What is the matter with “Twilight”?

I find myself being some kind of “weirdo” these days, when the normal thing is that everyone is going absolutely crazy for Twilight; Film, books, even shirts. I saw the film and I have to say that I really liked it, but not that I am overly “Crazy” about it.

You wouldn’t be from this planet if you didn’t hear about the love story between a human girl Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen, a vampire. This is today’s “Romeo and Juliet” although I haven’t seen the ending outcome of the four parts; I hope that is a more positive one.

I just had to rush to the post office today. My sister, who has previously seen the film ( three times already) just finished reading the first book, so she was absolutely desperate to get the other three as soon as possible and is quite difficult to get it where she is living now ( at least the original, English versions).

So much fuss about the film and the books and the amazing thing is that Stephenie Meyer (the author) is just a 30-year-old mom of three children from Arizona and TWILIGHT is her first novel. Well, definitely an awesome result!

If you have the chance you can check it out:

Cooking with your kids

The weather has been terrible today, so the option of staying at home looked more appetising than usual. Although we went out for a little while we spent most of the day inside. For those grey days we always find lots of fun things to try at home.

Most of the times, the simple act of cooking is a whole event on itself.
It never stops amazing me how much children enjoy cooking and being around the kitchen. Although supervision is a must, as long as you know they are safe it is ok, what is more if you let them get involved in the kitchen you will not have to stop fights and arguments because of them playing somewhere else.

From very little, even the smallest one, children love to be where you are and they naturally find the kitchen fascinating. I find that, when I am in the kitchen, this is one of the best places in the house to be. Everything is a learning experience the name of the vegetables, meats, how to cook them, the process, the organisation, the cleaning, they ask questions but they also experiment and while they experiment they learn. They learn about the basic things in life but sometimes the most important, they learn about organisation, for the kitchen to be a workable place everything needs to be in place and they are more than happy giving a hand washing, drying, organising, putting things away, from the smallest to the older ones.

What is more apart from all the skills that are learned, letting children in the kitchen with you has been proven to help fussy eaters, all children love to eat all that they help themselves to cook. Try it and you will find a new joy. You can also get hold of some books that will help you with some recipes easy for your kids to do, and tasks to keep them safe and busy.

The Okinawa, healthy over 100! Learn their secrets of longevity

Regarding health, this is probably one of the most exciting books I had the chance to read. The book is based on 25 years of research by Dr. Suzuki and Drs. Bradle and D. Craig Willcox. This astonishing book proves that the possibility to live over 100 healthy and free from our most common diseases is a real one not just a myth.

The people from Okinawa have been recognized as the world’s healthiest people. Okinawans live their active lives well over 100, while still exercising and working. Opposed to us, Okinawans don’t retire. Their bodies look 30 years healthier than their real age. Their secret seems to lay in a combination of different aspects, their diet, their exercise, their religious practices and their social traditions.

The research seems to prove that longevity is nothing to do with our genes. New generations of Okinawans travelling abroad and leaving their diets and healthy life style while adopting Western diets, suffer from the same diseases as their western counterparts.

Studies show that longevity doesn’t have to do with genes, but with a healthy diet and life style. As the title of the books goes… know how they do it and you can do it too.

The Okinawa Program: How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You Can Too takes you step by step through the process to change your life and adopt their healthy life style. With over more than 80 of their traditional recipes, pack with information from 25 years of research, the book will take you from where you are now to a healthier and alternative life style in four weeks. That is why it achieved The New York times Bestseller rank!

Keep Learning

Not too much of action today. As I keep learning as I go along I can’t always move forwards, instead it is something like "today I do, tomorrow I don’t". Some days I publish an article, I do research for another article or another website. Other days I just have to sit down and keep learning to be able to advance.

I have all sorts of books and reports about SEO and building your income online. And actually with children so small that they need you at every little step that they make this life is as hard as it can get. I am already knackered however I know that if I want to achieve something I can’t go to bed now, that thought only is what keeps me up every single night. Tomorrow at 6.00 am a new day starts whether I slept 4 hours or 6. As they say “if you want something, you’ve got something to give” however these days I read something like “Poor people work hard for their money, rich people make their money work hard for them” Does someone know the secret?

The Attachment Parenting Book

I just finished doing the research of a new article that will be published tomorrow. The article is about the different aspects of something I believe in; attachment parenting. For some of you that don’t know too much about attachment parenting I would recommend to read the book by Dr. Sears a pediatrician for nearly thirty years and a complete expert in attachment parenting, his advice is really respected and followed by millions around the world.

Dr. Sears supports a natural and intuitive way of parenting, attachment parenting doesn’t follow the traditional methods such as letting the baby cry to sleep and similar prescriptive patterns, it just follows a more natural approach trying to build a strong bond with your baby from birth and especially in those early years when the baby is more dependent. In this way, instead of spoiling your child, your child will grow in a more balanced way, becoming a more balanced and self-confident adult.

Attachment parenting supports practices like co-sleeping and breastfeeding, it follows a series of principles such as the practice of positive discipline versus traditional punishments and responsiveness to your baby’s needs with love and respect.

The Attachment Parenting Book provides also scientific research that explains how and why this approach works and it is more positive than the traditional one that has been followed in the western countries.

Learning and marketing

The end of another day! I promised myself I would write 2 posts today, apart from all the stuff I had to do. I have updated one website with one more article and it is still left to do some marketing for today.

I have been up and down all the day, and although I don’t believe caffeine is good for you I have been stopping myself from having too much tea, to keep me going. From 7 am in the morning I have been everywhere, gone to buy some books, gone to the post office, printing some photos, gone for shopping, cooking, washing clothes (by hand), gone to the library, done the house. Today I have dedicated every single minute I had spare to study a report I got hold of (not yet finished, by the way). I don’t consider myself an expert in Internet marketing and online business, however if I intend to leave on it, I have to learn as much as I can. So while I am active building websites, updating and doing marketing and stuff, I am also learning a lot about affiliate marketing, adsense, SEO, niche websites, keywords and everything that might have an effect on the results. Because although I am killing myself every single night until 1-2 am, it would be ridiculous to make things half way because of laziness or just pure ignorance.

So there you go, still here and now ready for some marketing, otherwise as we say...”no marketing, no visitors. No visitors, no business”

The business of being born- Ricky Lake's birth story

I just thought that anyone interested in natural parenting would be interested in this documentary.

This is a really interesting documentary. If you haven’t seen it before you shouldn’t miss it. Ricky Lake presents and is the direct protagonist of this documentary where you will see the recorded birth of her second son. The documentary talks about the business of the “birth industry” in America, the different options available and the experience of parents that have made different choices. You can check an interview with Ricky Lake about the documentary for the CW11 Channel.