Making Your Home Spa Treatment A Family Affair

There are times when all mommies need to feel pampered and spend a couple of hours alone and away from the sometime maddening and yet irresitable charm of boisterious kids and at times demanding spouse. There are two ways you can do this : One, at a local spa where you get treated like royalty (well, sometimes it depends on what package you pay for or it could be an entirely hurried affair carried out in the midst of immaculately crafted environment) OR like what I did this weekend, you could get your family to give you a spa package minus all the trimings in familiar surrounding but one which leaves you feeling not only like royalty but glowing with warmth that can last you through the week! No money can buy this one of a kind spa package (Though you might need to engage in some minor arm twisting and emotional blackmail!) It’s affordable, loving and best of all it’s from family. This was what I did :

1. Plan an itinerary for my hubby and 3 kids. This include the pleasure of taking himself and our youngest to watch Avatar. (Movies have never been a great passion for me and I know he have been wanting to catch this one ) Told my older two boys that they have full pleasure to visit their favourite video arcade hangouts for at least three hours without any interruptions from mommy. No calls asking where they are, reminder to stop etc etc.Pure wonderful and blissful silence for them. I always believe in letting go of the “mom’s rein” once in a while to give my kids a bit of breathing space. It’s a great counter against the “Gee mom, you never let us……” kind of arguments.

Well for those of you whose children are a bit too young, you can consider arranging for grandma, grandpa, sisters or a trusted sitter to take the kids for a few hours. Or have your husband watch the little ones for a while for you. You could even take turns with your friends who have children watching each other’s kids.

2. Next, a day before, I “present” the itinerary to my family, use a bit of emotional blackmail about how moms also need to take time off to recharge etc. Best of all I “allow” them to contribute to my little spa getaway as a means of their appreciation to all my mom’s work at home! Here’s what I got. My youngest got me cucumbers for my eyes. Yup he bought them, cut them soak them and put them in the fridge for me. The two elder boys pooled their savings, hopped down to my favourite spa supplier store and got me a face mask, scented bubble bath. Hubby offered to clean and setup the bathroom before heading off the cinema. He ran the bath, took out and laundried my rarely used (Cos they are a bother to laundry) fluffy, comfy bathrobe and towel, put up my favourite lavendar incense ,candles and the likes! Oh he did offered to stay behind and offer his “help” but I told him it’s mom’s time Not romance time! See what a bit of planning and emotional blackmail can do! Never underestimate the power of moms.

3. Once the stage is set, all I did was to just to let go and enjoy. I put on a CD player for my favourite music.
Slipped into the tub eyes closed …. the rest you know the drill That day not only I used my son’s facial mask and cucumbers, performed my own DIY manicure and pedicure . Not too perfect but I truly enjoyed the process. Put on my comfy and fluffy robe, read a book in bed, relaxed and simply enjoy the five hours that’s truly mine and yet lingers with the fingerprints of my kids and hubby in the air. This was a Sunday and a spa I’ll not forget for a long time.

So moms, I urge al of you to try it. Make yourself a special spa package that money can never buy. Moms, if you have any ideas to share please do so using the comments here. I am sure we all can do with some good ideas to spice up our life as moms now and then.

Yes, most of you are right! This post has nothing directly related to working moms and work at home moms issues, my favourite topics and the main emphasis of this blog.

But as a mom, I couldn’t help feel a connection to all those families whose life have been devasted by events of the past weeks. For many of us this could already be “old” news. Indeed the internet is now awashed with warnings about scams in regards to relief efoorts and appeals for help. In the midst of all these negative news, I believe some of us have become distracted from the universal issue of love and compassion.

I for one do not subscribe to the idea of propagating negative news. This includes showing clips of people suffering, news of devestation etc.We have too many of that around today. Instead I prefer to focus on the positive sign of things hence my choice of the title for this post Haiti Before The Earthquake.

As a blogging moms this is one positive thing we can do to truly help out. By focusing on the good and sharing information on true places as to where we as moms can help. The following is an excerpt of a documentary by filmmaker Justin Brandon, Brian McElroy, Dan Schnorr who have decided to donate 100% of the flim proceed to relief efforts in Haiti. A link to their site can be found here. For those who need to place a face to the aid you will be giving, look out for a Fr. Joseph Philippe, in the video and you will know that your good deed will indeed be used for what you intend it for in the first place. Now for the video of Haiti Before The Earthquake.

After two happy years of marriage, my husband and I were expecting our first born child; a baby boy! Being first-time parents, we were hoping to capture every precious moment of my pregnancy. We planned on taking lots of photographs of our baby son during the first few years of his life, and recording his special milestones for prosperity. My husband and I brainstormed ways that we could document my pregnancy and our baby’s childhood memories.

We discussed the possibility of us keeping a journal together. I have been journaling since I was six years old, so I liked the idea of us keeping a pregnancy journal and babyhood journal. But what would we do with the myriad of photographs that we planned to take? Should we keep them in photo albums? We both enjoy our photo albums from our childhood and our years together, but we were hoping for something a little more interactive.

We thought about a baby scrapbook. I have several dear friends who keep beautiful scrapbooks of their children and vacations with their family. Yet the idea of spending time cutting out papers and trimming photos with fancy-edged scissors and decorating pages with stickers and mementos didn’t fully appeal to me and my hubby.

We both invested some time in doing some research. We talked to trusted family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. A fellow teacher mentioned how much she and her husband enjoys learning and being entertained by what she called “mommy blogs.” She recommended that my husband and I seriously consider beginning our own “mommy blog.” My friend made a good point when she shared with me that creating my own blog would combine to of my favorite interests; writing and taking photographs.

The following weekend, my husband and I took time to Google “mommy blogs” and were pleasantly surprised by our results. We discovered some very humorous, very candid, and very educational mommy blogs. My teacher friend was correct; most quality blogs featuring both written entries accompanied by photographs of family members, friends, family pets and so on.

After doing research together, my supportive husband and I realized that the term “mommy blogger” describes any woman who writes and maintains a blog (short form of “web log”), who is a mother; either a pregnant mom-to-me like I was, or a mother of babies, young children, elementary school children or even teenagers. A mommy blogger writes on a regular basis about family-related topics, such as marriage, parenting, favorite family activities, favorite children’s books and toys, humorous antidotes about her children and marriage. I was eager to get started with my very own mommy blog and found the mommy blogger community to be extremely supportive when I needed help! Now I make a a part-time income online from learning so much from other bloggers and Internet Marketers.

So, do you want to be a mommy blogger?

Being a mom provides me with blessing and joy every day. I am so thankful for my loving and helpful husband, who takes his role as a father seriously and provides me with lots of emotional support and help in raising our son and daughter. I never realized how much responsibility and effort motherhood entailed until I became a mother myself.

After eight years establishing my career in the business world, my husband and I decided when I was pregnant with our baby boy that I would make the shift to being a work-at-home mom. I love being at home with my husband, son and daughter, so it works out with my personality type to be a stay-at-home home. I am able to be home with my children and earn a good, steady income at the same time. That perfect melding of home and work – it sounds so ideal and is when it works. The key ingredient to becoming a successful work at home mom, however, is to develop effective organizational skills.

Tip One: Organize your Time

If you’re going to essentially do two jobs at a time, you have to be twice as efficient with your time and energy. A good idea is to have a daily planner where you proportion out your time so you get a sense of what time frame you have to work with. The most urgent tasks take priority but it is crucial to schedule in ‘important’ activities as well such as reading to your children, cooking dinner or exercising.

Be careful about those time wasters that ‘eat up’ your day. Set time limits on household jobs such as tidying the kitchen or putting away laundry. Even use a timer and make a game of it. Moms are great multi-taskers. When you are watching TV or talking on the phone, do something else as well such as folding laundry or putting away the children’s toys. Put an actual limit on your internet, phone, and television time.

Setting a fixed time for your ‘at home work’ is essential. Your family must learn to respect that time and try not to put demands on your attention during that time. Before you fall asleep at night, go over in your mind all the things that you’ve accomplished that day and reflect on how you’ve maximized your time.

Tip Two: Organize Your Belongings

One of the biggest time wasters is spending time trying to find something. Setting up a effective organizational system of what goes where so you can access items and information quickly is the best way to avoid getting flustered and frustrated. Use containers and baskets to put similar items. File information regularly in color-coded or label file folders. Maintain a well-organized filing cabinet. Recycle, donate, or throw away what you don’t need. Pack away items that you or your family members have not used in the last year. Consider donating these items to charity or hosting a garage sale.

Attend to mail immediately. Recycle any advertisements, junk mail and envelopes. Better still – go paperless wherever possible. Any billing information can be accessed easily via the internet so why keep unnecessary statements and receipts. De-clutter and organize your things.