Healthy Meals To Go!

I love to cook. It is so easy for me to look at a recipe and modify it so it fits the needs of my family. We eat very healthy, and this is important to me. My daughter Hanna complains that she doesn't receive any snack type food in her lunch at school. "But Mom" she complains, "all the other kids bring candy and potato chips for lunch. Why can't I?".

I loved watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution last year on TV. I am not a big TV person, I usually have to PVR the shows I am interested in and then on a cold Sunday afternoon, (much like today!) I can watch a few episodes of whatever I have taped. It is absolutely amazing to me to see how people eat. I like to watch shopping carts to see what people are buying. The health food types like me have a cart full of fresh fruits and veggies, and not the prepackaged frozen items that are so readily available. I want to believe that the folks buying this stuff care about what they are putting into their bodies. They just don't have time to prepare healthy food. I think it is really easy to cook at home and cook healthy. There are of course, many working professionals in our city that simply don't have the time to cook, and there are the busy moms and dads that don't like to cook, and then there are people that, oh my, don't know HOW to cook.

So, in my quest to change people's lives, both inside and out, I am now ready to help, teach and encourage others to eat healthy. Yay!! This is great news - I am not a nutritionist, a chef, nor am I formally trained. I however, I do have many life skills, and I am a smart intelligent person that knows the difference between eating a chocolate bar and pizza for supper or salmon with a mango pineapple salsa.

You will be and can be pleasantly surprised at what I can teach you about eating healthy. Or maybe you just want me to prepare some meals for you that you can freeze and take out to eat on the really busy days at your house. Whatever your need it, remember I can help!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

It has been forever and a long time since I last wrote. Life seems to really interupt my plans to do my blogging and networking. Being a small business owner, full time mom and wife and trying to find some time for me is next to impossible. Something always slides, even with me being an organizer.

I have decided that I am not going to allow myself to slide anymore - I am just as important as everything else I do around the house. I love to have a clean and naturally, an organized house. However, at what expense am I willing to have this? I have been putting myself last, not allowing time for exercise or walks, which is something that I really want to do. I have been putting my business after my kids and family, which is ok at times, especially while they are young and need me. When does the line get drawn to allow some ME time?

Organizing and cleaning my house, office, or anyone's house is great fun for me. I like to do this work and feel so blessed and thankful that I am able to do what I do. Being a full time mom, wife and business owner are all important to me. It really comes down to the balance of living your life, enjoying your life and creating a life that you want to live. In order to achieve success, you need to enlist the help of others and assess your wheel of life and how things may need to change in order for you to live fully and balanced. Willing to try a change? Find one area of your life that is not at a "10" and think about what you could do to make it closer to a "10". That's your homework for this week. I am going to make sure and blog every Wednesday so we can continue on this growth together, to become more organized in our spaces, and also in our lives.

Travel Planning

My love for organizing is coming head to head with my love for travel. I absolutely love to travel. In the last year I have been to Mexico, Australia, twice to Arizona, to Florida and next on the list will be Australia once more with a bit of New Zealand. All of the planning for flights, accomodations, rental cars, day excursions, and of course relaxation can be so time consuming. You can start your google search at 8 and before you know it, it's 10:30 or 11. Where does the time go to? Seriously I just stop by the computer to look up one little thing and that leads to the next and then I am looking at the time and thinking WHAT just happened?

It is alot of fun to research and read about where you are going. I can spend hours in the bookstore in the travel section, dreaming up my next trip or finding information for a friend that is leaving on a holiday so I can present them with pages of information. I didn't know this was possible, but did you know that there are people who go on a trip without planning *gasp* anything?! Wow. And I begin months and sometimes years before the next voyage!

With the summer months looming before us, it is natural to want to get out on the road or hop into a plane for a holiday. A little advance planning will go a long way. A few tips to help you begin are:

• Book your hotels, campsites, cabin rentals, etc. as far ahead as you can so as not to be disappointed if not available
• Plan a "mini-vacation" around one of the many weddings you may be invited to this summer
• Do not overschedule yourselves. Children and adults need time to relax - remember holidays are fun
• Keep snacks, water and juice handy so blood sugar levels remain optimium
• Let each member of the family take part in suggesting activities to take part in

That being said, I am branching out in my business and am doing research and travel plans for those who may require the services. Fun for me and a headache saved for them. Keep your eyes open for new adventures for me to pursue and Happy Travels!

Time Management

As a Professional Organizer, I am constantly multi-tasking and using effective time management. There are many areas of my life that would fall apart and crumble if I was not prepared for the best and worst case situations every day. I find myself getting ready for the day and the days events much like a baker gets out all his ingredients for baking a loaf of bread. He doesn't just bake one loaf at a time, he prepares for several loaves at once.

I construct my day around my appointments and try to leave large amounts of unscheduled time either at the start or finish of the day. This way I am out of the house and doing my running around at one time. When I find myself with large spaces of time in the middle of the day, the time literally seems to disappear before my eyes. 2 hours will pass in what seems like 10 minutes. It doesn't help that spending time checking and reading emails always takes longer than you think; or that I remember something that I wanted to google for more information and become easily sidetracked.

Setting up rules and boundaries for yourself is good idea to help you manage your time. For example, you can spend 30 minutes playing on the computer and on Facebook after you have done 30 minutes of housework. Like a boy scout's motto, Always Being Prepared is another good rule to live by. Keeping a change of clothes for your small children in your car along with snacks and a small toy is something I always do. I also have a magazine or book in the car at all times so anytime I arrive early I can catch up on my reading.  Always remember to schedule more time than you think you need for everything - as a society in general, we seem to rush and rush and still are behind in most everything we do. Look around at your activities and children's activities. There are not alot of folks that arrive 15 minutes early to anything anymore.

Learning how to effectively schedule yourself and allow enough time for traveling in a city can be changing alot with traffic and weather conditions. Once you have formed the habit of arriving early to your appointments, the stress of being late and running behind will melt away. You may even be like me and look forward to the 15 minutes of reading time in the car when you arrive early!

Sheds and Other Dreaded Beasts

It's been a long time since my last post. Getting a business off the ground, volunteering at school and being a full time mom and wife is taxing on a person. So I had to take some time for me.

The weekend was warm, so we were outside jumping on the trampoline and taking turns giving Alex wagon rides. Getting the wagon out of the shed was no easy feat. There was spilled grass seed all over, spare tires for the truck, work out equipment and then the outside toys. While the kids were playing with a friend around the yard, I took advantage of the afternoon to pull everything out of the shed and do what I do best: Organize! This was a hands-on, dirty, grimy job; but that is one of the best kind for me. When there is dirt all over my hands and its smudged on my face, when my jeans are dirty and I am hopelessy exhausted I know I have done a good job.

The tires now are at the back of the shed for another day, Chris will have to deal with those. (Tires for a F 150 should anyone be interested in buying them!) The little red tricycle is out for Alex and I adjusted the seat for him. He is still too young to actually pedal right now, but his tiny feet reach the pedals and he absolutely loves the bike. Red seemed like a odd color to buy for Hanna, however I knew the possibility of having a son one day existed. It makes my life less cluttered to have some gender neutral colors around the house. Anyone with children can probably attest to this as well!

The shed and the garage are dumping grounds for anything that we are scared to part with but are not using on a daily basis. Once out in the shed, we forget what is out there. Does this sound familiar to anyone? There are many areas of your house that can potentially be scary to deal with - basements, sheds, garages, the spare room - you know which room it is for your house. With spring upon us, it is a great time to pick a room and go through the contents. Make piles for garbage, recycle, donate, give to friends, etc.

Good Luck, and watch out for mice. They sometimes show up in the strangest places!