Have a Better Life

I’m 40 now and for me it is a mark in my life. It seems I am on the second half of my life and I feel I’m getting old to soon. It’s something kind of difficult to understand because I feel I’m still on my 20s or early 30s but when I look at my kids and I look in the mirror my reflection tells me I’m getting old.

Although I never used skin creams or make-up, recently I went to a skin care products presentation and I was told that I have to take care of my skin. Not only because of the appearance itself but because my skin needs to be cared. I have a very dry skin that needs to be moisturized and nourished. I was advised to use a skin cleaner, a moisturizerand a face wrinkle cream. Although I only have expression wrinkles I must start to prevent the age wrinkles.

I confess that the morning/night process of cleaning and applying face cream is not a task I’m thrilled about, in fact I don’t have the patience to spend those 2 or 3 minutes taking care of my face. I’m also lazy when it comes to body cream, never use it so my skin is very dry and old.

I guess at 40′s I have to start thinking about myself in order to have a better life.
photo credit: savor_soaps

Do you have a daily routine of taking care of your skin?

Image by vsz via Flickr

These past days I have been running from one place to another due to my jobless situation. There are some paper I have to fill up (what a waste of paper), I have to drive to a different city to deal with some related issues (what a waste of gas not to mention how many CO2 my car releases to the atmosphere) so I feel kind of tired. However I feel I’m doing exercise, not while driving but as I walk to an office, to another office, climbing stairs and it reflects on my legs and my back.

Some people think that hgh releasers are the solution for a young and muscle body but I still believe that exercise and a healthy diet are the ultimate solution. Of course we get tired while exercising but there are some light exercises we can do to improve ourselves.

For instance, on weekends usually I take a walk with my daughter, sometimes we ride the bicycle, play football on the back yard. That is also exercise. Having a 3 floor house, believe me, the stairs are a free exercise machine. Sometimes in the morning when I am preparing the kids to go to school, one forgot the coat, here I go running up the stairs and then down, sometimes I have to do it several times so by 8.30 AM I’m already tired.

What about you? Do you exercise? In a Gym or at home?

Image via Wikipedia

I’m a person that keeps all the medications at home even if I’m not taking them or even if I don’t need them anymore. I always think that someday I might need them and I don’t have to spend money buying again.

Although this is a excellent strategy when it comes to regular medication like pain killers, anti inflammatory or other similar meds it does not work with other type of meds like prenatal vitamins that are specific for an occasion and probably won’t be used soon.

Usually every six months I grab all the medication boxes and check the validity date. If it is already expired I put the box and instructions paper in the recycle bin and put the pills or tubes on a bag and deliver the in one of the closest pharmacies. They will then, take the medication to the proper places to be recycled.

Another thing that pharmacies take care of is the recycling of old X-rays, MRI or other exams.

This is a great way to take care of medical clutter and to help the environment.

photo credit: annia316

Coupons and LeafletsPhone

Almost everyday I receive leaflets on the snail mail. In the past I just took a brief look around the products and throw it away, now I take an extended look at them.

I check all the products that mentions a discount and I see if it’s something I need or not. If it’s something I need, I write it down and make sure that on my next visit to the grocery shop I bring that product with discount. Instead of buying one item, I buy three of four. Soon I’ll post my stock up photo.

Before I got married I was offered a Yoghurt Maker so I have it for almost 16 years. I barely used it because the Yoghurt didn’t taste as well as the ones we buy. The ones we buy can be very creamy, tasty and flavored so I never bother spending time to improve my yoghurt and just put the yoghurt maker aside.

Now that I’m doing everything I can to cut on my monthly expenses I thought about saving some money and make my own Yoghurt. After 16 years I didn’t know if the Yoghurt maker was functioning but after I tried it I realized it is good as new.

For now I’m only making natural yoghurt and add the extras when I’m about to eat them.

The recipe I use is very simple:

• 1 Litre of Milk (33,8 oz/US)
• 1 Natural Yoghurt
• 3 or 4 soup spoons of powder milk (to make yoghurt more solid)
• 2 small spoon of sugar

When I’m about to eat them I add some Jam. On the photo below you can see cherry jam but I also use other fruit jam like peach, blackberries or pumpkin jam. Yammy!! So good.

Doing the Yoghurt at home makes me save a lot of money. My kids still prefer the fancy, attractive yoghurt cups from the supermarket but I’m sure they will change their minds pretty soon.

Next step is to start making my own jam instead of buying already made one.

Do you make your own yoghurt? Do you have any yummy recipes to share? Just leave me the link and I will check them up.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Sunny days makes us enjoy being outdoors. Today I started removing some leaves that fall in our backyard from the eucalyptus. I need brown stuff to put in the composter so the old dry leaves are excellent.

Being jobless makes me think more about improving the house and the garden. We already bought packs of seeds of several vegetables and I am thrilled to start planting them. I’m going to wait a few more days because heavy rain is expected in the next days, but as soon as I can I will start the gardening.

Looking for a job outside the house, in an office, right now, it’s not an option. I would like to work from home so a IT job search is not out of question as well as editing, translation, blogging or something related to writing.

So, right now I have plenty of time to take action and build my own organic garden with the most common vegetables. As soon as I start planting I will start a weekly update with photos and a description of the progress.

My bathroom has a black ceiling. No, I didn’t paint it black, it’s mold caused by the shower water vapor. The bathroom doesn’t have a window and the door leads to the plain space that leads to the rooms.

I like to shower with the door closed as well as the kids otherwise we feel the cold coming through the door. The water vapor creates a accumulation of water in the ceiling, in the walls, in the Toto toilet, on the floor, everywhere.

I didn’t bother to clean the ceiling yet because I know that only when we have warmer days I will be able to dry the bathroom. Right now we are using the desumidifier to take most of the water out, but it’s not enough.

Do you have the same problem? What do you do to prevent mold on the ceiling?