Holiday Countdown

The days seem shorter and the "to do" list longer as the holidays approach. At this time of year we want warm holiday traditions, yet there seems to be little time to make them happen. So how can we create a holiday with less stress?

You can follow the advice from Home Advantage Plus

Everything about Laundry

It is a hard task. Some times you don't have time, other times you don't know how to do them. Just click on Laundry and you'll find loads of ideas from the basics to textile and fabric care, even professional links. You can access by clicking on laundry -one of the sections in the main page of this blog- or by typing clickonlaundry.blogspot.com.

Don't miss it!

Back to School

This time, start differently with organizedhome. You can find all the help you need to face this challenge for example.

There are also some ideas found on Family Corner and Fly lady helps you with 1 2 y 3.

For multiple ideas on packed lunch click on Kitchen and...hands-on!

Find a Recipe!

From wherever you are, you can find delicious recipes in seconds. Click on Kitchen just above this post. Look for Recipes & Food and click on Recipes for your family. Choose your favourite and ENJOY!

Home from Home and...Home at Home

All of us find at Home the place to rest, a haven where we share with our family good and bad moments. Recently I read an article about hospitals and how they have just realized that they can learn from the hospitality industry.

I work in the Nutrition Department of the University Hospital of Navarre and for us the one that matters most is each patient. For this reason we think that the best service we can give them is make them feel at Home, convinced that this could help them a lot to recover earlier.

Recently I gave a short presentation with this topic Magic Meals.

All of us need the warmth of a Home regardless of who we are and what we have achieved. We need to communicate this message to others first of all starting with our own family.

(Thank you to Frances who helped me with the traslation of the presentation)

Your grain of sand

Pope Benedict XVI visited Spain for the first time last weekend for the World meeting of Families. Among other things he said "The Family is a school of human virtues". Elisabeth Andras in her speech "Professionalism begins at Home" told us that family is the first place where we learn to acquire virtues, virtues which we'll need for the future.

Throughout our life we hear things but it counts to nothing if we don't do anything about them. Something small could be teaching Table Manners in our family. Small but a grain of sand in a big project!

Info-share...a click away

Internet has bridged gaps and has changed our way of working. What years ago was "my knowledge" or "my book" nowadays is different. I can read whatever other people are working on and I can tell them what I am doing. The incredible thing with this information exchange is that nobody loses, both sides win.

I've just started building some sections in my blog about Home where I've e-written my best links and I've sorted them to make them easy to use. "Click on Lanundry" and "Click on Kitchen" and send your suggestions.

When Cleaning is ready I'll tell you

Well Done!

High were my expectations from the first Conference "Excellence in the Home" and I was not dissapointed with it at all. As Prue Leith pointed out of the start of the Conference: "Imagine! a two day Conference with international speakers to discuss no, not global warming, terrorism but Domestic Science -in other words cooking, shopping, making beds and cleaning up".

The first Conference chose for its theme DIET: "Balanced Diet-Balanced Life", something common to all of us. Nobody can say this matter does not concern me.

The theme was seen from different points of view, from the sociological and anthropological aspect, health and professional standards. The four keynote speeches and the afternoon workshops were an inter change of ideas where each one presented each one's own experience.

The words of the chairman best sum up the fruits of the 2-day event: "The serious purpose of this Conference is to bring a change in the public perception of the value of practical work in the Home and how profoundly the quality affects us all. In order to optimise our inherited traditions, our natural talents and the development of the technology for work in the Home, we need professional training such us considered essential in other fields".

My favourite topic was the panel discussion on the "Care of the Home as a Life Skill".

• "All the work and the skills done and taught within the family, all the values we live up to and we teach the children become a part of their every day make-up in a very natural way".
• "We learn most of our skills at Home. The skills for organizing and managing a Home can be taught in the family, in schools and in business setting."

And the most amazing idea:

• "Bring education in Home management skills to the work place is a key element for work/life balance".

1. Transferring skills from work to Home.
2. Home management solution to reduce work life stress.

I was deeply struck with everything and I hope you will want to join me in this fascinating task of trying to exchange experiences and eventually earning women a better place in the family.

See you soon with more ideas.