Touch Typing is an Invaluable Skill

Today's post is sponsored by www.typekids.com

Touch typing is an invaluable skill in today's world, this is a skill currently used more than cursive.  As times have changed, more and more of the day to day living is done via keyboard, and without the ability to type correctly, there can be issues.  Personally I have people in my life who cannot type more than hunt and peck.  This slows down their ability to communicate effectively with those around them via electronic means.  

Giving yourself a chance to be Happy.

I was recently invited to try the Beta of Happify, and it seemed to go right along with making yourself better.  What Happify does is it uses science to help you get over some of your major issues.  For example, I have trouble dealing with stress.  Each day I go in and do projects that will help me cope with the stress in my life without letting it affect me as much.  This is great since everything always hits me at once.  I sometimes feel like I am moving my life from one crisis at a time to the next.  No sooner do I have one thing cleared up, when another two drop on me.

About Me

Sorry, I am having more than a little trouble with my PCOS and IGA-D in the last couple of days.  On top of that I am doing a lot of research about gluten free sunscreens and makeup brands.  I will have those posts up in a few days.  So instead of a post like that, let me tell you more about myself.  I did so in my in introduction post and then haven't said much since.

The Flipside of Celiac - A spouses perspective

I am sorry I have been flaky this week; I have had a lot of special posts that take a lot of time and research.  This is another special post.  My husband and the whole family has put up with so much this past five years and they have had to change their lives a lot.  Since everyone always talks about what it is like to have to live a gluten free lifestyle, but no one ever talks about what it is like to live with someone who has celiac, my husband wrote a post.  Celiac from my family’s perspective, what it is like to live with someone with celiac and what he has had to give up.  Without anymore preamble here is his post.  

Gluten Issues are Genetic

For most of you with a gluten issue or Celiac you may not know that someone in your family also has the issue.  Gluten intolerance is not new nor is it just occurring.  However, before five years ago almost nothing was known about this issue.  As scientists and doctors have learned more they have found that this is something that you inherit from a family member.  So that means that someplace, someone in your family has the same issues.  Or in my case most of my family has this issue.

To Play in the Dark

When the power goes out and we don't have electronics to play with the first thing we do is go on a scavenger hunt.  One person finds the flashlights, another finds the batteries, a third, finds the candles and the last makes sure where everyone is so we don't bump into each other.

Relaxing and Unwinding

Day Three: the question for NaBloPoMo is "What is your favorite way to recharge when you feel drained of energy?"

I recharge in a variety of different ways, each have their own unique place depending on my day.  If I am really stressed about money then I want to spend time by myself, if I am only drained from a long day then I want to be with my friends or family.  

I spend time with my family members.  I like to curl up with my husband on the loveseat and watch Anime while eating gluten free snacks.  I also might watch the Food Network to get ideas of things that I want to make Gluten free.  The easiest way for me to recharge is to spend time with my husband.  It really doesn’t matter what we are doing, it could just be sitting in the car alone talking.  WE make it a point to specifically set time aside every Saturday to be with each other.  That is the day we leave the house or hole up in our room and only spend time with each other.  It may sound silly but it is one way we have managed to keep our marriage as long as we have. 

Another thing that I do is soak in a bath with a great book and let the world fall away.  It is times like that where I wish I lived in the home I own.  That way I could trade out the bathtub for my dream one.  It couldn't happen right away but I have plans for when I am in my dream home. 

 Other things I do to relax and recharge is spending time with friends, those friends can be online or they can be physically with me.  I have friends all over the US, I will spend time chatting with friends in Florida, Montana, Texas, Germany, and many more.  I will chat via phone, Skype or Facebook.  

My secret obsession is that I love to play Facebook games.  I refuse to pay for them but I enjoy playing and seeing how far I can get on just the time I spend.  I will generally do this at night after others have gone to bed and I am allowed to have the whole apartment to myself. 

My last way to recharge is to put on music most likely Celtic or soft alternative; I love to sing with what I am listening to.  I studied music most specifically vocal performance, singing is a great way for me to recharge.  I feel energy when I sing something that I deeply feel.  I also spend time doing Karaoke, it is a fun way to blow off some steam and spend time outside of the house.  

On another note this is my 100th post.  I am proud to have come as far as I have.  I can't belive that I am up to 100 posts already.  I have so many more planned.  I want to thank everyone for helping me grow.  

Question of the day!

What do you do to recharge? 

 

New Year, New Energy

For this month I will be participating in NaBloPoMo, which is short for National Blog Posting Month (It is not really shorter is it).  Each day they post a question and we the bloggers start typing about the answer as it is relevant to us.  Today’s question is "From where do you draw your energy?"

For me the answer comes in a few different forms.  My main source of energy is my friends and family.  They have been so supportive of me from the time I found out I had Celiac, to when I knew that I wanted to blog about it.  They have been there for me with every Fertility hang up and every loss that I have had.  Without them I don't think I would have even lasted as long as I have. My Husband has been my biggest supporter, I know that I could not have come this far without him.

My secondary source of energy comes from knowing that I may be helping someone.  While it can be a real challenge to get people to answer questions on a post, or to even know who is reading, I keep hoping that someone out there is getting something from my posts.  That they enjoy the recipes, that they have learned from my mistakes and that they have found good products or that they have been able to avoid others.  If I can reach enough of those people then I feel I can make a difference.

I also talk about my infertility and health issues, I want those women to know that they are not alone in having one miscarriage after another, or that they are not the only ones who can't lose weight no matter how little they eat, or who go crazy when their hormones get out of balance, which happens a lot.  Also it might help those that are having these issues and do not yet have a diagnosis. 

So in answer, I get my energy from both my friends and family and from the hope that I might be able to help.  Also, with the New Year, I feel some of my Energy Renewed, I had more entries in a giveaway then I would have dreamed possible at this stage in my blogging, I have a whole bunch of fantastic products to try, I am getting ready for my Valentine’s Day Gift Guide.  I have so many plans; my only hope is that I will be able to build enough readers to get more of these ideas out. 

Question of the day!

Where do you get your energy?

Being me in a family of overachievers

I grew up with a family who all went to college.  It was filled with Doctors, lawyers, Computer programmers and well known ones at that, I think there was an astrophysicist someplace in the cousins. However, most everyone was a Doctor or a Lawyer.  Everyone does such exciting stuff with their lives and have the large high profile jobs.  Then there is me, the only granddaughter out of six grandchildren.
 
I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I loved music and singing so when it was time for collage of course I would be going.  That idea wasted five years of my life.  By the time I left the university I had stage fright enough to end any possible performance job.  Ok, so not knowing what I wanted to be I went on a military Journey with my husband.

Finally had time to think about what I really wanted to do with my life.  Being from my family there is no way I didn't have the brains to do what I wanted to do I just needed to know what I wanted to do.  Also I was my own person so being a doctor or a lawyer simply isn't an option.  I didn't want to follow along in everyone else’s footsteps.  This made me think about what are my strengths.

I have always been the type of person who was fantastic at science.  "Book, You need a book to learn this?" type of person, I decided in all of my glory that I am going to do something in the scientific field.  So what are my interests? This thought process continued for a while.

After long and hard debating I applied for school again in 2009 and started on a criminal Justice and Forensic degree. Which I had to change to Criminology (adding in psychology courses) my thoughts were to work with the base police force (in a lab).  That way no matter where we went, I always had a job.  Then I learned that you can train into being a Medical Examiner without medical school.  So that is what I wanted to do! Plan in place I set out to be my own person.  (Some of you are laughing at me by now)
 
Only recently have I thought about my choices and what I have chosen to do with my life.  I ended up aspiring to be both a Doctor and a Lawyer (in a fashion) no career combines both of those professions better than Criminology and forensics.
 
All of this is great and I know what I want to do with my life now.  But by having such overachieving family members left me lost for a very long time.  I was so terrified of being the only failure in the family that I pushed myself into something I was not ready for.

Only recently have I felt like I was ready to move on with my life and remembered that no matter how amazing my family members are I still have to be myself and in the end the only person I answer to is myself and my husband.