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Self Defense courses and books for women are useless.  At least that's what I thought.  You see I spent 10 years doing Martial Arts, mainly Karate and more of the traditional stuff, not the tournament 'fighting'.  When you do that you learn how many repititions it takes to really ingrain moves so that they become automatic.  Even now, some years since I trained, if someone raises a hand to pretend to hit me, my automatic reaction is to block.

I have seen a few self defence courses for women and most of them seem to involve going along for a period of weeks and learning a series of moves to get out of holds and so on.  And while the course it is running they are great but I bet if I asked people a year on from doing the course how many of the moves they can remember it wouldn't be many.  If you get into a situation where you have to use these moves you don't have time to stand and think 'now which way should I twist or turn my arm'?

So with all this scepticism why do we have a book on Self Defense our site… well, it changed my mind.  Why? (more…)

We arrived at the very start of an Open House for a house that was for sale in our area to find the agent fussing through some keys at the front door. "I think I 've locked myself out" he announced with some embarrassment.  "I'll break in" I announced to a slight look of horror on the agents face.  We didn't have a lot of time before we wanted to move on to the next house so before he could say too much I disappeared around the back of the house leaving him talking to Mum.  Sure enough there was a smallish laundry window that was open, not too much of a challenge and I was into the house (no I don't make a habit of breaking in to people's houses).  I walked through the house and opened the front door just as more people arrived.

This sort of thing, although slightly amusing, is not really the best impression for prospective buyers.  For one reason or another I have been through quite a number of houses that were for sale over the last few years and when I think back to the ones that you remember it is often the ones that had some minor detail that wasn't fixed or they weren't clean or tidy.  When the agent greets you at the front door and announces that you will have to wait a few minutes as the owners teenage children have slept in and then when you enter you are met with dishevelled beds and mess in their rooms it does not leave a great impression.

Yes, you can see past this mess but many don't bother.  There are many statistics to prove that presenting your home in the right way can add thousands to your sales price.  This does not have to involve spending thousands on your home with major renovations and, for the record, the smell of baking bread is out too.

So where do you start?  (more…)

Mum was listening to an interview with a lady on the radio on the other day. The lady in question was very intelligent, had gone on from school to get multiple tertiary qualifications, succeed in the corporate world, working as a CEO and similar positions. And what is she doing now? She has finally discovered what she really enjoys – staying home and looking after kids!

The point here is not, as some might stay, that she has found a woman's rightful place but that she has found a life that is aligned to her values. True wealth is found in aligning your values with your life in the areas of finance, mental, physical and spiritual. The ebook 'Be Simply Happy and Debt Free' is one of the best books I've read on wealth. It really gets beyond the simple message of live within your means, pay off your debt and you'll be OK. There is so much more to real wealth, money is no guarantee of it, so what is…

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When you can't work out which day your kid should start school then maybe home schooling is a good option! Yes we gave Son a first day to remember, didn't find out till half way through the morning that our local school was different to most others around and the little ones started a day earlier than everywhere else. Well that took care of nerves, it was all hands on deck to get him and everything else ready and rush him off to school to somewhat belatedly join his class.

As you look at costs of uniforms, hassles of getting kids to and from school, rushing to get everyone ready on time in the mornings you can see some of the attraction of home schooling. You get to choose how and when, you can design programs to suit the interests of your child and go at the pace that suits them and so on.

I have to admit I hadn't realised until I started reviewing our book on Home Schooling and looked on the Web, how much information is out there to help you including all the resources from the relevant education authorities in your country.

So what are the realities of home schooling… (more…)