Add housework to the list of things I look forward to doing. Don’t think I’m crazy, either.  Here’s the theory: housework is part of maintaining our lives. There simply is not an option of parenting without maintenance.  Why not love your job?  Okay, before you answer, I will offer my guidelines for loving this particular maintenance job.

First, I intentionally breathe into each required movement.  I feel it instantly. When I synchronize my body’s movement with life force (breath) and intention (well-being), I gain immediate benefit from the mind~body~spirit connectivity. Here’s an example: I breathe out as I squat or pick up a dirty garment, breathe in and center myself with love, breathe out as I throw the clothes into the machine. It might take a little practice, but the mindfulness makes me happier.

Second, I intentionally twist a little further than is required.  Many maintenance tasks involve twisting the trunk of your body:  dishes, laundry transfer and folding.  Twisting the trunk squeezes and releases toxins from your internal organs.  Enjoy dish-washing, knowing every dish gets you lighter, especially if you breathe into and out of the twist.  Breath in as you straighten, breath out as you twist. It’s really that simple.

Third, I improve my posture every time I reach for something on the ground.  Picking up clutter from the floor and washing a child’s hair (standing while they are sitting in the bathtub) can actually increase vigor instead of being another part of the grind.  Leaning over the bath is the same as doing a right-angle yoga pose (lengthen your body as you bend forward and keep your trunk outright, hips anchored, chin tucked and connected with muscles in your core).  And when you bend down to pick up toys,  bend at the hip crease and perform a slow-motion dive; keep your spine straight instead of bending your lower back.  This pose is wonderful for a good night’s sleep. You can also squat to invigorate your nervous system and improve alignment.

And, as enjoyable as these maintenance tasks can be when you make them yoga moves, it’s also yogic to delegate tasks to the kids.  I know that some tasks are more work for you when your child helps…  Delegate carefully.  If you just need to get stuff done without the kids interfering, try my method of talking to your kids about the value of a happy parent.  A speech about the benefits of a happy mom sends my 5-year-old right toward quiet, independent play every time.

Please, comment if you have additions to this approach!!  From every lemon, we can make lemon cookies, lemonade, lemon frosting, lemon-pepper linguini, etc.

Or at least wash your hands VERY thoroughly. Turtle owners will hate us for telling you this but, you know, we’re just keeping you informed.  A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study links a recent 34-state, 107-person outbreak of salmonellosis – an infection caused by the bacteria Salmonella – with exposure to small turtles. In the study, “Continuing Risk of Salmonellosis From Small Turtles: Multistate Outbreak of Salmonella Infections Associated With Small Turtle Exposure, 2007-2008,” researchers interviewed 78 patients or parents of patients (median patient age, 7) diagnosed with Salmonella during the outbreak. Thirty-three percent of the patients were hospitalized from the potentially fatal illness, and 60 percent reported exposure to a turtle during the week before their illness. Most of the reported turtle exposures were to small turtles less than 4 inches in length.

According to the CDC, children should not be exposed to turtles. In fact, since 1975 the U.S. has banned the sale of small turtles because of Salmonella risks. Despite a federal ban, though, small turtles continue to be sold in the U.S. and pose a health risk. So, see, now you can worry about something other than H1N1.

A study released today in the journal Pediatrics by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia offers more evidence that kids should use belt-positioning booster seats.

Researchers at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention studied more than 7,000 children ages 4 to 8 involved in crashes between 1998 and 2007. They found that the kids riding in the backseat in a booster were 45 percent less likely to be injured in a crash compared with children using a seat belt alone. The study showed there was no difference in the level of protection offered by backless versus high-back booster seats.

Based on this latest analysis of children in crashes, the best advice is to use a belt-positioning booster seat until a child is at least 8 years of age, according to Dennis Durbin, M.D., M.S.C.E., Co-Scientific Director of The Center for Injury Research and Prevention and the study’s co-author.

Under California law, children 5 and younger and less than 60 pounds MUST BE in a booster seat. Besides the increased risk of injury, there’s a $100 fine for noncompliance.

More information about the booster seat study, along with videos and fact sheets for parents about how to choose and install the right seat for your child and your car are available at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia Website.

A recent Mayo Clinic study proves what we’ve been trying to tell you. Reading books, playing games, participating in computer activities and crafting leads to a 30 to 50 percent decrease in the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment in middle age and later life. People who watched television for less than seven hours a day in later years were 50 percent less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than those who watched more than seven hours of television per day. Additionally, individuals who participated in social activities and READ MAGAZINES (editor’s note: surely, online magazines are even better) during middle age were about 40 percent less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment than those who did not participate in those activities. The study was presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting.  Yonas Geda, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neuropsychiatrist and author of this study,  says the research is exciting because it demonstrates that aging doesn’t need to be a passive process. “By simply engaging in cognitive exercise, you can protect against future memory loss,” says Geda. We think it’s exciting because it proves you should be reading Exurb daily and, while it didn’t mention anything about leaving comments, we bet that also keeps you very, very young.

I’m going to start this story with a memory that, yes, did send me into therapy many years later. I don’t remember how old I was, probably somewhere between eight and 12. It was a warm, sunny, summer day. I was sitting on our plaid couch (house colors: gold, black, orange, and every shade of brown, except my room, which was purple) with a book. My mother came toward me and said, “Get outside. Go be with people. No one is ever going to love you if you read this much.”

I believed my mom (who, by the way, has since redeemed herself a million times over). I believed that no one would ever love me since I wasn’t about to give up reading (so I was inherently unlovable ergo the therapist). Also, I believed that I was someone who didn’t naturally want “to go outside.”

For about two decades after that I turned down a lot of exciting invitations. I didn’t ride bikes or go to the beach or go on boats (except tugboats, but that’s another story, and a much more romantic one than this). Then, in 2001, after a very very bad year in my life, I was offered a free bike trip to Napa and Sonoma. All I would have to do is bike about 30 miles every day on hilly terrain. Oh, and drink some wine and eat gourmet meals.

You know how after you’ve had a baby, been left by your son’s father, and then fired from a job so you have to find somewhere new to live with your toddler, you’ll do anything to escape that horrible thing you call your life? Well, reader, I said yes to that free trip to the wine country even though I had not ridden a bike since I was about 11. Well, not really “ridden,” but, more honestly, fallen off. And then cried. In front of a boy’s house. I still have the scar on my knee.

I was 37, though, at the time, and really, I couldn’t fall, metaphorically-speaking, any further. I wasn’t about to turn down the trip. So, to prepare, I left my son with my brother and sister-in-law for a couple of hours and rode my bike around central New Jersey alongside the cars and trucks. Then, a week or so later, I rode my bike around the hills of California next to even bigger trucks (it was early fall, grape press season). Oh, and I ate and drank wine and had some spa treatments.

You know what you’re imagining? About how perfect and wonderful this week was? Well, it was better than that. The weather was ideal, the food was delicious, and the bike rides were liberating and invigorating and made me young again. I realized that, in fact, I am the kind of person who liked to be outside. I can even ride a bike! In fact, I didn’t fall all week (Thank God, too, because I would have been smushed by a truck full of chardonnay grapes). I actually have a distinct memory of the wind drifting through my hair as I rolled quickly down a hill on the Sonoma Coast, feeling freer and happier than I had in months. So what if the man I loved had turned out to be a disappointment (that’s an understatement). If he hadn’t left, I would have never seen the Pacific Ocean from Bodega Bay or stayed at The Madrona Manor.

I really began to see myself differently then and started to lead a more physically adventurous life. This was helpful because my young son was now turning into a little boy who loved to play baseball, run around rocks, and fish. Since I was the only adult in the house, it was up to me to do these things with him. I had to be eager, energetic, and hopeful about these activities. Of course I can throw a football! Of course I can put up a tent!

My son is nine now and he has jumped off quarry ledges, camped, hiked, fished, canoed, gone tubing, swum in oceans and lakes, earned a green belt in Tae Kwon Do, taken gymnastics, ridden horses, practiced yoga, played soccer and football, and has put in requests for kayaking, whitewater rafting, and the trapeze. I’m truly proud of this because, if you’ll remember from the beginning of the story, I was the girl no one was going to love because I read so much and I didn’t want to go outside.

The thing is, I don’t feel like a 45-year-old woman when I do these things. I feel like the kid I never was. Like I’m getting something I didn’t have when I was younger. A big surprise. A new identity. It turns out my mom was wrong about me and I was wrong about myself. I am the person who goes outside. And I love that about myself.