Hi, All!

Besides my articles today, I wanted to share with you that I was asked to participate in a book launch for a new book. "Shift: A Woman’s Guide to Transformation."

So to participate, I decided to send them a copy of my first book: “Grab the Queen Power.” It will be gift offering to anyone who purchases the book along with all the other offerings ffom over thirty authors.

So, this gave me an idea. If you still have never gotten around to getting my book, and since I’m giving it away to perfect strangers…

I would like to offer it to you as well.

So if you’d like to have a e - copy of my book, just email me (info@allynevans.com). Write “send me book” in the subject line.

Okay...now to the real reason I am writing...

Here are the articles for this month! Hope you enjoy. Oh yes, and don't forget that you can scroll down to the bottom to read the 'text only' versions of these articles or you can click on the links provided to read from the website.

Thanks and have a wonderful month!

Allyn Evans
www.allynevans.com

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Feature Article #1: A Box Too Small
www.allynevans.blogspot.com
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Feature Article #2: A Good Night's Sleep
www.thealertparent.com

This article is a MUST read for parents of tweens and teens. Sleep is so important and many of our children are getting short changed. If your child takes a cell phone to bed or has a computer, MP3 player or similar in her room. Please read!
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Feature Article #1: A Box Too Small

Over the last few weeks, I have been editing my first book. Yes, the book is getting a face lift! And hopefully will come out error free. Well...at least we'll make a really good go at it.

Below is an excerpt that is in keeping with our current theme.

I wanted to share with you because I thought it might be helpful for those of you still struggling with the "next" step.

Dream Excerpted from My Journal

As I was finishing up the duties assigned to me in my old life, I had a very revealing dream. A former boss opened his office door and asked me to look at the small box in the corner.

His office was completely empty except for this box that resembled a standard mailbox. He said, “Allyn, I want you to fit yourself in that box while I’m gone.” I agreed and said that I would do it for him. He closed the door and left.

I tried for a long time to fit myself in that small box but couldn’t do it. No matter how hard I tried the box just wasn’t big enough.

Marsha Sinetar, well - known career consultant and author once said, “Maybe this narrowing of life—the eroding of interests and hope—could be likened to being cooped up in a room that’s too small…The only thing that’s stopping you is you.”

How true both her thoughts and my dream turned out to be. My final breaking point was at the pinnacle of my professional life. Three months after being named in the "dream job" position, I declared, “No more!”

The pay was fabulous and the position was definitely good for my ego, but the job was choking the life right out of me. Adding to the pressure, I now had a two - year - old daughter that I suddenly had no energy to care for. It was all too much and with deep regret, I realized I had just eaten the wrong carrot.

The journey to finding what I was really looking for wasn’t over yet, but I was sure the heavens rejoiced—I finally got some of the message. Immediately I took back a part - time job I had at the college while I regrouped and rested.

Within fourteen months, I had started a home - based business and was making almost as much as I had made with my former job minus headaches, stress and fatigue. The business, a résumé writing and career consulting startup, was a perfect match.

I knew everything about preparing marketing materials, interviewing and convincing an employer to hire me. My knowledge came from my own experiences, numerous interviews and books. I emerged from all those seemingly dead - end paths as a career consultant. I had a tried and proven means to make money that was very practical and inexpensive to launch.

Besides that, I enjoyed the work and relished the opportunity to stay at home with my daughter.
After two years, though, the thought of writing another résumé from scratch was nauseating. To change things up a little, I added grant writing—finding a fairly easy way to add more money to my bottom line. That decision prolonged my home - based business for another six months, but by the time my daughter was scheduled to go to school full - time, I knew I had to change things.

Not interested in returning to a traditional job or a boss, I sought consulting jobs—short - term contracts and commitments.

As luck would have it, a nonprofit company needed an Interim Executive Director to fill in for nine months. I had the skills and was hired.

A deal was quickly sealed. The contract was part - time, but still provided the share that I needed to contribute to the family income. With income covered, I dropped all my other contracts with résumé and grant writers. I focused on myself. Finally, I was ready to follow my heart. But first, I had to figure out what my heart wanted.

It's my hope that you too can find a way to listen to your heart. Next post, I'll give suggestions on how to do just that.

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Feature Article #2: A Good Night's Sleep

“I stay up until 2:00 a.m. every night,” one girl told me. Another student piped in, saying she never made it past midnight. These students have to be checked in at school before 8:00 a.m. every weekday.

“What do you do when you stay up?” I asked. They mentioned TV, video games, and Internet. A junior standing nearby added, “Cell phones. I text. My phone sounds at all hours of the night. Lots of my friends are night owls.”

It doesn’t take a brain scientist to figure out that these girls aren’t getting much quality sleep. And according to researchers, that is a serious problem.

Sleep is something we take very seriously at my house. We work hard to have all our activities wrapped up with time to unwind before the bedtime hour arrives. For my 12 - year - old daughter, we target nine hours of sleep. More nights than not, that’s exactly what she gets.

In a report written in Science Daily (2009), researchers surveyed 100 middle and high school students to evaluate their sleep patterns. The majority of the students sampled reported having at least a computer (30%), TV (66%), cell phone (90%) or MP3 player (79%) in their room. Results indicated that only 20 percent slept eight or more hours, with eight to nine being the recommended allotment. Thirty percent of the students surveyed reported falling asleep during school.

Lead researcher Calamaro said, “Parents need to discourage teenagers from drinking caffeine past noon time and keep TVs, computers and especially cell phones out of kids’ bedrooms.”

Some interesting information came from a study out of Northwestern University (BioMedicine/Andrea Browning).


The study evaluated 2,281 children ages 3 to 12 with follow - up study on the children when they were 8 to 17. Researchers determined how much sleep a child got by using bedtime and wake - up times.


Turns out children who slept longer had lower BMI (body mass index measures) than the children who did not. Berger explained, “Specifically, the researchers found that sleeping an additional hour reduced young children’s chance of being overweight from 36 percent to 30 percent, while it reduced older children's risk from 34 percent to 30 percent.”

What I gather from this is that sleep issues have important consequences other than just whether or not a person can stay awake or concentrate the next day. There’s much more to it and I will talk about these issues again next week.

How do you know if your teen is getting enough sleep? The National Sleep Foundation says to address the following questions:

1. Does your child have trouble waking up in the morning?
2. Is your child irritable in the afternoon?
3. Does your child fall asleep during the day?
4. Does your child oversleep on the weekend?
5. Does your child have difficulties concentrating or remembering?
6. Does your child report having an interrupted sleep cycle?

Use common sense when making this determination. Look at the facts. How many hours is your child actually sleeping? Then do the math.


Personally, I can answer yes to the first and fourth questions without concern because I know Addy goes to sleep and stays asleep. We talk about how she slept every weekday morning. I also know that there is no TV or computer in her room and the cell phone is tucked away with mine in the kitchen drawer.

Because of the ramifications of not getting enough sleep, the http://www.sleepforkids.org/ website (a service of the National Sleep Foundation) advises: “We need to focus as much on the sleeping half of children’s lives as we do on the waking half.”

Have a great month!:)