Caring for a loved one with a chronic illness can be beautiful and rewarding, but it can also be a grueling, emotional ride. And though your primary focus is on the needs of another, it’s important to take care of your needs as well.

One of the best ways to do that is to accept help.

Review your situation to determine what type of help you need. Make a list and let the potential helper choose. Even something as simple as having another person do some shopping for you can give you a welcome break. Letting other people help isn’t a failure on your part; it’s smart care management.

You should also find out about the available resources in your neighborhood. There may be care-giving services available like medical transportation or classes to teach you more about the disease your loved one is facing.

Chances are you’re not the only one facing this difficult situation. If there’s one available in your area, you may also consider joining a support group. These groups can help you with problem-solving strategies for difficult situations as well as providing encouragement and the chance to create friendships.

Your health matters too. Make sure to eat properly, get the sleep you need and get some exercise. Study after study has shown that healthy people are able to cope with stress better and solve problems more easily.

Caregiving can be a tough road, but it doesn’t have to be a lonely one. For more information on some of the resources available, you can visit the National Alliance for Caregiving.

The summer sun is baking everything in sight. You can watch the heat ripple and you wonder how everything doesn’t melt like one of those clocks in a Salvador Dali painting. Sounds like a great time for a swim. But while you’re imagining that cool water washing over you, it’s also a time to remember some basic swimming safety.

• Never Swim Alone. Swimming is not only more fun with friends, it’s also safer. Even if you’re healthy and are a good swimmer, you’re still at risk of drowning. Swimming alone dramatically increases that risk.
• Don’t swim while using drugs or alcohol. Safe swimming requires good coordination and good judgment, and drugs and alcohol make those a lot harder.
• Children are at particular risk of drowning. Never leave a young child unattended near the water and don’t trust a child’s life to another child.
• Protect your skin. Being in the water not only washes off any sunscreen you may have applied, but actually magnifies the effect of the sun on your skin. Limit your exposure during the hours of 10am to 4pm, and make sure to reapply sunscreen if you’ve been in the water for a while.
• Drink plenty of water. Playing in the sun and surf can dehydrate you far more quickly than you think.
• Learn to Swim. It may seem obvious, but a surprising number of Americans can’t swim. It’s your best defense against drowning. Many organizations like the Red Cross offer learn-to-swim courses.

Swimming can be great exercise and a great way to cool off. With these few simple precautions, you can make sure everyone has a great (and safe) time.

July 4^th is here, and it’s time to help Uncle Sam celebrate another birthday. And what better way to celebrate than with fireworks? Where did these little nighttime wonders come from? Read on to find out some fun facts about this Independence Day staple.

What’s for Dinner?One legend has it that fireworks were accidentally discovered 2,000 years ago by a Chinese cook who mixed charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter together. These were apparently common kitchen ingredients back then.

No Cure for the Firework Blues.Today’s fireworks come in all sorts of colors - except blue that is. Even after thousands of years, there still isn’t a proven chemical combination to make bright blue fireworks.

Better Living through Chemistry.Different colors of fireworks are created with different combinations of metallic powders. Calcium, for example, produces the color orange, while sodium makes yellow, and barium makes green.

The Happiest Place on Earth.If you love fireworks, Walt Disney World may be just that. No other company in the world consumes as many fireworks as the House of Mouse.

Quiet, Please.Not everyone loves fireworks. The Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise campaigned against the use of fireworks and helped create the first fireworks laws in the United States.

The Fabric of Our Lives.That’s one of the slogans for the cotton industry, and it’s doubly true for those who make fireworks. Synthetic clothing like polyester can create sparks from static that could detonate fireworks.

Have a happy 4^th of July, and if your celebration does include fireworks, take the appropriate steps to keep it a safe one!

As summer gets underway, the question many people have on their minds is which characters will survive the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. For those who have children, some other equally important questions pop up: what will the kids do this summer, and how much freedom should I give them?

Summer is a great time for your kids to learn new skills, make new friends and have experiences they wouldn’t normally get during the school year. The summer schedule is full of opportunities for them to go to camp, hone their basketball or clarinet skills, or learn how to swim. The good part about these camps and classes is that the kids will be supervised and have a structure to their days. 

Not every day needs to be planned, however.  It’s important to give them some down time to learn and grow on their own. You’ll still want to set some guidelines such as curfew times and keeping you informed of their whereabouts. It can be a fine balancing act.

The best of both worlds is to involve your kids. Talk to them and find out what they want to do.  Let them plan some of their activities and adventures. It gives you a chance to be more involved in their lives and helps them take some responsibility for what they do. 

You and your kids have a whole glorious summer in front of you, and with a little planning everyone can make the most of it. For some other ideas about how to spend the summer, check out this link from Care.com.

There is this person in your life. You tell them ‘hi’ and ‘bye.’ You catch a fleeting glimpse of them coming as you’re going. You send them romantic texts like: “Can you pick up some milk on your way home.”

The problem is that person is your boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse or lover. In other words, they’re the sweetie you never see anymore. If intimacy got lost somewhere in the shuffle of business meetings, schedule conflicts, kids, and office politics, it might be time for a date night.

Date night can be as elaborate as you want to make it. Three dozen roses and dinner at a fancy restaurant followed by an evening of dancing is a perfectly acceptable date night if you both like that sort of thing. But it can also be as simple as you want. It can be anything from a stroll in the park to breaking out some old board games and whiling away the evening in the living room playing Jenga or Monopoly.

For some ideas on a great date night, check out this link from Stylecaster.com.

The real importance of date night comes from taking some of your precious time and intentionally spending it with the person you love best. It says to your partner that you are working to create a special space for one another. Sometimes the smallest gestures have the greatest meaning.

So take some time to do more than just text a hello between office meetings. Like your business, relationships are work, and the more you put into it, the more it will give back to you.

The only thing better than a great __________ is a great __________ at a cheap price, or preferably at no cost at all. Feel free to fill in the blank with your trip, gizmo, tool or event of choice.  But how do you get to have your cake and eat it too, at a discount?

As with anything these days, the information is at your fingertips. You just have to know where to look.  Here are some resources to get you started:

GroupOn.  Whether it’s discount hotel fares or tickets to events in a distant city, this site has it covered.  You can easily set up alerts to let you know when there’s an upcoming special.

Ebates.com. This is a general coupon site for the budget conscious. You simply type in the name of the store or the type of item you’re looking for and it will pull up any available sales discounts. Many retails businesses have special ‘cash back’ deals with Ebates so when you shop through an Ebates link you might actually get a check in the mail.

Coupons.com. This site has a wide variety of manufacturer’s coupons you can print off for all sorts of brand name products. It’s organized by category rather than by brand name.

Don’t confine your bargain hunting to just these three sites. There are plenty more. If you’re interested in a particular brand, check out their Facebook page, where you’ll often find daily coupons. Many major retail chains also offer online discounts for shoppers on their sites. 

You may not actually read it for the articles anymore, but that doesn’t mean the local paper is useless. The Sunday edition will often include inserts with a whole host of coupons, many of which you can actually use.

With these sites, there’s no need to pay full price for your cake (or any other item you crave) again.