Indoor Plants that Last

Having indoor plants in your apartment is a great way to give your home a fresh, natural look, among other benefits. From terrariums to flowers to larger plants, there are lots of options when it comes to decorating your place with beautiful botanicals.

However, not everyone has the skill or the schedule to care for indoor plants, which often require lots of natural sunlight, water, and even additional nutrients. In fact, sometimes owning indoor plants can be downright inconvenient and expensive.

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t have a green thumb, there are some plants that do in fact require very little time or commitment. iVillage.com offered up some suggestions for low maintenance indoor plants. Here are some of them:

Haworthias

“I like all Haworthias,” says Zimmerman of these succulents, which typically grow in small, solitary rosettes. “These are a good alternative to cacti and can also take slightly less light.” Sprout uses a succulent soil of crushed rock and sand that’s designed to dry out as fast as it can. (Regular potting mix acts like a sponge and can cause root rot.)

Creeping Pilea

Not the most gifted of indoor gardeners? You’ve come to the right place. Matthis Helmick and Tassy Zimmerman of urban-gardening boutique Sprout Home offer their top picks for plants that are both fun to look at and hard to kill.

While moss tends to be a popular request with customers, it’s too high maintenance for many people. Creeping Pilea, commonly known as Creeping Charlie, is a thicker, tougher alternative. “They have cute, waxy leaves that allow them not to dry out so fast,” says Helmick. Keep in low to bright light, and water about once a week (less if set in lower light).

ZZ Plant

"Definitely the best pick for people who neglect their plants for a week or more," says Zimmerman. With thick stalks and bulbous roots, ZZs have water storage systems like succulents, but can also tolerate extremely low light. “It’s our number one seller to those who claim to kill plants on a regular basis,” says Helmick.

Remember to stop by a place like Jericho Nursery or Osuna Nursery for your indoor plant needs!

Heart Healthy Parenting Tips

We know we have lots of parents here at Sandia Village, and we’re always looking for ways to make your lives easier.

While there are lots of stressful jobs out there, parenting has got to be the hardest. But it can be surprisingly easy to let the chaos and stress of parenting to take a toll on your physical health and well being.

If you’re a busy parent with little time to focus on yourself or your child’s health, there are things that you can do to minimize the impact on your family’s well-being and stay focused on your responsibilities as a parent. The American Heart Association has published a very helpful guide for parents in your situation. Here are some of our favorite tips:

Start With A Plan

Not surprisingly, the best time to make a meal plan isn’t when you’re hungry and need to eat right away. Make a list — and check it twice.

“We try to plan at least a few days ahead which meals we are going to make based on the days we have time to cook,” he said. “We always shop with a grocery list based on that menu, we don’t shop hungry and we make enough to have leftovers.”

Invest a couple of hours on the weekend to save anxiety as well as time on extra trips to the grocery store. Make large batches and freeze leftovers in individual portions for healthy, homemade microwaveable convenience meals. 

Get Your Kids In The Kitchen

Holly DuBois, who lives in San Antonio, gets her kids in the kitchen every chance she gets.

DuBois and her husband, Josh, both work in the healthcare profession. With a family history of obesity, they make sure their kids eat a healthy, balanced diet, but they don’t forbid treats. “Cooking for me personally has been a fun, stress-relieving activity that I’ve grown to love,” DuBois said. “I want them to share in it and enjoy it so it’s not a burden.”

My child is home alone. How can I help her eat healthy?

If you plan ahead, it’s pretty easy to help your child make good choices without any difficulty or dangerous prep work. Feest suggests:

●       Peanut butter and jelly with no-sugar added jelly on whole-wheat bread

●       Grilled fish sandwich. Keep spinach and tomatoes (sliced ahead of time) handy to add flavor and nutrients

●       Turkey sandwich. Don’t forget your favorite veggies

●       Whole-grain crackers and hummus

●       Fresh fruit

●       Healthy leftovers — microwave them for a quick, easy meal

Click here to read the full guide on Heart.org.

Veteran’s Creative Arts Festival 2014 in Albuquerque

Typically, Albuquerque’s art scene is associated with the young and hip generation. And that’s fine! But let’s not count out the older folks.

Albuquerque has a relatively large veteran community and no doubt, some of them have great creative gifts to share, whether it’s singing, dancing, sculpting, painting, poetry, or anything else.

The 12th Annual Veterans Creative Arts Fair will be held from February 26 to February 28 at the Raymond G. Murphy Veterans Affairs Medical Center at 1501 San Pedro Dr. SE right here in Albuquerque.

There will be several main divisions for any veterans who would like to share their talents in the following categories: Music, Art, Creative Writing, Drama, and Dance. The Visual Arts entries will be available to view on Feb. 26 and 27 in the Recreation Hall (Building 2), with the Performing Arts competition taking place on February 27 in the Education Auditorium (Building 39). Winners from the Albuquerque contests may be entered into the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, October 22 to November 2 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!

Here’s some additional info, courtesy of the Silver City Sun News:

The National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, presented by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Legion Auxiliary, is the culmination of a yearlong, fine arts talent competition involving more than 3,000 participants nationwide. The festival is open to all veterans receiving care at VA medical facilities, including NMVAHCS veteran employees.

For applications or more information about the festival, please call Barb Tremmel at 505-265-1711 ext. 4208. Veterans needing information about the Performance Arts can call Liz Apperson at 505-265-1711 ext. 2487. Veterans calling from outside of Albuquerque may call toll free at 1-800-465-8262 ext. 4208. Visit the Creative Arts Festival Website at creativeartsfestival.va.gov/ for more information.

Help Support Local Albuquerque Businesses

In this unpredictable economy, one of the best ways you can contribute to the financial stability of our lovely city is to support local businesses. While there are lots of talented, ambitious business owners in ABQ, they need our help!

Social and demographic research shows the numerous benefits that cities enjoy when residents decide to shop locally. When money stays within our small economy as opposed to national chains, it makes it much easier for business owning families to support themselves and creates greater potential for new, innovative businesses to rise up.

KeepItQuerque - buy local is a local organization that aims to educate Albuquerque consumers about the benefits of buying locally. And now, they are looking to publish a widely circulated educational document that explains why it’s important to buy local. They’ve started a crowdsourcing campaign to help them accomplish their goal, on Main Street Crowd:

KeepItQuerque - buy local celebrated our tenth year by publishing nationally recognized Civic Economics' study(available at KeepItQuerque.org; 'New Survey Shows The Powerful Effect of Shifting to Buying Local First; "KeepItQuerque - buy local" initiative makes a difference!') showing how money recirculates within our economy when spent locally versus when spent at a national chain. While there are differences between retailers and restaurants, the general results are in line with the results from other communities around the USA; a dollar recirculates 2.5 to 3 times more when spent at a local store. By “shifting 10% to local businesses” the Albuquerque Economy will retain $179,000,000 – every year.

Join KeepItQuerque - buy local as we head into our 11th year with plans to provide as many as 175,000 single-family households in the Albuquerque Metro Area a Member Directory. KeepItQuerque - buy local hopes to including Rio Rancho, Bernalillo and Belen.

Using a four-page, four-color directory on 45 lb. paper KeepItQuerque - buy local will publish an abridged version of the Civic Economics study on page 1, a listing of all members divided into basic categories (e.g.: Retail, Dining, Services, Business to Business, etc.) on pages 2 and 3, and the Premier Partners will be featured with their respective logos, slogans, and contact information (phone, address, website) on page 4.

To learn more about the buy local campaign, click here.

How to REALLY Enforce Bedtime

We know we’ve got quite a few parents in our little community here at Sandia Village, and one of the biggest challenges of parenthood is putting your kids to bed. With winter break wrapping up, it shouldn’t be a surprise if you experience difficulty with bedtime as the little ones get back into their daily routine.

However, there are some proven ways, depending on your child’s age, to get them to hit the hay a little faster. Productivity website Lifehacker has assembled a list of tips for parents in this area.

Here are some of the tips they have for kids ages 7 to 12:

Maintain the bedtime routine. The routine will likely change when your kid gets older and he's able to put himself to bed, but the basics of going from active to quieter activities, and unplugging from video games and TV still apply.
 Limit after-school activities. Extra-curricular activities are important, but too many of them coupled with lots of homework can push the bedtime later and later. Kids this age still need about 10-11 hours of sleep a day, although the average is only about 9 hours.
 Don't let weekends throw you off. Sleeping in on the weekends doesn't help anyone catch up on sleep and can, instead, throw off our internal clocks. A policy of staying up late "because it's the weekend" could jeopardize your child's sleep the following week, so try to avoid that if you can.

Or, if your kids are a little older, here’s their advice for kids aged 13 and up:

Blue light therapy. Blue light, we've seen before, can boost alertness. So blue lightbulbs or lamps in the morning could help your teen adjust more easily.
 Reserve the bed for sleep only. Advise your teen to have a good bedtime routine (yes, still!), which could include reading, but preferably not in bed, says Dr. Siege: "The act of getting into bed can be used as a final trigger for the brain to say 'I am going to sleep now,' so getting into bed should be reserved for the actual moment when one is going to be actually going to sleep." Good advice for adults too.
 Ban screens the hour before bed. Encourage your teen to keep the cell phone out of the bedroom (don't laugh, anything's possible!)
 Avoid stimulants. Per Dr. Siege: "Caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and of course other recreational substances can interfere with proper sleep and should be avoided by those struggling with insomnia." 

Click here to see their tips for kids of all age groups!