Creative Ways to Maximize Family Time

In an increasingly fast-paced, high-tech world, it can be difficult to find quality time to spend together as a family. While household chores like meal preparation, laundry and school work are essential, they also leave less time for you to spend with the ones you love. Here are a few creative ways to maximize your family time:

Use What You Have

One smart way to free up some time is to take advantage of the resources you already have. If you have a regular babysitter, ask them to prepare dinner, clean up toys or fold clothes. Contact a local dry cleaner to see if they offer an affordable laundry service. Rather than running errands throughout the week, designate one day to run all of your errands. Take some time to coordinate errands in advance based on their location, this will allow you to complete them in the least amount of time. If you have teenagers in the home, consider ways that they can help with some of these tasks. Having them clean out the garage or pick up the laundry can free up time for you to dedicate to other things.

Involve the Children

Household chores can be a great opportunity to get the whole family involved. If you have younger children, encourage them to help you fold clothes or set the dinner table. Not only will this keep them active and away from the television, but it also teaches them valuable skills. Teaching children to put their own toys away can help them become more tidy and independent as they develop into young adults. To incentivize household chores and make them more fun, consider making a game out of it. Divide a pile of laundry equally among each family member. The first one done gets a special prize such as a popsicle or 30 minutes of a television show of their choice.

Play Learning Games

Lazy weekend afternoons are the perfect time to bring out some learning games. For young children, consider using cornhole lights to teach them their primary colors. These lights are very inexpensive and can be purchased online at sites like CustomCorntoss.com. For older children, look for spelling or word games to help them improve their vocabulary.

Between work, school and extracurricular activities, it can be difficult to carve out time for family activities. These 3 tricks will help you simplify your schedule and enjoy quality family time.

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Outdoor Home Decor Lightings

We love staying at the patio or at our terrace in the house but when it's dark outside we never stay late there as it's not so conducive to chatting and bonding.  We don't want to stay in a place where the lightings are not enough to create a cozy and warm ambiance.  Well I've seen plenty of light effects on some of the houses that my brother has built and I can say that these lights are a lot different from what I saw.

These clusters of light located in patio corners are ideal lights for the outdoor area in your house where you can feel the warmth of the golden shades of light, just enough to make your stay worthwhile and pleasant.  At first I thought that it's a DIY project only but when I took a closer look I realized it's meant for patio corner's lightings to bring some life into the corner of the patio.  And life indeed because the lights in the image above added attraction and respect also.

Saw these bubble caged glass lanterns from potterybarn.com.

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Natural Light

One of the ways to add beauty and light to the home is by adding skylights. These are lights that are placed in the ceiling, and they can be added to any room of the home. They come in various shapes and sizes, and they are easy to install. Skylights are a way to cut down on the electric bill. When there is natural light shining into the room, then you won’t need to have the electric lights on, reducing the amount of energy that you use. 

These lights provide an ambience that you won’t get from an artificial light. You can see the moon and stars during the day or watch as the rain falls on the glass. They allow rays of sunshine to flow inside the room, improving the mood of anyone in the room as there is sunlight instead of a light bulb. The sun’s rays will give almost a chandelier effect in the room as they glisten off the floor and walls. When it’s too hot or cold to go outside, you will still have part of the outdoors with you with the skylight. Another benefit is that the colors of the furniture and decorations in the home will be seen in a natural way instead of being shrouded by shadows and yellow bulbs. Click here to see pictures of skylights.

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Maintaining Your Mental Health with Innovative Technology

Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is a legitimate disorder that affects millions of people. It most often occurs during the late fall and winter seasons when the days become shorter and the availability of natural light wanes. Natural sunlight has been recognized as vital to people's physical and mental well-being. Because people have no way to make the sun stay in the sky longer, they may look for technological inventions like those found at BuySADlights.com that mimic the sunlight. 

Household light bulbs or the glare from a TV or computer screen often are not enough to take the place of real sunlight. As such, people with this disorder may find that the inventions found online work much better and can ease the depression, fatigue, and confusion that go along with SAD. These devices can be used in both the office and at home. People can set them up wherever they have available space, even on their desks as they are reading the newspaper or using their computers. 

However, some people may be unsure of how to choose a SAD light. They can use the information at the top of the page to read about selecting such a light and making the most out of this invention. They can also get information about SAD in case they are unsure if they genuinely suffer from this condition. The wintertime can be detrimental for some people who crave sunlight to stay mentally healthy. They can safeguard their health with these lights.

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Stylish and Functional Light Fixtures

When you’re living in a tropical country you’ll agree with me that ventilation and air-conditioning is of utmost importance to bear with the hot weather that’s frequent in such places. Well we do have our share of cooler months for about a quarter in the past several generations of years but it’s not really that consistent now. With the global warming that affected the changing of temperature on some countries like us we cannot say that it will not rain on summer days or it will not be hot on rainy season. It’s really unpredictable just like most of the storms and flooding that occurred these past few years. 

For the home owners who want to make sure that they will feel comfortable and fresh all throughout the years. May it rain or shine it’s best to have your ceiling fans ready anytime you want it. Now you can have it in your home in full functionality as contemporary light fixtures where you can have good lightings and fresh cool air as well. With this the air will circulate well in your home while looking very fashionable with its stylish design. It’s good having fixtures that will function well with your requirements and be as nice as one of your home decors.

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Vintage Modern Folding Lamp Desk Light

Need to maximize space on your desk table?  Well you should choose your desk accessories carefully with detailed attention on sizes and functionality.  I remember my office table in my last work which I chose personally.  I've chosen a medium-size walnut table with 4 functional drawers and a side allotment space for my PC.  I only placed the office phone, my desk organizer, calendar, PC monitor and small speakers. 

I prefer clutter-free table so every time I went home I return all my work folders on the cabinet so my table will be neat and clutter-free just like my home office table.  Well I found this Vintage Modern Folding Lamp Orange Expanding Multi Brightness Desk Light around 15" tall with 2 light brightness settings.  

This lamp could easily fit in any work table because it's smaller when you fold it.  I love the beautiful color of rust orange with black accents. It's also heavy duty so expect future years of service. Feel free to visit drowsySwords at etsy.com for more home decor goodies.  This one sells at ₱2,133.33 PHP

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Facts You Should Know About LED Lighting

Everyone is determined to save as much money as they can by eliminating unnecessary energy costs and one great way to do this is with LED lighting. If you are new to the world of LED lighting, then you may not fully understand the entire lingo that comes along with it. This article will help by giving you some very important facts about LED lighting.

What Are Lumens?

The word lumens are a measurement of light. The higher the lumens number is, the more light you can expect from your light bulb.

Lumens per Watt

This is another important thing to pay attention to. This term measures the efficiency of a light. The higher the number is, the more efficient the light will be.

Kelvin Temperatures and Colors

Kelvin temperatures are yet another unit of measurement for lights. This one measures the light color. Cooler lighting is great for visual tasks because it is easy on the eyes. These can be found in the range of 3600-5000K. Warmer colors are better for illuminating skin and clothing. This range is usually 2700-3000K.

Lifespan

LED lights can last much longer than traditional incandescent lights. You can expect them to last up to 5 times longer.

No Heat!

In the past, most lights produced excessive amounts of heat. LED lights don't do this. They emit little to no heat at all. This helps keep electrical costs down.

Use Less Energy

This is the biggest selling factor for LED lighting. The simple fact that these lights use far less energy is why more people are choosing to install them in their homes. In some cases, these lights use 80% less energy than traditional lighting.

If you are not currently using LED lights, then you are missing out on some huge advantages. http://www.lightingever.co.uk/ can help! Put the power of LED lighting to work for you!

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Choosing the Right Lighting Fixtures for Your Home

Image from wikipedia

I learned that energy rates will have another increase and that would mean higher electricity bills for all households, offices and commercial establishments. I'm checking all the bulbs in the house and thinking of changing those which consumes high energy with led lighting fixtures because LED lamps offer long service life and proven to have high energy efficiency than most of the other lamps. It will however cost me more in buying new lamps as they're expensive than others but in the end I know it will be cost-effective. 

Lighting fixtures are very important in one's household because it defines the character of your house and creates the ambiance that you want to live in. It will also cost you higher electricity bills if you're not very wise in choosing the right lamps.  It's necessary to consider some factors like energy savings, durability, functionality and style if you want the best and just the right lighting fixtures for your home.

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Energy Efficient Replacement Light Bulbs

Genesislamp.com is an online company that sells compact fluorescent lamps and other products. Genesis Lamp prides itself on its ability to provide a service that makes the ordering of light bulbs a simple and efficient system. The company wants those ordered light bulbs to be delivered to the customer in record time. It doesn't matter what type of light bulb is needed, the company will find it for the customer. Whether you need halogen bulbs for a large commercial project, metal halide bulbs for a parking lot or just the right decorative bulbs for a chandelier, Genesislamp offer you the best choice for all of your light bulb needs, and they can do it all online. 

The experts at Genesis Lamp have been in the lighting business for over 30 years. One of the secrets for the success of this operation is the massive amount of inventory that is maintained and is ready to ship. Genesis Lamp is proud of its large and unparalleled selection of replacement light bulbs. These come to the company from the world's most respected companies. Furthermore, Genesis Lanp buys from a manufacturer that has a complete line of FAA-compliant and regulation aviation light bulbs. From energy-efficient home and office light bulbs to highly-specialized commercial applications, customers may expect that Genesis will find the appropriate light bulb technology for the latest in light bulb technology at a great price. In addition, satisfaction is quaranteed.

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