Menu Plan Monday - April 30

April 30, 2007· Filed under Menu Plan Mondays

Last Wednesday I went to Dream Dinners and assembled 6 meals for my family in less than an hour. It was a great change of pace and it gave me some good ideas for saving time in the future. I don’t plan on using all the meals in one week, but it is nice to know they are there.

• Monday - Burgers on the grill, fries, mixed veggies
• Tuesday - Marinated flank steak, red beans and rice from Dream Dinners
• Wednesday - Turkey BLT sandwiches and fresh fruit smoothies
• Thursday - Cheeseburge Macaroni and salad (my son’s request)
• Friday - Pizza or leftovers

Have a great week! If you are looking for more meal planning ideas, go check out the list at I’m An Organizing Junkie.

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VT - Moving Forward

April 30, 2007· Filed under Reflections

Many in the blogosphere are silent today in honor of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. However, I will not be.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to show any disrespect in any way. It’s just that our community, like many others, was deeply touched and affected by the tragic events that day. I shared my feelings publicly while I was still somewhat in shock. We wore maroon and orange for the remainder of the week. We lowered our flags to half mast. We also participated in a memorial that weekend.

I am ready to move on. Our community is stepping forward to begin the healing process, just like those at Tech.

The other reason I am not staying silent today is that my blog is not a platform for my political beliefs.

I am going to continue to move forward, keep talking, and share some more of myself with my readers today. I hope you understand.

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Little Red Corvette

April 30, 2007· Filed under Family, Fun

Clear blue skies. A sunny warm afternoon. A date with my husband. No kids. A drive through the country. All in a little red corvette - complete with the top down.

What more could a girl ask for?

Not a whole lot. We got a rare afternoon away from the crew. Yesterday was my sister-in-law’s birthday and we decided to take her out to lunch at our favorite German restaurant today. We have to drive an hour through Virginia horse country to get there - it was absolutely beautiful.

We ate too much, laughed a lot, told stories, and enjoyed every minute of it. A date with your spouse - I highly recommend it!

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National Take Your Kids to Work Day

April 27, 2007· Filed under Working from Home

Did you know today is Take Your Kids To Work Day? Some of the kids I coach at the gym were talking about it yesterday and Geekdad posted about it today, too.

Maybe it didn’t really register because everyday is take your kids to work day for me.  I have gotten so used to working with one, two or three of them around that I often worry if I will be able to be as productive when they are all in school full time.

For those of you who work from home, how do you manage your time in the office with kids under foot? Recently I posted at Essential Keystrokes about this topic. The post is Five Tips for Working From Home with Kids Plus Four More Resources.

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Finding the Balance

April 26, 2007· Filed under Family, Reflections, Working from Home

Normally I thrive on activity and the daily pace of life, but lately something seems out of balance and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

I think the problem is that I enjoy too many things in life. I love working from home and doing web design, blogging, and new media consulting. I love being involved in my kids’ activities. I love coaching gymnastics. I love being able to take time away from it all with my husband. I love taking walks or grabbing a cup of coffee with my closest gal-pals.

But then there are the things I have to do like laundry, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining a household. Things like grocery shopping, paperwork, filing, and such just don’t inspire me.

Some days I think that if I just had a few more hours in every day I could pull it all off, and then I realize, that won’t work either - it still wouldn’t all get done.

Over the next few weeks I have got some serious soul searching and priority setting to do. It is not going to be fun. Summer is right around the corner and if I don’t get a handle on it all soon, my kids are not going to enjoy summer one bit - and that isn’t fair.

Dear readers - I’d like to get your input on maintaining the balance! How do you allocate your daily hours between work, family and fun? How do you pull yourself back on center and reevaluate priorities from a point of sanity? How do you decide what has to give?

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