My youngest two children turned 16 today, a major landmark for them and me. Whilst I still have four children I guess I should really be thinking of them all as the wonderful young ladies they are and preparing for them to leave the nest. Steph is already well on...
I am on holiday this week and all 4 kids are doing activities (film and video, drama and sports club) so Debbie and I are able to spend from about 10:00 – 16:00 on our own just relaxing in and around our home town – St Anne’s on Sea. At...
Kathy has yet another amazing post on her Creating Passionate Users site about the fact that animals love exercise, and she questions why we don’t. Well whilst I think its a great article with wonderful pictures of her horses if she came around to my house and saw my four...
Last week I read the book “A whole new mind” by Daniel H. Pink. I found it very interesting, especially – as a parent of 4 girls – I am increasingly concerned about their futures. Daniel describes in this book the skills that are going to be needed to...
My youngest daughters (twins) have been studying smoking, Tessa has just finished her anti-smoking poster, which I wanted to share with you: Don’t smoke because people out there have died. Just because of cigarettes and people suffered from lots of illnesses. So you will get illnesses. Children can get Asthma...
I am still on a journey of discovery to try and “find what I love doing”, I am fairly content in my work, find it interesting and challenging, but I don’t feel I make a difference, at home I spend most of the time with my family – which is great – but very internal focused. I would like both work and home life to change over time to be more community centred and to feel that I am giving something back to the world and that I live in a more natural and sustainable way. My relatively poor health is currently the excuse I hide behind that stops me taking the risk associated with change.
I do however continue to be on the lookout for advise in this area and I recently cam across these two articles, one by Steve Jobs – You’ve got to find what you love and the other my Dave Pollard ‘Business’ Advice for Young Adults (and Their Parents & Teachers). Check them out if you ever think about your work or worry about how you are preparing your kids to help them make good choices about their future work choices.
As I work from home I tend to make sure I do my share of the housework. My normal daily jobs include:
Well Debbie and I have been finding our respective daily tasks a bit of a grind, so on Friday we decided that we would swap jobs every weekend. So this weekend I have been:
it’s been a great success, I have loved not having to do my jobs, and really enjoyed my new weekend jobs. By Sunday I had change the routine and made it a lot more organised and peaceful and had written up (stephie laminated for me) a crib sheet that tells me all of the kids favorite meals, vegetables, fruit, drinks etc, as with 4 kids I am always forgetting Hopefully a weeks break from them will mean I enjoy these tasks every weekend, as they say “a change is as good as a rest”.
My daughter has recently inherited by old Tablet PC, a TC1000. She has an auto-immune disorder and secondary Raynaud’s and these conditions mean that she suffers from cold hands, is very stiff and not that strong. As a result she often struggles to carry her bag around and with writing. About a year ago I wrote an article explaining why I thought a Tablet would help here and a few weeks ago I demonstrated my Tablet to the school teachers and her assessors. As a result they have agreed that they will try and get her a grant for a Tablet ready for high school which is great news. In addition they will get her a book scanner. Although scanned books are not perfect, nor many eBooks, as I mention here, they are often better than paper.
In preparation she is taking her Tablet into school 3 days a week to get used to the logistics and the envious kids and how to deal with them. Since she got the Tablet I noticed that she has started using the computer at home a lot more as well. I often find her sitting in bed browsing the web, writing …
I have thought for a long time that going paperless was a good strategy. Now I know why, Microsoft has posted 3 great videos that demonstrate the dangers of office stationary. They really are worth watching, preferably with the family as they are very funny. Another tip, make sure you watch them through a few times watching the background characters as well for best effect!
First up, the Elastic Band next the Paper Cut and finally the Bad Pen
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