One Last Month to Make it Count!
by: Marta Dodd
Can you believe it, summer is almost over. Did you get to accomplish everything you planned? Did life sneak up on you, such as unexpected bills, a loss of a job or did your situation change? Well, the busiest 2 months of summer are over, with literally weeks until school starts up again. There's a lot of juggling finances as you finish off your summer trips, buy school clothes and rush to the store to buy up all the school supplies you can get your hands on. For the kids the hustle and bustle has just begun, but for the single parent this is just a normal month. How often do we have a busy month like this and we don't think twice about it. It's a regular routine for us, we work, we buy, and we're broke. There's no "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about it. We work hard, play less and fall into an eternal cycle of Single Parenting. Half the time we don't know which end is up, just as long as those kids are fed, the bills are paid and we can get to work on time.
Now, stop for a minute and consider something here. In the last month and a half, how many hours did you actually spend doing something that was enriching your mind? By that, I mean doing something in your life that allows you to gain more knowledge, more insight in your life or meditate on the surroundings in which you dwell. This summer I had a very interesting class through the University of Phoenix online. It was more stimulating than anything and it allowed me to sit back in my own life and see how things are run. Although suggesting school for everyone is not feasible, there are many different ways to enrich your mind while taking care of the kids and maintaining your busy life. Here are a few that I came up with that may be fun to try!
1. If you are web savvy at all, do some research on a subject that you've always had an interest in but never found time to go to the library to investigate. With the internet so friendly these days, log onto
www.google.com and type your subject and within seconds the world is at your disposal. Even if you spend 15 minutes a night searching for something that you wouldn't normally search for, you are opening your mind to something new.
2. Check out a movie that may be out of the ordinary for you to see. So it's not the usual sappy romance movie, or the typical action thriller. If you go check out a movie with some type of a theme that you wouldn't normally see, it may lead your mind in a direction you never thought of going. You never know, "Legally Blonde" movie might open up an interest you've always had in politics...
3. Start a simple website about a hobby that you enjoy. Even if your main purpose is to get information out there to others, you might surprise yourself when you run into information pertaining to your favorite pastime that you never knew about.
4. Read an interesting book. Even a fiction book that is made up, may have a subject that you might be interested in. Many people get stimulated by books that have a more fictional story line. You can learn new and interesting facts from even the silliest books now a days.
There are so many different things one can do to increase your brainpower. I encourage you to seek out fun and exciting ways of enhancing your intellect while maintaining your Single Parent way of life.
About The Author
Marta Dodd is a Single mom and Webmaster of
www.navygirl.com and
www.onemilitaryparent.com. She has been a single mom for 12 years and is also serving in the United States Naval Reserve. Balancing Single Parenthood and the military is a challenging task which she shares with the world. Stop by her website and see what this ambitious lady is up to!
