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Save Time, Save Money & Save Your Sanity! www.HelpingMomsAtHome.com November 7, 2008 Volume 2 Issue 7 http://www.HelpingMomsAtHome.com In This Issue * 10 Thanksgiving Day Ideas for Adding More Thanks and Extra Giving To Your Family Holiday * 7 Ways to Keep the Weight Off During the Holidays * Just for Fun * Important Info. "Having someone to love is family. Having somewhere to go is home. To have both is a blessing." Unknown ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * Happy Friday! I hope you had a fun Halloween. I know my family had a blast! Lots of costumes and candy. Well this month signals the start of the holiday season. Thanksgiving and the best shopping day of the year, Black Friday. I've included an article that talks about different ways you can make Thanksgiving more meaningful and fun. The second article is one I personally found useful. It discusses how to avoid weight gain over the holidays. If you have your own business or work for a direct sales company, please feel free to contact me. I would love to conduct a quick interview and post the results on my site. It would be part of a new feature in my newsletter and on my site "Business of the Month". This would mean free publicity for your company and give my readers more information about the various direct sales companies and business opportunities. Enjoy the articles and have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Kim ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * Featured Sponsors Don't Think You Have TIME for Coupons? Learn How I Saved $18,000 Using Them Wisely! Get 101 tips to help you save at the store including where to find them and when NOT to use them. All for only $12.95 Order now and get bonus ebooks free. http://shavattk.brpublish.hop.clickbank.net/ Living on a Dime ebook series. Incredible ebooks that give real life examples on how to live frugally. Dining On A Dime Cookbook: Eat Better, Spend Less!, Penny Pinchin' Mama: 500 ways I lived on $500 a month, and Dig Out of Debt: Over 1000 of the Best Ideas From LivingOnADime.com which I have personally read and highly recommend! http://shavattk.livingonad.hop.clickbank.net/ To Advertise Here visit www.HelpingMomsAtHome.com ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 10 Thanksgiving Day Ideas for Adding More Thanks and Extra Giving To Your Family Holiday Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday full of fun, feasting, family and football. But it can also be a time to start new traditions meant to increase your family's thanks and encourage giving. You can use Thanksgiving as a springboard to cultivate a deeper sense of gratitude and awareness of the needs of others. Here's some simple and even fun ideas to get you started. More Thanks 1. Make a blessings box. Pass out lots of slips of brightly colored paper to your family and guests at the beginning of the day. Ask them to write one thing they are thankful for on each slip of paper, and then write something else on the next one, etc. It can be silly, like "I'm thankful for SpongeBob cartoons" or it can be serious, as in "I'm grateful Aunt Betty is feeling better". But it should be specific. Then place all the pieces of paper in a gift box, mix them up and read them after turkey dinner. If you need incentive to get the kids thinking, you could offer a small prize like a candy bar to whoever comes up with the most items. The object, of course, is to inspire your family to count their blessings. 2. Create certificates of appreciation. Use your computer software to set up official looking certificates and print them. The certificate should say something like, "Every Thanksgiving our family tradition is for each of us to choose one special person to whom we would like to express our appreciation. This year, I have chosen you to thank because.... There should be blanks on the certificate to fill in the person's name, date, and why they have been chosen. For example, your daughter might decide to thank an old teacher for inspiring her love of reading. Or your son might want to show gratitude to his best friend's father for taking him along with them to the baseball game. It should be someone outside the immediate family. After Thanksgiving, they can mail the certificates or present them in person. 3. Thank the troops. There are websites that will tell you how to send holiday cards and letters to the troops stationed overseas. Take the time to let a stranger in the military know that you support and appreciate their sacrifice. 4. Report a job well done. Have you received consistently good service from someone throughout the year? It could be your hair stylist, a waiter, a patient store employee who seemed eager to answer all your questions? Every Thanksgiving, make a list of those people. Jot down a quick note that outlines the attentive care you received from that person, and then send it to their supervisor and also a copy to them. 5. Start a family gratitude journal. Beginning at Thanksgiving dinner and continuing on to mealtimes throughout the year, ask each family member what they are grateful for that day. Write down all the comments. It's a great way to collectively focus on the positive. Extra Giving 6. Invite someone to Thanksgiving dinner. Is your elderly neighbor unable to make the big 200 mile trip to her family's gathering, but would be able to travel across the street to your house? How about your single friend who just lost her mother? Don't assume that people have Thanksgiving plans. Instead, ask "what are you doing for Thanksgiving?" The holidays are a rough time to be alone, so make sure that no one that you care about spends Thanksgiving that way. 7. Make a video with highlights of the day for someone who couldn't make it. If there are circumstances preventing a family member from joining you on Thanksgiving, document it for them. Whether you use a camcorder or the movie mode on your digital camera, take footage of the festivities. Include special messages from each person there. You can edit it in Windows Movie Maker, burn it onto a DVD and mail it to them, so they don't feel left out. If you have a teenager, this could be a project they would enjoy. 8. Love thy neighbor. Ask each family member to think of one specific thing they could do for a particular neighbor. For example, I could mow their lawn, rake the leaves, shovel snow, give a ride, babysit, run an errand, bring over cookies or just spend some time visiting with them. Then encourage them to put that into practice. Just imagine how nice your neighborhood would be to live in, if everyone on the block adopted this tradition! 9. Issue the not so random acts of kindness challenge. While you're eating pumpkin pie, call upon those around the table to come up with ideas for nice little things they can do for others. Here are some suggestions. You could donate books you've already read to the library or toys you've outgrown to the homeless shelter. If you see litter, you could pick it up and put it in the trash can. You could let someone cut in front of you in line or put a quarter in an expired parking meter. You could pick a flower from your garden and give it to a friend. Make a list of those ideas and in the coming months, see how many little acts of kindness your family can accomplish. 10. Sponsor a child from a third world country. Thanksgiving is a great time to begin. As your family is giving thanks, why not reach out to someone less fortunate? So, go ahead and dig into those candied sweet potatoes, watch the parade on TV and listen to grandpa reminisce about the good old days. Then go beyond the turkey and make this holiday the most memorable Thanksgiving of all. By adopting some of these new family traditions for counting blessings and reaching out to others, you'll be putting the thanks and the giving back into the holiday. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Linda Kling is the owner of www.photo-party-favors.com, which offers personalized photo favors and custom photo invitations. Visit her website for more information on photo Christmas cards, featuring your multiple photos. ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * 7 Ways to Keep the Weight Off During the Holidays Drink water - Dehydration slows metabolism. Most people confuse thirst with hunger. Drink water regularly. Do not use thirst as a gauge for when to drink water. If you feel thirsty, it is too late. You are already dehydrated. Your goal should be to drink 80 to 96 ounces per day. Eat small frequent meals - When you wait too long between meals, your blood sugar level drops too low. When that happens, you feel extremely hungry and you eat more than you should. Your body can only process about 30 grams of carbohydrates and about 40 grams of protein in one sitting. Anything over that is stored as fat. Exercise in the morning. - Studies have shown that weight-bearing exercise can burn calories for several hours after the workout. Why not take advantage of that extra burn and allow your body to burn throughout the rest of the day? Minimize stress - Stress causes your body to release chemicals that cause you to store fat. Relaxation techniques such as massage and meditation can help you minimize and manage stress and potentially keep the weight off. Minimize alcohol - Alcohol stops your body from burning fat. Your body can handle 0.6 ounces of alcohol in one hour. A 12-ounce beer contains about 0.6 ounces of alcohol. If you consumed 5 of these, your body would be inhibited from fat burning for up to 6 hours. This is aside from the fact that your body will actually be storing fat during these 6 hours! Eat protein - Protein (like chicken, turkey, fish, etc.) signals the body that "the hunting is good." This signal tells your body to release stored body fat. Protein is also the building block of muscle and muscle allows your body to burn more calories at rest. Focus more on the friends and family than the food - Food is the fuel that your body needs to function properly. Don't make food your friend or confidant. Change your relationship with food for healthy weight management. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: James Bynum is the owner of BFC Fitness, a personal training studio in Kingwood, TX. He specializes in weight loss and sports-specific training through personalized sessions and boot camps offered at his studio. Please visit his website at www.bfcfitnessonline.com for more information regarding the Sexy Texan Boot Camp or to purchase quality fitness equipment. ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * Just For Fun Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids Tons of great crafts for kids to create just in time for Thanksgiving. Hats, dress-up dolls, doll clothes, place setting cards, and lots more. http://www.makingfriends.com/fallcrafts/thanksgiving_more.htm Tips for Success Since most people gain weight over the holidays - plan ahead! Eat smaller/healthier meals for breakfast and lunch on days when you are planning a large dinner. Also, be consistant with exercising. Don't forget to drink plenty of water. Great Site http://www.Black-Friday.net/. The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. Want to see what's on sale for Black Friday? This site has all your favorite stores' sale papers for this special shopping day. It helps you plan your day to make sure you get everything on your Christmas shopping list. What's Ahead More articles, printables and coming early next year an eBook. Next newsletter will be out December 5, 2008. Important Information Please feel free to forward this issue in it's entirety to friends and associates. Anyone can subscribe for free: To contact us: Kimberly Shavatt HelpingMomsAtHome HelpingMomsAtHome@hotmail.com 449 Maryland Avenue Pasadena, MD 21122 To subscribe, change your information or unsubscribe please complete the form below or visit www.HelpingMomsAtHome.com To advertise in this newsletter visit http://www.HelpingMomsAtHome.com/advertising.html |
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