Being a wife and mother is not an easy task. The multiple demands upon a woman raising a family can take their toll on many an occasion. However, being a mother must be seen not as a punishment but as a reward and blessing from the Lord because, according to the Holy Bible, " children are an inheritance from the Lord."


Tips in Managing a Home:

Cooking -- Prepare a budget, and stick to it. Your meal plan must consider the physical conditions and needs of your husband and children, too. Have a ready list of menus and recipes from which you may select the food to be cooked for the day, which must be carefully chose and prepared with intelligence and skill.

Super-fine white flour is not the best for breadmaking since its use is neither healthful nor economical. Fine-flour bread lacks nutritive elements found in whole-wheat bread. So is the use of soda or baking powder, which causes inflammation of the stomach and often poisons the entire system. To make raised or yeast bread, do not substitute milk for water. Milk is more costly, makes the bread less wholesome and ferments more readily in the stomach.

Grains used for porridge or "mush" should have several minutes' pressure cooking. Soft or liquid foods are less wholesome than dry foods, which require thorough chewing. Zwieback, or twice-baked bread, is one of the most easily digested and most palatable foods. Cut ordinary raised bread in slices and dry in a warm oven till the last trace of moisture disappears. Then brown it slightly all the way through. This bread can be kept much longer in a dry place than ordinary bread, and, if heated again before using, will be as fresh as when new.

Avoid using too much sugar. Cakes, sweets, puddings, pastries, jellies, jams and sodas are active causes of indigestion. Especially harmful are the custtards and puddings in which milk, eggs, and sugar are the chief ingredients. The free use of milk and sugar taken together should be avoided.

If milk is used, it should be thoroughly sterilized; with this precaution, there is less danger of contracting disease from its use. Butter is less harmful when eaten on cold bread than when used in cooking; but, generally, it is better to dispense with it altogether.

Scanty, ill-cooked food depraves the body by weakening the blood-making organs, deranging the system and bringing on disease.

Cooking is one of the most essential tasks in practical life, a science that all women need to learn and should be taught in a way to benefit the less-advantaged; therefore, it needs understanding of the art of healthful cookery to cater to the well-being of the household.

Regularity in eating is important. A specified time for eating should involve everyone, and nobody's needs should be neglected.

From Better Homes and Gardens (March 2006), we got the following tips:

• Launch each day with breakfast. Try oatmeal, whole-grain cereal, fruit smoothies, and veggie omelets. You'll feel and look better. People who eat breakfast tend to have less body fat than those who skip it because the early-morning meal boosts metabolism.
• Make water your beverage of choice. This tip alone can cut up to 15 percent of caily calorie intake. For flavor, top off glasses with wedges of lemon, lime, or oranges.
• Make supper a family affair. Parents and kids eat better and build stronger family ties when they share a meal.
• Eat nuts. A one-ounce serving of heart-healthy nuts at least three times a week is best. An ounce is about one handful.
• Avoid vending machines. Instead of raiding the vending machines, tote your own healthful snacks to the office or on road trips.
• Keep food in easy reach. Put fruit and raw veggies on the counter or on the top shelf of the fridge. Also keep the fridge stocked with heady finger food made up of low-fat cheese cubes or sticks, grapes or sliced fruit, cherry tomatoes, and more.
• Stir up a dip. Raw veggies are very enticing to kids when dunked in honey-mustard sauce or low-fat ranch dressing. Fresh fruit tastes yummy when dipped in chocolate pudding made with fat-free milk.
• Make baggies to go. Fill snack-size individual baggies with healthy snack combos, such as dried fruit and nuts; popcorm and pretzels; a few cany-coated chocolate pieces mixed with whole-grain cereal; or ready-to-eat raw veggies or fresh fruit. Make them easy to grab and go.

Sewing -- Have a sewing kit handy for clothing repairs or alterations. It should contain: tape measure, scissors, thread, needles, pins, tailor's chalk, pencil, sharpener, pin cushion, thimble, and emery board. Buttons, zippers, and hooks are usually common problems.

Gardening -- Pots and plants can be bought from nearby garden shops. Add fertilizer to your newly transplanted shrubs, and don't forget to water your plants every so often to make them thrive, blossom and multiply.

Create calming green spaces and outdoor rooms for living--even on a long, narrow lot. Grading, drainage, planting, and even running the utility wires underground and the choice of graden furniture may sound like a trememdous task, but these can be all done with a specified plan using clean, simple lines and a charming symmetry. The personal style of the owners should complement the architectural details and the garden style, to achieve a sense of peace and support the theme.

Wherever you should go in the gardens, comfortable seating, cheerful flowers, gentle colors, fragrance, pleasant views, and a sense of peaceful equilibrium await. Add to these some lavish flowers and climbing roses in an ordered setting to vivify your home.

How about if you think that a country garden with a stone fireplace, leaded glass windows, and other architectural details of a quaint European country house would suit you? Add beauteous blooms in a compact, harmonious setting and accent with greens of ferns and the grays of helichrysum and lamb's-ears. Continue the profusion of fragrant rosebuds inside the flagstone-paved front courtyard and echo the blue-flowered vitex bush with the blue of delphiniums; complement the pink roses with pink pestemons and alstroemerias. Accent with white flowers including viburnum and foxglove.



Doing the Laundry -- Separate whites from colored clothes. Don't use any bleach for colored clothing. Diligently follow instructions for washing particular clothes with labels.

Washing the Dishes -- After removing any left-overs, soak the dishes first in warm, sudsy water. You may use liquid, soap, or dishwashing paste. Then, wash the dishes individually, beginning with glasses and cups, spoons and forks, knives, saucers, plates, bowls, and lastly pots and pans. This is done to save water and to use it to the fullest.

Interior Decoration -- When you buy things for the home, try to imagine how you can create a lively, lovely, liveable home atmosphere, and if the things you'r going to buy will add more beauty, relevance, and functionality to your home.

Design your own custom closet, and create an unhampered custom design for your bedroom, pantry, laundry room, bathroom, or garage. Use affordable, easy-to-install, hard wooden boards with stainless steel or metal handles with a clean, basic look.

For furniture accessories, choose a color scheme of neutrals and colors revolving around the twelve-hued wheel, in coordinating or contrasting colors to complement the curtain and paint colors of your home.

Cleaning the House -- Invest in a vacuum cleaner and a floor polisher or floor mop, whichever may be needed.
Have two or more brooms available, and if each room can have one broom, the better. Buy insecticides for mosquitoes and other pests, but be sure to place them out of children's curious reach.

Caring after the Baby -- Does any of these happen in your home? Your child: has been crying all night; won't eat; wakes up every hour or two; runs a fever; pulls at his or her ears. If so, your child may have an ear infection. Bacteria often cause this problem. Antibiotics may help, but sometimes they don't. You play a big role in getting you child well. The more you know about ear infections, the better you can fight them.

What causes an ear infection? It begins when fluid builds up in the middle ear. (The middle ear is the space just behind the eardrum. The eardrum is found in the ear.) When this fluid does not drain from the middle ear as it should, bacteria often grow. These bacteria can cause an ear infection.

If you think your child has an ear infection, call your doctor, who may write a prescription for an antibiotic. But don't push for one. Sometimes it is not needed. Let your doctor decide the best way to treat your child.

What are antibiotics? How do they work? Antibiotics are medicines that kill bacteria. They can also stop bacteria from growing. They do not treat viruses or the flu. Your doctor will decide if your child needs an antibiotic, and if so, he will deice on which is the right one.

Are antibiotics good for fighting colds? NO! They don't work against colds or the flu. VIRUSES casue colds and the flu. antibiotics treat BACTERIAL infections. Your doctor can tell the difference.

How will the doctor decide which antibiotic, if any, is right for your child? Your doctor will think about many things when choosing an antibiotic. Ease of dosing is only one of them. Only your doctor can decide what kind of infection your child has. He or she can also decide the best way to treat the infection.

You may life in an area where there is a high rate of "resistance". This means that some antibiotics may not work for your child where you live. Your doctor will think about this when prescribing an antibiotic for your childs.

If your child feels better, does he need to take the rest of the doses? YES! Your child may start to feel better before all of the doses have been taken. But if you stop early, the infection might not be gone. Give your child ALL of the doses your doctor tells you must be taken.

TIPS

• If you think your child has an ear infection, see a doctor.
• Let your doctor decide if an antibiotic is needed.
• Don't ask for an antibiotic if your child has a cold or flu. VIRUSES cause these. An antibiotic won't work.
• Give your child all of the doses on the bottle label. Finish the FULL prescription.
• Don't give one child's antibiotic to a sibling.
• Throw away any leftover medicine after your child has taken all of the doses the doctor says must be taken.
• Listen to your doctor. Follow your doctor's instructions. Give doses at the right time for as many days as needed.
• Always keep any medicine out of the reach of children.