How much is your time worth?

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”- H. Jackson Brown

I find myself thinking about this quote then I stopped and said to myself, “Wait, here I am wasting time worrying about not having enough time.” So I went on determined to do the best with my time.

If you really think about it, take what you make if working (if you’re not working take what you think you should make staying home and DOUBLE it) then divide down by work week, then divide it down by work day, then take it down to the hour. My husband did this at his job and based on his salary every hour cost him over 200 dollars! Now I know, it takes time to do this task but this is one that will benefit you. When the telemarketer says on the phone, “Do you have time to talk to me?” You can think, “Well no, because 15 minutes of me listening to your sales pitch will cost 50 dollars! That makes telling them you don’t have the time and hanging that much easier, it does cost you money.

I recently tried this approach when it came to cleaning. I figured that according to my time calculations it would cost me 200 dollars to clean my house (I am an expensive lady) so I thought that hiring someone to do this for me was MUCH LESS expensive at their 75 dollars to clean my house. It was after paying several of those bills and seeing that my side wasn’t holding up that I revised my estimates and found that my hourly rate actually included cleaning time, I was double dipping in the family coffers!

So the next time you are pondering whether or not to go to the Tupperware party where you know NO ONE, or that telemarketer calls, or your honey asks if you have time to iron a few shirts-remember, your time is valuable once it’s gone, it’s gone-pick and choose what’s important to you.

There, now that you’ve taken the time to read this post, go and get busy-time is wasting!

TORNADO!

Almost everyone has a tornado story, what is yours? Most people have been in or seen more than one tornado, which is the very reason every household needs a plan! Every person needs a plan! What is your tornado story? What is your plan?

I have seen three tornados! Well I suppose I have actually only really seen two tornados. The first one was when I was a small child; I closed my eyes and prepared to meet my Maker as the tornado came close to the car! Our family had gone “peach pickin” and we were traveling home when a terrible storm came up quickly. My sister, Meta, recalled the feeling she had when my parents began to whisper in the car. Her feeling was curiosity and a sense that something was terribly wrong. (My feeling had nothing to do with curiosity!)

Just as our family car crossed the Catawba River my Dad pulled the car off the road. He told my Mother that it would be best if the car faced the wind as oppose to the wind hitting the side of the car. Within moments twigs, leaves and small branches began whirling around the car, followed by the sound of hail hitting the car. My Mother told my sister and me to get down on the floor board and put our heads down. My fearless and curious sister, Meta, kept popping her head up to see what was happening, as my Mother kept telling her to put her head down. On the other hand, I was the obedient child, well — the frightened child, my head was down and my Mother recalls me repeating the Lord’s Prayer over and over. Within moments the storm passed.

The rest of our drive home demonstrated the power of the tornado that had passed by us that Saturday afternoon. We saw telephone poles down, trees uprooted and many damaged homes. As we arrived in our neighborhood we found that the storm passed over our home without doing any damage.

My Dad always had a plan to keep our family safe. His plans served our family well over the years. Make a plan before you or someone in your home or family needs one. What is the safest place in your home? What would you do if you were traveling, in a store, a school or some other unsecure place? What is your story? Most people have more than one tornado story if they live in NC!

Natural Help for Allergies!

Apples – an apple a day can keep the doctor away but it can also help with allergies.  Consuming an apple contain quercetin in their peels (yes you have to eat the skin) that makes cells resistant to allergens.  Interesting, research has shown that eating apples can help lower your risk of lung cancer.

Honey – try eating 1-2 tsp of honey a day during allergy season.  Since the honey is produced from pollen by bees, it contains small amounts of the plants that make you sneeze, by putting small amounts in your system thus desensitizing your system to allergens.

Green Tea – drinking green tea before bed time not only has qualities that help you relax for sleep but it can also help you with sneezing.  Green tea  contains EGCG a major compound that blocks the body’s response to allergens.    Stopping allergy systems before they start!  Some studies say that just two cups of green tea a day can make a major impact with allergies!

Houseplants – adding a few indoor houseplants helps to clean the air in your home.  This takes the allergens out of air so they don’t bother you.  Houseplants are always good anytime of year, not just during allergy season!

What are your natural tips for allergy season?

We All Need a Little Laugh Every Now and Then!!

Sometimes life throws you a curveball. I have found the best medicine sometimes is to laugh. Nothing gets me laughing as much as kid jokes. I know they are really simple and pretty dumb, but they just make me laugh. They also make my daughter laugh which warms my heart!! So I thought I would share a few that I found on the internet. Feel free to add your own.

Q: Who is the bees favorite singer?
A: Sting!

Q: What do you get if you cross a bee with a skunk?
A: An animal that stinks and stings!

Q: What does a queen bee do when she burps?
A: Issues a royal pardon!

Q: How does a queen bee get around her hive?
A: She’s throne!

Q: What does the bee Santa Claus say?
A: Ho hum hum!

Q: Why do bees hum?
A: Because they’ve forgotten the words!

Q: What kind of bees hum and drop things?
A: A fumble bee!

Q: What did the bee say to the flower?
A: Hello honey!

Q: What’s a bees favorite flower?
A: A bee-gonias!
Why was the glow worm unhappy?
Because her children weren’t that bright!

What do worms leave round their baths?
The scum of the earth!

What do you get if you cross a worm and an elephant?
Very big worm holes in your garden!

What reads and lives in an apple?
A bookworm.

What are crisp, like milk and go ‘eek, eek, eek’ when you eat them?
Mice Krispies!

What is small, furry and brilliant at sword fights?
A mouseketeer!

What do you get if you try to cross a mouse with a skunk?
Dirty looks from the mouse!

What is your favorite kid’s joke?

What Goes Up Must Come Down….

by Kathylyn Barnhill

It’s been 5+ months since Mom boarded the “rollercoaster of life. I would love to be optimistic and think she will continue to improve; but the odds are against her. She was transferred to KBR hospice home 4/14/10, prior to the transfer she stated she didn’t think she would survive the ambulance ride. I’ve lost count of Mom’s “crashes”, but this one was different, she was alert. Previously she would crash and be unresponsive for hours, days, weeks. This time she knew she was in respiratory distress and “actively dying”. I have never felt such helplessness, watching her use every muscle she had to breathe. Upon arrival to KBR she was put on a pain pump and meds to calm her which worked for awhile. She would wake again, panic, due to respiratory distress and on it went….for 2 days. The staff worked diligently around the clock to adjust her medication to keep her comfortable. Friday morning I went home to shower and her doctor asked me if I would be able to handle it if she died while I was at home. Saturday morning while I was at the Hospice Hope Run, she awoke and told the doctors she didn’t need to sleep anymore. She is now awake, alert, eating and drinking, her lungs are clear. I can’t even to begin to understand, neither can the staff. I will do my best to celebrate everyday she has on this earth, but it’s hard to be optimistic when I’ve seen her breathing 3 times a minute, waiting for her to take her last breath or struggling for every ounce of oxygen.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Hospice Hope Run, Mom continues to benefit from your generosity, me and my family are benefitting from the counseling services. See you next year, I’ll be running in memory of my Mom, well then again….maybe she will be in the crowd cheering me on.

We fall well, don’t we?

My running partner and I are going along a lonely trail enjoying the comraderie of exercising together.  She trips on a log, then rights herself and we continue running talking about all the fun we have exercising.  Yes, we are insane-we LOVE exercising.

I talk about falling over on my bike (my feet were clipped in) at the starting line of a Half Ironman, yes, in front of thousands of people. The quick stand back up with a “I’m fine!”  She smiles and says, “We fall well don’t we?”  Then we launch into how many times we’ve fallen over on our bike-out in the middle of nowhere, pointing out a golf ball for a golfer then wiping out, stopping at a bridge going up on the beach and forgetting to pull the foot out, going down our driveway as our family proudly looks on.

As older, ahem, more experienced exercisers we do fall well, because we’ve learned how to get back up.  We’ve left our ego at that first major wipeout and realized that we’ll never win the race, but we will finish-we’re in it for the journey.  Every time we lace up our shoes, put on our bathing suit, clip our feet to the pedals of our bike, it’s another step in our journey and each step makes us stronger.

So we fall, we try to do it gracefully, then we get right back up and keep on going because soon the fall is forgotten but the “keep on going” part is still there, and as we cross that finish line we can pat ourselves on the back at another one done.  There are two ways to look at a fall, stay there and wallow in it, or as one friend said, “If you trip in life just make it part of the dance.”

Do you fall well?

Need some help? Here’s some ideas…

Here’s a few in house substitutions in case you run out of something in an emergency!

1. Aspirin – have a headache but out of aspirin?  Cut a lemon in half and rub it on your forehead, you’ll smell like Summer and feel much better!
2. Insect bites or poison ivy?  If you haven’t bought the bottle of Calamine lotion for the season, rub dishwashing detergent on the area and it will take the itch out.  You can also use ammonia.
3. Ants!  Ants will not cross a chalk line, if you find where they are marching in try drawing a chalk line.
4. Dirty Windows?  Use air freshener and get the same result as window cleaner, or use your mother’s old standby vinegar works great to clean windows!
5. Warm pack?  Take an old sock and fill with rice, tie the end then heat in the microwave for one minute or until desired temperature.  Ahhh!
6. Splinter?  Take a piece of tape and place it over the splinter, pull off away from the direction of the splinter and it should pull the splinter out.  If not, then head out to the store and get that pair of tweezers.

We’ve had so many conveniences in our life that we forget there’s useful things around the house to substitute in a pinch!  What are you substitutions?

Roller Coaster of Life – Update

“This blog was written back in February, it’s now April and my mother is back in KBR Hospice Home were I’m watching her take her last breaths on this earth. Thank you to everyone who will be participating in the Hospice Hope Run. I stated in my first post that Mom probably wouldn’t be alive for the Hospice Hope Run, she’s doesn’t want to make me a liar. Thank you to all the Hospice staff @ KBR and the community comfort care team, we couldn’t have gotten through this journey without ALL of you. Thank you Forsyth Woman Magazine to allow me to take everyone along on the Rollercoaster of Life. Keep your hands in the cart as the ride is about to end”

We’ve been with Kathylyn as she put on her tutu and just “did it”, we’ve cried reading about life, laughed at moments in her blog.  Thank you to Kathylyn for letting us take a peek into her life and see what Hospice really is.

Hospice goes beyond Hope, they are the support there for the family as they prepare for a loved one’s final hours.  They are the information we look for as we make sense of medications and different ways the body shuts down, they are a shoulder to cry on as we wait, they are the life in the room while everyone else feels down.  They are with us witnessing life as it passes and we thank them for their time and effort for us.

As we all run the race tomorrow morning, some will run for those that passed, some are still with Hospice, some will celebrate the beautiful day as we all learn about the hope that Hospice provides.

Our Forsyth Woman/Forsyth Family Team has 44 members, let’s all put on our tutus, lace up our shoes and get out there and run!

It Takes A Village – Hospice Hope Run

by Kathylyn Barnhill

I don’t think my husband reserved a seat on this rollercoaster when we were married 20 years ago.  While Mom was at Hospice sometimes I didn’t come home for 48 hrs or more, then only to shower.  He cooked, cleaned, shopped, helped with homework. He does this frequently anyway but he had to manage everything and deal with me as well, an emotional wreck, just like my Mom, up one minute down the next.  Yesterday I visited Mom and she was OK, short of breath but somewhat oriented.  I reminded her that she needed to ask for help before getting out of bed.  Not an hour later I was having lunch with a friend and the nurse called, Mom had fallen in the bathroom.  This is the 2^nd time she fell.  It’s frustrating her as she has always been a fiercely independent woman and now she needs help.   At times she doesn’t remember all she has been through since October, sometimes that’s a good thing, but usually it just makes it difficult to explain things to her. 

 Friends have been very supportive, bringing meals, transporting the boys, listening and even bringing Margarita’s to me at HospiceJ  Whenever someone asked if there was anything they could do for me, I asked for a margarita, no one took me seriously until Mom’s 2^nd admission.  I was sitting in the sunroom when two friends came with a bottle of “living water”, well that’s what it said on the reusable bottle.  I could have cried that meant so much, the margarita was great but the support from these two friends was what mattered, it’s tough to watch your mother die all alone.

 Helpful hint:  If someone asks for a Margarita, bring them one.  It’s 5’o clock somewhere….even @ Hospice.

Pink Meeting Two- In A Poem

Twas the night of our second Race for the Cure Meeting,

Emily, Keela and Robin were there happily greeting.

The T-shirt hung on a mannequin covered in white,

Many people were trying to sneak in a sight.

And I at the computer punching the keys,

As more registrations and donations flew by in the breeze.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

Stacy with a bullhorn in her pink gear!

“OK Runners, off you go have some fun!”

“There’s door prizes and shoes waiting for after the run!”

They all moved quickly, their Fleet Little Feet….

Tall, short, young, old down turning up the street.

On runners, on walkers, train for Race Day,

This practice will make Race For the Cure child’s play!

They ran, they walked on feet and in strollers

They came back with pink in their hair, not rollers.

We honored Susan, who’s raised the most cash,

She unveiling out new shirt with panache!

There were prizes, hugs, everyone cheered.

Down to the last runner as they neared!

Then it was off to Ten 0 One for some pizza and beer,

We were glad the night went off without a tear.

So thank you to 246 registered to run,

After a night like this Race day WILL BE FUN!

They went to their cars, this is what they said,

“What a great team meeting, now off to bed!”