12.09.2014

Striking Family Balance During a Busy Time of Year - $100 Visa Card Giveaway


If you have visited here more than a couple times, you probably know that I have two teenage daughters (well, technically just one, but my 12 year old will be 13 very soon).  I truly LOVE having teenagers.  I didn't think I would - when my girls were toddlers I seriously feared them becoming teens.  But I am here to tell you, you grow into it, you know your children and find that they turn into really amazing people who you really like to hang out with - that is, when they want to hang out with you!  And I know that not everyone has this experience; the teen years can go sideways quick and provide all sorts of challenges and heartbreak... I pray that my girls avoid all the bad stuff, but am aware that they may not… but so far, so good. What no one warned me about when I was balancing playdates, sippy cups and Elmo during those toddler years was just how much BUSIER the teen years are!  I spend an exorbitant amount of time in my car taking my active girls to school, soccer, volleyball and theatre classes.  Add in their social engagements and it could make for one hectic family schedule.   Hectic is not a space I enjoy occupying and I loathe feeling like the schedule is controlling our family… so I really believe that my role as a momma at this stage of the game is to provide balance in my girls lives...
The American Beverage Association has a new joint effort called Mixify.  Mixify is all about balance. Its mission is to inspire teens to find a balanced mix of food, drinks and physical activities every day in ways that are totally unique to them because everyone, every family, and every day is different. 

The ABA asked me to share what balance means to our family: 

1. Balancing time means that my girls enjoy some 'downtime' - time to be with themselves, our family or friends.  I like this time to be as unstructured as possible and involve as little technology as possible. I have always felt that too many structured activities could contribute my girls becoming people who just can't think creatively or enjoy stillness and quiet.

2.  Balancing our nutrition.  I plan our family meals every Sunday so we know that we will be eating healthy, balanced meals in the midst of whatever activities we have going on in our week.  I plan THREE meals and cook extra so we always have leftovers.  My plan assumes that we will likely go out to dinner at our favorite neighborhood brewpub or Mexican place so eating healthy meals at home most of the week provides the necessary balance to a fun night out. 

3.  Balancing my girls' activities.  There are a lot of debates about over-scheduling our children.  I fall on the more conservative side of this debate.  My oldest daughter has always been really active and up for signing up for any and all activities or trying any sport.  My younger daughter is quite the opposite.  She is more introverted and enjoys more creative pursuits. Besides playing volleyball, she really is not crazy about playing sports.  At 16 years old now, my active girl plays competitive soccer on a National Champion team and travels all over the U.S. to soccer tournaments.  She practices four nights per week and, in addition, does fitness conditioning at a gym.  She is also an 'A' student.  Last year, when she was a freshman in high school she really wanted to play high school lacrosse in the spring, in addition to keeping up with her soccer schedule.  We allowed her play.  Unfortunately, we all learned a lot about balance last spring, and it wasn't all good. This time of year leads to particularly busy schedules with lots of fun holiday activities added to the calendar.  Having some strategies on how we manage our time and nutrition during a season where the scales can be tipped {no pun intended!} toward over-indulgence is how our family strikes a healthy balance!

As part of this sponsored post, you have the opportunity to enter a BlogHer giveaway for a $100 Visa gift card!  To enter for a chance to win, please leave me a comment that answers ONE of the following questions:
  • What do you do to keep YOUR family balanced?
  • When it comes to achieving a balanced lifestyle, what do you struggle with?
  • What's your ideal balance for your family?
"Coke, Dr Pepper and Pepsi understand that getting a balanced mix of foods, drinks and physical activities for your family isn’t always easy. That’s why they’re coming together for the first time ever to talk to teens about balancing what they eat and drink with what they do. With tools to help teens get active and information to help them think about when they’ve had too much, or maybe when it’s time for a treat—America’s beverage companies are supporting our efforts to find a balanced mix that works for our families.”
Visit www.DeliveringChoices.org to learn more about Mixify, or visit the www.MyMixify.com website for teens. You can also follow ABA Delivers on Twitter and Facebook to learn about Mixify and all the other efforts America’s Beverage Companies are undertaking to help families achieve balance.
Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
  1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
  2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
  3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
  4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 12/9/14 – 12/24/14.
Be sure to visit the American Beverage Association brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
99 comments on "Striking Family Balance During a Busy Time of Year - $100 Visa Card Giveaway"
  1. We do Sundays to balance our busy lives! We start off with Church to ground us and feed our souls! Then it's planning/cooking healthy, well-balanced meals for the week. As a household of two working parents, we find that having this day to just connect and be together truly helps all of us. No parties, no shopping, just being present in each other's lives is a major part of balancing our lives!

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  2. I try and cut out unnecessary things to strike a balance. Often that means not doing something we saw as fun to have some down time, but we all need a little down time.

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  3. When my children were young we would find projects to help others in need and volunteer as a family. Doing deeds instead of just writing a check helped them to have compassion and empathy for their fellow man and developed their desire to give of themselves.

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  4. To keep my family balanced we eat healthy foods and get exercise and stick to a routine.
    heather hgtempaddy@hotmail.com

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  5. When my children were home, family dinners were so important. Just to have everyone in one place for that time to share our day before everyone scattered. We also preped for the next day as much as possible in the evenings to keep our mornings calm -lunch packing, picking out clothes and so on

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  6. I believe in and encourage my boys to take Sundays as days of rest to enjoy all they have AWAY FROM A SCREEN. Though this isn't a hard and fast rule (I think screen time as a family is fine), it's something I bring up often in hopes they will choose this for themselves. We keep dialog open as much as possible and try to have a simple family activity on Sundays to encourage communication and fun. We also have a 'special breakfast' Sunday mornings- full of protein and some yummy carbs that we eat together in order to set the day apart.

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  7. we struggle with family time together; getting us all together at the same time to do activities, eat, etc.

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  8. https://twitter.com/LuLu_Brown24/status/542426386447609858

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  9. I struggle with finding the right balance between being a mom and being a wife. My poor husband often feels neglected.

    mami2jcn at gmail dot com

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  10. tweet--https://twitter.com/mami2jcn/status/542432496231514113

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  11. How I keep my family balanced is by making sure to cook healthy meals for them every day! To get our fruits and vegetables and eat the same time every day. To give structure to my family by being consistent with meals, exercise and play time!

    jewelwood55(at)gmail(dot)com

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  12. Tweet Entry
    https://twitter.com/JewelWood/status/542433841067986947

    jewelwood55(at)gmail(dot)com

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  13. I struggle with making healthy meals when we are busy with work and school.
    reklaw422 at Hotmail dot com

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  14. I struggle with finding time for myself

    elena150980@yahoo.com

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  15. https://twitter.com/ElenaIstomina/status/542461991315464193


    elena150980@yahoo.com

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  16. I keep my family balanced by doing outdoor activities with my kids and feeding them lots of fruits and veggies.
    kellywcu8888ATgmailDOTcom

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  17. tweet
    https://twitter.com/Kellydpa/status/542471350112100352

    kellywcu8888ATgmailDOTcom

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  18. We struggle like the rest of America, but we have learned to carve out time on a weekly basis. Sometimes it means turning down something fun. We also take a long weekend up north in the fall and again in the winter, when things are at their busiest. It's hard during hockey season, but we make it work somehow. Time with family is so precious. Being organized with meals also helps to cut down on chaos! Best of luck, time with your kiddos goes by so quickly.

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  19. An ideal balance for my family consists of regular meals eaten together with healthy foods and regular exercise and family time. yarbr012 at gmail dot com

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  20. tweet https://twitter.com/yarbr012/status/542497044925931521 yarbr012 at gmail dot com

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  21. I struggle with this. Often it's as simple as taking a deep breath and refocusing on what's important.

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  22. I so agree with you about trying to keep a balanced life with some margin in the schedule. A hectic schedule makes me feel anxious! I try to carefully balance my busy days with lighter days. I try to limit the amount of evening activities we schedule so that we have some evenings at home each week. It's easier now that the kids are grown!

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  23. We struggle with finding time with fun and all the extra activities.

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  24. I just had twins, so balance for me is saying no to a lot of fun things that just would be too much.

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  25. We keep our family balanced by getting outdoors together and participating in activities together, we also make sure we maintain a healthy well balanced diet.

    Nicole.ddziedzic at gmail dot com

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  26. Shared on twitter here: https://twitter.com/lil_lady_dz/status/542722895068135426

    Nicole.ddziedzic at gmail dot com

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  27. I keep my family balanced by trying my best to be as organized as possible to help with structure and routine :)

    heatheranne99 at gmail dot com

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  28. Tweet!
    https://twitter.com/ScoomerBlog/status/542834607444357121

    heatheranne99 at gmail dot com

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  29. i struggle balancing working to make enough $ to pay the bills and having enough time quality time with my kids pryfamily5@gmail.com

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  30. I tweeted https://twitter.com/thepryfamily2/status/542863297494523904 pryfamily5@gmail.com

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  31. When it comes to achieving a balanced lifestyle for my family, I struggle with finding time to fit in everyone's schedule.
    tcarolinep at gmail dot com

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  32. -https://twitter.com/tcarolinep/status/542878367716868096

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  33. We try to make sure our kids get exercise when possible and eat healthy meals together as a family.

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  34. With 3 young boys, I have found that our life works with some very basic foundations...respecting bedtimes so that everyone gets the rest they need, eating a healthy, home-cooked meal TOGETHER, and keeping a routine of quiet time everyday for homework and reading. Other stuff comes along but it has to work around the basics.

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  35. We work for balance by allowing just one treat from the grocery store each week. We struggle the most with holidays when the amount of less nutritious food in the house is overwhelming!
    madelinebrubaker {at} gmail [dot] com

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  36. Tweet link: https://twitter.com/shala_darkstone/status/543579453360578560
    madelinebrubaker {at} gmail [dot] com

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  37. I keep my family balanced by limiting work hours, making arrangements for family fun and taking our nutrition seriously.

    devyjackson at gmail.com

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  38. https://twitter.com/devyjackson/status/543864018599829505
    devyjackson at gmail.com

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  39. My family struggles with finding time to eat together during the week. Our schedules are all so different that often times we just aren't home at the same times.

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  40. We do not keep sodas in the house....only have them once in a while when we go out. We try to do active outdoor activities together to keep it fun!

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  41. tweeted
    https://twitter.com/rubylorikeet/status/544107527076466689

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  42. We try to plan outdoor activities that we can do together....it's great to get outside and get fresh air and exercise.

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  43. tweeted
    https://twitter.com/rubylorikeet/status/544257442004340737

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  44. I struggle with this. I make sure we do fun activities as a family and eat together every night.

    s2s2 at cox dot net

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  45. I struggle with giving each kid the proper amount of attention while still leaving some "me time."
    Digicats {at} Sbcglobal {dot} Net

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  46. to keep my family balanced I try to feed them all the different food groups and we exercise a lot :)

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  47. tweet

    https://twitter.com/MeandBells/status/544564143882133505

    vanitizebaby@yahoo.com

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  48. We focus on drinking mostly water and staying active! truckredford(at)Gmail(Dot)com

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  49. https://twitter.com/eliza_elliott/status/544696494196940800 truckredford(at)gmail(dot)com

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  50. WE STRUGGLE WITH SPENDING QUALITY TIME TOGETHER... afjackly@oakland.edu

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  51. TWITTERED FOR ENTRY TOO! https://twitter.com/kytah00/status/544701561574666240 afjackly@oakland.edu

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  52. We go on family walks.
    vandenbossche3@hotmail.com

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  53. https://twitter.com/618mom23boys/status/545055405894692864 vandenbossche3@hotmail.com

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  54. I sometimes struggle with having the time to properly prepare healthier meals and end up going for a less healthy, easier option. I try to prepare fresh cut veggies/fruits ahead of time for snacks but when it comes to the bigger meals, sometimes I just don’t have the time.
    prettyinhotpink6 at gmail dot com

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  55. Tweet: https://twitter.com/PrettyHotPink6/status/545072019503452160

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  56. https://twitter.com/susan1215/status/545234655520104448

    s2s2 at cox dot net

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  57. we try to eat health dinner together and go for a walk after dinner.
    tina19820115@gmail.com

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  58. https://twitter.com/HappyTina0115/status/545318741974605824
    tina19820115@gmail.com

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  59. We eat lots of fruits and veggies and limit our sugar intake.

    Thanks for the chance to win!
    wildorchid985 AT gmail DOT com

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  60. something is hard to find healthy meals that my nephew will eat

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  61. https://twitter.com/purplelover04/status/545675285065383936

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  62. Ideally, we'd eat healthy 90% of the time and work out four days a week. With a baby now, that's not always feasible. But meal planning is a must!

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  63. As a family we eat healthy most of the time, but my biggest struggle is limiting my own sugar intake. I love the sweet stuff!
    dmarie824 at aol dot com

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  64. tweet - https://twitter.com/dmarie824/status/546528404590174209

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  65. Tweet: https://twitter.com/OneFrugalGirl/status/546534424909991936
    onefrugalgirl AT gmail DOT com

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  66. We try to keep a lot of veggies and fruit on hand, so if we do eat something that isn't so good for us we make sure we don't do it very often.

    onefrugalgirl AT gmail DOT com

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  67. I always encourage healthy snacks. And our kids are also involved in a lot of sports.
    nuthouse(at)centurytel(dot)net

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  68. tweeted: https://twitter.com/KerryBishop/status/546701875882360832
    nuthouse(at)centurytel(dot)net

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  69. I struggle with our busy schedules and waiting until the last minute to fix dinner which often leads to poor choices!
    sonaydmorris@gmail.com

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  70. Link to tweet:
    https://twitter.com/catholicfanatic/status/546540139288096768
    Thank you! sonyadmorris@gmail.com

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  71. As a family we eat healthy most of the time, I don't buy junk food and we eat dinner together every night.

    s2s2 at cox dot net

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  72. https://twitter.com/susan1215/status/546787030844186624

    s2s2 at cox dot net

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  73. I always worried what every one was eating, so I kept lots of fresh fruit and yogurt around for snacking.

    gmissycat at yahoo dot com

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  74. Tweeted

    https://twitter.com/gmissycat/status/546845179471491072

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  75. Our challenge right now is to try and find vegetables our 4-year-old will eat. She loves fruit but struggles with veggies she liked just 2 years ago

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  76. we try to eat healthy meals and exercise regularly

    debbiebellows (at) gmail (dot) com

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  77. i posted a tweet here:

    https://twitter.com/bellows22/status/547202473232842752


    debbiebellows (at) gmail (dot) com

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  78. My ideal balance for my family is to have all bills paid current, spend equal times doing fun and needed things, and spend plenty of time away from our screens! LOL
    Angie
    14earth at gmail dot com

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  79. I tweeted here: https://twitter.com/MsTofuFairy/status/547447253594423297
    Angie
    14earth at gmail dot com

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  80. What do you do to keep YOUR family balanced?
    We like to eat homemade meals and healthy snacks, drink lots of water and stay acitve
    neiddyruiz@gmail.com

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  81. tweeted -https://twitter.com/neiddy_ruiz/status/547492859931160576
    neiddyruiz@gmail.com

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  82. I try to make sure we eat balance meals.
    adrianecoros(at)gmail(dot)com

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  83. Drink lots of water, eat well, get rest, and try not to stress out.
    bingomamanorma at gmail dot com

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  84. I make homemade meals with veggies to keep them balanced

    POKERGRL8 at gmail.com

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  85. https://twitter.com/aes529/status/547756167012044800
    POKERGRL8 at gmail.com

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  86. We make homemade meals, try to stay active, and eat all our meals together !
    My email is redaurelie(at)gmail(point)com

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  87. My tweet https://twitter.com/AurelieRed/status/547765961491632128
    My email is redaurelie(at)gmail(point)com

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  88. We struggle with balancing time for work, school, and sports.

    rounder9834 @yahoo.com

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  89. tweeted
    https://twitter.com/thomasmurphy40/status/547833939973263360

    rounder9834 @yahoo.com

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  90. I try to ensure that we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. At least one fruit snack each day and one serving of veggies with dinner.

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  91. Tweet: https://twitter.com/electricstar/status/547876619654684673

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  92. We eat dinner together as a family and I try to limit their after school activites

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

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  93. tweet https://twitter.com/ChelleB36/status/547876804115968000

    tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

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  94. What I struggle with most to keep a balanced family is time. There's never enough what with work, school, homework, shopping, cooking, eating, sleeping. Add in two little leaguers with baseball practices and games and I am run ragged. The list goes on. I need about 6 more hours in a day to get our family well balanced.

    eswright18 at gmail dot com

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  95. tweeted
    https://twitter.com/eswright18/status/547891400289685504

    eswright18 at gmail dot com

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  96. Sometimes, while trying to maintain balance, my family gets fixed in on the "details" a lot, and we don't always get through things as easily as possible. It takes a balanced person with a clear head to make it through projects the best.

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  97. Tweeted! https://twitter.com/pixel_berry_pie/status/547896986750689281

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  98. We try to stay balance by eating foods to maintain our diabetes and finding fun ways to exercise. tracietrump40@gmail.com

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  99. I tweeted about the giveaway as @tmt121172 on 12/24/14. tracietrump40@gmail.com

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