Parenting, understatedly, is probably one of the hardest jobs out there- and probably the most important job. For many people, it comes so easily and often unexpected. For others, it seems like becoming a parent might end up being a long-awaited dream that might not happen. Whatever your circumstances, whatever you choose, many of us become parents and end up having to participate in this age-old puzzle called parenting. No one wants to raise a child the wrong way. Most instead dream of raising children who are confident, successful, and bastions to ideal parenting. This is however, hard to pin down. What’s the best way to parent a child? What works best? Is there a sure-fire method of parenting that works? There are studies out there that show how one type of parenting approach seems to work, and we call that Peaceful Parenting.

Peaceful parenting is what it sounds like. It’s a general term for a feel and method of parenting that’s not wrought with screaming, yelling, hitting, imprisonment, and dysfunction. Easier said than done of course, in those moments when everyone’s tired and fed-up, but overall, parenting peacefully has been shown to benefit not only children long-term, but it’s also shown to benefit parents as well. And, for those of us who weren’t parented peacefully as children (and many of us weren’t!) we don’t really know how to parent aside from spanking or using shame. In fact, often times many of us don’t even realize as parents how non-peaceful we really are towards our children.

There are moral obligations for peaceful parenting along with the fact that it simply raises better children. Consider the fact that children come into the world as heavy obligations which are not of their own choosing. They didn’t choose to be obligations. They didn’t choose to be born to specific parents. They are completely dependent on adults for every need, and withholding these needs easily creates insecurities and issues down the road that might seem insignificant at first, but later on can become serious problems later. An example of non-peaceful parenting can come in simple but significant form. Consider the following- a mother and daughter are playing at the park and mother wants to leave before daughter does. Mother asks daughter more than once to leave, daughter declines. So mother then gets up and pretends to leave the park without her daughter. Her daughter will think to herself (without realizing it) that her mother will leave her alone, on her own at the park. She can’t find her own shelter. She can’t find her own food. She’s a target for predators. Where will she sleep? So she runs after her mother to ensure that she’ll make it to the car in time before her mother abandons her at the park. What kind of lesson is mother teaching her daughter here? That if she doesn’t come when mother asks, she’ll be left behind like nothing- is that the kind of lesson you want your children to learn?

Spanking and yelling also have the same effect on children. There are alternatives to aggressive, non-peaceful parenting that work, and that teach your children that you love them and they can trust you.

Work, kids, home, shopping. They are typical of everyday life that are depleted our moral strenuous tasks. Fortunately, the holidays arrive, and either on the beach or the mountains, all run to relax outside. Sleeping, eating out, going swimming, sunbathing … who do not wish to do something about this right now? Or even Will all at once? The latter, sunbathing, is probably the most widespread practice, who do not feel like lying down for a while and doze with its relaxing effect? Sunbathing is most popular in the summer months, although the practice is spreading to other months, depending upon the temperature.
Do you know what the benefits of sunbathing are?

The sun, taken with due caution, is a source of health benefits. During the summer, enhances relaxation, increases the immune system and our sex life and even protects against depression, among other benefits.

The explanation is that the UV rays increase the production of a neurotransmitter associated with the feeling of being: serotonin, which is also involved in the regulation of sleep, body temperature and sexual behavior.

This is not an excuse to expose the uncontrolled sun. We have to consider how your skin reacts to sun light so avoid using the central hours of the day, do it gradually and protect our head.

This time of year also positively influences the heart and the effect of heat lowers blood pressure. This coupled with the fact that in summer perform more physical activity and eat more fruit, causes cardiovascular disease suffer a decline at this time of year,

Indeed, vitamin D is one of the main benefits of sun bathing. “It has very important role in intestinal calcium absorption and bone mineralization function. Therefore, it is important to keep a daily exposure to sunlight taking the proper precautions.

According to the specialist therapeutic benefits of the sun already known since the nineteenth century, when patients with tuberculosis and rickets were exposed to sunlight. There autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis suffering significant improvements with sun exposure.

The benefits of sunbathing are counted everywhere. Sunbathing is one of the cheapest and healthiest ways to take care of our body. One of the main benefits of sunbathing is the increase of vitamin D.

Although the vitamins are primarily acquired diet, vitamin D case is different, since this thanks to UV sunlight through a cholesterol derivative precursor is metabolized. Sunbathing, therefore, not only keeps our bones and teeth strong and healthy, but also helps to lower cholesterol. A vitamin D, you can also attach other beneficial properties as a result of sun, such as decreased blood pressure, ideal for hypertension, prevention of numerous cancers, such as breast or colon, and also protects against multiple sclerosis, so it is clear that the benefits of sunbathing are highly important for our body.

Among the benefits of sunbathing is also improving the immune system because it activates white blood cells, and it is a wonderful beauty treatment as it helps eliminate acne and boosts metabolism, helping you lose weight. Clearly, a good sun bath is the best treatment for health and beauty.

Sunbathing regularly produces increased levels of serotonin, also known as the hormone of happiness, an increase in testosterone, which causes an increase in sexual desire, and increases the levels of nocturnal melatonin, which promotes sleep and rest. These effects are most evident during the summer, which have a higher incidence of sunlight.

As we can see, the benefits of sunbathing are numerous and varied, and help take care of your health in all possible areas. However, is gold that glitters?

Despite the numerous benefits of sunbathing, humans need to be protected from too much sun because UV radiation, namely A, can damage our skin if you do not care. Use sunscreen for sun protection is a very healthy habit if you want to take care of your health and beauty, because sun damage can be very serious and even irreversible.

Our skin needs sunlight, but in perspective manner. To avoid overheating, the skin has its own defense mechanism, melanin production. Melanin is a pigment UV absorbed radiation, preventing DNA damage. However, if radiation is intense, and summer at certain times, such protection becomes inefficient and radiation can seriously damage our skin, causing irritation, burns, and even skin cancer.

To avoid damage, besides not bask in the rush hours, it is necessary to use sunscreen to help protect our skin from the sun, preventing cell damage while retaining the benefits of sunbathing.

So here, you know, if you want to take care of your health and beauty, don’t forget to take sun bath.

The best thing you can do for your yearly harvest of produce, or for the best looking ornamental plants, is to construct the best growing space for them before you begin seeding and planting. Different plants have different needs, but there is a generalized type of garden bed that will grow most all popular and commonly available plants beautifully. And, preparing the best garden bed isn’t a terribly difficult task. Here is a simple method to prepare the ideal garden bed, suitable for most ornamentals and produce gardening.

Most plants require deep, very well-draining soil comprised heavily of broken down organic material. A good, basic way to accomplish this without much work is to create a raised garden bed and fill it with ideal soil right off the bat. This requires no digging or removal of sod, no tilling, and can be done on hard clay soils and improve on ground soils that are less than ideal for planting.

There are many kinds of raised garden beds. Commonly, frames made out of wood or any other available material in the shape of boxes set on the ground is a popular starting point for a raised garden bed, to be filled with soil later. You can use landscape block, bales of hay or straw, old tires, rocks, or whatever you have to frame a bed. Another method of raised bed gardening is called lasagna gardening, and similar in nature is a method called hegelkultur gardening. Both of these methods can be done in a frame, but are typically done without permanent borders. Both employ the strategic layering of different raw materials and are allowed to compost themselves over time.

Soil best for filling typical framed raised beds consists of ready to use fully rotted down compost. You can make this on your own or more commonly purchase it in bags from your local garden center. Make your raised bed at least 6 inches deep, and you can lay the compost into the raised bed right on the ground and the volume of the soil will kill the weeds and sod underneath. You can work in some manure or fertiliser of choice into the compost as well at the time of filling the bed. Beds constructed this way are ready to be planted in right away. A deep layer of compost will drain perfectly yet retain moisture well, and with mixed in fertilizer, the plants will be fed sufficiently for a long time.

Every fall or end of the growing season, work more compost and manure/choice of fertiliser into the raised bed, or mulch your bed well if you’ve constructed a permanent bed for ornamentals. The addition of mycorrhizae is helpful also. Good mulches break back down into the raised bed quickly, such as wood shavings, grass clippings, and shredded fallen tree leaves.

We hope this guide helps you prepare the ideal garden bed with the raised bed method. Raised beds are a fast, simple way to make instant space for plants and will help them thrive for years and produce heavy food crops.

More and more home gardeners are using organic practices with excellent results.  The next logical step in gardening is to strive for sustainability.  This is a philosophy aimed at the preservation of both healthy soil and precious resources. You want to grow organic crops that are good for your family, but you also want to take responsibility for the wellbeing of your land, whether it is the soil in a tiny container garden, a series of raised beds, a large stand alone garden, or even several acres that you may have under cultivation.

Here are some simple practices that you should follow in an effort to become more sustainable.

Water Conservation

One cannot overemphasize the importance of water preservation around the world.  It is a dwindling commodity and every bit of conservation at the local level is very helpful.  Get involved by utilizing rain barrels at home.  Rainwater caught from your roof will fill a 50 gallon barrel very quickly during a mild rainstorm.  Try to hand water in order to avoid waste.

Compost

Everyone should be composting!  It is easy and inexpensive, but above all it is highly beneficial to the health of your soil.  Site your compost pile in a sunny location and simply begin by piling

up leaves, grass clippings, garden waste,etc.

 You should also be adding kitchen scraps and most leftovers (no meat products), and do this throughout the year.  Occasionally you will have to turn your pile over with a pitchfork in order to aerate it and allow the soil to really “cook” in the sunlight.  Before you know it you will have buckets of compost for spreading nutrients back into the soil.  If you live near the ocean, gather up some seaweed and add this to the pile.  As it breaks down, it also serves as a great way to aerate your soil allowing tender plant roots to really take hold.

Compost bins are also worth considering.  They are available at any good garden center or home
improvement store and make composting easy and neat.

Spread the Word

Sustainable practicing gardeners (especially old ones!) are a wonderful source of knowledge.  Most love to talk about their successes and failures and what they have learned along the way.  As you learn about composting, crop rotation, pest and weed control and many other sustainable techniques, it is up to you to pass this knowledge on.  Join the locally grown organic and sustainable movement and we will all be better off in the long run.