On A Whim

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In This Issue

1. Welcome from Heather!

2. Article - "Make Time for Family"

3. Something to Make you Smile

4. Riddle of the Month and answer to last months' riddle

5. Sponsor Ads and Cool Sites

6. Article - "Saturday Night Dead!"

7. The Udderly Moovalous Kitchen

8. Subscription Info & the usual end-of-ezine stuff!

9. The Last Laugh!

1. Welcome from Heather!

2. Make Time For Family

As I sit here thinking about my two boys, Jesse who is 16 and heading to college next fall and Dustin, my baby, who is almost as tall as I am, I realize that no matter what happens in our lives we have to make time for the most important thing that we have. We all know that I am talking about family!

These days, our daily lives can become so hectic and overwhelming that sometimes we forget what is truly important especially if you are trying to build your own home business. Our business becomes our life and other things get pushed to the side.

I recently was in a state of confusion about my own Web Success. Although I love my business, I felt it was taking over my life. I felt so overwhelmed and in over my head. I thought my life would be so much simpler without having to run Web Success. I actually considered quitting.

Well, thank goodness, after much contemplation and a couple of chats with a good friend, I knew I could never give up Web Success. I worked too long and hard and made too many friends to just quit!! Web Success is and always will be a part of my life.

Here are some things you can do to prevent your business from taking over your life:

1. Set aside some time every day for family. Having a little time with your family is very relaxing, invigorating, and refreshing. Have a family movie, play board games, take a family walk or bike ride, or have a picnic. There are so many simple things you can do with your family that do not require a lot of time and/or money.

2. Set aside some time for yourself. This is something that we all need sometimes. Just sit, relax, read a good book, listen to music, watch TV, or just relax with a cup of coffee. Do whatever it is that soothes you and refreshes your mind. Taking a little solo time will make family and work time much more enjoyable.

3. Organize your time. This simple, yet effective, task will enable you to do much more work and have more family time than just going from one thing to another, trying to figure out what to do next.

4. Exercise. This is another thing you can do with family or solo. Go for a nice brisk walk or hop on your bike and go for a ride. Exercise is a great stress reducer and it also helps refresh your mind.

5. Get involved with your kids' lives. Talk to them. By doing this you will feel much more in control in your personal and work life. This will give you a stability you might not feel otherwise.

6. Have a date night with your hubby/wife or sweetheart. Sometimes we get lost in our lives and don't take time to really be with each other. To do this is extremely important because if we are happier and more relaxed with our mate, that feeling will spill out into other areas of our lives, making us more productive.

7. Take a day off from your computer. Go out for the day with your family and do not even think about email or websites or business of any kind. After such a day, you will be refreshed and ready to get back to work.

You can find more info and ideas here:

www.family.org

www.familyplay.com

http://family.co.com

www.familylife.com

Besides many other things, having Web Success has instilled in me just how important family is. No matter what life throws at you, always make time for family!!

Copyright (C) 2001 Terri Seymour

Terri Seymour and her husband Terry offer a no-cost, non-MLM home business opportunity. They strive to help you build a successful home business. They also provide a website building service. Take advantage of the gifts, resources & more provided for your home and business at www.seymourproducts.com FREE ecourse at: business-building-ecourse@getresponse.com

3. Something to Make You Smile!

I ordered a book last month for my husband and as soon as I received it I found myself pouring through it, in fits of laughter, from cover to cover.

Author Dean Scott who has lived in Groveland, CA since 1976 working as a General Contractor, has recently published his first book, "Real Men Don't Get Out of the Shower to Pee!" a collection of cartoon renderings depicting the humor of everyday male behavior.The book has been filled with cartoons by talented illustrator Matt Anderson.

Oh, hubby has been reading his book since we got it (well, actually, when I finally gave it to him) and punctuating his giggles with "hey...that's me!" or "oh yeh...I do that", or "honey, do I really do this?". Since I read it from cover to cover, I heartily agree (so does hubby, I might add - you can ask him yourself!) that Dean Scott and Matt Anderson have portrayed the "average" man perfectly!

To find out more about "Real Men" just visit http://www.itsrealmen.com and have a look around. Dean can be reached at Realmen123@aol.com

4. Riddle of the Month

This months' riddle: I can travel from there to here by disappearing, and here to there by reappearing. What am I ? (See next month for answer!)

Answer to last month's riddle: Two girls were born the same day, at just about the same time, in the same hospital, the same year, and they have the same parents. How is it possible that they aren't twins? THEY WERE TWO OF TRIPLETS !

5. Sponsor Ads and Cool Sites

Janice D. Byer, M.V.A Docu-Type - Virtual Assistance & Web Design ** Winner of the Most Successful Start Up 2000 & Home Based Business of the Year 2000 Awards **

www.docutype.net

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Subscribe Free to The Virtual Times Newsletter. Free Ads and Ebooks to all New Subscribers. Resources for Starting, Managing, and Operating Your Own Online Publication. Marketing and Promotion Tips from Experienced Webtrepreneurs. Articles to grow and run your business.

thevirtualtimes@rapidreply.net

http://bigwebpages.com/members/news4profit/

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6. Saturday Night Dead

Okay. So we couldn't wait to be eighteen. Then we turned our vision towards twenty-one, legal drinking age. What happened to life? In there somewhere was an urge to be alive, to dance ourselves into the dark of the night, to kiss in back seats of big ole cars. Let's have a revival of sorts, shall we? Those of you who are in your forties should be able to identify with Saturday Night Dead syndrome.

We can all remember the waiting to turn eighteen so we could be classified as adults. What for? So our parents could legally kick us out of the house? We could get a job and try to support ourselves? We could be held accountable for our own actions? Oh dear. Whatever were we thinking? We clamored to become twenty-one, the legal drinking age in most states. Well, at least the ones I've lived in. We couldn't wait for this wonderful age to arrive, a time when nobody could tell us to come home by midnight anymore. A time when we were finally grown-up. Yes, we could now drink ourselves silly and not be arrested. Unless we're driving at the same time. Ahem.

Thirty came too soon and somewhere through these years, marriage, responsibilities and children. Credit card balances and dwindling savings accounts. Relatives and holidays. Pets and yard work. We can vaguely recall eighteen now. We hesitated to think that forty might arrive as fast as thirty had. And we knew it would be worse, right? Are you nodding now? Forty approached and the words on pages got blurrier. The TV Guide print was smaller every time it came in the mailbox. A visit to the optometrist was necessary.

Female things began happening that weren't very pleasant. And they call it "pre-menopause." The bad news is, doctors confirmed it could go on like this for ten years. Just grand. A couple more years down the road and the memory started going. We remember the words to every Beatles song from the sixties but not what we made for dinner the night before. Or what movie we just saw. This could be bad.

Fifty looms in the not-to-distant future for me now and I'm taking stock. I'm watching what I eat, exercising and cross-training several times a week and getting out socially as much as possible. I find new ways to make my brain work and Advil is my middle name some days. I'm wondering why it hurts to wake up in the mornings in my forties but I damn sure don't want to know what it's like to wake up in my fifties. Not yet. I'm not throwing any towel in.

The Saturday Night Dead syndrome, the one where you'd rather watch video- taped TV shows and slap popcorn and wine coolers down your throat rather than go out boogying to the blues, has hit. The I miss dancing so much phase. But do we get up and do it? Do we go out enough? Karaoke at the local bar? And do what really turns us on? Or used to. We're sad enough, aren't we?

Let's kick that Saturday Night Dead habit. Before the fifties hit us in the millennium, before the dot.coms all go under, before the next Survivor survives, let's show the world we've got what it takes to do this. We don't need no stinking Nikes, now, do we? Just do it.

Copyright 2001

S.D. Craig is a freelance writer from San Diego and editor of three e-zines. She writes for several venues with a slice-of-life touch, a quick wit, all infiltrated with her inspirational exuberance. Middle age and a wacky nature give Craig even more passion about body image issues, though she pens articles about men, relationships, marriage/divorce, family, parents, children, career issues, computers, the Internet, sports, movie reviews and writing tips.

LovingYourCurves.com

GiggleWithMe.com

SunshineSanDiego.com

(Note from Heather: On the The I miss dancing so much phase above, anyone for a bit of Salsa ?? (no, not the kind with tortilla chips)

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Looking for an unusual gift for your favorite computer buff?

Come visit with us at www.petvirus.com

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7. The Udderly Moovalous Kitchen

This recipe will definitely get rave reviews! It's easy to make and so incredibly yummy that the family will bug you over and over to make another batch!

JACKSON SPUDS

2 lbs. of frozen hash browns - do not thaw out

one - 500 ml. container of sour cream

2 cups of grated orange cheddar cheese

2 tins of cream of mushroom soup (do not add water or milk)

1/2 cup melted butter

1 onion, chopped

Put all in a large bowl and mix well. Bake in a 9 x 13 pan at 350F uncovered for 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

ENJOY!

8. Subscription Info & the usual end-of-ezine stuff!

On A Whim... is published monthly by Heather Diodati

(c) Copyright 2000-2004

Any articles are the property of the original author and can only be used with the author's permission.

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10. The Last Laugh

Crazy Definitions:

Snackmosphere - The 95% air inside a bag of chips!