Single Parents Town Blog

This is going to be short, sweet, and the most freeing blog you have read in a long time.

It is a question everyone has an opinion on. There are books written about this. There are therapists who are paid lots of money to help people find the right answer to this question. Most say 6 months.
So…what is the question that causes so many debates, guilt, and…lies??? And what is up with 6 months?

When Do You Tell Your Kids About The New Person In Your Life?

Like I said most experts and non-experts say 6 months is a healthy time to involve the children into your new relationship. I have to ask, why is 6 months the magic number? Did someone do a study? And if they did, what did they find?
Did they find 6 months of lying? Hiding? Not making their children a part of their life? Continue reading »

On Monday February 20th four young beautiful college students lost their lives in a tragic car accident on a treacherous stretch of freeway in Northern Minnesota. My heart like so many others broke upon hearing the news and I once again found myself asking the question of WHY? Regardless of all the grief and loss I have faced over the years I could not wrap my head around this senseless accident and I could not get the vision of these beautiful girls out of my mind. Perhaps it was the fact that they were so young. Perhaps it was because they had just spent a wonderful long holiday weekend at their homes with family and friends with no clue life was about to end. Perhaps it was because they had so much life ahead of them. Perhaps it was because it hit too close to home and it could have been my daughters Danielle and Jordan in that car and heading back to school.

Days later the vision still haunts me and while I cannot find any answers to the WHY or make sense of this loss it served as a painful reminder that we truly don’t know what the future holds. The only real thing anyone has is this very moment and just as life can be good in that moment it can drastically change in the next. Those girls were full of life and like so many other kids they said goodbye, got into that car and headed back to school and towards their dreams. They never made it and their lives were cut short. We all know this at some level yet we easily forget to embrace and appreciate every moment. Life gets busy and we get distracted with where we have been and where we are going versus where we are right NOW. It is hard to focus on those things that are most important and truly matter when we are drowning in stress, regret or worry. I am guilty as charged but every time something like this happens it is a cruel wake-up call that we waste too much time on so many things that mean nothing in the end. Continue reading »

My idea for this week’s blog came after seeing what some people keep in their fridges. I spent a weekend with some friends. I picked up several items they had and read the labels. I do not typically buy any processed foods so I was a little shocked at the nutritional value of some so called “healthy foods”. Companies are taking a very healthy product and turning it into junk. For example, Greek yogurt. It is all over the place now and every company has their own version of it. But to make it more appealing to the consumer they load it up with sugar and other additives. Also the Greek yogurt that was in my friend’s fridge was not even real Greek yogurt. It is regular yogurt with added protein and thickeners and they label it Greek “style” yogurt. This is why reading the label is so important.
The first you want to look for is what a serving size is. Many are fooled by this. Nutritional values are for each serving size, so pay attention to that. If a package has 3 servings in it and you eat the entire package, multiply all the values (calories, carbs, sugars etc) by 3.
The next thing you should look at is the breakdown of the nutrients, protein, carbs, sugars, sodium, etc….This will determine what food group it belongs to. Let’s use the Greek Yogurt as an example. For the serving size the label reads 12 grams of protein, and 20 grams of sugar!!! 20 grams of sugar is equal to 5 teaspoons. Be sure to look at fats, trans fats, sodium, sugars, fiber, etc…..
Beware of words like fortified, enriched, added, or extra this means the product has been processed and a lot of the nutrients are lost. Sugar free and fat free are also misleading. Manufacturers want you to think you are eating healthy buy using these words, when in fact they are usually high in calories and a are filled with other ingredients to make. They are no better than the original version.
The last thing is the ingredients list. Items are listed by weight in descending order from greatest to least amount. . I usually go by the 5 ingredient rule. If an item has more than 5 ingredients, I don’t buy it. Also if the ingredient list contains words that a 3rd grader cannot pronounce, most likely it is not considered food.
Keep it simple, try to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible, choose items with 5 or less ingredients, and read the label. Invest a few more minutes in the grocery store for your health

It’s okay…neither did I.

Who knew a little nugget in a conversation of questions can be the most amazing revelation. I have found one more piece of my puzzle. As I reflected on my past, my present, and what I desire so much for my future, I realized this is information that we all need. These are questions we must ask ourselves and answer them. When we expose what is hiding, we crack it and the light has to come shining through.

I am also aware of how this will form the lives of my children and by sharing this knowledge with them, they can be set free of this force (bondage) long before I did.

Wow…they are so lucky to have such an aware mom! ;) Continue reading »