The Secret In the Sauce

A gal in my neighborhood who is social worker mentioned that her kids lost out on friend time if their kids couldn't treat one another nicely. She said, "It's easy to be nice to friends. You have to work harder to be nice to your siblings. " She also said that you tend to treat your spouse the way you treated your siblings. As sad as that is, it does tend to turn into that and worse as time goes on in a marriage. Back to the 'Magic Forumla.' I dabble in numerous books on parenting, relationships, communication, ADHD. Today, I was reading 'The Potentially Sane Mother's Guide to Raising Children," by Tamara Fackrell and I love the idea of the 'Magic Formula.' It is simply this: The Thank You - Please Rule. It means that before you can ask anything from anyone, you thank them first (show gratitude). For instance, 'Thanks for being such a fun brother. Could you please help me get a game down from the closet?' or 'Thanks for being ...

Over the years I have eliminated more and more foods and drugs from my diet. After having three sinus surgeries, I finally found out that ibuprophen and some drugs found in Claritin and the like arehuge proponents of nasal polyps. So, I gave up my love affair for Advil to save my nose. This event along with realizing that cough medicine never really did help my cough and decongestants didn't de-congest me, I started looking for alternatives; why mess with my body if it doesn't do that much good? So, I started using a NeilMed Sinus Rinse (fabulous!), then essential oils (amazing!) and then coconut oil (take it with me everywhere I go!) and other 'natural' and 'preventative' remedies. Then, when I started noticing issues with my son and the possibility of ADHD, I started looking at alternative and natural methods of treating the disorder. When nothing seemed to help, the condition very steadily got worse and at the recommendation of both the psychologist (sec...

I started this blog with the idea of 'simplicity' as being 'the secret in the sauce.' Over the last several weeks, however, I felt as though there was something more to it. I guess I was pushing away from the simplicity of just keeping things simple. Ironic, isn't it? But, the overarching predecessor for the mantra of simplicity came to me the other night after my husband and I had a 'discussion.' We broke the very important rule of "Do not discuss anything of weight when it is late." After our tiff - that usually ends with him going to bed and me being all spun up - I came down to our office and pulled out a book "How to Make a Good Marriage Great," by Victor B. Cline. I read about how to communicate, what a man needs from a woman, the issues facing re-marriage and blended families and setting goals as a couple to move forward. The one thing I wrote down on my scratch paper in capital letters and underlined is, "I CHANGE FIRST....