Weekend Cuddles Are the Best

The company that my husband works for took away the Good Friday day off in lieu of Martin Luther King's day.  In my personal opinion, I think they should not have taken this holiday from the employees considering that most of the employees celebrates Easter.  Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against celebrating MLK day, in fact I am all for that, however, they should have retain the Good Friday as holiday as well.

Anyway, my husband requested a day off for Friday so we could do our Friday obligation to church.  I am looking forward for a relaxing weekend.  Weekend cuddles are the best Now that the kids are older, we don't do anything special on Easter except go to church.

So that's how we spent our Easter weekend.  Staying home and relax although our daughter picked up a shift from her part time job on Sunday evening.

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Workout

Nobody goes to the gym hoping to get mediocre results. Everybody goes hoping to get the absolute most out of every rep, run, and workout. Luckily for you, researchers also want us to get the most out of our workouts. Try these inefficient strategies to get the biggest benefit from every one of your workouts. 

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Lift Weights

If you only do cardio, you are sabotaging yourself. Your metabolism will actually go down if you only do cardio workouts, making weight loss more difficult. Resistance training, however, helps to build muscle to increase your metabolic rate. You can also help your muscle-building along with some supplements. Click here to find some. 

Listen To Music

Everyone knows that your favorite songs can help to fire you up for your workout, but some studies have shown that people who listen to music, especially slow music after their workout recovered faster than those who went without music. Music boosts the levels of serotonin and dopamine in your body. These hormones are known to encourage recovery. Try listening to a few of your favorite, relaxing songs as soon as you finish your workout. This will help your blood pressure and heart rate get back to normal and recovery happen as soon as possible. 

Swap Stretching For A Dynamic Warmup

Make the most of your stretching. Those who warm up with light dynamic stretches are better able to perform their workouts than those who don’t, or those who warm up with more typical bend and hold style stretches. Think of your body as a rubber band. If you stretch it around a lot and then pull it back to shoot it, it isn’t going to go as far. The same thing happens with your muscles and tendons. However, dynamic bodyweight movements, ones that mimic the workout that you’re about to do, increase blood flow and improve your range of motion without compromising the elastic properties of your muscles and tendons. For example, if you’re about to go out for a run, it’s a good idea to move through about five to ten minutes on lunges, knee raises, and leg swings before you hit the treadmill or the trails. 

Preface Your Workout With Carbs

You might think carbo-loading is something only marathon runners do. Eating carbs before your workout can help you with interval training. Carbs are your main fuel for any high-intensity workout and when your body is fueled, you will get a better workout, both in terms of caloric expenditure and muscle growth, than you would if you were in a fasted state. Even if you like to do your workouts in the morning, make sure you at least eat a piece of toast or some oatmeal before you head into the gym.

With these useful exercise tips, you can get the most out of every single workout that you do, whether at the gym or at home. You can get the best results possible from all your efforts for both your physical and mental wellbeing.

Why It’s Good To Have Less Screen Time

Everyone uses screens for at least a small portion of the day, but many people use them almost non-stop. From the TV to a laptop to smartphones and tablets, it all adds up to many, many hours spent staring at a screen. In a lot of instances, this staring is necessary for work, for socializing, even for relaxing, but that doesn’t mean that too much of it is good for us. In fact, in some cases, it can be very bad indeed. 

 

There are still studies ongoing that are focused on determining exactly how bad these hours of screen time are (the devices haven’t been around long enough, but the findings so far certainly suggest that we should all cut down if at all possible. Here are some of the reasons why. 

It’s Bad For Your Health

Screen time is bad for your health in several different ways, but perhaps the most obvious is your fitness level and weight. When you are using your screens, you will most likely be in a sedentary position, either sitting at a desk or on a sofa, or perhaps lying down in bed. Where you are, whatever you are doing, the lack of physical activity can mean that you just aren’t getting enough exercise. Not only that, but your circulation can be affected because you aren’t moving around enough. The key to a healthy amount of screen time in this case is to limit yourself to a shorter amount of time each day and use the rest of the time you would have been in front of the screen exercising. 

 

If this is not possible due to work, you should leave your desk and walk around the office – or, better yet, outside – every hour to ensure your circulation isn’t restricted. 

 

Planning Becomes Difficult 

If you’ve been wondering why your ability to make plans seems to have deserted you, and you can no longer process times and dates as well as you once did, this could be because of the amount of screen time you are currently having. Studies have shown that those who spend a lot of time in front of their screens (particularly those who play lots of video games) tend to have less brain function in their frontal lobes. One of the problems this causes is your ability to plan properly. 

 

Planning your day-to-day life is something that can help us immensely. We need to know what we can get done and when, such as organizing mold and water damage restoration, and we need to understand how much money is in the bank. We also need to be able to plan things even further ahead, such as vacations and breaks away, for example. 

 

Your Brain Can Suffer 

We know that too much screen time can cause us physical damage and harm, but it can also be an issue when it comes to your brain’s performance too. This could be due to the way that this technology ‘uses’ the brain and teaches it to work. If you want your memory to improve and you want to have your brain working at its very best, reducing screen time is the way to do it. On top of this, you can also do brain training games, or perhaps just enjoy a good book or find a hobby to stimulate your brain. 

 

Some apps and games can indeed be used on our devices for brain enhancement too, and these can be useful but not if they make you use even more of your time up using a screen. 

DIY Decorating Tips

Giving your home a new look is exciting, but it can be expensive too. Sometimes, people hire interior designers and decorators to make everything look just the way they want it. If you have the budget for that, great. Many people don’t, so it’s down to them to carry out the decorating for themselves. 

You might think that putting on a coat of paint, or some wallpaper is super easy, but it’s also very easy to get wrong. Poor decorating can make your home look unfinished and will probably irritate you for years to come too unless you decide to try again or get the professionals in. 

Prep the area well

Many DIY and decorating tasks come down to preparation. For example, if you’re painting the walls of a room you need to make sure that the surfaces are ready. This includes any drywall repair and removal of any surface dust or grease. You need to make sure that the paint has the very best surface possible to go on. If you paint over a greasy or dusty wall, it will show in the finished result. 

The same goes for repainting doors and skirting, you should sand down the area first to get rid of any uneven paint and then clean down the area thoroughly from all of the sawdust. 

Buy good decorating materials

A lot of the time, you get what you pay for with decorating supplies. If you choose the cheapest paintbrushes you can find and the cheapest, thinnest paint, you’re probably not going to end up with the result you want and you’re going to need to work a lot harder too. A cheap paint may need three or four coats to look right whereas a better quality one might take only one or two. 

You don’t necessarily need to buy the most expensive decorating supplies you can find either, but aim for the sweet spot in the middle where you’ll find the balance between quality and value. 

Watch how-to videos

YouTube is filled with great how-to videos to help out newbie decorators. Watch as many of these as possible and you might find that you pick up some great tips that you hadn’t thought of before. You may even get some inspiration for design ideas for your new look. If you’re doing something a little more complicated, such as wallpapering, this is even more important. 

Take your time

Rushing a decorating job is a sure way to make mistakes that you either have to clean up or look at for years to come. It’s important to go at a speed that still allows you to pay attention to detail. It’s this finish that will make the difference between doing a great job and doing a sloppy one. You’ll be glad you took a little extra time when you look at how great your home is. 

Many people get nervous when it comes to decorating themselves, but there’s no need to be. Just follow these tips to get your home looking just the way you want it to. 

Some Great Ways To Bond As A Family This Summer

It is really important that you feel as close as possible to your family, but it is not always simple to make this a reality. In truth, most families require some bonding from time to time if they are going to feel close, so this is something that you are going to want to bear in mind. If you are thinking about bonding with your family and trying to work out how you can do it more effectively, then you might want to consider some of the following activities, all of which are great things you can do with your family in the summer.

Play Sports Together

One thing that always brings a family closer together is playing sports. This can be done in quite a full-on way, or it can just be playing something together in the yard or the public park. Take https://sportnews.in/Cricket for an example - cricket is a great game for a family to play if you are looking to bond with one another, because it is just competitive enough to be interesting but not too much for most families, and there are many different roles to take within the sport too, which can help. So you might want to think about doing that, or a similar sport together, this summer.

Family Fun Night

This is something you can do at any time, and which is always going to have the desired effect. For these family fun nights, it’s always a good idea to have a ‘no screens’ rule. This might be something that your children balk at to begin with, but it is absolutely worthwhile as it will make the family fun night so much more enjoyable for everyone in the long run. Having one of these nights every now and then, in which you play games, watch DVDs or whatever else you might want to do, can do wonders for bonding as a family unit, so it is something else to consider this summer.

Cooking As A Family

This is one thing that you can get your family to do frequently - and in fact, the more frequently you do so, the better the effects will be. Cooking as a family is really incredibly beneficial in a bonding sense, and it’s something that can help you to keep your family as happy as possible. You might be surprised at how much this can really help, and especially if you give a different person the chance to choose what will be cooked each time. This can soon become an enjoyable event that everyone looks forward to in their own way.

Arts & Crafts

Finally, you can always consider getting into arts and crafts too. This is a great way to ensure that you are developing some creativity in your kids while also bonding with them and growing closer, and the results can often be profound and quick, even immediate. So make sure that you are thinking about this this summer when you try to bond with your family better.

How To Buy A Fixer Upper The Right Way

Are you thinking about buying a new home? This can be a great choice and it may even allow you to boost your income if you are purchasing a second property. There are lots of different types of properties to consider. So specifically, let’s explore the process of making a profit from a fixer upper or a home that has seen better days. This is easy when you take the right steps. 

Find The Right Home

The first step in fixing up a home is to find the perfect home to work your magic on. Finding the right home can be tricky and could take some time. Make sure you are regularly checking the market and home auction sites. You can usually pick up a fixer-upper relatively cheap from an auction. 

You also need to make sure you are checking out the area you are buying the home. You need to know who your target audience will be and who is likely to buy the home. If you are aiming more towards families then you don’t really want to be buying a home in the business district for example. 

Get The Best Loan 

Next, you need to make sure that you get the best loan for your fixer upper. The loan market is huge and there are lots of options worth exploring. As well as this, there are countless factors that determine whether a loan is going to be right for you. For instance, you should think about interest. A simple interest loan calculation will tell you whether this is an affordable choice for you. 

Complete High Quality Changes

If you are planning to sell your home then you need to make sure that you are completing the right changes to the best quality standards. For instance, you might decide to redo the garden. This is a great way to boost the level of curb appeal for the home. The right curb appeal standards will ensure that you make a killer first impression and get plenty of views. This can translate into a heavy amount of offers for your home. But you do need to complete the right quality of work. That’s why you should always consider whether to DIY or if it’s best to call in a pro contractor, even if this step will cost you more money overall. 

Get It Sold 

Finally, you should think about taking the right steps to get your home sold on the market. This is often all about finding the right real estate agency. The best agency can get your home sold in a matter of weeks by ensuring that you gain plenty of viewings from day one. You just need to make sure that you are carefully choosing an agency. It’s absolutely vital that they are providing a service you can trust. The longer you have to hold onto the home, the more expensive it comes for you. 

We hope this helps you understand some of the key steps that you must take to ensure that you can make money from a fixer upper. If you do this, then you’ll easily be able to boost your income. You can use this extra cash to fund other investments or improve your quality of living.