A Healthy Diet is Important - Getting Your Kids to Eat Healthier

Whether your kids will like it or not, it is very important that you make them start eating healthily as it is vital for them to grow up being strong and fit. However, in some cases it is very hard to try and beat industrial junk food that is more appealing than what organic healthy food could look like. Nevertheless, there are a few ways you can help your kids stay healthy and to help them get rid of the bad habit of eating unhealthy foods.

image:creativecommons.org

If you want them to do it, do it yourself as well

It is very important that you should your kids what eating healthy means, and that you also practice doing it. When kids see a role model in you, it will be easier to influence them and to help them stay healthy, as well as to help them focus on staying healthy and making sure that they are developing the right way. The most important thing is that they see you do it as well; saying one thing and doing another gives a bad messages and it will confuse your kids too.

Shopping time with your kids

Whenever you have enough time, take your kids with your to shop for groceries, this way you can help them get interested in different kinds of fruit and vegetables. Avoid buying only the things you like, and make sure that you encourage your kid to explore all the healthy options they can choose and that you support them. Moreover, it is always fun to make homemade healthy foods, which is what you should do when you can combine multiple fruits and vegetables, and this way you can sneak in a few type of foods without your kids noticing.

Healthy snacks in between meals

Snacking is important, and your kids will love to snack here and there, but you need to make sure that what they eat is good and healthy for them. Moreover, remember that snacks are important as they will give you a boost of energy until you can have a normal meal. It is best to avoid some snacks due to the processed materials in it; but make sure that you make snacks together with your kid, so that they can enjoy their own creating later on.

 

image:creativecommons.org

Make a habit of having healthy food at home

Do not only get healthy food when you feel like you should make a change to your diet, it is very important that you have a steady supply from organic food online so that whenever you or your kid needs a snack, you can just make it. However, be aware that organic health food cannot be stored for long as it has no preservatives to keep them fresh for a long time, so make sure that you consume them before they expire. Try to rationalize and to plan out when you go shopping for healthy food, so that you do not waste any.

Fighting against marketing

Perhaps the hardest thing will be to explain to your kids why it is not good to have frozen pre-processed food and why it is best to avoid them completely. Furthermore, explain in detail why healthy food is better and why they should consider only finding organically safe foods if possible. Just forbidding food is not going to do you any good, and it will be hard to make them understand the difference then. After all, your kids are capable of understanding the benefits of healthy foods, and why it is important for them.

Ensure your children have three meals

Eating healthy means that your kids should also have at least three meals a day; however, it is best to check with a dietician whether you should make changes of how many meals they should have. Nevertheless, ensure that the snacks in between meals are healthy and that you try to avoid junk food as much as possible, and that you show healthy alternatives. Breakfast is perhaps the most important meal of the day, and you should focus on your kid getting the most out of it, so that they can feel full of energy all day.

Read more...

Great Savings while Buying Gifts to Mothers Online

For every daughter and son, mothers are always becoming special women in their life.  Mothers do many things for their children, from giving birth to preparing them into the real world.  There’s nothing can replace a mother’s roles. That’s why it’s important to show your gratitude for her at any time you can.

You can convey your affection to your mother every day but to honor any mother’s contribution to family and society, there are two specific times in a year –Mother’s Day and mother’s birthday- that you can celebrate to make your mother special. Those days are the perfect times to pamper your mother!

In some other countries, Mother’s Day will be held next week, but Mother’s Day in the UK has been commemorated in March this year.  If for any reason you can’t give something special to your mom on the last Mother’s Day, you should pay attention more on preparing her birthday.  Your mother will be pleased to know that you spent some time to think of her.

Is your mom’s birthday coming up soon but you are still wondering about what kind of the right gift for her? Your limited budget can make the gift hunt harder unless you already know what to do and where to go. In this case, online shopping should be your option as it allows you to get various things at discounted prices from the comfort of your home. Many top online stores in the UK provide their potential customers with online vouchers, discounts and other promotional offers. Smart and frugal buyers like you should take benefit from these favorable opportunities!

image:buyagift.co.uk

Happily, you don’t need to search for existing online voucher codes anywhere as there are already trusted voucher sites like http://www.vouchacodes.co.uk/ that offers the latest list of exclusive vouchers and promo codes from top UK stores. Since your aim is to give your mom a personal and different gift; don’t give her common things such as a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolate anymore.

Show your heartfelt appreciation by pampering your mother with special treats that might include a day spa treatment, weekend away, cooking class, or concert ticket. If your chosen gift is a trip to a day spa, you can apply Buyagift discount codes when booking the spa treatment for your mother. Using the exclusive voucher code that offered by VouchaCodes allows you to save up to £349.  Thus, the reliable voucher site can give you the right online shopping guidance, great savings, and your mother’s joy all together!

Read more...

Spotted Dove

The pic came from my archive. This bird was captured through a big glass window at the Soekarno Hatta airport (Jakarta, Indonesia). We call the bird tekukur here. The other common names are Chinese Dove, Mountain Dove, or Lace-necked Dove. Spotted dove has unique low and gentle voice “coo-coo-croo” with the emphasis on last note. Many people love the bird’s sound. 

Camera Critters  and Saturday's Critters

Read more...

Not Your Ordinary Musical Experience: The Fusion of Classical Music and Jazz

You’ve probably heard of the adage, “Oil and water don’t mix.” It’s simply saying that some things are not meant to go together, because of their marked differences. But jazz pianist Richard Kimball proves this idea wrong—in music, at least. Who could’ve imagined that classical music and jazz would form such a great combination?

 

Richard Kimball -image:facebook.com

Kimball’s distinct kind of music

Richard Kimball is one of those few musicians who succeed in making two entirely different music genres blend exquisitely. His innovative style in combining these two genres has resulted in a one-of-a-kind musical experience.

It can be argued, though, that Kimball’s ability to unify varying types of music rooted from the expertise in his preferred genre—jazz. His profound knowledge about it, as well as that of the complex world of composition, enables him to effortlessly collaborate with other musicians. It is not altogether surprising. After all, Kimball earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition at Juilliard School of Music in New York City. In his official website, he recalled an account when he successfully played with fellow artists he met for the first time:

“Let’s suppose Richard – that’s me - the bass player (I got into jazz first as a bass player before I transferred over to jazz on the piano), Al - the singing piano player, Sonny - the singing drummer, are all thrown together by our cheap and tacky quasi-gangster agent on a gig at a country club… Of course Al and Sonny knew each other – minimally, but I’d never met them, and we’d never played together. No sweat. How’d we do? Not bad. How come? The jazz format.”

The jazz format

Tune, key, feel and technical know-how—these aspects are what Kimball refers to as the must-haves so as not to get lost in a band-you-just-met.

“First, you’ve all got to be playing the same tune; Then you’ve got to be playing in the same key. What’s that? Well, it basically means, since you can start any tune on any note, we’d all better start it on the same one; everything else falls into place based on that. Now we’ve got the tune and the key. How about the “feel”? Feel means just about anything… In addition to the melody, what holds us all together most is the underlying sequence of chords, the chord changes, or simply the changes … the harmonic infrastructure… And of course, by then, lucky for us, the band is synchronized…”

Kimball’s strength and skill as a composer-artist is founded on being a truly devoted student of Western classical musical tradition. He can easily integrate its styles, vocabulary and techniques with the language of jazz harmony and improvisation. On top of it all, Kimball’s music is highly personal and evokes a mixture of emotions—an experience that most music lovers yearn for. As what Stacey Laurer Rosen describes in her review: “He is the consummate romantic - the music expressing a kaleidoscope of emotion, tension and release…”

Are you now raring to listen to his music? Click here.

Read more...