Healthy Families America - Belknap County

01/28/2021

*VITA is still offering free tax prep for incomes under $57,000.*

Due to Covid-19, they are using an abbreviated process which looks like the following:

Clients can pick up a packet in the Lobby at VISTA Grocery store in Laconia, or, it can be emailed to them (contact Cathy Dumais at 528-4295 or email [email protected]).

Once the client has completed the packet and has all their documents ready, a 10 minute appointment is scheduled which will be at Lakes Region Family Center/CAP.

At that time, they meet briefly with a tax preparer to go over all the information. The taxes will be prepared during the week and the client will be given a time to come back to pick them up. Then they will be e-filed.

12/02/2020

Marc Brackett describes seven aspects to self-care and we should be paying attention and trying to incorporate all of them into our lives.

This includes:

1) giving ourselves permission to feel
2) practicing mindfulness and breathing
3) sustaining positive relationships
4) managing our thoughts (monitoring our self-talk)
5) practicing biological self-care (getting a good night’s sleep, eating nutritiously, drinking lots of water)
6) psychological self-care (recognizing our mental health is as important as our physical health)
7) managing life smartly (stepping outside ourselves periodically to evaluate, with gentle curiosity i.e.: not judgment, how we’re doing…asking ourselves – and answering honestly - “is this working?”, “what works?”, “what doesn’t?” and “how can I use this information?”).

I read this in one of the HFA Network Updates and felt it worth sharing. No matter who you are, these can be helpful to look at one at a time.

10/29/2020

TOMORROW!!

09/03/2020

Here’s a little update to safe sleep recommendations for (and sometimes with) babies! 💤 🛏 👶🏽

Ask any new mom or dad what they find most difficult in a child’s first year, and they will probably mention sleep deprivation. By a baby’s first birthday, most parents have tried some sort of intervention - something to help their child learn to fall asleep and stay asleep on her own, so that e...

07/01/2020

creating bedtime-book bags for families today! ✨ 📚 🛌

06/29/2020

STARTS TOMORROW!!

06/29/2020

Safe sleep for infants during the COVID-19 pandemic (via CDC)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents of infants may experience increased stress and fatigue that could affect their infants’ sleep practices. Safe sleep is an important part of keeping infants healthy, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have an infant, you can help reduce your baby’s risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and other sleep-related deaths by doing the following:

•Place your baby on his or her back for all sleep times – naps and at night.

•Use a firm, flat sleep surface, such as a mattress in a crib, covered by a fitted sheet.

•Have the baby share your room but not your bed. Your baby should not sleep on an adult bed, cot, air mattress, or couch, or on a chair alone, with you, or with anyone else.

•Keep soft bedding such as blankets, pillows, bumper pads, and soft toys out of your baby’s sleep area.

•Do not cover your baby’s head or allow your baby to get too hot. Signs your baby may be getting too hot include if he or she is sweating or if his or her chest feels hot.

•Do not smoke or allow anyone to smoke around your baby.

06/01/2020

parent/child art group 😎 we did a image association mural of sorts this week! what will we do next week? dunno, let’s find out together 🎨

join this zoom meeting at 2pm every monday:
https://zoom.us/j/95231232762

05/25/2020

friendly reminder that due to the holiday, the parent/child art group is not being held!

05/21/2020

Every Thursday night at 8:30 we come together via ZOOM to slow down and invite simplicity, connection, and conversation. A mixture of structure and spontaneity keeps these sessions alive in the moment.

The focus is self-care while exploring mind, body, and self with simple art-making.

We usually share some good laughter!

You do not have to consider yourself an artist in any way. You just have to have been a kid once.

https://zoom.us/j/93599649736