Manic Monday: Re-entry

Vacation is wonderful, isn't it?

Coming home is even better.

Except for that awkward day or two when I am back in my real life, but my brain can't quite remember how to do it. 

Where did I leave off?  

Where do I start? 

How do I get myself back into the life that I left? 

I read somewhere about a woman who always gave herself one day "off" between vacation and real life.  I like that idea. I also wonder if she had children. 

Here is my Re-entry for Real Life plan:

1. take the morning slow. don't get dressed. drink my coffee. have another cup. eat a late breakfast. extra snuggling and talking with the kids.

2. make a list. what comes to my mind? write it down. plan a time this week to return emails/calls (not today). plan a time to go through the mail (not today). 

3. do laundry. it is the perfect chore to do when my brain is not functioning very well.  fold clothes while I watch a show or two (or five-we sort of got addicted to Once Upon a Time on ABC).

4.  buy food. make a run to the grocery store for the basics. (it might be good to get dressed for this excursion.) this is not the week for me to get into delicious dinners.  just the simple stuff.  Always preferred by my kids and perfect for the week after vacation eating. 

5. go to bed early. maybe just maybe I will wake up well-rested tomorrow and my Real Life will make sense to me again. 

Manic Monday: basic self-care

Self-care is a popular term for women, but I have realized we often think in terms of girl's night or pedicures and although those are certainly a part of self-care, sometimes we need a reminder to do things that are even more basic.

ZZZZZZzzzzzz. Let's start with sleep. One of my favorites. Do you know how many hours of sleep you need a night? Have you given yourself space and grace to take a nap? For years, I thought taking naps meant I was lazy, now I know they are a common secret to many of the most productive (and happy!) people. Get your rest. So important. If you are not rested, it will not make a difference how cute your toes are. (To read: The Promise of Sleep.)

Food. My second favorite. I am a huge fan of treating myself to cupcakes and ice cream when I need some extra love, so I am all for treats, but I am talking about real food. Especially breakfast! Moms, wake up and eat. Eat some protein, eat some fruit, fill your tank for the big day you have ahead of you. You could be tired because you need sleep or you could be tired because you need food. Probably it's both. Pack a lunch and snacks for yourself, just like you would for kids. We need good food to function. Have treats in addition to real meals, but call treats a meal. You deserve healthy delicious food. Try to eat every 3 hours. It will change your life. I am also a big fan of juice plus, especially if your body has been fed by kid's leftovers for the past several years. (To read: The 3-hour Diet.)

Get back into your body. This body is yours. Does it feel like it belongs to you? Get inside of yourself. Remember how your legs and arms and muscles feel? Are you in pain anywhere? It is time to schedule that appointment to get that problem taken care of. In fact, schedule all those important annual exams. Get that tooth fixed. Do physical therapy for your shoulder. Take a walk in your neighborhood. Get a gym membership. Try any and every class that looks interesting. Consider yoga, spinning, boxing, or body pump depending on what is FUN to you. My personal favorite form of fitness is Zumba. You might make some new friends and that is a self-care two for one deal, right there.
(To read: Spark: the revolutionary new science of the brain and exercise.)

Water. Water. Water.  What do you pour yourself (or pick up at a drive-thru) when you are feeling tired or stressed? Coffee? Diet Drinks? Wine? It is a joke in my family that if anything is wrong with anyone, my solution is drink water.  It does a body good.  Like miraculous good. There is some wonderful research out there, but when you understand what dehydration does to your body, you see that of course we are tired, anxious, not thinking clearly.  If you can make no other changes to your life today but drinking more water, do it. My personal goal is to drink 100 oz. a day.  I have a couple of water bottles that I love and I keep one with me at all times, refilling it about 4x a day. (To read: Your Body's Many Cries for Water.)

Even though you already know that sleep, food, exercise and water are essential to meet your basic needs, we are so busy driving kids around and meeting deadlines at work that these basic needs get ignored.  

You cannot take care of your children, your job, or pursue your passions if you are not taking care of your basics.  It takes intention.  

Whatever you have to let go of to make this basic self-care possible, you must. Just ask Maslow.

Manic Monday: do you have time for a story?

Do you have time for a story?

My amazing friend asked me this question when I dropped by her house for just a few minutes yesterday morning. Of course, I did not really have the time. I made the time. Because Christina's stories are always worth the time.

Her question made me think how many days I rush through, even the really fun fabulous days of summer, without paying attention to the story it is telling me.

Other days, the story that needs to be told will not wait for me to finish writing my grocery list. It won't even wait for me to get dressed for the day. It demands to be told RIGHT NOW.

This is my first Manic Monday in many many weeks. Today was the day I was going to finally get to just a few things on my Manic list. I was on my back porch, drinking my coffee, still in my jammies, relishing one of the last long mornings of the season, when my daughter ran out to tell me that she needed my help. Her hamster, Lily, was missing.

Please note the picture above. See how there is a place for my daughter to play? An area of uncovered carpet. No. That space was not there this morning. Not a smidge of carpet in sight. Just a lot of dolls, stuffed animals, clothes, and tiny treasures for a cute chubby orange hamster to hide and crawl over and under for hours upon hours.

My son and I ran upstairs to help Avery. We locked ourselves in the bedroom, hoping to trap Lily in one space. Being the mother of the year that I am, I started to solve this problem by blaming my daughter for her messy room and her desire to have a hamster in the first place. Thankfully, I remembered my reading from More Language of Letting Go yesterday. Melody Beattie said that when we have problems, we often spend our energy on blaming ourselves and others for those problems instead of using the energy we have to solve the problem. (Thanks, Melody!) Because I was mad.

We all decided to work together to solve this problem. Which meant we had to clean up that room. We stayed focused, got all those toys off the floor. Once in a while we spied Lily's adorable face and all three of us humans, on our hands and knees, chased her all around the room. We cautiously moved furniture as not to crush that little beast. We tried to create barricades. She was unstoppable. Uncatchable.

After an hour and a half, we just had to leave the room. Avery thought to put Lily's cage on the floor and put some food all around it. With a hope and a prayer, we closed the door and went to Sam's to get some groceries.

The entire day, I had to live with the fact that there was a hamster running free in my house and there was nothing I could do but wait...wait for it to go back to it's house, wait for it to run into bed with me, wait for it to be dead in the toilet.

After HOURS of comforting a little girl who at 10 already suffers from all of the fear, pain and regret of a mom who failed her little one, I finally heard a glimmer of hope in Avery's voice as she called down to that she heard a noise in the back of her closet.

We tiptoed into her room, slowly and carefully pulling everything out of there. That little critter is so fast and squrimy. We could not catch her...but look where she caught herself:

Inside the candy claw machine. Seriously the best place anyone could be!

She threw quite a fit while we got her back into her actually cage, which included peeing all over me. She initially escaped because she has figured out how to use her little body to push up the side of the cage. We have now duct taped her cage closed. It is all so exhausting.

I really wanted to write a status update about our adventures with Lily today. But I didn't want to make my story as few words as possible. Would I have liked this story to fit into 140 charters or less? Yes. Yes, I would. But real stories aren't head lines. They are filled with blame and frustration, thrills and fears. They take hours and days and weeks and years to tell themselves. I want to make time for the stories my life has to tell.

And I want to hear your's too.

Manic Monday: what do I really value?

All of the natural routines and norms of my life fly out my car window in the summer. There seems to be a party every night. A quick trip here and there. Repacking before even having a chance to unpack. Can't figure out when to buy groceries because they are going bad while we hop and skip around town meeting friends, swimming, staying out as late as possible.

Going to the gym?

Paying bills?

Planning meals?

That all seems SO last season.

Do you remember that summer between 9th and 10th grade? When the boys turned into large, low voice creatures? It was only 3 short months and they morphed into another human all together.

Growth spurts, hormonal shifts, late night conversations that change your life. I think that is what summer is all about. A break away from all routine that can provide us with new insight into ourselves, into our desires and, for me, a fresh perspective on the life I am living.

I have created this life. Some of it intentionally and more than I care to admit, quite a bit of it I created passively. Letting things creep into my life that are not me. And they have taken over. I have beautiful shelves and storage spaces in my house full of things that don't matter to me. And yet there is no place left for those things I value. I find them in stacks and piles, underneath the recycling. (The recycling that never gets recycled.)

Tuesday, June 21st at 9:30, we will be hosting the PLAYshop that is based on Chapter 4 in Unwritten Travels: Your Travel Guide. It could not come at a better time for me. This summer, my values are shifting as I learn more who I really am. This season of life requires a different focus on some values that have been dormant for a while.

Won't you join us?

To register for the PlayShops email us at UnwrittenTravels@gmail.com. include your name, email, mailing address, phone number, and the session number(s) you want to attend. Each session has a 5 person minimum and a 12 person maximum.

Payment must be received in order to hold your place.

Click HERE to send your payment for your PlayShop. Click on the PLAY tab and you will click on the note that says "Reserve your spot."

Manic Monday: the mom list

Is your brain as full as mine? I know it is.

We wake up with that list already running ahead of us. We have insane ideas of how much a human can actually accomplish in a day. We have the things to do and the things we thought we were going to do, but they rarely factor in time and energy for realizing our car is out of gas, or someone suddenly needs to be dropped off on the other side of town, or we are out of an essential ingredient for dinner.

So, while I am navigating my days and the many many unplanned needs that come up throughout a day, I am wondering if you can imagine what my brain does with the small bits of information that come out of my little people's mouths all day every day?

Like...

Mom, I need index cards for Thursday.

Mom, pizza day is Tuesday, I need money.

Mom, I don't have any socks that fit me.

Mom, you promised Michaela would get to sleep over this year and the year is almost over!

Mom, when are you going to pay me for that job I did last week (or last month or last year)?

I really care about my kids. I also know that these little things are really important. So I listen and I nod my head and I say to them, "Okay. I'll get to that." But the problem is that there is NO ROOM left in my brain to actually retain that information. I promise, it is not for a lack of caring, it is for a lack of brain space.

Thankfully, my refrigerator has some space on it. A few months ago, we created the mom list. At the top it says,

ATTENTION: MOM

Then, the kids (who have all sorts of extra brain room) are responsible for writing these things down on that list.

My job is to check in with that list every week and get those things accomplished. I can't tell you how helpful this is.

1. My kids don't have to repeat the request (again and again and again) in hopes that it finally makes it to my memory.

2. Getting these things done is really not that hard, and usually it is only one or two errands that otherwise would have been several trips if I took requests one at a time.

3. It makes my kids responsible for what they can manage (they have to get it to the list).

4. It makes me do a little check in every week with what they are needing. Sometimes those needs are physical, but sometimes those needs reflect something else. Like asking for a date with me or with their dad.

You might be wondering, but what about those things that don't come up until the night before? These are some things I ask myself:

~Is it a reasonable request and something I can run to the store or borrow from a neighbor RIGHT NOW?

~Is this REALLY going to be the worst thing in the world for my child to not have index cards or buy something at the bake sale tomorrow?

~Is my child at an age where it is time to begin learning the simple lesson of, "If I forget something, Mom will not always be able to magically make it all happen."

Eating a bologna sandwich rolled up on a hot dog bun while everyone else is eating pizza will not shatter my child's self-esteem. And it won't shatter your child's either. We all have limitations of time, money and energy. Being a mom is not about making your child's life easy, but about helping your child learn the skills for managing life when everything doesn't go as planned.

When my kids are throwing these requests out to me while I am on the phone or navigating directions while driving, it is easy to miss what they are really trying to communicate. There is a new security now offered to my kids. Now they know that even though I can't get to it right this second, I will get to it eventually, or maybe they will find another solution in the meantime.

It is a good lesson for them and for me.

Manic Monday: grocery shopping

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story

I wish I felt a little more like Pavarotti when it came to food. I wonder if he made the meal plans, did the grocery shopping, carried the food into the house, put all the groceries away. Then cooked, served and cleaned up all of these meals he enjoyed so much.

Of course, I LOVE eating. If it is really good food. But I don't often make really good food. So mostly when I do love eating it is because I was eating out. somewhere. else.

When a week gets started before I have made it to the grocery store, our family ends up eating out meal after meal after meal. Which means we all enjoy the food, but our bank account does NOT. Wow, it adds up fast!

So, today's Manic Monday Mission was to plan some delicious and healthy meals, buy the groceries and actually cook the food that I buy. It sounds simple enough, doesn't it? So, why is it so hard? Because meals get lost or preempted by everything else on my to-do. And it is a big thing to get lost, because everyone (including myself) is always hungry.

I have a few sources that help me:

Harris Teeter Express Lane
Do you know about drive-thru grocery shopping? If you hate grocery shopping (like me) or you just don't have the time to go to the store (or you would rather spend the time you do have horse-back riding, reading, or napping), you can place your orders online and pick them up for a $5 fee. This service has CHANGED my life. Go buy it. Go try it. Do it. Now.

Cook Your Meals the Lazy Way
I found this cook book in a clearance bin for $3.97 several years ago and it still remains one of my favorite recipe books. In fact, tonight I made the Cauliflower Curry (with chicken instead of pork) and it was yum. There are so many recipes I go back to in the book. They are always simple, tasty and the writers are quite funny.

Quick Pork Curry with Cauliflower

2 medium onions
3 T. oil
4-6 cloves garlic (pressed)
1lb. pork cubes
1/4 c. curry paste
1 head cauliflower
3 c. water
1 beef stock cube
2T. tomato paste

1. chop the onion
2. heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. add onions and garlic. cook until brown.
3. add pork and brown, stir in curry paste.
4. break the cauliflower directly into the pot. add water, stock cube and tomato paste. raise the heat and bring to boil.
5. cover loosely, lower heat and cook for 20 minutes. serve with white rice.

Some other fun food books that I found at the library this week:


1. Relax, It's Only Dinner
by Cheryl Merser -
She wrote this for people just like me, who get a little freaked out at cooking dinner every night and crazy freaked out at having company for dinner. Ms. Merser is also very funny and cares only about making good food without much of a fuss. I got some really great ideas from this clever book.

2. the art of eating in: how I learned to stop spending and love the store
by Cathy Erway -
This is a story of a woman who lived in New York and stopped eating out and began cooking food for herself and her friends for every meal (something unheard of in NY where there are some apartments that don't even have kitchens). Although she includes some recipes, the most enjoyable part of the book for me was hearing how differently she had to think, plan and socialize in order to eat in.

So, for this week, all is good in our refrigerator and pantry. It really is one of the nicest things in life when there is food in the house and dinner on the stove. Even if I am the one who gets it there.

Manic Monday: Are you a mouse or an eagle?

In her happy happy book, The Joy Diet, Martha Beck writes about the necessity of being able to alternate your perspectives between Eagle Eye and Mouse in a Maze.

Eagle Eye is when you are able to see the big picture, what you are really working for, what life is really about. When you look at your day/week/month/year from the Eagle perspective, you have a mission for yourself, for your time. Eagles love vision statements.

Mouse in a Maze is being able to see the obstacles and details of this moment, this step, at this time, this thing that needs to get done. Mice love to-do lists.

Our personalities are usually bent in one direction or the other. But, according to dear Martha, if we really want to live happy, joyful lives, we need to be flexible moving through our maze while also rising above it to see where we are really going.

Manic Mondays are essential for me because I have to have scheduled disciplined time to manage my to-do list. It is my natural bent to ignore paperwork and instead work on mission statements, creative projects and help others set and reach their goals.

I have awe-inspired appreciation for my friends who are good at getting things done. In fact, I could not do my life without their skills supporting me in my visionary life. But, if checking it off your list is the way you mostly manage your life, you may need to schedule structured time into your week to stop and look at what significant purpose you are moving toward. Where I have to teach myself to put down my books and my journals, other people may need to dedicate time and focus to picking up some books that inspire them, or commit to journal for even 20 minutes each week.

Be encouraged in your strengths! You are doing good things and getting good things done but don't let those strengths steal your joy. I am thrilled to have found this fun Beck-inspired journal : click HERE for some simple fun ways to keep joy in your life regardless of if you choose to take your journey by foot or by flight.

Where is your stronger skill set?
Are you good at getting things done?
Are you a pro at seeing the big picture?
Who can you ask to help you with your weaker skill?
How can you use your skills to help support someone else?

Manic Monday: losing an hour...or more

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me
at once." ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Anyone seriously feeling the loss of that hour?

I usually feel at least an hour behind, so I sort of feel like everyone else joined my boat today. Except some people don't seem phased by the LOSS OF AN HOUR at all. As if they have so well-managed their lives that even a depletion of one of our precious 24 hours does not rock their world. I do not write this blog for them.

This week I received an email that changed my life. It was only 3 short sentences.

"I only check e-mail once a week.
If your email is a timely manner, please call or text me.
Thank you."

WHAT? WHAT?WHAT?
(If you know that song, that line will be more fun for you :)

Isn't it amazing when you witness someone else living a life that you did not even know you were allowed to live? Check my email once a week? For real? Could I continue being productive? Could I stay connected? Could I get everything done that I am "supposed" to be getting done with out checking my email, um, every 15 minutes?

First of all let me say, I love email. I love the internet. I love my iphone. I love blogs. I love facebook. I am even beginning to love texting. (although, I still can't figure out the twitter.)

When I was a teenager, I lived in a isolated environment. When I was a stay-at-home mom with my babies, I was very isolated. I don't do isolation. I am the kind of person who begins to wither away when I lose touch with the big wonderful world out there.

I love people and I love the opportunities that technology offers me to stay connected with my friends and family even though we have crazy busy lives and we live scattered all over the world.

BUT
and in case you didn't get the message, that is a BIG BUT...

staying connecting is exhausting. Staying means you never get a break. Staying means you walked into the world of being connected and you took off your coat and shoes and you decided to stay. In fact, you decided to change into your comfy clothes and snuggly slippers and you really stayed. connected. all of the freaking time.

Every text, every email, every phone message, even the messages between other friends that have nothing to do with me bling through on my phone. And if they are not blinging at me, I am checking to see if I missed anything while I was going to the bathroom or blow drying my hair.

I would worry that you might think me neurotic (me? neurotic?) except that I know I am not alone. This is, in fact, the world we live in. And I thought everyone lived in this world until I received that profoundly simple email this week.

I am on a Manic Monday Mission to explore how I could use my beloved technology for all of the ways it enhances, improves, and simplifies my life without letting it steal more hours from me than day light savings time.

Manic Monday: all the time I need

"We never shall have any more time.

We have, and we have always had, all the time there is."

~Arnold Bennett, How to Live on 24 hours a day

(found in Slow Down and Get More Done by Marshall Cook)

I was awake before the kids this morning. For some reason I thought it would be the perfect morning to create a flyer for my business. Only to realize I needed some serious graphic design skills that I do not have. Then I thought I should update some information on my web site. And I sort of deleted my website. But then I found it. Right at the time that I was supposed to be headed out the door to officially start Manic Monday doings. I had forgotten to eat, was still in my pajamas, and I had not even started to prep and plan the day for my kids.

Oh, the mess I am! I quickly got dressed and gulped down a protein drink. I must have ran up and down my steps 8 times remembering, forgetting and then remembering again all the things I needed to have on hand to actually get my to-do list done today.

How did it get to be 12:41 pm already?!?

Well, here I am. Thankful beyond belief for a space in my schedule, not only to get things done, but time to figure out what it is that I really need to get done.

Some of the tips I am learning on how to focus and accomplish things in my crazy life:

1. when I think of projects, ideas, etc. write them down on a list, don't dive right into the project
2. look at my calendar and find spaces of time to dedicate to those particular projects
3. write down people's names next to those projects in which I may need their expertise
4. do some research and know exactly what I want before I purchase products and services
5. realize that there are only so many hours a day (even on Manic Monday). I can choose to use this time to work on a project OR catch up on several little things on my to-do list. I cannot do both.

Today is a little to-do list kind of day.

To do Today:

1. send of an important payment
2. make some bank deposits
3. calculate mileage for 2010
4. schedule a time and list resources for creating flyer
5. follow up on several emails regarding new office space
6. read today's chapter in Five Minutes on Monday

Although I am kind of "wishing it was Sunday because that is my fun day," I am also learning that (in Hebrew) the word for work is also the word for prayer.

"Both {prayer and work} are seen as instruments of personal and social change which, when operated in harmony, reinforce each other. Just as we pray for the blessing of spiritual sustenance, we work for the blessing of physical sustenance."
(from Five Minutes on Monday by Alan Lurie)

Whether you are spending your Manic Monday working on a big project or attending to important details, I pray that your work brings harmony and sustenance to all areas of your life!

Manic Monday: what I can Love about today

"In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities."
~Janos Arany

Valentine's is my favorite day of the year and not one I would normally spend "getting things done" but, it is Monday so I decided just because I don't LOVE what I have to do today, I can LOVE where I am and what I drink while I cross off those pesky things on my list.

All things Manic today are getting done at Starbuck's with a cup of Verona in my hand.

To do Today:

get information about a new insurance (almost as lovely as taxes)
send out a reminder note about our upcoming PLAYSHOP!
(Our first PlayShop of the year is only ONE week away!)
review my schedule for the week
confirm appointments
reschedule dentist and carpet cleaner (because I had overbooked my week)
prioritize Manic Monday Missions for the rest of February

My computer is now running on reserve battery power.
Next week I will add bring all power cords to my list!

Much Love to You and Yours Today!

Manic Monday: balancing budgets and taxes

"Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.
Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it.
That is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear."
~Dale Carnegie

I could hardly type the word budget with out gulping. Numbers scare me. I don't really know how to make sense of them. Unfortunately, they are woven into every area of my life. I must make sense of them. Without my numbers in order how do I know if I have met my goals for last year? How can I know if it is even possible for me to accomplish what I have set out for myself this year?

Today's Manic Monday Mission is to get all of my income and expenses organized and ready for April. This is also the day I review my budget for this year and create a regular "check in" for balancing all of my accounts.

One of the questions I asked myself last week was "Who can I contact to help me?" The things I fear doing the most are the things I am not good at. Rather than put them off until the night before (paying extra fees, of course), I will seek out support and wisdom from professionals who can help me.

I have a wonderful tax man. And I have (gulp) scheduled an appointment with him. But, I also need help getting ready for the tax man. So, I have called my wonderful friend who is very good with numbers and very patient with me. She is coming over this week to hold my hand as we wade through the piles of paper that I fear the most.

To do Today:
1. get all papers in order to review and analyze on Wednesday.
2. thank God for friends who are good at things that I am not!
3. be done with the thing I fear the most this first week of February

Manic Monday: do the right thing

“If you really want to advise me, do it on Saturday afternoon between 1 and 4 o'clock. And you've got 25 seconds to do it, between plays. Not on Monday. I know the right thing to do on Monday.” ~Alex Agase

This morning I find myself a bit jealous of Mr. Agase.

He knows the right thing to do on Monday?

He is not pulled in eighteen different directions knowing that they all NEED to be done and something that SHOULD have been DONE will be left UNDONE at the end of this day?

These January Mondays have been flying up in my face faster than I can check my list to see what is most essential for me to do. I don't even feel like I have had the mental space to make a to-do list.

Last night as I was on my way to bed,
I walked past the pathetic potted plant in my library
(oh, that's right I have the stuff to re-pot it, must put that on my list),
went to give my kids one last kiss good-night
(oh, I must remember to rent that steam cleaner and clean that nasty stain),
and then I saw the box of hair color on my bedroom floor
(when am I going to get around to coloring my hair?).

"See,"
I said to myself,
"These are the kinds of things you need to write on your Manic Monday list."

So I went into my office and looked under piles for my big blue sketch book that holds my brain. I turned to the Manic Monday Page and oh dear...we need to get a Jen(s)&Tonic sent out, and I must renew my professional membership, and there are those library books that are overdue...

Today, I am going to believe that planning is better than doing. I need to get my list in order. I need to see how I can create space in my life to get these things done (both the urgent and the important). Maybe I will get to one of these to-do things today, but I am confident that the best use of my time will be to set out a plan for February.

Maybe I will make every Manic Monday have a theme?

1st Monday: budget, finances and giving
2nd Monday: business and professional life
3rd Monday: home and family
4th Monday: personal development
(the occasional) 5th Monday: anything that doesn't fit into one of these categories.

• What really needs to be done?

• What can I delegate?

• Who can I contact to help me?

• How can I create a calendar/schedule that supports my goals and vision

(instead of making me crazy rushed and busy)?

Manic Monday: make my bed

"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
~Albert Einstein

Have you ever eaten scrambled eggs and brain? I think I have. Or maybe the image was so vivid, that I imagined myself seeing it, eating it, gagging...what a lovely image I have painted for you. I hope you are still reading.

I have had one severe case of scrambled brain since the beginning of December. Today's Manic Monday task had to be something simple. Something that would make me feel accomplished with minimal work. Something that set the tone for my day. It had to be something that made me feel pampered and refreshed.

Aha!
Make my bed.
Do you make your bed every day?
I suppose if I did it would not feel like such an accomplishment.
Or maybe it does feel this wonderful every single time and that is why one would make her bed daily.

Maybe.

My brain is still a scrambled mess, but my tidy bed invites me to take the next simple step toward clarity: an afternoon nap. (No, I don't care that it will mess up my throw pillows.)

To do today:
~make my bed
~take an afternoon nap in my fresh clean sheets

Manic Monday: support a cause

There are many embarrassing on my to-do list. Not that the actual things on the list are embarrassing (okay, a few are, but I don't want to gross you out.) It is the amount of time that they have been on my list that qualifies me for some kind of impressive procrastination award.

Have you ever heard of Snow Leopard Trust? If you have then you are way ahead of me. One day, ummm 3 or 4 years ago, my daughter was determined to save the snow leopards. She saved her own money, found loose change around the house and car, and she shared her concern with friends and family who also donated.

This is the kind of thing a mom like me dreams her child will do some day. I was amazed and proud and also extremely busy. I did manage to keep all that change in a special place (pat back) and then I actually deposited it in my bank (pat back again) so I could make the donation online.
And then I completely forgot about it.

Occasionaly, my daughter would say,
"Did you ever give that money to the snow leopards?"

And I would say,
"Oh yeah, I will try to remember to do that this week."


To do Today:

~place online donation to the Snow Leopard Trust

Folks, if it were not for Manic Monday those poor little snow leopards would never see the money my sweet daughter saved up for them.

And because of Manic Monday, it is done!

Manic Monday: rethinking normal

normal |ˈnôrməl|

adjective
conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected

I wonder how many NORMAL weeks actually happen in my life. You know, days without sick kids, snow, holidays, dentist appointments, traveling, trainings...
Oh yeah, this is normal, isn't it? What is usual, typical and expected around here is the unexpected.

To Do Today:

1. get kids report cards turned in
2. organize schedule (and brainstorm plan B) for this week
3. help daughter with journals that are due (if she does in fact have school tomorrow)
4. get kids organized for (fingers crossed) school tomorrow
5. figure out how I am going to be okay if (gulp) my kids don't go to school tomorrow

How do you deal with life when it doesn't go your way?
Does routine bring out your best?
Or are you the queen of spontaneity?
Are you able to adapt when plans keep changing?

Any tips or hints for surviving cabin fever would be appreciated.

Manic Monday: Etch A Sketching

"In the late 1950's, a man by the name of Arthur Granjean invented something he called, "L'Ecran Magique," the magic screen, in his garage." ~from Etch A Sketch History

Oh, how I love January.

It is that wonderful time of year where I feel like my life gets shaken clean. I have 12 months to create something that did not exist last year at this time.

So, this first Manic Monday of the new year has a broader purpose than simply getting things done. (Especially since I am on vacation :)

This is the Monday of all Mondays. The Monday that impacts how the rest of my Mondays the rest of this year. Today I will be working on my goals for 2011.

I am a moving ahead kind of person, so although goals are easy and fun for me, it takes me some discipline to look back on 2010 and take notice and pride in what was accomplished last year.

To-do Today:

1. list accomplishments, both big and small from last year
2. ideas for how to make the good things from last year GREAT
3. list 25 goals for 2011
4. choose 1 goal to focus on in January

The only thing more fun to me than setting my goals for the new year is to hear about your dreams and goals.

What are you most proud of accomplishing this year?
What is one thing you would like to see happen in 2011?
What kind of support would help you to accomplish these things?

Can't wait to see the sketches we all create.

Happy New Year!

Manic Monday: all is calm

"Music is the silence between the notes."
~Claude Debussy

My world has never had so much volume than in these past few days. Christmas was full of laughter, music, food, and so many people I love dearly. Yet I wake up this morning to complete silence. My son is sick. My daughter is with her grandma and my husband is away at his grandma's funeral. This is one of those times when the music of my life is made sacred by the silence. When I realize how very rich I am.

Tonight we are having a big family party to celebrate my brother and his beautiful new wife. In just a few hours, it will be so manic around here. But in this quiet moment, I know that my life is not made up of a million things to check off of my to-do list. It is made up of a million people who love me and who I love. We cook together, clean together, play games together, we sing together. We celebrate life together.

To do today:
~remember Granny
~dispense medicine to my sick boy
~vacuum floors
~process credit card information
~love well

My prayer for you today is that you know you how much you are loved. That you realize your to-do list is not what defines you. I hope that you (and I!) can look up from our lists to see all the love that surrounds us.

Manic Monday: impossible things

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
~Lewis Carroll

After 10 days of travel and conferences, today was the day things were supposed to get back to normal. And if you are in Nashville, you know that this Manic Monday is anything but ordinary. There are 4 inches of snow on the ground. All the kids are out of school and this kind of adventure, layered on top of the anticipation of Christmas, has both of my children functioning at 10x their normal intensity. Squeals are louder, crying is longer, fights are more fierce, needs are more needy. It feels a bit more like panic Monday to me.

Where on most Mondays, my to-do list feels daunting, today, it feels like a lovely, calm place to escape the chaos right outside my office door.

Snow days, like sick days and vacation days and special holidays require me to downshift letting go of my plan and opening myself up to a different day then I had anticipated.

So this Manic Monday, the impossible dream (that I had even before breakfast) was that I would get back on top of my life today. Friends, that is not going to happen.

My agenda got hijacked. And it is time for me to surrender. Before I could even get those words typed out, my son had just finished a pot of homemade hot chocolate and all the neighbors that were sledding outside were ready to thaw out. A new plan quickly developed.

Manic Monday To Do:

1. make 2 more batches of hot chocolate
2. get the fire place warmed up
3. remove 10 pairs of boots
4. put all wet clothes in dryer
5. set out legos and crayons/coloring books
6. sit back with my dear neighbor and watch 10 happy kids enjoy this snow day

All the neighbors just left to go have lunch in their own respective houses. My daughter said this was the best day of her life. My son said, "Thank you for doing all that, Mom."

Mind you, I am still in my pajamas. Still working on that first cup of coffee. I wasn't ready for this day, but this day was more than ready for me. Although this office is a lot more peaceful, I am glad I got pulled out into the chaos. Because that is where my real life is...
impossible as it sometimes seems.

Manic Monday

Manic Monday: a little manic on Monday. free to be Me the rest of the week.

Okay, so I am a little manic on Mondays.

For years, I thought if I was only smarter, more systematic, that if I created enough structure and organization in my life, I could...

• keep my house clean
• get all my kid's school projects, forms, applications, etc. in on time
• pay my bills regularly
• keep my house filled with groceries
• have a meal/menu plan
• save money with coupons
• stick with an exercise routine
• register my car
• call the insurance company
• live on a budget

then I would be free to...

• play with my kids
• sit and have coffee or a glass of wine with my husband
• write a book
• get a Master's degree
• start my own business
• pick up a hobby
• run a playshop
• meet up with friends for lunch
• host a holiday dinner party

Being a Real Grown-up in Real Life has way too many details for me. Not only are those "have to's" necessary but they are also extraordinarily boring to me. I would wake up every day with this long list of things I hated doing and the list never ended. So, I never was free to move onto the list of dreams. And that =depression for this Jenny.

One day, I decided to start dreaming. In spite of the dozens of books I have on Organizing my Real Life, I had to acknowledge who I really am and THAT woman is not me. I moved on to the part of my life that was LIFE to me. So I went back to school, I met with the other Jenny to work on Unwritten Travels, I started writing a blog. In the mean time, I discovered an exercise that is now one of my favorite things about my life, I tossed a load of laundry in here or there (helped that this was the year my kids and hubby were old enough to wash their own clothes) , the dishes kept getting clean and my children somehow got fed.

Let me tell you, it is fun to be me. So fun, in fact, I lost all sense of structure in my life. I continued to miss due dates on bills, drove around with expired tags for a couple of months, never got the kids signed up for sports in time, forgot to schedule that dental cleaning, and my family ate out all of the time.

That's when being me doesn't feel so fun. It feels like I am trying to do what I want to do while being haunted by the unwritten list of what I need to do. Thus explained my stress, anxiety, and overall crankiness.

Enter Manic Monday. One day. One hour (sometimes as many as 3) dedicated to getting things done. Not because I love making a list or checking things off. Not because having everything in order brings me a deep feeling of contentment. But because I need to be free to live my LIFE.

So, here I am. Looking another Manic Monday in the face. Can I tell you how much I dread this? I have to walk smack into the middle of my stress and anxiety and not walk out of it until at least one of those daunting tasks is complete.

Today I will:

• schedule the dr. appointment to get Avery's stitches taken out
• organize child care for my kiddos when I am in training next week
• schedule my hair appointment

What? Those things don't seem daunting to you? Well, they don't seem so scary to me anymore either. That is the magic of Manic Monday.