Mom Cimorelli

There are times when I feel so overwhelmed that I want to just crawl under the bed and hide! The first time I remember feeling this really strongly was right after my second child was born. Mike had gone to work, and I was home with Christina, the newborn, and Michael, the one and a half year old, and they both woke up early and started crying at the same time. I had no idea how to deal with two little tiny kids, so I pulled the covers over my head for a couple of minutes, hoping that if I closed my eyes real tightly, somehow the crying would stop, and I would magically figure out how to do this. Needless to say, that didn't work. They kept on crying, and I had to hoist my exhausted and extremely sore body out of bed and figure it out, one step at a time.

People keep journals for all kinds of different reasons: to chronicle the events of their lives, to work through their deepest feelings, to write down things they are grateful for, to sort out their dreams and goals, and even for recording whatever ideas come into their heads, whether it be for a new song or invention, an exotic vacation, new homeschooling ideas, or even bold plans to save the world. A journal is a sacred space to say whatever you want without worrying about anyone else's reaction. It's for your eyes only!

Unfortunately, it's easy to let clutter build up and then start letting the cleaning slide. Don't let that happen to you! If that's where you are, let's help get you out. Last week we talked about making a plan to declutter your house. If you haven't done that yet, jump on that, too, while you're getting in the groove of scrubbing things down. There is an order to cleaning rooms, and the key to successfully keeping things clean is a schedule. There are many way to do the schedule, so you have to find the one that works for you. Here are some ideas:

This week's simple change is to make a plan for decluttering your home. Write that down and hang it on your mirror or your refrigerator. Wherever you will see it is where you want it to be. Is your closet overflowing with clothes you don't wear? Are your bookshelves filled with books you're either done with or will never read? Are magazines and newspapers accumulating? Do you have stacks of unread mail? Do you have knick knacks that you have to keep moving in order to dust your shelves that don't really bring you joy anymore? Let's commit to changing all that starting today!!

"Make your bed!" my mother used to yell up the stairs to me. I could never understand why that was such a big deal, especially since it was in MY room, and no one was going to see it anyway! It took many years before I figured out that making my bed wasn't about what anyone else thought or about my mother trying to control me; it was for my own benefit.

In our quest to improve our lives with a simple change every week this year, this week's challenge is to eat less processed food. Last week we talked about cooking from scratch. As you try more yummy recipes that you make yourself from fresh, healthy ingredients, you will find that you have less and less need and desire for processed foods. I'm not suggesting that you never eat another processed food in your life; that's not practical. What I am suggesting is that you can cut way down on them and in the process improve your health greatly!

While you can get away with knowing nothing more than how to turn on the microwave, if you don't know how to cook from scratch, you are missing out! I reserve making cake, pie, and cookies on special occasions now, but when I do, they are always made from scratch.

We're not going to try to eliminate all sugar in one day (although you can if you want to!); rather we are going to start gradually removing as much sugar from our diet as possible. As delicious and addictive as sugar is, it's about as good for you as straight up poison. It's also a very difficult habit to change! However, by approaching it incrementally, you can beat the sugar monster, and take back your good health!

This week, we're going to focus on eating more fruits and vegetables. Fruits and veggies are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and phytonutrients, and they help prevent heart disease and stroke, control blood pressure, prevent some types of cancer, and protect against vision loss. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to add more of these to your diet!

More and more research is coming out with findings that sugar is probably the absolute worst thing for you, far worse than fat, and it's extremely addictive.