Tag Archives: wholeliving

Guest Feature: What’s Best for Your Health??

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Thank you to Daniel Sherwin from dadsolo.com for sharing this article with us: Tips for Taking a Stand Regarding What’s Best for Your Health. Excellent advice and food for thought!

The state of our health can easily be neglected. However, when we feel terrible, it’s then that we decide to be more proactive about what is conducive to our health and what isn’t. In other words, we learn to take notes regarding our health because we know ourselves and our family better than anyone else. So if that’s you, and you’ve been letting everyone around you decide what’s best for you or your kids, here are some helpful tips from earnest mom on how to voice your opinion more.

What are your options?

Taking care of your health better means being aware of the various options available to you when choosing a health insurance scheme. There are quite a few options out there, so you might want to consider doing a fair bit of research into what a Health maintenance organization is (or HMO), what an Exclusive provider organization (or EPO) is, and what your options are regarding point-of-service (or POS) plans. As you can see, knowing what these are and what this entails can be quite the process to go through, let alone understand. However, research like this can end up saving you in the long run – and not just from a money perspective.

Develop a relationship with your doctor

Trust can only be built where there is open communication and honesty between two parties. The same could be said of the relationship between you and your medical health practitioner, meaning you can’t learn to trust and accept when there hasn’t been an ongoing rapport between you and them. 

Ask for a copy of your medical records

Did you know that you are well within your right to ask for a copy of your medical records? Just having your own medical records on hand to refer back to could be what you need to request a second opinion if your gut doesn’t feel right. 

Speaking of gut feel…

Suppose that you feel that your first diagnosis wasn’t entirely accurate for some or other reason, then it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for a second opinion from another physician to confirm your suspicions or allay your fears. For example, you could consult with an online doctor if you want to consult with someone urgently. Furthermore, you will have access to various treatment options if you see one that you think could be beneficial for you or your child’s condition. Also, if your child needs their medication quickly, your online doctor can complete a prescription quickly for you and have this sent to your local pharmacy, where you can conveniently collect this along with your child’s medication.

Step up.

Sometimes, we just need to step up to the plate when it comes to our health and our families’ health by being more intentionalabout it. This may mean making the most of every opportunity to exercise, such as taking the stairs and not the lift, and getting off the train or bus a stop or two earlier so you can walk the rest of the way to work, for example, or by making jogging a daily exercise that is mandatory for you and the kids so that you can bond and get fit together.

At the end of the day, it is up to us as moms to take a stand for our families’ as well as our own health by making smarter choices. This can only assist us in being better parents, knowing we have done all we can to secure the well-being of our loved ones.

How We Plan Our Summer as a Homeschool Family

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Anyone else hit summer and look for ways to have some structure but not over-structure? Me. I am anyone else. Homeschool ends, and then I feel overwhelmed – “What do I do for summer?!” I want my children to feel like they are more relaxed, and to be able to differentiate from homeschool. We will not do any formal full lessons and I will give them time to be bored because boredom is not a bad thing. I do not want the summer to pass and also feel like we have done nothing.

I have three children, 12, 7 and 4. I included them in the planning and set specific goals for each day. Now these goals will not rule our whole schedule as vacations, summer camps and other events will definitely happen but we will have a loose plan for each day. I am not sure about you but by breakfast each day my kids are asking “what are we doing today?” and they are typically not satisfied with “nothing.”

Here is what our summer schedule looks like for the months of July and August. Mondays are zoo mornings (we get a membership to the local one each year), Tuesdays are pool afternoons (we have a small pop up one otherwise it would be dedicated water play outside). Wednesdays are mornings the the museum (again we have a membership to the local children’s museum but we will also explore our other museums as well). Thursdays we will visit the library and a park nearby hosts picnics in the park with family entertainment for free. Fridays are our adventure day, we will be checking a new local park or two (we will also blog and rate our experience for those local to Erie County Pennsylvania).

Using the Notability app on my iPhone I created these fun color coded calendars (I also use similar ones for our homeschool year), I then took advantage of the $0.99 magnet deal on the Shutterfly app to create magnets as a reminder for the fridge.

This helps us have an intentional and focused summer not being limited by what we plan, but if we feel like we have nothing to do it helps to have a plan already! Let me know your tricks to keep summer fun and easy for your kiddos.

x. earnest mom

Rate My Park – Summer Series

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An Earnest Experience in Erie County Pennsylvania

All summer long, Fridays will be designated to exploring parks in Erie County PA and rating them!  The Earnest Littles and I are having a blast park hopping and seeing what is out there!  Each post will give a final rating out of 10 for the overall park and then we will break down the categories.  For each park we are looking at equipment, cleanliness, bathroom options, parent spots and picnic facilities.

Please note, the opinions given in this post/rating are our opinions alone and do not speak for the parks, the townships or anyone else.  Our intent is to give a glimpse of our experience and how much we, as a family liked the park.

McKean Community Recreational Park, 8798 Main St, McKean PA 16426

Overall Rating 8/10.  This park is large, it has a nice sized parking lot, baseball diamonds, other large sporting fields and a walking track.  It is a lovely, open green space with a nice breeze and a lovely Veteran Memorial.  All in all, we really liked this park, while we were there the kids were quick to make friends with a family who frequents, and they were so kind to invite us back to play.  We recommend checking out this park for some free fun in Erie County PA this summer!

Equipment:  The playground has a decent size climber complete with three slides, monkey bars, a crawl tube, bridge, a sliding pole and fun climbing options.  The ground cover appears to be older mulch so there was a complaint from the seven-year-old (and contributed to her rating of one thumb up and one thumb down) that she kept getting dirt in her crocs.  There is a swing section that has both belt swings and full bucket baby swings.  Ground cover also appeared to be older wooden mulch. The equipment is slightly dated in our opinion, but that did not stop is from being a fun place to play.

Cleanliness:  The park was very clean.  There was a little bit of litter from recent visitors who left their trash Juice boxes and napkins) after it got blown away from them, however there are plenty of trash cans located all over the park that allows for easy access and helps to keep it clean.  The equipment itself is kept up well, with natural wear from use it was pleasantly clean as well.

Bathrooms:  There is a decent bathroom building available for use (it was open when we were at the park).  It was fully stocked with toilet paper and soap at the sinks.  They appear to have at least two toilets per restroom (Men’s or Women’s) both equipped with a handicap option. 

Parent Spots: There are PLENTY of benches located right by the playground, a few even had shade from some nearby trees.  The benches were located all around the playground equipment as well, lots of options!

Picnic Facilities: There are so many picnic options here.  Two large pavilions (one with kitchen facilities and a ton of seating) with many wooden picnic tables fully shaded and had grills (both decently close enough to the playground) and one small one that has one wooden picnic table with handicap access.

Stay tuned for our next review.  Live in Erie County?  Have you been to this park?  What are your thoughts?