Every time I visit my mother’s house she always has books on the nightstand in the guest bedroom. During my past several visits, I’ve been flipping through the “Doing Nothing” book, official title “The Art of Doing Nothing.”

It’s hard to imaging there is a book of this title, but I do beleive that people need to be lead in this direction. We needed to be reminded and prodded to relax. There are too many forces pulling us in their directions for us to slow down and just be.

The book talks about “simple ways to make time for yourself,” everything from meditating to breathing to bathing. Simple ways to relax. Nothing to buy. Nothing to get — just ideas and suggestions on how to take time for yourself.

Occasionally I visit icanhascheezburger to see what they have: It’s always something funny. Today was a tug at my heart. It’s interesting … it’s a photo of a guy saving cats. Look at his face. He’s working so hard holding on to those cats, who most likely would have drowned, starved or otherwise died had he not grabbed them.

I saw another photo like this during the recent floods. A man went to save his dogs. Police didn’t want him returning to his home, but he couldn’t leave them so he and another man returned three times, drudging through the murky flood waters, until all his dogs were safe.

More cat pictures.

Summer is here. Time to slather on the cream. Personally, I hate putting sunscreen on, but it is something we must do. We should all be wearing a base coat of some kind of sunscreen on our faces. Many of today’s face lotions now contain SPF and even foundations have SPF in them.

KatieMagic writes a letter on her blog, “Dear SPF 15.”It shows a photo of her with sunburned shoulders. I guess SPF 15 didn’t cut it.

And, what about the kids? My son doesn’t like sunscreen and it’s usually a fight to put it on. The pool is the only weapon I have to get him to wear it. If he doesn’t put it on, he’s not allowed to go swimming. But, how do I get him to wear it just to play outside. I haven’t mastered that yet, but it’s next.

Related:

• How do you get your child to wear sunscreen? From Yahoo answers.
• Top 10 Sunblocks & Sunscreens from iVillage.com
• Top 9 Best Sunscreens from About.com
• Best Sunscreen for Kids from About.com
• What kind of sunscreen is best for toddlers? from Baby Center
• Sunscreen Q&A from American Academy of Pediatrics (includes information for infants)

Daddy’s been out of town on business for three nights. My son has been cranky for three nights. Mommy is tired. Son has had a double ear infection and now has an infected throat. One more night alone. Only one more night.

It’s bedtime and he asks to sleep in Daddy’s bed. This is normally not allowed in our house, but I’m tired and he’s not feeling well. Plus, there’s extra room on Daddy’s side of the bed. I relent, for tonight.

He falls asleep and I retreat to the living room to watch some TV. I go to bed a few hours later and quickly fall asleep.

1:50 a.m.

“Mommy.”

“What?”

“Where’s my school bus?”

“Are you kidding me?” I think, but don’t say.

“School bus.”

It’s pitch black in the house, yet I get out of bed to search for his little Hasbro yellow school bus.

Living room: nothing.

His bedroom: nothing.

Bathroom: nothing.

Back to living room: nothing.

It’s 2:00 a.m.! What am I doing?

I go back to my bedroom, handing him his little blue helicopter instead.

“I don’t like helicopter,” he says through his grogginess.

“GREAT! Are you kidding me?” Again, I only think it.

“I don’t know where the school bus is,” I try.

Then, leaning over, I see it — it’s in the bed with us.

Are you kidding me?!

“Here’s the school bus!” I say, “Now go back to sleep.”

He snuggles closer, almost on top of me, resting his head on my pillow. We’re check-to-cheek; he falls asleep.

It’s 2:00 a.m. and I’m with an angel … no kidding.

Several years ago I was a huge fan of the home decorating show “Trading Spaces.” This was pre-kids, when it was cool to say you watched “Trading Spaces.” I learned so much from this show — especially, how to decorate on a budget. I’ll share one of my favorite tips from the show. I got it from designer Genevieve Gorder.

I have two black and white photographs of my cats on hanging in our home and they are two of the most talked about pieces of art in my house. Even though I have a few really nice pieces hanging on my walls, it’s these fake-out black and whites that get mentioned the most. All I did was take two of my favorite photos of my pets, copy them and frame. Here’s the details and the final products:

• I started with a 3-1/2 x 5 color photo.
• Went to my local copy shop and started enlarging it on a color copier. This is important. It must be a color copier. It’s how you’ll get all the deep tones of black. I recommend that you get assistance with this part to save money. I wasted several “copies” trying to find the right percentage to blow up the image to.
• Before you print, choose the black and white option. Again, it seems silly to pay extra for a black and white copy from a color copier, but the end result will be worth the extra pennies.
• Place in a nice frame. If doing more than one, consider choosing frames that match or are similar in color to unify the prints.