Sunday, May 12, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
A Project A Day Keeps Insanity Away
Like so many working Moms I struggle to find time to keep it all together - home, school, work, family and so on. One of my biggest challenges and pet peeves is clutter management. Between art projects, school papers(the kids and mine), work documents, personal research and junk mail my home quickly becomes a sea of paper. I found a great filing system years ago but then decided that I wanted a paper free home and I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap to help digitize anything important. It came with a digital file cabinet which is great if technology never fails;). So this system works to a point... Again the finite concept called 'hours in a day' keeps rearing its ugly head. Not one to waddle in a problem for long, I've found a 'project a day' system that seems to be a working enhancement. I schedule 20 minutes every afternoon to tackle a 'de-clutter' effort. There is something so therapeutic about this process and it makes my weekends less focused on 'house stuff'.
Breaking the larger task into bite size segments yields great returns. I feel a sense of relief and I feel more energized which fuels me to get through the evening and the next day with a greater sense of calm or order. I also make a point to reward myself with a treat every now and again. This week I tackled my growing mail stash and other annoyances in my foyer. As a reward I purchased a new mail organizer to spruce up the old eye sore. Today I'm less stressed, my family loves the clean space and with a healthy dose of Mommy prodding they're following my lead in maintaining the new system:)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94488824/mail-organizer-mail-holder-double-slots?ref=cat_gallery_7
"A project a day keeps insanity away"
Breaking the larger task into bite size segments yields great returns. I feel a sense of relief and I feel more energized which fuels me to get through the evening and the next day with a greater sense of calm or order. I also make a point to reward myself with a treat every now and again. This week I tackled my growing mail stash and other annoyances in my foyer. As a reward I purchased a new mail organizer to spruce up the old eye sore. Today I'm less stressed, my family loves the clean space and with a healthy dose of Mommy prodding they're following my lead in maintaining the new system:)
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94488824/mail-organizer-mail-holder-double-slots?ref=cat_gallery_7
"A project a day keeps insanity away"
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Lipstick and Mascara
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Just recently I read an article where a celebrity said the best beauty advice that she was given from her Mom(and grandmother) was to never leave home without lipstick. I have heard this before and each time that I've heard it in the past I dismissed it as a 'nice to have'. Until I became pregnant with my daughter who was born in May 2010 I considered makeup optional and definitely an item that created an unnecessary time burden. During my pregnancy, for some reason unbeknownst to this day, I became obsessed with makeup!? So much so I wanted to make my baby shower a beauty shower where the guests received makeovers and left their favorite beauty tips in a keepsake journal for my little bundle of joy - now known as the make up terrorist(how's that for irony). Part of that was driven from the guilt of not really wanting to burden others so my compromise was to create an event that focused on the guests and the baby at the same time. My Mom nixed the idea and so I never saw that vision come to life. If anyone has done anything similar I'd love to hear stories about the event. I think it's a great twist to the traditional shower.
Well, the makeup obsession lived beyond my pregnancy and ultimately led to my new found commitment to self care. A friend of a friend once expressed her die hard habit of never leaving home without lipstick and mascara. Again, I thought this was the most high maintenance idea at that time, but it stuck with me because I always admired her appearance of effortless beauty. My grandmother reserved Saturday afternoons as a day for weekly beauty routine - nails and hair primarily. I remember being so frustrated by this when there were events that conflicted with her scheduled beauty activities. Today I use her scheduling as a model. In the 33 years that I had with my grandmother I can honestly say that I never saw her without perfectly manicured nails and she never a bad hair day. She had flawless skin and only wore lipstick(and a smile). I attribute a great deal of this to her weekly habit of scheduling time for self care and personal maintenance.
Above and beyond the superficialities of the beauty routine, I think routine self care has deeper benefits. Taking time - even if it's 10 minutes in the morning - to do that one feel good thing creates a boost and that boost can be the catalyst to a day. When I asked a really close friend - who seems to be one of those girls that always looks great and manages to keep regular beauty appointments on the calendar - how she prioritizes waxing, nail, hair and facials into her super busy work and social schedule, she responded 'if I don't take care of myself, I'm no good to anyone else'. Thinking of the return to others really helped me put it in perspective and compels me each day to make time for self care.
Just recently I read an article where a celebrity said the best beauty advice that she was given from her Mom(and grandmother) was to never leave home without lipstick. I have heard this before and each time that I've heard it in the past I dismissed it as a 'nice to have'. Until I became pregnant with my daughter who was born in May 2010 I considered makeup optional and definitely an item that created an unnecessary time burden. During my pregnancy, for some reason unbeknownst to this day, I became obsessed with makeup!? So much so I wanted to make my baby shower a beauty shower where the guests received makeovers and left their favorite beauty tips in a keepsake journal for my little bundle of joy - now known as the make up terrorist(how's that for irony). Part of that was driven from the guilt of not really wanting to burden others so my compromise was to create an event that focused on the guests and the baby at the same time. My Mom nixed the idea and so I never saw that vision come to life. If anyone has done anything similar I'd love to hear stories about the event. I think it's a great twist to the traditional shower.
Well, the makeup obsession lived beyond my pregnancy and ultimately led to my new found commitment to self care. A friend of a friend once expressed her die hard habit of never leaving home without lipstick and mascara. Again, I thought this was the most high maintenance idea at that time, but it stuck with me because I always admired her appearance of effortless beauty. My grandmother reserved Saturday afternoons as a day for weekly beauty routine - nails and hair primarily. I remember being so frustrated by this when there were events that conflicted with her scheduled beauty activities. Today I use her scheduling as a model. In the 33 years that I had with my grandmother I can honestly say that I never saw her without perfectly manicured nails and she never a bad hair day. She had flawless skin and only wore lipstick(and a smile). I attribute a great deal of this to her weekly habit of scheduling time for self care and personal maintenance.
Above and beyond the superficialities of the beauty routine, I think routine self care has deeper benefits. Taking time - even if it's 10 minutes in the morning - to do that one feel good thing creates a boost and that boost can be the catalyst to a day. When I asked a really close friend - who seems to be one of those girls that always looks great and manages to keep regular beauty appointments on the calendar - how she prioritizes waxing, nail, hair and facials into her super busy work and social schedule, she responded 'if I don't take care of myself, I'm no good to anyone else'. Thinking of the return to others really helped me put it in perspective and compels me each day to make time for self care.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)