“Work From Home Mothers – Family Strategy”Written by Shannon Emmanuel
This article is free to reprint as long as all links and authors credits remain intact. Courtesy copy of publication would be appreciated. __________________________________________________________________I am typing on computer, trying to keep up with flood of emails and programs that require my attention, when my 19 month old comes to me for fourth time this morning calling ‘potty!’ I rush upstairs to bathroom when I here doorbell…my friends children have arrived as usual, since I care for them four days a week while their mother takes off for an adult world I hardly recognize. It is 7:20 am. Breakfast follows, I set them up and dash to computer again to finish what I started, but then four year olds are fighting and one year old has dumped her applesauce on carpet. I determine that office environments were created for a reason. It’s 7:35 am. Since I am paid to care for these children, I cannot devote much time to my other business during days they are in my home. But that does not stop me from feeding my own children peanut buttered bread for breakfast and sitting them in front of TV from 6:00am until 12:00 on my ‘day off’. As you can see, or know from experience, working from home in any capacity is a change to your family’s life no matter what business. But as much as I would love to dote on my own children and spend hours baking and coloring and folding laundry (RIGHT!), I, like many mothers, have been faced with choice of returning to typical ‘working world’ and passing my children into someone else’s care, or juggling to bring in an income while caring for them myself. Our strategy has been for me to develop an online business while maintaining an income we can survive on by babysitting. The babysitting is temporary, and not my first choice, but I do love children I care for, and now that we’ve all adjusted I am going to miss them terribly when we move on.
| | Seeking Ideal BeautyWritten by Jeannine Schenewerk
Seeking Ideal Beauty There seems to me to be definite parallels between this era, and Elizabethan Age, when it comes to women, and their desperate struggle to either halt natural aging of their appearance, or, to discover a miracle age-reversal method. During sixteenth century, well-born women were obsessed with achieving, and maintaining, 'ideal' beauty, as they perceived it, to point of what we would call 'madness'. What was this ideal they so longed to possess? Youthful unlined alabaster skin, overly bright eyes, red cheeks and lips, and fairest of hair colors. Add to these attributes, a high, arched, pale eyebrow, and high brow line. To achieve 'look' of perfection, these women made use of period’s highly respected skin care techniques, and finest cosmetics available to them, at time. First, hairline was plucked back, an inch or more. Next, eyebrows had to be plucked and arched, and hair of head and eyebrows was then bleached out using a variety of most up-to-date bleaching agents, including urine, and sulfuric acid. Women, who could afford high cost, purchased top of line skin whitener, 'ceruse', a mixture of white lead, and vinegar. This was used on face, neck, bosom, and often hands and arms as well. This concoction was used in conjunction with 'skin firmer' of choice, uncooked egg white. This noxious mess was then spread on face, neck and bosom, and allowed to dry, to tighten, and hide wrinkles, and give face a white, unlined, mask-like finish. To imitate a blush and pout of youthful beauty, vermilion (mercuric sulfide) was THE choice for lips and cheeks. Faintly traced veins were then added to skin surface of bosom, for that 'natural' look. Drops of belladonna were then administered to eyes, to achieve that desired 'sparkle', and eyes were outlined in kohl. To care for their complexions, ladies made use of what was highly touted as best cleanser. Mercury mixed with alum, and honey. Of course, a common practice was 'facial peel', and most widely used, and highly regarded peel agent, was mercury.
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