Teresa Te

A Healthy Home: Keeping Your Kids Healthy During Renovations

August 28, 2023 By Teresa Te

Renovations are a key part of turning a house into a home, but without proper precautions, children can easily get hurt during the process. As parents, then, it’s our job to make sure we can provide a safe environment for your children to live, eat, and play while the house is undergoing this kind of work.

How separated from the renovations your children need to be depends on how old they are and what kind of work your home is undergoing. As you begin, however, keep these 3 common home renovation risks in mind and guide your children accordingly.

Old Home Problems

Some of the biggest problems found in old homes and often revealed during renovations are lead paint and asbestos in the house. Lead paint was commonly used in homes through the 1970s, and many parents undertake renovations to eliminate this old paint; if small children ingest chipping lead paint, it can build up in their bodies and cause developmental delays. So long as you keep children out of the rooms where this paint is, however, and make sure they’re properly cleaned up, everyone should be fine.

Asbestos is even more dangerous than lead, and has been linked to cancer, but for many years it was used as insulation in homes and public buildings. If workers will be removing asbestos from your home, it’s best to have your kids stay elsewhere. Your home will need to be fully cleaned and the air purified before they come back.

Fresh Paint Problems

Unlike lead paint, most of us assume that modern paint products, beyond smelling a bit unpleasant, is perfectly safe. That’s why parents have no qualms about painting murals in children’s rooms or otherwise accenting the home with paint. Unfortunately, some paints can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can be toxic in large quantities. While an occasional fresh coat of paint won’t hurt your kids, you may want to have them sleep in a different room for a few days until the air clears.

Consider Navigation

Depending on what renovations you’re having done in your home, construction may create navigational barriers where children can get hurt. For example, if a hole is being made in walls or flooring, you can guarantee that children will want to inspect the area. With older children, you can set limits during the construction period, but with young ones, you’ll need to entirely block off any interesting areas to make sure they don’t get hurt.

One way to help your children steer clear of ongoing construction is by setting up alternative spaces to use during the renovations. If you don’t have access to your kitchen, put a few convenient pieces like a toaster, microwave, and kettle in the garage or family room so that there is still a place they associate with eating. This helps them develop new, temporary habits until construction is over.

If you’re struggling to make alternate arrangements for your children during the renovation process, just remember that they’ll be completed soon. For the time being, set up playdates, take a weekend trip, or visit grandma to keep the kids safe. You’ll all be happy to come back to your beautiful home when the work is done.

Originally posted on August 26, 2016 @ 6:15 pm

How To Get More Energy In Your Day

August 28, 2023 By Teresa Te

You wake up and take a shower, and you have a smile on your face and a bounce in your step. Then the afternoon rolls around and you’re ready for a nap. If this happens to you, you’re not the only one.

In fact, some people are tired and drained from the moment they wake up. However, there are things that you can do in order to get more energy to get through your day (hopefully without a nap).

Get Some Vitamin B

Vitamin B 12, and even Vitamin B complex, can be found in almost any diet or weight loss pill. This is because it is known to give people energy. You don’t have to take a diet pill to get the benefits of the B vitamins though. You can take a vitamin supplement, by pill or even in liquid form. You can also get more concentrated vitamin B 12 shots that will kick you into gear.

Look into other vitamins and supplements that can help boost your energy as well. Anything that’s healthy for you that can help you get more out of your day is a great asset to your diet and lifestyle.

Get Some Fresh Air

Feeling stagnant sitting in your home or office? Get outside and get some fresh air, and some sunlight, and you’ll definitely feel more energetic. The natural vitamin D from the sun will help wake you up and get you movie, and the fresh air will help you breath easier.

Take a walk, which is another way to wake up and boost your energy. The brisker the walk, the better you’ll feel.

Get Some Exercise

Speaking of walking, exercise is a great way to boost your energy, and your metabolism. If you work some good physical activity into each and every day, you’ll find that you are happier, get through each day with more energy, and you even sleep better at night.

Exercise releases endorphins in your brain, which are feel good hormones. They give you energy, and they can help lift your mood. Exercise is excellent for people suffering from mild cases of depression.

Get Enough Sleep

You also want to make sure you are getting enough sleep each night. If you are waking up wanting a nap, it’s pretty likely you didn’t get enough sleep, or you at least didn’t get a good night’s sleep. Make sure you go to bed at the same time each night, and that you wake up at the same time each day.

If you have something waking you up at night, do something about it. Maybe you need some white noise to cover up cars going by. Maybe you need to sleep in a different room than your snoring significant other. Or, maybe you need to invest in a more comfortable bed.

Originally posted on July 28, 2016 @ 6:12 pm

Issues That Can Go Wrong With Your Senses

August 28, 2023 By Teresa Te

Your health is important, and while people that have no issues with all of their senses may take them for granted, there are problems that can happen. You are lucky to see and hear clearly, and it can be very traumatic to lose any of your five senses. But how is it that people can lose things like smell and taste?

Well, it is possible. Your hearing and sight aren’t the only senses that can be lost or diminished. Here are some of the things that can affect your senses.

Hearing

You use your hearing everyday, from listening to the people around you to listening to the television. Without hearing, you would not be able to listen to music, TV, other people, or anything, for that matter. Whole plenty of people survive in the world without hearing, why not work to protect yours.

That means wearing earplugs when you will be around loud noises, and learning the safe and proper way to clean your ears. If you experience ringing in your ears or any amount of hearing loss, talk to your doctor.

Eyesight

For most people, eye problems come with age. However, some people are born blind, and some children need glasses at a young age. People are born with lazy eye issues, and more. These are things you deal with as they come along.

You do want to get a yearly eye exam though, to make sure that your sight is good, and to allow your eye doctor to look behind your eye at all the components that keep you seeing, Eye exams to help with early detection of blindness, glaucoma, and other eye issues.

Touch

There are illnesses that can cause you to lose your sense of touch. Most commonly, though, an injury to your nerves, such as a broken limb or spine, or trauma of some sort, can cause loss of feeling. If you have nervous system issues, this too can be an issue.

Smell

If you are not smelling things normally, or at all, it could be something as simple as a cold or sinus infection affecting you. However, it could also be something more major, such as tumors, polyps, or even something wrong within your brain. If you don’t have a cold and you’re sense of smell is gone, or not normal, talk to your doctor.

Taste

If there is something wrong with your sense of smell, then it will commonly affect your sense of taste as well, since they both work together. But you can also lose your sense of taste on it’s own. As you get older both of these senses can wane some as well, just like your other senses.

Originally posted on August 6, 2016 @ 6:14 pm

Four Tips For Staying Healthy On The Job

August 28, 2023 By Teresa Te

It’s always important to be healthy, but when it comes to the recovering recession, it’s even more important to stay healthy and not miss work. Now that there is affordable healthcare for some, and more people having insurance, it makes sense that people should be getting healthier.

However, your health isn’t just about visiting the doctor, it’s also about how you take care of yourself at home, and on the job. You need to be sure that your health is a priority. The better you take care of yourself the longer you will live. [Read more…]

Originally posted on November 20, 2015 @ 2:53 pm