Take Your Vitamins

Recently I've discovered a new vitamin which contains Oligo. It's called Vitality for Women by the Melaleuca Wellness Company.  One of the things that makes Melaleuca vitamins stand out is the fact they are 10 times more soluble than store brands.  The earth gives us all the minerals the human body needs, however eating dirt is not really a workable option for most.  Oligo does what fruits and vegetables do naturally and Oligo has 5 times the greater antioxidant protection than any other brand.The science behind these great vitamins discovered that minerals release free radicals into the body during digestion. Free radicals can actually cancel out antioxidants. Oligo keeps minerals soluble and available for absorption. Tests using live, intestinal cells demonstrates Oligo solubility through intestinal walls and not only just the intestinal track but Oligo offers major protection for the heart, lungs and liver from the damaging effects of free radicals in the body. You would have to take 33 Centrum or 15 One a Day to equal one Vitality pack from Melaleuca. The Vitality pack contains a multivitamin and mineral supplement that has 24 essential nutrients to deliver maximum mineral availability and antioxidant protection.  A calcium supplement blended with magnesium, phosphorus and vitamin D to promote strong bones. A cellwise supplement to protect against free radicals which also promotes healthy skin using olive oil and grape seed extracts, lycopene, carotenoids and vitamind C. And last but not least, a supplement with two strains of probiotics  to improve absorption and maintain digestive health. 

For those Lipitor users with high cholesterol there is Phytomega. Using both Omega-3s and plant phytosterols, Phytomega can lower triglycerides by 26% and LDL cholesterol by up to 29%. Phytomega is nature's answer to high cholesterol. 

And hey, if you love your dog, they got that covered too with ProCare dogs treats powered by Oligo for joint protection and healthy coat. 

If you are interested in receiving information about Melaleuca products please contact me at either www.homeandhappy.fourpointwellness.com or just email me at vanessa.sowders37@gmail.com. I would be happy to answer any questions. I hope this blog was helpful.

   

Grownups

I recently watched the new Adam Sandler movie Grownups . I love, love, loved it! That's almost exactly like it was growing up for me. Playing out side in the dirt on long summer days. Not wanting to come in at dark because I was too busy chasing lightening bugs. Making mud pies and eating apples right off my Grandpa's tree (without washing them  first). I drank water straight out of the hose, not the bottle.  I played in the creek and took long trips over my Uncle Tob's farm with my cousin Tootie looking for arrow heads. I know what it feels like to step in cow poo with bare feet!  My other cousin Cindy use to make me hoola skirts with limbs from the old willow tree in front of the house.  My siblings and I grew up without cell phones, DVD's, computers, video chat, Nintendo, Playstations and surround sound. Our family had one TV in the den and only 5 channels.My Mother smoked when she was pregnant and took aspirin for a headache. There were no locked doors or child proof cabinets. I rode my bike without a helmet and rode in the back of the truck every chance I got.

I can remember my Grandfather's work shop. He would spend hours in there working on stuff and sometimes I would help. It didn't matter that I was a girl. He viewed me and my cousins the same.....he treated us ALL like boys! So, I was a very big tom boy growing up. I hung tobacco, put up hay and fenced right along with the rest. One day I walked in the shop and asked my Grandpa for some tools because I wanted to build a fort down by the woods. He told me no and to run along a play. I was determined so I proceeded to build anyway. I had a hatchet (don't ask me why I owned a hatchet) that I used to cut down small trees. I used vines or bailing twine to tie the logs together. After about 3 hours of working on my "project" I see my Grandpa walking through the field towards me with something in this hand. I figuring at this point I'm in big trouble for cutting down trees but he just walked up with a coffee can full of nails, a hammer and a little hand saw. He sat the items down, turned and walked off without a word.

My generation and the one before survived being put to bed on our tummies in cribs painted with lead based paint. We fell out of trees, broke bones, got in fights and no lawsuits were ever filed. We walked to friends houses by ourselves. Tried out for little league and those of us who didn't make it just had to deal with disappointment. We ate biscuits and gravy every morning for breakfast, drank a gallon of Kool Aid a day and never worried about getting fat. Germs were never considered when sharing your ice cream with your best bud. What Mama said was gospel and we got our butts busted on a regular basis.  Sunday was a day of rest and spending time with family in church.

And out of this generation has come some of the best innovators of all time all because we had the freedom to try, fail and try again in a time before lawyers and government regulated the life out of us.  Before they took God out of our schools and hope from our lives. I'm proud to have grown up in this time and wish my kids had the experiences that I had in a time that was more innocent than now. It scares me to think of what kind of world my kid's kids are going to grown up in....

So, if you got to grow up in the 50's, 60's or 70's...rejoice for being one of the last generations of kids being kids! Tell stories, share memories and pass down favorite times in your life. Let them know how good WE had it.........

Influence

No matter who you are or what you do, everybody wants the ability to influence others. Whether it be in business, relationships or simply trying to get your 3 year old to eat peas, influence is the one thing that effects us all. Influence transcends gender, color, age, background and all walks of life. It can be positive or it can be deadly depending on the circumstance.

Consider a girl who wants  love but doesn't know where to look. She wants to be close to someone but doesn't know how to trust. She becomes defiant, drifting, desperate and debilitated. Her family and friends want to be able to influence her but don't know how to go about it. The fact of the matter is we can't talk our way into influence.......we have to behave our way. Ever heard the saying, "Actions speak louder than words"? If we want to influence the people around us, our actions have to match our words. A perfect example of this would be Ghandi. Anything Ghandi ever thought, he said. Whatever Ghandi ever said, he did. One man who brought a country to its knees by his own example.

I once worked  for a guy who used to tell me all the time, "Vanessa, nobody cares what you know until they know how much you care." Unless we are willing to build relationships by example, our influence will always be limited. It took me a long time to understand this. I went through a lot of frustrations and self-evaluations. Sometimes it's hard to look in the mirror and admit that maybe you were wrong or maybe you didn't handle a situation properly. Some people however, will always blame someone or something else for their lack of influence. They refuse to pay the price of change on which the "Holy Grail" of leadership rests.


Recently our community suffered a devastating lose. A friend of my daughters and a beautiful young girl took her own life. I can't imagine the pain that must have consumed this child or the version of reality that she lived on a day to day basis.   I went to a Seventh Day Slumber concert a few months ago and was moved by the amount of teens who where truly hurting. When front man Joseph Rojas told his story and then asked the crowd how many of them had felt like or had attempted to take their own life hundreds of hands shot up. As a mother my heart broke in two and I wanted to take each any everyone of those teens home that night and show them that someone did care about them. As a parents, teachers and community leaders we truly need to re-evaluate our circle of influence among our kids.


“I understand what it means to hurt so badly that suicide seems like the only option,” says Rojas. “I know what it means to be abused, to be addicted, to feel abandoned and empty, hopeless and depressed, lost and confused. But I also understand what it means to be accepted by a King and loved by the creator of the universe. We are a generation who has no clue who we are. Our young people are searching for purpose, a reason to live."

I urge everyone to try to lead by example. Pay attention to what's going on in your communities and homes. Understand how you can use your influence to make a positive change in someones life. Most importantly, know that someone out there cares about you and has been through it too. You are not alone in this world.

Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
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Find your way to peace with God Send us your prayer request online Call The 700 Club Prayer Counseling Center at 1 (800) 759-0700, 24 hours a day.

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Texting.......from across the hall.

So, I'm talking to a friend on Face Book last night and she's telling me that her son has invited my daughter to the lake for the weekend. My friend Donna wants to know if Courtney's going or not and I'm telling her, "I don't know. I'm in the bed with my laptop but I will text her and ask." I text my daughter, who is across the hall, on my Iphone, to see if she is going to the lake or not. I then reply to my friend Donna on Face Book telling that in fact Courtney is going to the lake this weekend with her son. Seriously, have we gotten so lazy folks? I suppose so. I do however, remember the first time we got a microwave, a cordless phone and a VCR. Man, I thought my family was livin' well. I still had to set tobacco plants, help get in hay and work in the garden growing up. Real manual labor and it didn't matter if it was 110 degrees outside. My kids get mad if I ask them to check the mail in the middle of the day! "But Mom, it's sooo hot outside." "Do I have to right now?" Everything is "I'll do it later," but when they want something, they want it right then.

I know that I had it better than my parents and our kids have it better than us, but is it really benefiting them in the long run? I mean my kids don't know how to boil water people! I sometimes wonder what would happen if we lost everything we had and had to start over. I mean everything......no car, no house and no cell phone.  Oh... I know.... scary thought huh? I mean go back to Little House on the Prairie days. How do you think our children would fair? Well, I don't know how long mine would last, but I'd probably blow my own brains out to escape all the whining that would be going on.

Other things have changed since I grew up. Our kids are living in a faster paced society. Most children have a cell phone by the age of 11 and the percentage of both parents working outside the home has increased. Seventy percent of women with children at home work outside of the home. (Leadership in Action, July 2010) Twenty eight percent of families eat dinner together seven nights a week. Teenagers eat fast food more often and parent-child communication has been on the decline. (Leadership in Action, July 2010)

Lucky for me, I can work at home now and be here to listen to my whinny kids. I can text them from the kitchen to see what they want to eat for supper. It's not the solution, but it's a start. I used to have to work a 12 hour swing shift. Now I work with FourPointGroup around my family's needs. I work when I want for as long as I want. Some days, I don't work at all...... I just sit with my girls and listen to them complain about this and that. Yea, they are spoiled and they can't do anything but at least I'm here to teach them.......just as soon as I get off Face Book. haha

Truly, I have found that most people who work for themselves are in a higher tax bracket. According to the U.S. Dept of Agriculture more American's personal income is coming from  government benefits and less and less from private wages than ever before in history. Economists report a downturn in jobs with private employers combined with governments handouts is creating a trend that could become unsustainable. USA Today reports that benefits from Social Security, unemployment, food stamps and other programs have reached a record high during the first 3 months of 2010. In fact 1 in 2 Americans receive income from govt programs. 1 in 5 Americans hold a govt job or are dependent of federal spending. 1 in 5 Americans receive Social Security or other govt pension. About 19 million receive food stamps, 2 million get subsidized housing and 5 million get educational grants. (Christian Science Monitor)  If private businesses continue to deteriorate the govt won't be able to tax private wages to support their expensive programming.  More than half of all Americans receive some sort of income from govt programs.

I work for a company that has been in business since 1985 and owes no loans and has never asked for a govt bail out. We have continually made a profit every year for the last twenty five years no matter what the economy looks like. So nowadays I'm able to sleep better knowing that a have a secure income with a company that allows me to spend time with my kids and tell them about the good ole days when I had to walk to school... bare foot.... in the snow..... up hill both ways just like my parents did.

A Four Point Mom

The life of a working mom is difficult to say the least. She is up at dawn fixing breakfast and getting children ready for school, then off to work. Then after putting in a full work day, it's back home for dinner, laundry, help with homework, a bedtime story and the rest of the work she didn't get finished at the office, only to get up and do it all over again. Needless to say that 40% of women today have taken on the role of bread-winner. (Leadership in Action, July 2010)

Mommies definitely know how to multitask which makes them exceptional workers and very valuable to employers. A Four Point Moms fit that description too, however we are able to put our families first. How you ask? Four Point moms can work part time or full time and still contributed thousands of dollars to their family incomes without having to report to an office. By working from home, they can benefit from having the best of both worlds: a home life and career. At FourPointGroup, LLC we help moms earn an income from home so they can be with the ones that mean the most. Build your own business around your family's schedule with FourPointGroup, LLC instead of having to live your life around a un-fulfilling dead end job. Find real, lasting freedom from lost time with loved ones and financial stresses.

I just want to say joining FourPointGroup, LLC was the best decision I have ever made for me and my family. I now can be with my daughters, be at all their events and relish every precious moment as they move closer to adulthood everyday. I never knew how much I was missing because I wasn't there, but now I love my life, I am closer to my family and I am living well. Come join me in living the dream while working with a company rooted in value and strengthened through unity. Welcome home to FourPointGroup.