Oneself....

Hey Polly,

THank you so much for your encouragement. Taking care of yourselves is so important. My motivation, unfortunately, is stress. I don't like the way it feels so I strive hard to detour the feelings. We can only do our best with circumstances. Once we have done all that we can do, we have let it go until the next step comes into view. Until that point, there's no sense in pondering over it.

Considering the economy and how tough things are right now, I am doing fairly well for a single parent doing it all pretty much alone. My children's father is a very good man. We both agree, even 12 and a half years later, that we should have remained best friends. However, we have four beautiful children now. He has been very good about child support, but I make it a point to not go beyond that. Two of our four kids are no longer on child support. One will be off child support come June. THat will leave one more to go for four more years. Needless to say, this affects my income. The kids are well behaved young adults. We are very blessed considering what young people are exposed to today.

I am a warrior. I look over the horizon of life and try to prepare for upcoming battles, such as decreasing child support. That allows me to try to make adjustments. Finaces are my biggest concern. Debt scares me to the bone! I'm constantly looking over the bills, making sure there are no mistakes by the bill collector so I pay nothing extra. I am in constant contact with my bill people and have a pretty good relationship with them Lol! They track my contact with they via computer, of course. Such contact has proven good for me... small deductions along the way :).

All this said and done, including running the daycare, it is extremely important to maintain good mental functioning. As with anyone, stress can swallow us up and cause more damage to our health than we can ever imagine. I don't believe doctors always know what they are talking about, therefore, we have to be active towards our own good health as well. For example, I prefer supplements to medication. Although we have to be just as careful with supplements, they tend to have far less side effects than medication.

I encourage everyone to take care of themselves, especially if you are a parent, with or without a mate. A hot bath or shower, and getting plenty of rest, better plenty of sleep, makes a huge difference!

Carry on ladies!!