1. Make a Schedule

The best thing to do when trying to balance work and home is to make a schedule. Know how much time you’ve and schedule your work time and your home time. Then, you’ll know when you need to schedule work and home events. This will make your life significantly easier and you’ll know which activities fit into which time frame. Just make sure you stick to your schedule.

2. Share Responsibilities

Many times work and home responsibilities can become overwhelming because one spouse is handling more of the responsibilities than the other. So, learn to share responsibilities at home and each spouse can be responsible for their work. Also, older children should have some home responsibilities as well to help parents balance work and home.

3. Leave Work at Work

Balancing home and work can be difficult because it is so easy to take work home. If you really want to balance work and home then you will always leave work at work and keep home a sacred place for family and home activities.

4. Dedicate Weekends to Home Activities

A great way to keep home and work separate is to always center on home activities during weekends, or at the least on days off from work if you happen to work on weekends. When certain days are home days and other days are work days then it makes balancing work and home considerably easier.

5. Plan

The best way to balance work and home is to always make a plan. There are tons of tips that will help you, but there’s nothing like making a plan and so following the plan to really balance work and home. It might be difficult, but if you’ve it planned out and follow the plan you’ll be surprised how easy you can find a balance.

I believe finding happiness and success are more than just money.

If you’re not finding happiness in your family, this is to remind you that you’ve the power to improve your life within your family.

Here are Lori Prokop’s 8 ways to create (or re-create) a happy family:

1) Start with yourself. Finding happiness starts by deciding that you’ll create the loving spirit that can create a happy family. Develop an energy and personality where simply your spirit and presence will heal others and rejuvenate your family.

2) Look at yourself. Ask yourself this question and give yourself a true answer: “Am I contributing to family happiness or unhappiness?”

3) Heal within any feelings of mistrust or anger. This can seem to be an impossible task. But it’s achievable and vital to finding happiness and success.

People make mistakes. Some make them only once. Others repeat their mistakes over and over again. Each person is doing the best they can at the emotional intelligence level they’ve achieved.

If someone is being hurtful, blameful, angry or attacking, they’re living at a very low emotional intelligence level. That doesn’t mean you need to live in this painful place with them.

Practice treating everyone in the family with love. You may not be able to be around them because of their chosen personality or behaviors. You can pray, intend or send loving energy to them. They’ll receive it and the power of love will heal them in remarkable ways, often better than we could have dreamed.

4) Choose to live in the upper six levels of your Life Guidance System. you’ve 21 emotional levels. Fifteen create what you don’t want and six emotional levels create what you do want. People ask me, “Lori Prokop, how can I live in the emotional levels that create more of what I want and result in finding happiness?”

Don’t be a part of family problems. Heal yourself and become a cure. Don’t tell your family you’ve chosen to do this. Just do it. They’ll notice the difference. Your newly chosen emotional levels will create positive results. With your lead and example, your family members can learn to love and respect each other.

5) Encourage high regard for one another. Teach, by example, that each family member accepts all others and lets each be who they’re.

With some wisdom and insight, it’s easy to see how people’s personalities have developed. Even if you’re repulsed by someone, it’s possible to see why they act as they do.

When the development process and history of their personalities is respected, even the most difficult people lighten up. When people feel understood, they no longer feel the need to defend. Love and acceptance of each person’s history will create the feeling of goodwill and real understanding.

6) Have no certain expectations chiseled in stone. Rather, expect the best and be open to what that manifests as. When we expect something certain we’re often limiting the outcome by our own limited thinking.

Do not expect everyone to change at once or that it will come easily. For some the change seems immediate, for others it can take time. For some healing will seem effortless, others will need to hit rock-bottom before they begin. For some letting go of harmful beliefs, hurtful thinking and destructive prejudices happens gradually, sometimes only after personal pain or disasters.

This is sometimes a challenge because we want things right now. Many times I say to myself, “Lori Prokop, why can’t these other people do the right things?”

Pray their healing will be a safe, loving and wonderful experience. The most important element is that someone must start the healing. It will pick up for others from there.

7) Believe in assistance from a Higher Power. This is a non-religious, non-denominational, spiritual step. Miracles can and will happen for those who ask for help from a Source of 100% pure light and love. Choose actions and options that are 100% pure light and love.

Intend only the best for each family member. One person using their power of intention by sending energy of 100% pure light and love to other family members, though he or she may do it without others knowing, will in time see others are motivated to improve their lives.

When the intention of 100% pure light and love becomes a family practice, members will grow deeper in spiritual connection and have an easier time finding happiness.

So here is what Lori Prokop believes. Ultimately, you can change even the toughest family situation for the better. You can help family member experience success and help yourself in the process of finding happiness.

When our 3 children were small, my husband and I always tried to find fun things to do as a family that didn’t make a huge dent in our budget.

One thing we recommend is setting aside one night a week for “Family Fun Night”. Turn off the TV and the phone and do something together. It doesn’t have to be an expensive outing, but do plan ahead and let the children have some input into your plan.

Here are some ideas for ‘family fun on a budget’.

1. Take a walk through your neighborhood. Say hello to everybody you meet, whether you know them or not. Point out to your children some of the beautiful things in nature, maybe the beautiful sunset, somebody pretty flowers, the clouds in the sky.

Teaching them to enjoy and appreciate simple things is one of the greatest gifts you can give to your children. When you arrive back home, treat yourselves to homemade ice cream sundaes!

2. A great source of cheap entertainment is your public library. At our library, we can check out family videos and jigsaw puzzles as well as books. Check out a video the whole family can enjoy and pop some popcorn (maybe the old-fashioned way– some children don’t even know there’s any other kind but microwave popcorn!)

3. Have a family picnic in the park. Let the kids help prepare the food–make sandwiches, pack an ice chest, make cookies for dessert. The town we lived in when our children were small, had a nice park with lots of playground equipment. It was a real treat for them.

4. During the academic year, we took advantage of entertainment the school had to offer. For example, a couple of times a year, the high school band has a free band concert. The Christmas concert was always our favorite. Some schools have drama clubs that offer plays from time to time. If you live in a college town, you’ll have access to even more opportunity for free or low-cost concerts and plays.

5. In the summer, set aside one night to make home- made ice cream. Invite grandparents to come over and talk about the “old days”. Maybe you’d even like to go so far as to make the ice cream with a hand cranked freezer. If your parents don’t live close, think about inviting an older couple or person from your neighborhood. They’ll enjoy it and then will your children!

6. During the winter months, when it’s impossible to get outdoors, make some drinking chocolate and read aloud a classic book, in installments. Research shows that children who are read to from an early age, are better readers themselves.

I’m sure you get the idea by now. What you do on family night may not be as important as just doing it! Keep it simple and fun!

The benefits of preparing and enjoying food as a family are clear. You save money and eat healthier meals. You create opportunities to connect and communicate with your children and spouse. And most importantly, you show love for your family when you spend time cooking and eating with them. Children of all ages need your attention and your time. By working together to create a meal or bake a batch of cookies, you spend valuable time together.

So, here are 10 steps to get your family cooking up memories.

Step 1:
Teach small children the fun of cooking by helping them bake cookies and cakes. If you’re short on time, you can use a boxed cookie mix and spend more time decorating.

Step 2:
Encourage the littlest ones to play pretend cooking. Kids love to play with real mixing bowls, strainers and wooden spoons. These make harmless toys and can be easily thrown in the dishwasher for quick cleanup.

Step 3:
If you live by your day-timer, schedule in baking cookies with your kids. Our schedules can be so hectic that something as simple as baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies can get skipped over. Write it down and do it.

Step 4:
If you’ve teenagers, let them play their favorite music while they wash the lettuce and set the table.

Step 5:
Work together with your spouse to prepare the dinner and use the time to catch up on one another day.

Step 6:
Even if you’re in a rush preparing dinner, remember to reduce your stress and focus on creating a fun atmosphere that naturally encourages the whole family to participate.

Step 7:
When spending time preparing food with your children, include lessons about healthy eating choices. Keep the conversation positive and avoid listing foods they can’t have.

Step 8:
On days where you anticipate time will be tight, consider taking a short cut by using a frozen stir-fry mix or pasta with a jar of pre-made sauce. Your family will appreciate your relaxed mood much more than a made-from-scratch dinner.

Step 9:
Share the job of grocery shopping. One week have mom take one of the children as a helper, the next week dad can go with another child. Always work from a shopping list and let your children help you retrieve items and cross them off the list.

Step 10:
Have big family meals where you share about your day. Keep the conversation fun and avoid negative lectures over dinner. Remember to laugh.

Take these steps today and make your kitchen a fun and memorable place for your whole family.