Love also looks a lot like time. When we say we love someone, or, for that matter, that we love to do something, proof is often in time we spend with person or time we spend doing activity, isn't it? When I was seeing many couples in my counselling practice, I would often hear pain as one partner expressed their loneliness, saying, "You do not spend time with me." The demonstration of love means spending time with those you say you love, doesn't it? We've all seen or heard stories about parents who were too busy and missed their children's childhoods. Regretting it later is not nearly as effective as doing it now!

Remember, too, that you cannot give a gift you do not have. Be loving to yourself. Spend time with yourself. Know what you enjoy and do it! It is also important to have good communication skills so that you can communicate to others clearly when you think they are being unloving to you. I think it is unloving to allow others to be unloving to you. We are responsible for teaching people how to treat us! If you do not say anything, you are telling them it is all right with you.

IMPORTANT: If love makes world go round, we'd better do our bit because world is turning at 2,000 miles per hour, and we'd get quite a jolt if it stopped.

Books look much neater if lined up in size order or colour coded. A mish mash of books just stuffed in a bookshelf any old how does not make for a tidy looking room. Likewise with videos, or CDs. Store them with all red, green, yellow coloured spines together. Not only does it look neater, but it also makes titles easier to find too.

Should rooms get to such a state that drastic measures are needed, try a ‘2 minute pick up’ where you get kids to pick up as much rubbish and put it back neatly as they can do in 2 minutes. This is an effective strategy, especially with younger kids, because it is so much fun! Let them off after 2 minutes if they have at least tried. You can do rest as a favour.

If any of your children have a particularly small bedroom raise bed on stilts. This way you will have all that extra room underneath. It doesn’t need a DIY genius to rig some leg. If you can afford money, one of those high beds with cupboards / sofas / writing desk contraptions underneath might just be a solution to a too cluttered bedroom.

Small toys such as Barbies, Duplo bricks, etc can be stored in drawstring bags hung from hooks on wall. These are very simple to make. Just an oblong piece of material, folded in half and sewn up seam and across bottom with a hem round top through which a string can be threaded. The bag can be pulled tight shut with string.

Finally, try to encourage good habits by letting your children help you with your own chores and always reward for a job well done. If your kids have at least tried to keep things tidy, you should let them know how you have noticed this with a reward and encouragement to do it again next time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mum of two, Gail Miller, is a UK artist and writer. View her vibrant, contemporary artwork at her website, Gails Art Gallery http://home.freeuk.net/gails-gallery ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~