dictates how many visitors you are going to get and so on straight away. You need to try and keep this design simple above all, as it is simplicity that ensures that people can find their way around it and so on without hassle. It is also going to mean that they are much more likely to enjoy their experience of the blog itself. If you are having trouble with this, consider hiring the professionals to carry out your web design for you. That way, you can be sure of its success and simplicity.

Constant Content

Your readers are going to want to have a lot to read, so you have to make sure that you are constantly updating your blog as often as you can. That doesn’t mean multiple posts a day, but certainly posting one item a day is not going to be a problem. This will also help to keep you high up on the search engines results pages, which is going to be one of the main ways in which people find you. Create constant high-quality content, and you will find that your blog is much more popular indeed, and much more successful. 

I recently came across an excellent article with productivity tips to aid during the current pandemic. Lots of great advice that I am taking on board myself to use this time wisely.

Note: This is a collaborative post
Mamma Musings

Why Is There a Lack of Libido in Your Relationship?

When you become a parent, you may have noticed that both yourself and your partner are lacking in passion, which was perhaps never the case before your child was born. A lack of intimacy can severely impact relationships, but you may not be aware of the cause behind the issue.

Lack of libido affects more than one in five men and an even higher percentage of women. Therefore, it’s a fairly common problem in many relationships. If you’re concerned about either your own or your partner’s libido, it would be worth seeking the help of a professional who could give you the advice you need to get your intimate relationship back on track. Here are some of the most common reasons:

Relationship problems

You may have never considered that your relationship was in any kind of trouble, but if you feel as though you don’t want to be intimate with your other half due to a gradual lack of attraction, then this is often difficult to fix. There may be a vast number of other reasons why your relationship is having difficulties; such as lack of trust, friction with both careers and diverse parenting methods.
You may be in a long-term relationship which has changed dynamically over the years – perhaps you now see your partner in a friendly manner rather than romantically. Likewise, you may have been sleeping in separate beds since your child has been born which can affect your intimacy levels.

Hormones

Less commonly, hormones can cause a lack of interest in sex. Conditions such as hyperprolactinemia can have a negative effect on your sex drive; in which there is a raised level of a substance called prolactin within the blood. Another hormonal problem is suffering from an underactive thyroid. Hormone issues are most commonly associated with women rather than men, meaning that male needs are often overlooked in society when it comes to lack of libido. Ehormones MD offers an HGH therapy clinic, providing human growth hormone injections to reinstall the necessary hormones in the body and help reinforce passion back into your relationship.

Stress and exhaustion

As a parent, you are no stranger to the immense responsibility that comes with taking care of your child, maintaining the home and keeping on top of your work and social relationships. Feeling stressed and overtired can take its toll on your happiness and can even cause a real lack of interest in the things you once loved to do. In these cases, it would be best to speak to your GP on how to move forward; either by taking medication or seeking therapy.

Contraception

Since having your child, you may have started on contraception until you’re ready to conceive again, but with this, often comes the side effect of having a severe lack of interest in intimacy. Be assured that this usually only happens when you are on a new contraceptive method and should start to improve over a few months.

Whether it’s due to a medical condition or psychological factors, there may be underlying factors that caused the lack of intimacy with your partner. For women who have certain health issues, such as vaginismus, vulvodynia, and vaginal atrophy, these conditions oftentimes lead to painful sex. Vaginal dilation therapy using vaginal dilators is a viable treatment option to improve tolerance to penetration, help restore the vaginal opening, and ultimately, treat painful sex.

 

Note: This is a collaborative post
Features

Should You Buy a Used Car Warranty?

Fixing a car

Pic Credit: Pixabay

Used car warranties can be useful should a vehicle become damaged, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t factors that need to be considered beforehand. 

Regardless of whether you’re purchasing a vehicle for the first time or looking to take out a warranty on a vehicle you already own, there are some considerations that should be made before committing to a used car warranty. 

What Does a Used Car Warranty Cover? 

The cover a used car warranty offers can differ depending on the provider chosen. There can also be some confusing terms and conditions which can almost seem contradictory to some. 

As there is no way of determining what could go wrong with a vehicle, there could be instances when some faults aren’t covered. For example, any damage that occurs when your car is being transported by a car shipping company will not be covered by a warranty.

This can happen in scenarios where poor workmanship has been shown, as well as damage attributed to general wear and tear. 

How Much Does a Used Car Warranty Cost? 

In many instances, it has been shown that even the cheapest car warranty can be £100 more than the average cost of a repair. 

However, there can be instances where some could find that the car warranty, they take out can be up to as much as ten times the cost of an average repair. 

This isn’t to say that a car warranty can’t be beneficial, but it can take a lot of research to ascertain what type of warranty is best suited, and by the time the policy has been tweaked, it could become more expensive than first thought. 

The Jargon Associated with Used Car Warranties 

Another issue that many have with used car warranties is some of the jargon that is used. The following is a breakdown of some of the jargon used when perusing car warranty options. 

  • Age Limit: Some used car warranties can have restriction in relation to the age of the driver.

    blue car

    Pic Credit: Pixabay

  • Claim Limit: The aspect of a car warrant details the maximum amount awarded with each claim. 
  • Betterment: If a repair or new part has made the car more valuable, then a further cost could be incurred. 
  • Consequential Loss: Instance where one car part affects another, which isn’t always covered with all used car warrantied. 
  • Excess: The percentage that a vehicle owner must pay in relation to repairs. The amount charged can depend on the type of vehicles as well as the level of cover the policy offers. 
  • Garage Choice: Some used car warranties may dictate that only approved garages can be used, which gives the vehicle owner less choice when it comes to the cost of the repairs. 
  • Mileage: As well as other limitations, the amount of distance travelled so far could also have an impact as to how much a car warranty is. 

Should You Buy a Used Car Warranty? 

Given the many factors that need to be considered in relation to a car warranty, it’s safe to assume that they’re not for everyone. 

However, if you are considering a used car warranty, then it’s of the utmost importance that a regulated provider is used. This will ensure that a cooling-off period is in place should the warranty not meet your requirements.