a blink

a blink and then it is gone. that is exactly how my life feels at the moment. monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, gone...

we are hitting our stride being the busiest season of our year with track meets, dance performances, swim team fast approaching, and end of the year school events. my days fly by in a blink and then they are gone.

a track meet this week, brought a beautiful afternoon in the sunshine, no wind and a PERFECT 70 degree day. kennedy had a personal best in her open 400 at 65 seconds. as we walked out to the van to grab some water, she started asking just how fast i thought she could go this year. with eagerness and hope, 'do you really think i could get down to the low 60s?' with increased confidence and one more year of growth under her belt, we are seeing a young lady blossom into a confident competitor. and a blessing this year to be injury free.

with minutes to spare we raced from one event to the next. madison's last elementary vocal concert. we were entertained as we enjoyed songs from all different countries and even one about becoming a teenager. can i believe they are really that old? the answer being, no!

swimming, biking, and running every day, preparing for our triathlon debute June 26th. milo tends to ride about 1/2 mile in front of me and with some miscommunication and a few sharp turns, one turned left and the other turned right one night, but luckily we ended back where we started.

surgery is on the horizon for mr. milo. a little too much heavy weight lifting has caused an inguinal hernia. after brushing off the dust of my nursing back ground, confirmed with some internet searching, the final diagnosis came the following day when dr. janda, walked in the room and said, 'so you think you have a hernia? lets take a look?' with a shock and awe, he responded, 'whoa! there fella, that is most definitely a hernia.' i made sure that was all he was referring to, given the thing is the size of an extra large egg! stay tuned. we hope it doesn't interfere with the triathalon in june.

kate gosselin got the boot....thank you!

so it only took me 3 months to sell $100,000 of business. i thought it fun to challenge myself to see if i could then sell $100,000 in ONE month. now that i am starting to hit my stride and figure this whole thing out. so with $48,000 placed, only $52,000 left. i knocked off $10,000 more today and anticipate for sure another $12,000 off by the end of the day Monday. leaving me to drum up, hmmm...$30,000 by the end of next week. well with 11 appointments on the books, it might just happen. stay tuned! i am focused like a laser beam!

working tomorrow, being it is my weekend on. monday and tuesday are filled with selling appointments and some more swimming, biking, and running. wednesday i am off to supervise an all day carpet cleaning venture from top to bottom, plus a much needed haircut and color. thursday brings more selling appointments, a track meet in iowa city, and a welcome back party for the housecleaner. friday a sprint to the finish, $100,000! plus a bit more swimming, biking, and running. saturday...well may be a day to celebrate! cause afterall, in a blink...it is gone!

bye!

Mother May I?

Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Parmesan, Cheesy Spaghetti, Cookies (no-bake), Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Danish, Cheeseburger Roll-Up & NO I didn't plan it with all C's, it just happened. But don't you like it when things 'just happen'?

2 1/2 hours later my cooking extravaganza is complete, now 'mother may I please be excused to leave on Thursday for a 4 day weekend in the rolling, beautiful hills of Galena, IL to stay at my 'all time' favorite B&B with food only to DIE for? 4 days with no one else but my handsome Mr. Milo. Mother, may I PLEASE be excused? Food has been prepared in advance for the children, childcare is all lined up, transportation issues resolved, & activities covered. Mother, May I PLEASE be excused?

So to give my weary feet a rest, I thought I would pop in for a bit before I methodically plan out all my outfits and make-up for our upcoming 4 day weekend. Trust me, I take this stuff SERIOUSLY cause it only happens once, sometimes twice, and if I am REALLY lucky..three times a year. Trips away with only me and my man! Trips that I count down the minutes to, plan meticulously for (ok..may be I plan meticulously for some other things too), and wait with EAGER anticipation.

Do you think I am excited?

So this weekend, me and the girls laid low. Mr. Milo aka...dishwasher boy and garbage man left on Saturday AM for his annual Green Bay Packer weekend with the boys. I refer to him as dishwasher boy and garbage man because of all the things in the world for him to be psycho about, it would be those two things. Thankfully I have successfully accomplished both tasks not once, but even TWICE in his absence.

BTW...when your hairdresser speaks, ONE should always listen. On Friday, I needed a little tweaking on my most recent hair cut. It seemed that a few weeks ago, Beth (aka.. my hair dresser) didn't quite do enough texturizing and my football helmet was starting to show with still 3 weeks until my next cut AND a very important weekend coming up. So a quick 911 to the salon and imagine that, she had a cancellation on Friday morning, that I managed to squeeze into my schedule.

So I shared with her my 'secret mission' for the weekend - more later - and she thought that instead of just gathering all my supplies and waiting to put them all together on the day of, I should really put EVERYTHING together before hand! WHEW! Am I lucky, that I needed a quick tweak on my hair in order to grab that piece of wisdom. 7 hours later, my secret mission was complete, which by most standards encompassed MOST of my Saturday. more later..but I do have to say...'They ROCK'! I seriously think I should consider a career outside of caskets and cremations.

So one last thing before I head up to wardrobe central, last September I started this notebook and VOWED to do it for one ENTIRE year. Now trust me there where moments when I thought I simply could go no further. It was painstaking, but so worth all the time, energy, and thought. YES! I am talking about my 'meal planner notebook'. YES...laugh all you want, but one year later...is my life EASIER?

So for one entire year, I planned all our family meals one week at a time. Every time I tried a new recipe, the rule was EVERYONE had to give it a thumbs up, in order for it to stay in 'the' notebook. Now one year later, I simply flip to the designated week, make up my grocery list and DONE, well with the exception of thumbs DOWN recipes, those I replace with new ones. Little to no thinking, meals change with the seasons, it has provided a VARIETY of things for us to eat, and it has freed up one last task on my to do list every weekend. My goal is when all there is in the notebook is thumbs up meals & snacks, to make a cookbook to give to the girls, so they to will have one less thing on their weekend to do lists.

Well, that is about it...Mother May I please be excused now to comb through my closet to find the perfect combinations for my upcoming 4 day weekend? Did I mention I was just a BIT excited?

toodles..

Get a Grip!

I started a new bible study this morning, called 'Getting a Grip, Finding Balance in Your Daily Life' by Bill Hybels. You know if something has the word BALANCE in the title I am immediately drawn to its contents. Balance in life is something I have a strong passion for, as I seek to find that in my every day life.

One of the things that has become a habit for me is to 'dump my bucket' every Sunday. This dump is not as BIG as the dump I referred to a week ago. This is strictly in regards to EVERYTHING happening in the upcoming week. My dumping usually takes about 2 hours and to be honest, I believe it is probably the most effective 2 hours of my week. By that I mean, I believe our household and my business wouldn't run close to a well, oiled machine as possible without it.

Those 2 hours are spent taking a look at the entire week and includes everything from business to dos and appointments, an exercise schedule, meals, grocery list, household chores, appointments, kids activities and transportation schedules, personal time, family time, date nights. etc. My family laughs that I don't include my bathroom breaks. When I mean, EVERYTHING, I mean EVERYTHING!

On one large legal pad of paper, the week gets dumped, planned, and programed with every intention of matching up to the larger goals we set at the beginning of the year, only in a bite size chunk. Now please note, that things come up at the last minute and we ARE flexible to change. A great example is the unexpected 2 hour delay this morning that no one realized until we were dressed and ready to walk out the door.

Without that 2 hour dump on Sunday, I would and have floundered through the week taking it as it came and looking back wondering if I accomplished anything at all.

I was blessed this early this morning during my 'quiet time' to be reaffirmed in God character. He is a God of order, plan, and purpose. Just take a look at the first chapter in Genesis.

Day 1. Light and Darkness

Day 2. Sky, Land, and Water

Day 3. Plants and Trees

Day 4. Birds and Sea Creatures

Day 5. Land Animals

Day 6. Man

Day 7. Rest

There is absolute order, planning, and purpose in the order that things were created. Think about creating the animals before there was vegetation to live on? Imagine trying to create everything and inspect it without light? Where would you put the plants and trees without land and water? May be He even 'dumped His bucket' the week before creation, laying out His master plan of what EVERY day would consist of.

The last exercise I did was rate myself on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being excellent and 1 being poor. How would I rate each area of my life and how much time do I commit to each area.

Career. Family. Physical Health. Hobbies. Spiritual Growth. Friendships.

Then ask yourself how much time do you spend every week in each of those categories and any other areas you would like to add. Household Chores. Watching TV. Sleeping.

How did you do? I definitely saw room for improvement!

So try dumping your bucket and see what happens. I have been dumping my bucket for over a year now and WHAT a difference it makes! It makes me a better steward of my resources, time, talents, and gifts. Without it I have feelings of fear, panic, irritation, and spinning out of control. With it I have peace, calm, and productivity.

Try dumping your bucket today and let me know how it goes! Just hit the comment section below and leave your feedback.

Have a Marvelous Monday!