Documentation is important for a variety of reasons in homeschool. The obvious is the meet any state regulations and requirements that may be there. Another encouraging reason is it is a way to track the progress of each child. When play is used in learning, it is very necessary for the parent to provide some sort of record.

A topic that frequently comes up in meetings and forums that deal with homeschooling is record keeping. The importance of record keeping cannot be ignored. It is not only legally required in various States, but also provides important milestones in your child’s learning experience. An interest-initiated homeschooling approach means that the topic of studies is far ranging and multifarious. Thus, it can be something of a challenge to write quarterly reports for the school district, when it is difficult to classify learning into neatly pigeonholed areas.

Record keeping can be a simple or complex process, depending on your style and state requirements. It may be a simple daily journal recording work, or it make be a software program. Some states have set forms that are mandatory for use, or certain groups use a consistent type of record. Whatever is chosen, recording on a daily basis keeps it simple and avoids a mountain of backlog trying to catch up if let go.

Various record keeping methods used by various homeschools. Some popular ones are:

Journal: This can be maintained by the parent or the student if the student is old enough. Basically the goal is to keep a log of what was learned and what was done. Recording highlights that happened in the course of the year is a great way to reflect and remember later on.

Daily Planner: Write in assignments for the week in a teacher’s planning book. Make sure every topic is covered. Document separate entries where any additional things may need to be accounted for. Be sure to include special projects, assignments, field trips, etc. Record a summary every quarter of work done and lessons learned.

Portfolios: This includes of a collection of varied materials that show what the student has achieved and learned during the course of study. Portfolio assessment is a very effective method to document the child’s progress. It provides structure to the otherwise loose and flexible form of schooling called homeschooling. A drawing portfolio will consist of some artwork or drawings that are thought to represent the best in that quarter. A language portfolio may consist of reports, essays, reading-logs, spelling samples or letters. Progress in math, fine arts, history, science and social studies can all be recorded in similar fashion. Having a tangible record of what they have learned encourages them on to greater heights of learning.

Other than the above mentioned systems, there are also purchased software type programs to help record. Some of these allow one to personalize the organizer. Whatever the method used, documentation in one form or the other is vital. Your child’s educational future may well depend on the well-maintained record that you have kept over the years.

There is a simple code that I abide by to help ensure peace and balance in life, and that is what happens at work stays at work there, and what happens at home stays at home. Mixing the two worlds often can have troubling effects on both areas of your life. This can be especially difficult for people that work from their homes and be even more difficult to manage.

Many people work long hours in their jobs or home business and find they don’t feel like they have much left over for their families after a long day. Yet, the families are the priority, how to give your best to both can be a struggle.

One: Use the drive home to transition from the work issues to prepare for the family needs. Try to consciously let go of the work day happening and refuse to dwell on those issues. They will be there tomorrow.

Granted this tip is more for people who work outside of the house, it’s important none the less. However long your drive from work to home is, use that time to work through work issues somewhat and then focus on what you have to look forward to at home. Look forward to spending time with your loved ones.

Two: Come up with a Schedule

This tip is for people that work from home, where keeping work and family separate is even more of a challenge. You might need to think outside of the box. There’s a great tendency to put in alot more work hours when you work from home, simply because you’re there. Perhaps you can work after the kids have gone to bed, or down for a nap. But look at the needs of your family and see if you can carve out times when their needs are less to use that for work hours.

Tip Three: Separate Your Phone lines

If you are finding that you are getting business phone calls at all hours, having a separate number for them to call can be a wonderful option. You also have the choice to making your cell phone your business phone and the home phone personal. This way when business hours are over, you can walk away and leave those calls to be picked up by an answering device. You can also separate the rings for people you know personally and business so you don’t have so much cross over. Make boundaries.

Tip Four: Create a space that is separate from the house.

I know this isn’t always realistic, but try your best to create a work space. Is there a spare room? There are beautiful little room partitions that you can get to help make a workspace. It’s important for you to be able to get up and walk away from work, plus it helps in keeping family members out of the work area.

Do you ever wonder how our ancestors in days gone by preserved their foods before the times you just bought canned foods from the store? Is there an interest to go back to simpler times where canning was a common place practice? It’s almost a lost art now. If that’s you, all you need is a pressure cooker, some canning jars with lids, and some food you would like to preserve plus a desire to learn. Canning can be such a rewarding and fulfilling hobby. Cooking under pressure will trap stream from the boiling water so temperature rises enough to kill bacteria.

For beginners it is suggested to start with a boiling water method. This is usually the most cost effective method, and one you’ll be proud of when finished. You’ll need some canning jars and lids in both the quart and pint sizes. The small 8 oz jars are great for preserving jams, jellies and relish type recipes. Please don’t use any other jars that are not specifically designed for the purpose of canning, such as what you bought mayonnaise or other jellies in. They may not be adequate.

Some of the materials you will need is a large canning pot with a rack that is deep enough to submerge the jars by at least one inch but preferably two. The rack keeps the jars from touching the bottom of the pot, which is the goal here. You’ll need a plastic spoon or knife or spatula type instrument to stir the filled jars to release any possibly trapped air. You’ll need a large mouth plastic funnel and a set of strong long handled tongs to pull the hot jars out of the water. Lastly, you will need a dish towel to dry any remaining water from off the jars when they are removed from the pot.

Always use the fresh produce when possible, wash and peel the fruits before you begin. While you are prepping your fruit for cooking, place the jars into water and let it come to a boil for a few minutes. Then place the cut up fruit into the hot jars filling them about an inch from the top. There’s a product called Fresh Fruit that is recommended to prevent fruit from discoloration. Read the directions to get the recipe for a sugar water syrup that’s either light, medium or heavy, experiment to see which you like best. Pour this syrup over the fruit. Dip your plastic spoon or spatula into the jars releasing any trapped air. Clean any other food from the outside of the jar, put your lids on and tighten them. Put the jars back into the pot filled with warm or hot water and put back on the stove. Make sure to cover the jars with water about an inch over the lids.

Turn the stove on high with with the jars loaded into the canning pot. Once you have reached a vigorous boil, let it continue to boil for the time limit in your recipe, but the usual is about 10 minutes for pickles, 25 to 30 minutes for fruits, and 35 to 40 minutes for tomatoes.

After cooking for the recommended time, turn off the heat and use your tongs to remove the jars from the pot and place on on towel to dry and cool overnight. Once cool, make sure there are no raised area in the middle of the lids, an indication that the jar never sealed and would not be safe. If this is the case however, you can either refrigerate those jars and use the fruit immediately, or try to reseal them the next day. If you try again, wipe the lip of the jar with a clean cloth and use a different lid.

There nothing like the feeling you get once you master the art to preserve food. It is helpful for anyone that loves to learn how things were done by our ancestors, and brings us back to our roots.

These are some ideas and suggestions for bringing greater levels of comfort during sick days, mostly in regards to common colds and flu, virus type ills. Always follow your doctor’s orders of course. Pick and choose which of these you find to suit yourself best.

The number one tip for comfort during sick days is being prepared. Stock up at the store for over the counter remedies you use, perhaps it being acetaminophen, nausea syrup, thermometer, Epsom salts, cold and flu medication, sinus medication, anti diarrhea, heating pad and anything else you can think of. The point is you don’t want to have to run to the store to buy these things once you are already sick.

The same preparedness applies with homemade chicken soup. Try to make up a batch and have some frozen on hand, ready to simply re-heat. Saltine crackers, ginger ale and any other food type items for queasy stomachs that can be put away is good to have stocked up also. Again the idea is not to have to run to the store.

Try also getting some essential oils in eucalyptus, rosemary and peppermint. On those sick days, sometimes soaking in a bathtub with a few drops of those essential oils helps to bring relief. Try also simmering a few drops of the oils in a low simmer pot, or a couple drops on a lightbulb ring. You can also tie some fresh eucalyptus to a shower head that also brings a nice touch to a shower.

Make a rice bag sachet. Take a silky or other soft touch fabric and fill it with rice, and perhaps a some lavender flower heads as well. On sick days, zap it in the microwave a few seconds and place it for warmth on any sore muscles, joints, or your neck. The lavender scent is soothing. You can also drop a few drops of lavender essential oil on the fabric itself it you’d like.

One of those cold/ice pack masks can also bring relief, especially for sinus relief. Those can also feel very comforting around your eyes at times.

Try soaking your feet in a foot bath with some Epsom salts and a drop or two of essential oil. See if a friend or family member would rub your feet.

Stock up on some good books or movies, nothing too heavy; try for light hearted topics where you really don’t need to concentrate much.

Get plenty of rest, fluids and good quality vitamins. If you can turn off your phones. Take the time you need to recover. If we push too hard to fast, many times it delays the healing process and can actually take longer.

Jar gifts are a wonderful, creative yet inexpensive ways to give gifts to family, friends and teachers. There are many wonderful recipes that can be made specifically designed for jars. These include soup mixes, spice mixes, cookie and other baked goods recipes, coffee and creamer recipes and so many more. These can be quite easy to make ahead of time, so you always have a gift you can grab whenever you need one, especially great for those last minute gift needs, or for the person who seems to have everything and is difficult to buy for.

You can use beautiful already decorative type jars, or simple standard canning type jars. Check the recipes first to see what sized jar they recommend for that recipe. Have several on hand if the recipe doesn’t state that information and experiment to see what size the ingredients fit in. The most common sizes are the pint and quart sized jars, but baby jars are also great for smaller portion drink or spice type mix gifts.

You can use already decorated type jars, or standard canning jars. The most common sizes are the pint and quart sized jars, but baby jars are also great for smaller portion drink or spice type mix gifts.

You can use already decorated type jars, or standard canning jars. The most common sizes are the pint and quart sized jars, but baby jars are also great for smaller portion drink or spice type mix gifts.

Get creative also in the recipe instructions. Hang tags can be made either by hand, computer graphics or a label glued to the jar itself, but these can be customized to a central theme if desired. However you choose to do this, they will need the recipe?s final instructions.

There are many delicious recipes that can be made specifically designed for jars. These include soup and bean mixes, spice mixes, cookie and other baked goods recipes, coffee and creamer recipes and so many more. These can be simple easy to make beforehand, so you always have a gift on hand when you need one especially great for those last minute gift ideas or for the person who has everything and is hard to buy for.

If the gift is from a child for a grandparent, parent or teacher, decoupage the child’s photo on the outside of the jar, then trim the edges of the photo with lace or some other finishing type of ribbon. The child could even paint a little something on the opposite side of the jar.

Layer the ingredients for a decorative look. Place at the bottom layers the finest ingredients, like flour but be sure to mix in the baking sodas, salt, etc that’s called for in the recipes. You can use a funnel if you’d like to help it stay orderly. If the flour dusts the rest of the jar, let it settle then gently wipe the jar with a paper towel before adding the rest of the layers. Brown sugar can be tamped down to save a bit of space.

You can accessorize your jar gifts by either gluing dried flowers, pinecones or whatever to the top of the jars as well. Or tie small items with ribbon or raffia to the jars. Common items that work well are measuring spoons, tiny whisks, cookie cutter, little garden tools, cinnamon bark, vanilla beans or any other small whimsical item you may find.

There are many amazing ribbons out there plus many different types of ways that bows can be tied to give unique looks. Lace can also be hot glued around the rim of the jar.

For a Victorian themed jar try a delicious tea mix or cookie or other bakery recipe, glue some lace around the rim of the jar, some small dried flowers on top or a curtain tassel. Make a label or hang tag that looks like tea stained paper. For a cowboy theme, try perhaps a bean soup recipe, tie a bandanna as a rustic type bow. Maybe you can find a cowboy boot or hat sticker to decoupage on the jar itself, or paint one on.

What about the tea lover you know? Try some small baby jars filled with different flavored teas, cocoas and coffee mixes and put in a basket with a coffee mug and muffin or scone. Paint the jar lids coordinating colors to match the mug. Perhaps adding some gourmet tea bags and cinnamon sticks would be a nice touch as well. Let your creativity guide your senses.

There really is no end to the ideas a person can come up with, let your creativity flow and think also about who the gift is for to really make it especially for them.

There are many reasons why families choose to homeschool. Some include not having to wake them up at 7AM or earlier, bundle off to school with umpteen instructions, then wait anxiously until their return home. Homeschool gives more influence over what comes into your child’s life that affects them. The growth and development of your child is not in the realm of the unknown. You can decide on the needs of your child for learning. Customizing the curriculum to suit the needs and interest of your child is another huge benefit to homeschooling.

Individual attention is a huge factor. With classroom sizes burgeoning it’s tough for kids to get one on one attention when needed. Many times they are left waiting while the teacher gives one on one to other students. This allows parents to focus time more effectively for their child, allowing more time to be spent on harder subjects without creating more pressure on the child. Each child learns different subjects at different paces.

Homeschooling usually develops into a family project where all participate in the learning process. Experiments, field trips, chores, games and the like become learning targeted. It also brings about more quality time spent together and family closeness. Negative peer pressure is also reduced especially during important developmental stages of choices and decision making.

Competition and comparison is limited as the child doesn’t have the pressure to measure up to peers, but can learn at his or her own pace, their confidence remains intact. Parents can plan learning to pique a child’s interest. Also learning can be interspersed with fun activities spread out amidst difficult ones. A tough hour of Science can be followed up with a trip to a museum for instance, helping to foster a love of learning. Parents can also tailor curriculum to fit the child’s learning style, whether it’s more through reading, writing or seeing objects in action.

Homeschooling also provides the parents with opportunity to teach their children their moral and religious beliefs in a consistent way during their child’s formative years, thus reducing confusion over hearing mixed messages while young. It also provides a way to put those values into practice while doing a field trip or project if desired.

Lastly, many parents are disillusioned with public school for various reasons. Perhaps it was a poor educational experience for them as children, concerns that their children are pushed either too hard or too little. Discipline and ethics also bring concerns that sometimes are very difficult to take. Many disagree with the practice of grouping children together solely based upon their age. Many feel their children would have a better educational experience through homeschooling.

Before investing your hard earned money into garden plants, it’s important to first consider the conditions that plant will be growing in. Is your garden sunny or shady? Is the soil sandy or clay like? Are there any other unique conditions these plants will be facing in your garden?

Testing your soil’s PH level is important. Although most plants prefer a slightly acidic condition, some thrive in soil that is more alkaline. It’s important to know what your soil is and which plant prefers which condition before you plant. Soil additives are fairly easy to add to alter your soil PH when needed.

Will you plant your plants in groups, or by individual plant? If you buy one of everything, sometimes your garden can look a bit chaotic, but then even that can have a charming look of it’s own. Group plantings that are more organized tend to look more harmonious and offers a lot of creative design ideas.

Place your plants in their pots around the prospective areas you plan to plant. It helps to give you a visual of spacing and where they are going before they are planted. Avoid planting close to trees as the competition for water and nutrients are fierce. Tall plants should go towards the back or center of the garden while shorter plants up front. Grouping in sets of 3 or 5 tends to look better than even numbers. Keep an eye out for color combinations and textures to add interest as well.

Another thing to consider is the plant’s bloom season. Try to choose plants that vary in their display so you always have interesting things going on in that garden all year. You don’t want it to be all glory for one to two weeks, then nothing the rest of the year. It also lends naturally to looking at unusual plants to help fill those harder times of year to find plants in bloom.

The right color scheme is one way to maintain the harmony in your garden. Imagine the color of the flowers when they are in bloom. Some colors may clash with others, but can still be planted side-by-side if they have a different blooming season. Foliage color is also important. Many flower plants have silver, grey or purplish foliage that is just as attractive as the flower. This means that they are still attractive well past the blooming season and so have added value.

You may wish to consider a chinchilla as a possible pet. They are of the rodent family, (but it doesn’t seem that way).

“Chins” otherwise known, look like chubby squirrels with Mickey Mouse type ears. They are very clean animals so their cages do not tend to stink as many do. Although they are nocturnal animals, they do play quite a bit during the day and are very smart.

I got my first pair of chinchillas, as adults, a proven breeding pair. They were nice enough but they never really did bond with us. We ended up having 3 litters total. They usually have 1-3 babies (also known as kits), and their pregnancy is 111 days (about 4 months), which is a very long gestation period for an animal that size.

Kits are born fully formed “rearing to go” so to speak. They are fully furred, eyes open and running around within minutes of birth. They can even eat adult food nearly from the first day, although they prefer to nurse.

One of the funnest parts of being a chin owner is bath day. Take a bowl and put chinchilla dust in it. They dive in, roll, kick, swirl and is a delight to everyone who watches! They eat pelleted chinchilla food and should be given a raisin a day.

We kept one of the babies from this pair, and she was the best pet we ever owned. We handled her from day one and she bonded to us very well. She was playful, sweet, never bit and had a cute little quiet bark. Tons of personality as well!

Chins are a more playful active type pet, versus a sit down lap animal. I would recommend getting a baby if you decide to get a chinchilla. They usually run about $100. in the US for a pet, but that price can vary a lot.

Another great quality about pet chins is they have no claws or nails, but soft little pads on their feet so you don’t get scratched. They are not recommended usually for small children tho as young children can hurt them easily.

The average lifespan is about 10-15 years, they do need to be indoors or climate controlled setting. They come in many colors but standard gray is the most common. The rare colors will usually cost more. Because of their long life span, be sure you are ready for the commitment.

When we were finding good homes for the babies, most people who were interested had never seen or been around chins before. The ones who did know something about them all had this in common; they either had owned one previously or knew someone close who did, which speaks very well of chins as pets.

Burn out, it can happen to anyone. Some of the common signs of burn out can be (although not an all inclusive list) depression, mental, emotional and spiritual fatigue, overreacting to little things, negativity, lack of concern over the work / tasks that need to be done, frustration, anger, feelings of powerlessness, weight loss or gain, insomnia.

It is vital steps be done to overcome burn out before it causes major impact to your life’s goals and directions.

We’ll look at several ideas for helping to overcome burnout. The first, if at all possible, take a much needed vacation, even if the timing isn’t ideal. If that is totally impossible, here are a list of alternatives.

Try to clear your calendar of everything for a while that is not a total necessity.

On the physical level, take extra good care of your body. Eat organic healthy foods, get exercise especially some fresh air, take vitamins and get some extra rest.

Spend some time trying to pinpoint tasks / situations in life that are both draining, and giving. Once you’ve done that, perhaps ask for help or delegate those things that are a draining force. Increase activities that are refreshing.

Share with someone you trust who’s uplifting and caring. Perhaps they can offer insights and suggestions you can’t see. It might need to be a life coach or counselor or some type. Sometimes we are so close to the situation we can’t see options others can plainly see.

After a period of doing some of these suggestions, see if the burnout is on the way out. If not, it may be a time to really evaluate your life’s paths, career, etc. Perhaps it’s a bad match to who you are as a person and it would be best to make a change, but it’s better to do that from a position of strength, and not of desperation to make a change just for change’s sake.

At times burn out can be a reality check that life is out of balanceand adjustments are needed immediately. There are seasons in each person’s lives’ and maybe you may be sensing a change of one season to another new one. Step back however and perceive what our bodies are telling us when we experience burn out. It may even be one of those “hidden blessings” that when we look back on this time in our life it might be a sort of “you know, that was the beginning of a real, positive change in my life.

Free For All Sites (FFA) are sites where a person is able to post a link with a short ad to a website, many times it also posts to many other similar sites at the same time, creating free advertising and free backlinks to the poster. When someone posts a link, they are agreeing whether they know it or not, to receive a confirmation email back from the site’s owner.

For a newbie this can sometimes be frustrating as they begin to receive a flood of confirmation emails that contain offers from others and do not see a flood of sales of their own offers. It can be confusing about what just happened, and why this didn’t work as they expected it to.

Let’s back the truck up a minute and really explore what just happened and the true purpose of a FFA site. The real purpose is for the site owner to promote his business or product to you. He’s just just being a nice person giving people free advertising space. If it worked that way, he’d be using it as his own goldmine. This is just the bait so people will post their site, so they can send their offers to you via their confirmation link. Brilliant isn’t it?

Those confirmation e-mails are NOT spam. You had to agree to receive them in order to post your link. Who are reading these ads anyway? So is posting to FFA’s a total waste of time? Not necessarily, you do get an occasional sale, people do go back to post their links and sometimes take a quick look through the links to see what’s there while they’re at it.

To get the real benefit of FFAs for your business, get your own FFA site so you can promote to those who post to it. Shop around among the many resources of them to find which suites you best. Most have paid and free versions, but the saying “you get what you pay for” comes to mind here. I have done several paid versions that more than compensated for their cost.

Just about anything can be promoted through FFA sites, informational products, vitamins, physical products, you name it. You need traffic coming to your site for sales whatever it is your selling. Without it, no sales. These sites provide a means for visitors to find your site. Classified ad sites work basically the same and can also be another avenue to explore for traffic.

Search engines are the gateway for any web business, Google being the most prominent out there. It’s important to get the highest page listing possible as few people searching for what they’re looking for, will go several pages deep into their search listings. There are companies out there making tempting promises to get you on the first page often times at exorbitant prices.

Getting organic web traffic is usually one of the most desirable goals in web promotion. This definition means when someone types in a search engine a word or phrase, these are the websites the search pulls up. This is different than the paid ads you find to the right column, which can be a very expensive route to go. Here’s what search engine optimization comes down to:

1. Content is key. Real content that is interesting for real people. Not just picking a keyword or phrase and writing a bunch of garbage that really makes no sense in order to trick the search engine spiders, otherwise known as keyword stuffing. You really don’t want your keywords to be much above 2-4% of the overall content.

2. Links back to your site from other’s sites provide validation. The more links particularly links that relate to your site’s content, the higher your page ranking will be. Methods to get link backs range from link exchanges with other websites in related topics, to writing articles about the topic you’re dealing with, to social bookmarking sites and such.

3. New and fresh content. You can’t just post a page and expect to keep the same page ranks. Your website should have new content. This is important not just for web crawlers, but for human visitors too. If they can anticipate to read new and interesting material at least three times a week preferably more, they’ll keep returning. It takes an average of seven visits before someone takes action such as post on a forum or purchase a product.

4. Navigational links that are clear and make sense from your main home page. There’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to find what you are looking for easily, most visitors will leave quickly if it’s seems too confusing to find what they are looking for.

5. Text means everything. The search engine spiders ignore Javascript and graphics and until recently couldn’t read text in Flash animations. If the spiders can’t read these items, it doesn’t help your page rankings at all. So you need plenty of real content on your site.

The real trick for long haul success to search optimization is to ensure your website is as easy to use as possible. Make it simple to navigate for visitors who want to read about your site and content that makes them come back.

Do you ever wonder how our ancestors in days gone by preserved their foods before the times you just bought canned foods from the store? Is there an interest to go back to simpler times where canning was a common place practice? It’s almost a lost art now. If that’s you, all you need is a pressure cooker, some canning jars with lids, and some food you would like to preserve plus a desire to learn. Canning can be such a rewarding and fulfilling hobby. Cooking under pressure will trap stream from the boiling water so temperature rises enough to kill bacteria.

For beginners it is suggested to start with a boiling water method. This is usually the most cost effective method, and one you’ll be proud of when finished. You’ll need some canning jars and lids in both the quart and pint sizes. The small 8 oz jars are great for preserving jams, jellies and relish type recipes. Please don’t use any other jars that are not specifically designed for the purpose of canning, such as what you bought mayonnaise or other jellies in. They may not be adequate.

You will also need a canning pot with a lid that is deep enough to immerse the jars by at least one inch, or two inches would be even more preferable. You” also need a rack to put the jars in to keep them off the bottom of the pot. If a rack didn’t come with your pot, you can simply out a rack at the bottom of the pot to keep the jars from touching the bottom of the pot. Another tool that you will need is a plastic spoon, knife or spatula to stir the filled jars to release any possible trapped air. Also you’ll need a large mouth plastic funnel, a set of strong, long handled jar pullers also known as tongs, for removing the hot jars out of the water. You will need a small towel to dry any remaining water from off of the jars as you lift them out of the pot.

Always use the fresh produce when possible, wash and peel the fruits before you begin. While you are prepping your fruit for cooking, place the jars into water and let it come to a boil for a few minutes. Then place the cut up fruit into the hot jars filling them about an inch from the top. There’s a product called Fresh Fruit that is recommended to prevent fruit from discoloration. Read the directions to get the recipe for a sugar water syrup that’s either light, medium or heavy, experiment to see which you like best. Pour this syrup over the fruit. Dip your plastic spoon or spatula into the jars releasing any trapped air. Clean any other food from the outside of the jar, put your lids on and tighten them. Put the jars back into the pot filled with warm or hot water and put back on the stove. Make sure to cover the jars with water about an inch over the lids.

Turn the pot on high heat to begin to boil the water. Once they have come to a boil, put the lid on the pot. After the water has been boiling vigorously for a few minutes, take the lid off the pot, and let it continue to boil for the time limit in your recipe, usually 10 minutes is good for pickles, and 25 to 30 minutes for fruits, and 35 to 40 minutes for tomatoes.

After cooking for the recommended time, turn off the heat and use your tongs to remove the jars from the pot and place on on towel to dry and cool overnight. Once cool, make sure there are no raised area in the middle of the lids, an indication that the jar never sealed and would not be safe. If this is the case however, you can either refrigerate those jars and use the fruit immediately, or try to reseal them the next day. If you try again, wipe the lip of the jar with a clean cloth and use a different lid.

There nothing like the feeling you get once you master the art to preserve food. It is helpful for anyone that loves to learn how things were done by our ancestors, and brings us back to our roots.

Rosacea is a skin disorder that is often mistaken for severe acne or a sign of alcoholism. Some doctors believe it is a vascular problem at core. For people who have this disorder, it is very challenging. It is a chronic medical condition with no cure at this point. The symptoms are very real and can cause emotional pain and can be quite physically painful as well. However, many times the symptoms of rosacea can be managed.

What are the symptoms of rosacea? Experiencing some or all of these symptoms should really be checked out by a doctor. 1) Red or inflamed areas on the cheeks, forehead, nose, or chin 2) Visible blood vessels in the facial area or “spider veins” 3) Acne or bumpy areas on the face (that are not really acne) 4) Severe flushing that doesn’t return to normal like it should 5) Watery eyes or irritated eyes sometimes 6) Facial burning sensation, sometimes very intense 7) Swelling of facial areas Over time, the nose may appear extremely red and bulbous, especially in older men, also known as rhinophyma 9) Sometimes rosacea appears on the chest, scalp, ears, or neck

The cause of rosacea is not known. It seems to show up in both women and men sometime between 20 and 40 years of age. Women can sometimes become housebound if their rosacea isn’t controlled. They might become ashamed and embarrassed by the ruddy appearance of their facial skin. Men are sometimes emotionally affected as well.

First and foremost to cope with rosacea, see a dermatologist who has helped others with this skin disorder. Rosacea can go into remission if you are careful to adhere to the plan recommended by your doctor. There are several lifestyle changes that can be made to ensure that the flares of rosacea won’t occur as often or as severely. Limit your exposure to sun and wind. Try to keep stress levels at a low and make lifestyle changes accordingly to accommodate that. Avoid alcohol, hot drinks & spicy foods. If you enjoy a bath, use warm or cool water instead of really hot water. Try low-impact forms of exercise instead of high impact ones, which can bring on a prolonged facial flush. Try to exercise in cooler conditions or air conditioned rooms. Hot weather will worsen rosacea signs.

Some people with rosacea have tried and claim some relief with creams containing green tea, Chrysanthellum Indicum, Niacinamide (a form of vitamin B3), or Azelaic Acid have been reported to reduce the appearance of blood vessels and red capillaries.

Sometimes hot beverages like coffee, hot cocoa and the like, as well as hot and spicy foods can trigger a reaction and worsen symptoms. If you notice this be sure to avoid these triggers.

If your doctor doesn’t prescribe special facial cleansers or products, I have found the following helpful. Use a very mild facial cleaner such as Oil of Olay sensitive skin facial cloths or Dove’s version. Be very gentle while washing your face, no heavy scrubbing. Do not use abrasive scrubs or astringent type products. I like using for moisture Neutrogena’s oil free moisturizer, and sometimes use pure emu oil as well. Many anti aging products tend to cause flare-ups. For cosmetics I like natural mineral makeup. There are many good brands out there. Try to get a green color corrector type product as a base under foundation, green counteracts the red of the skin and helps camouflage it so it looks more natural.

Men should use an electric razor rather than a blade to shave each morning. Follow up with a fragrance-free moisturizer.

Rosacea can be a debilitating skin disorder, but it doesn’t have to be. With proper treatment and lifestyle adjustments, it can greatly help reduce symptoms.