22 minute read
Shelf Control
shelf control creating a space for toys
In households with young children, nothing accumulates faster than toys. Few parents are immune to the struggles of figuring out a place to store everything so the house isn’t cluttered. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of stepping on a LEGO while barefoot, you’re going to be even more motivated to get all that stuff put away. Fortunately, there are plenty of creative solutions for tidying up your home...and reducing the odds of bodily injury!
Turning a spare room into a playroom is a great way to keep your house neat while providing your kids with a dedicated place to play. Even if you don’t have the space to set aside an entire room for your kids’ Barbies and Hot Wheels, there are still things you can do to keep your home organized and your children entertained. Organization is Key John and Sarah Enos know the struggle well. They are parents to two children of their own (Reign and Micah), as well as three additional foster kids. They also happen to own VL Homes, a residential remodel and design company in Rapid City, along with John’s brother Dan and his wife, Erin. This makes them ideally suited to offer practical advice on creating a playroom or separate space for kids.
The pair, who met before attending college at Black Hills State University, didn’t originally set out to be business owners. Both began their professional careers as teachers but felt the pull to go in a different direction. John enjoyed building things and working with his hands and Sarah had a passion for designing, so they decided to fulfill their dream of starting their own business and formed VL Homes in 2018. The company’s goal is to remodel homes and renovate lives, and they have been successful in both endeavors.
As their own family grew, they needed
The secret to organization is making the playspace kid-accessible. You’ll want to store toys at the child’s level, so they can take them out and put them away.
to figure out how best to use the limited space available to them. Their solution was simple, and one many parents turn to: creating a play area for their kids.
“You really have to decide what’s important,” John says. “Ask yourself, is your room about creating an impression for guests, or truly designed for kids to play in? Kids won’t use a space if they don’t feel they can actually play there.”
“When you’re considering a playspace, organization is key,” Sarah adds. “Design has to meet function. You want a beautifully aesthetic space that [allows you] to do what you want.”
John and Sarah are proponents of storage cubes and bins that are reserved for separate toys. Places like IKEA offer a wide selection of functional, inexpensive options. One cube might contain dolls, another could house blocks, etc. This not only makes it easy to find favorite toys, but teaches children to pick up after themselves. Another key strategy involves rotating toys, putting some aside and bringing them out only occasionally so children won’t grow bored with them. These can be stored in a garage or closet when not in use. Don’t be afraid to pass them down to cousins or donate to thrift stores when your kids are no longer interested in playing with them. Designing a Shared Space While a dedicated playroom is ideal, not everybody has that luxury. You might have
to designate a room to serve double-duty, perhaps creating a playspace in a guest room or home office. If you go this route, John suggests adding a shelving system where kids’ toys occupy the lower shelves and other items are stored higher, out of reach of little hands. If guests will be sleeping there occasionally, a convertible day bed is an excellent option. While less common nowadays, a Murphy bed that slides vertically against a wall is a great space-saver. Arrange furniture with safety in mind (e.g., place a recliner in a corner where you aren’t likely to get hit by flying toys), and invest in washable slipcovers or, if your budget allows, leather furniture, which is durable and easy to clean. Don’t fill the room with expensive or hard-to-replace items like heirloom vases or fancy lamps; even the best-behaved kids break things. John and Sarah like to seek out thrift stores for inexpensive items that are still aesthetically pleasing but functional and don’t have sentimental value. In a larger space, such as a basement, keep in mind that kids love forts and cubby holes. You can even get creative in small spaces. If you’re living in a tiny apartment while saving up for a down payment on a house, a bookcase with dedicated shelves and a few storage cubes will go a long way toward clutter-free living quarters and kids will feel like you are inviting them into your shared space.
With a final piece of advice, John urges: “Let kids be creative, play, and have fun!”
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Providing Second Chances
words Sarah Richards photo Jesse Brown Nelson
Abbott House has been a fixture in South Dakota for over 80 years. Founded as an orphanage in 1939 by a group of Mitchell citizens who wanted to provide disadvantaged children with stability, the private charity offers residential treatment services, therapeutic foster care, and independent living programs for children aged seven to seventeen who have suffered physical and emotional trauma and abuse.
Realizing that the Black Hills were lacking in such services, Abbott House expanded to Rapid City in 2015.
Before she was involved at the Abbott House, Helen was an educator for 12 years and worked with several other nonprofit organizations beginning in 2002 including WAVI, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Wellfully, and more. “Life comes full circle,” she shares. “I had worked with children in foster care and have had to be the person to call DSS and see kids in those situations.” Living that experience on the sidelines was really hard for someone who’s always had a soft spot for lending a helping hand to children, so in 2018, she assumed the role of assistant development director for the Black Hills Region.
Black Hills Bridges by Abbott House aims to provide premier services for youth and give them second chances. Helen’s job is to make connections with the community and encourage organizations like the YMCA, Big Brother Big Sister, and others to create partnerships. Helen also works to create relationships with professionals. “A lot of the children we see come from Helen is very involved in the upcoming development of two more homes in Rapid City. These homes will provide services for 18- to 23-year-olds who transition out of foster care until they can get their feet on the ground.
a traumatic or high needs situation, so we have to make services available to them to help process the situation,” Helen says.
The mission of the Abbott House is to focus on what is best for each of the kids involved, according to Usera. “It’s about making sure that they feel loved and accepted. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the home for 24 hours, weeks, or months. It’s making sure that they are a part of a family,” she says.
Helen’s family-centered upbringing provided the perfect backdrop for her role with the Abbott House. “In our family, you take care of one another,” she adds. Having someone in the home who knows your situation that you feel completely comfortable around is healing for the kids, which is why the Abbott House prides itself on keeping siblings together. Right now between the two Rapid City homes, there are three sets of siblings.
To learn more, visit them online: AbbottHouse.org.
Bragging like a proud mom, Helen shared the story of one individual in the care of the Black Hills Bridges home. “This young man was motivated to stay in school and keep his grades up so that he could compete in wrestling,” she says. Consistency and studying was hard in his previous situation, but being put in this home with foster parents who care helped him to get back on track. Helen smiles, “He placed second for All City Wrestling, and he was so proud.” The success of these individuals is all the reward that Helen needs to keep the torch lighted in finding new efforts and paths to helping these kids.
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Tips for Buying or Refinancing a House
words Mark Petruska
A 2018 survey found that 40 percent of Americans consider buying a house “the most stressful event in modern life.” It’s natural to feel anxious about making such a large purchase, but a little advance planning can make the process a lot easier.
Trevor Madsen should know. He’s been a loan originator for Unify Home Lending in Rapid City for two years now and has seen it all. This self-described “Loan Ranger” has a background in journalism and says there are quite a few similarities between that and mortgage lending.
“Everybody’s got a story,” Trevor says. “When doing loans for people, you sit down and listen to their wants and needs, learn what they hope to accomplish, and put the pieces together.”
Trevor has some helpful advice for those planning on buying a house. The most important thing a prospective homebuyer can do, he says, is track their spending. Little things are often overlooked, he warns. Recurring charges such as Netflix subscriptions, dollar shave clubs, and gym memberships that are automatically withdrawn from your account make it easy to fall into the “out of sight, out of mind” trap. Even seemingly insignificant purchases add up quickly when they become routine. Trevor cites the morning latte as a perfect example; if you’re paying $5 for a daily cup of coffee, you might end up spending over $100 a month. That’s no small amount when you’re trying to save up for a down payment. The key, Trevor says, is to live at or below your means. Equally important is paying your bills on time. Many of us are familiar with how quickly credit card debt can get out of hand; missing even a single payment can have a negative impact on your credit score. “If you can’t pay for something right then and there, maybe you shouldn’t buy it, Trevor advises” Lenders will look at your credit score in order to determine whether you qualify for a loan. If it’s too low—generally, banks like to see a score of at least 640—there isn’t a whole lot you can do immediately. The higher your credit score, the better your interest rate will be, so adopting wise spending habits can pay off for you when it’s time to look for a house.
Trevor suggests sitting down and figuring out a budget three to six months in advance. Many people focus on paying off as much debt as possible before beginning the process, but he cautions that this isn’t always the best strategy. “Paying off a loan will absolve a line of credit and that’s a negative factor,” he explains. “Your credit score can take a ding.” You might be better off taking the same amount of money you’d use to pay off a car loan, for instance, and applying it toward credit card debt so you reduce your balance to no more than 30 percent of your credit limit. Other common mistakes to avoid when buying a home include taking on new debt, making an employment change, and fixating too much on interest rates, which are already at historic lows. As long as you’re planning on staying in your house a long time, it’s simply not cost-effective to chase after a few dollars.
There are a lot of puzzle pieces involved in buying a house, but help is available. Trevor and other lending specialists have financial simulators that allow customers to play around with different scenarios in order to determine the best ways to qualify for a loan. Everybody’s situation is unique; an experienced lender will provide the tools to get you on track, whether you’re buying your first home or refinancing an existing loan.
Don’t worry if you encounter a few bumps in the road during your journey. These are perfectly normal. “If nothing comes up, we call that a unicorn,” Trevor says. “More often than not, there are hiccups, even for super savvy people.” Most are easily resolved with documentation.
When it comes to home mortgages, Trevor enjoys helping his clients through the challenges. “It’s like solving one big puzzle,” he said with excitement.
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The family that plays together… Stays healthy, happy – and, yes, together Regardless of your age, exercise should be a part of your routine, even for kids.
Thirty percent of adults and 12 percent of children in South Dakota are obese. Type 2 diabetes among children is on the rise. But with today’s busy families, it can be hard for parents and children to find the time for fitness. Between daycare drop-offs, after-school pickups, extracurricular activities, shopping and everything else, exercise can wind up at the bottom of the to-do list. One solution: Turn your fitness into family fun. Doing activities as a family brings everyone together in a fun and interactive manner. It allows the whole family to be healthier, achieve new goals together, and provides a bonding experience.
An added bonus – if your kids see you exercising and taking your health seriously, they are more likely to grow up with the same healthy habits they see in you.
Things to remember when planning family fitness: MAKE IT FUN Unlike adults, children don’t exercise for their health. They don’t care about cholesterol, they’re not impressed by six-pack abs and getting 10,000 steps is SO BORING! But give a kid a soccer ball, a big green field and opposing team, and the fitness will follow. If they are entertained, they won’t notice that they’re exercising. MAKE IT AN ADVENTURE In the Black Hills, we’re blessed to have multiple outdoor opportunities just outside our door. We can mountain bike the Mickelson Trail. We can hike the Centennial Trail. We can take family backpacking trips into the Black Elk Wilderness.
The opportunities don’t end when the weather turns cold. A family pass at Terry Peak Ski Area will get you a winter’s worth of fresh air, sunshine and outdoor fun.
DON’T FORGET NONTRADITIONAL GAMES When you play nontraditional games such as badminton, disc golf, hacky sack or foursquare, the playing field is automatically leveled. Nobody has an advantage, and you get to learn together how to play.
TAKE TURNS PICKING WHAT TO PLAY For youngsters, there is something empowering about being in charge of the game the family plays. And when it’s someone else’s turn, they are more willing to play because they get to pick the next game. Translation: No back-seat bickering… OK, maybe less bickering. They are siblings, after all.
AND DON’T BE ROUTINE Remember, if what you do as a family appeals to everyone’s sense of fun, adventure, new experiences and family bonding, your exercise routine will be anything but routine.
words Morgan Foster. Manager of Performance Enhancement at Monument Health Sports Performance Institute Powered by EXOS.
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REPLACE SHOTS WITH DROPS If you suspected that your allergies could be a trigger for chronic sinusitis, you are 100% correct!
Allergens are everywhere and we, at West River Allergy Clinic, commonly see children and adults alike struggling with itchy eyes, repetitive sneezing, runny nose with post nasal drainage and chronic sinusitis. We can help you! Very frequently the diagnosis and treatment of allergy can improve one’s quality of life and significantly reduce the number of sinus infections a patient has each year.
We can allergy test children and adults in our office usually in less than an hour. After a thorough history and physical examination we proceed to testing. If the patient tests positive, we formulate a recipe for therapy specific to the patient’s history and positive allergens.
One treatment option we have found to work particularly well to relieve allergy symptoms is sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT). This type of immunotherapy is great for children or adults who hate shots. We custom make allergy drops that are placed under the tongue once a day. The drops absorb through the lining of the floor of your mouth and over time can influence your immune system to reduce or eliminate allergy symptoms. So there is no need to show up to the office every week for an allergy shot!
By using these allergy drops consistently over time we have found our patient symptoms to greatly improve. The number of sinus infections also usually goes down. And for those patients that still have problems with sinus infections, we offer both inoffice and outpatient surgical procedures to address these persistent sinus symptoms.
Dr. Rob Schleiffarth MD OTOLARYNGOLOGIST
4940 5th Street Rapid City www.westriverent.com 605-791-0602
placed next to a tooth that has reached the point of needing a filling, and the opportunity to clinically see that area we are “watching” when in for treatment. If the area clinically is sound, we will continue to watch. If however the area adjacent is with clinical decay, we let you know and address it.
Dentistry is a world that contains many shades of gray and has options that are available to you as a patient. We believe in letting you know options available, and presenting you with the risks and benefits of them so you, as the patient, may be able to make an educated decision about your individual care. As the patient/doctor relationship grows, we can determine the best route for each individual situation. Different factors affecting treatment include comfort/anxiety, esthetics, materials, working with and around existing completed work, finances, insurance coverage, and more. We work with these factors and all your options to provide the best dentistry possible. At All About Smiles Valley Dental, we take pride in general dentistry being our specialty. ASK THE DENTIST When you are in to see us for an examination, we aim to be as conservative as possible with treatment. This is something that is perhaps unique for our practice, and something that we are also proud of. The options for more extensive treatment will remain, however the ability to turn back the clock and undo something that has been done is not.
When in for your examination, we discuss different risk factors: diet, home care, patient history, and family history all may be factors reviewed. These all help in the determination of potential decay, recurrent decay and how rapid of growth for any decay.
Reviewing x-rays of your teeth, there must be a minimum amount of tooth structure that has been affected before those areas of concern will be diagnosable. We will place a “watch” on a tooth when we see perhaps the beginning, yet not quite the necessity of needing a filling, so we can let you know the potential concern. This watch may be Why can proposed treatment plans change after an initial examination?
4215 Berniece Street Rapid City, SD 57701 605-343-6691 Summer Hours: M-TH 8am-4pm Winter Hours: M-TH 8am-5pm Every Fri 8am-12pm
DITCH THE CHOCOLATE BUNNY THIS EASTER
Easter is synonymous with bunnies, chocolate... and chocolate bunnies. Too many sweets help promote tooth decay, so try filling your kids’ baskets with non-candy alternatives this year. We bet they won’t even miss the chocolate!
TOYS
Depending on your child’s age and interests,
you could include small and inexpensive items like Hot Wheels cars, LEGOS, bubbles, finger puppets, dolls, balloons, plush animals, and action figures.
HEALTHY SNACKS Substitute healthier kid-favorite foods like raisins, pretzels, nuts, Goldfish crackers, apples, oranges, animal crackers, and low-sugar juice boxes or flavored waters.
BOOKS
Encourage your child’s love of reading with
age-appropriate books. These might include comic books, coloring books, magazines,
puzzle books, paperbacks, diaries or journals.
GAMES Classic card games (UNO, Crazy 8s, Old Maid), puzzles, mini Etch-a-Sketches, dice, marbles, Rubik’s cubes, and small electronic video games can all provide hours of enjoyment.
MISCELLANEOUS The sky’s the limit when filling an Easter
basket. Items like hair brushes, Band-aids, fingernail polish, toothbrushes, wallets and purses, flashlights, watches, and bike accessories are all popular and fun.
CLOTHING Stylish accessories like colorful socks, slippers, sunglasses, hats, bibs, gloves, and scarves are always appreciated.
When the apple-a-day thing isn’t enough...
Life happens here.
For over 70 years, Rapid City Medical Center has been the leader in family medicine. Serving your entire family in three convenient Rapid City locations.
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Implement an Injury Prevention Program
What length would you go to in order to prevent an injury to your child? Most parents would say “I’d do whatever it takes.” What if you could save a significant amount of money and protect your child?
Common injuries in youth sports and recreational play include: · Sprains where ligaments connect to bones, such as an ankle sprain · Tendon and muscle strains, such as a hamstring strain · Tears in ligaments and cartilage, such as meniscus and ACL tears in the knee
Fortunately, 50-80 percent of these injuries can be prevented simply by implementing an Injury Prevention Program into their normal training routines. If the possibility of preventing an injury to your child isn’t enough, here are three more reasons to implement a program for your young athlete:
Saving Money The cost of surgery and rehab for an injury, such as an ACL tear, could add up to thousands of dollars! 200,000+ ACL injuries occur each year and can take up to 12 months to rehabilitate, resulting in time off school, sports, and work. Who wouldn’t want to save thousands in medical bills and time lost? A Rise in Sport Specialization
Not many years ago, student athletes would often play multiple sports during the school year and take summers off. It is becoming more common for student athletes to commit to a single sport early on in their athletic careers and train for this sport year-round. One would think this would be beneficial to progressing quickly as an athlete and gaining scholarships. However,
the research disagrees. The Orthopedic Journal of
Sports Medicine reports an association between “early single sport specialization and overuse injuries,” as well as higher rates of burnout and even foregoing sports altogether. With the growing number of singlesport athletes, Injury Prevention Programs are becoming more and more critical to keep our kids safe, happy, and injury free. Prevention Programs Produce Stronger Athletes Dedicating time during the offseason or pre-season to specific Injury Prevention Programs can save money, keep our young athletes injury free and can keep them in the game. Prevention programs that specifically target hip, ankle, and core stability not only prevent injury and pain, but can also make the student a more fit, well-rounded athlete at the start of the season. Completing prevention programs as a team leads to better team bonding and athletes that are ready to go on day one of the season. Injury prevention programs generally consist of mobility, strength training, plyometrics, and sport specific agility training to address strength deficits and stabilization of muscles in specific areas. If saving money, reducing injuries, and keeping our athletes in the games is important to you, I encourage you to consider implementing an Injury Prevention Program for your athlete or team!
