Three Tips for Making Time for Work and Family

Since we've entered the age where technology allows us to work from home and avoid a daily commute, more and more people are taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Finding a balance between work and family life, especially if you have small children, can be challenging at times but not impossible.

With your newfound freedom, you may find it tempting to change up your hours on a daily basis and not have any set schedule. But this can often be a source of frustration because it won’t allow you or your family to get used to a daily routine. Instead, try these tips to create a schedule with ease, and without taking away time from family and the life you love.

Have Set Hours – Although you're no longer working the 9-to-5 job, it’s still important to schedule regular working hours throughout the day. This doesn’t have to be the same for everyone, though. Obviously, you can adjust it to fit your situation and family life. It may be easier for some to work early in the morning and others to start their workday late at night. 

Keep your family involved and come up with a plan together so everyone is aware of the daily schedule. Of course you might have to change your hours every so often. There are always things that come up and exceptions that can be made. It helps to know ahead of time what hours you will be working, however, and make life easier on everyone.

Take Time Off – If you are new to working at home this may seem like a foreign concept. You may not feel like you need or deserve time off because you are home every day. You have to remember that even though you're home, you're still working and providing for your family just as if you were working the 9 to 5. It’s important to schedule some “you” time and also family time every so often in order to avoid burnout and simply spend time with those you love.

Be Present – There's a saying that you shouldn’t take your work home with you. When you work from home that's somewhat hard to do but the concept is still the same. When you have worked your set number of hours, turn the computer off, shut the door and be done with it. Take the time to be present with your family and spend precious time with them without thinking about work and what still has to be done. This is hard especially when you're first starting out but you'ill get the hang of it. Don’t get caught up in wanting to get so much done that you're avoiding that important family time.

A daily schedule is going to be different for every single person. There is no right or wrong way to set a routine. The important thing is that you stick to it once you choose one that fits for you. Family and work balance is always tricky because you're being pulled in two different directions on a daily basis. Don’t stress yourself out trying to be everything for everyone. This is especially hard if you're new to this type of lifestyle because you want to get so much done and still fill your role within the family. Make a schedule that works for you, stick to it, and don’t overdo it.

Hope this helps!

Catching Wild Pigs

In light of the Brussels tragedy, we all know that more freedoms will be taken away from the people of the world. And if you don't know that, you need to start connecting the dots. 

The following is taken from a blog that I follow:

There was a chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class.

One day while the class was in the lab, the professor noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter.

The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist regime.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question.

He asked: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.

The young man said that it was no joke. "You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free food.

When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence.

They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.

The pigs, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening in America . 

The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare entitlements, medicine, drugs, etc., while we continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.

One should always remember two truths:

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

If you see that all of this wonderful government "help" is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to share this with your friends.

God help us all when the gate slams shut!

Think about this ...

Quote for today: "The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

A thought to remember, Marx said, "Remove one freedom per generation and soon you will have no freedom and no one would have noticed."