The word "Busy"....A Vocabulary Shift

"I'm so busy!" 

     How many times do you catch yourself saying that or hear your peers saying it?   Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, or Oprah Winfrey (who are probably also very busy) all have exactly what we all have = 24 hours every day.  Our most precious natural resources is time.  Once it is gone, it can not be replaced.  

     Let's look at a 7 day week:

There are 168 Hours in a week.

We should be sleeping 8 hours a night to function at top performance, so that's 56 hours.

Most of us work 40 hours a week at a job.

If we save 14 hours a week for eating, that still leaves.......

58 hours left over each week.  What are you doing with your 58 hours that is so busy?

In those 58 hours, are you spending extra time at work? are you with your kids? are you in a car driving? are you taking time out to nurture your spirit and body? are you working in a hobby?

     I'm not writing this blog to coach you on how to pick and plan your extra 58 hours, that would be a much longer entry involving goal setting, a time study of your life, and choices.  My goal is to shift your vocabulary.  Try this for one week.  Every time you are going to say the word "busy," which gives negative and stressful connotations that some people like to wear as a crown "Ohhhhh, I'm too busy to...." , switch to the word "Abundant." Abundant gives off a positive connotation which will in turn present a positive state of mind, resulting in reduced stress.  Abundant also makes you think about the things you are choosing to do with your 58 hours.  Are they bringing you joy?  I doubt anyone could truly to say to a friend, :"I'm too abundant these days to meet you for dinner.  Let's do it in March when I'm not so abundant."  I'm not arguing against a legitimate conflict.  Not being available because you have tickets to the Nutcracker is a choice you made with your 58 hours and is abundant blessings.  I am arguing us to change our vocabulary word and see if it results in a time study.  If you feel you are lying when you switch to the word abundant, then rethink that activity and schedule your abundance.  

Busy = Abundant

            Abundant in choices

            Abundant in people who want and need you.

            Abundant in liberties.

Say it with me, "I am so abundant this holiday season."

You will shift and become more positive and powerful!

Time Management

The business venture that has rocked my world this past year and a half was to start my own direct sales business.  Many people all around us have started various direct sales businesses, but few have really stuck with it....and even fewer have been successful enough with that business to change their lives with it.  The success I have had thus far has brought so much personal and professional development with it.  That success is due to the time management trick I have learned to master! Here is the excerpt out of Mary Kay Ash's Biography has has made such a big difference for me:  
🌸🌸🌸🌸

"Back around the turn of the century, Ivy Lee, a renowned efficiency expert, promised the president of Bethlehem Steel that he could increase corporate efficiency and sales within 90 days – if he were given a chance to meet with each executive. Lee asked them to list, in order of priority, the six most important things they had to do the next day; any tasks not completed were to be added to the following day's list. Three months later, the company president was so pleased with the results, he sent Lee a check for $35,000, a huge sum at the time. Writing a daily list of things to do is one of the smartest things I ever learned to do. The beauty of lists is that they require you to write things down. If you trust everything to memory, you may never get around to doing even a well-thought-out task. I value my Six Most Important Things to-do list so much, it has been passed on to every Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. Once you work it into your routine, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. Try it for 90 days, and see for yourself."
– Mary Kay Ash🌸🌸🌸. 

My 6 List has been going strong now for over a year. I make it every night before I go to bed so I wake up with razor sharp focus for the next day of what needs to get accomplished. A lot of people ask me how do I teach school, sell Mary Kay, teach aerobics classes, have 3 children, sew clothes,…. Well, the 1st skill that I have, is that I want all of this to happen. When your WHY is pretty strong… Things get done! My 2nd biggest skill, is my list of 6. I’m so devoted to my list of 6 that now I have a new planner that incorporates the list of 6 already. You can see my older one was in a little notebook that I could put in my pocketbook and carry with me everywhere!!

I had to repost this Frittata Recipe!!

This post was originally written in May 2011.  With my dying garden and a bag of wilting spinach in the fridge, I looked up this recipe.  Sure enough, I was able to make four servings out of 1/2 a bag of wilting spinach, two bell peppers, and one onion..... a dream come true for teachers on a budget at the end of the month!!

I love Frittatas! It is a crust-less quiche that is easy to make and has limitless possibilities. It is also a great way to clean out all of the odds and ends of produce left in your refrigerator. Since you are using up produce that would otherwise be thrown out, it is also saving money.  I use to work with a person at Camp Tekoa who would always say, "Waste Not Want Not." That phrase has always stuck with me.

You can make up your own Frittata with any combination of vegetables and meat with this easy guideline:
8 eggs
1 cup of grated cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
chopped fresh herbs
Whisk these ingredients and then incorporate your cooked leftovers/odds and ends. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes in a 10 inch pie pan. Presto, a main entree four four or a side dish for six.

Here are two examples of how I cleaned out the fridge this month:
Zucchini Tomato Frittata:
I had one left over zucchini from the Mango Pasta Salad recipe that was one day away from mold and a pint of cherry tomatoes that I have no idea why I bought them almost three weeks ago.
I cooked two slices of bacon chopped up. Removed the bacon and used the grease to saute the chopped zucchini, 2 leaves of Bok Choy, 1 red bell pepper, and the pint of halved cherry tomatoes. I sauteed them for about five minutes and then added 1 teaspoon minced garlic and four leaves of basil chopped. I sauteed them for one more minute. Then combined the vegetables with the cooked bacon and the egg mixture and into the oven it went.

Sweet Potato Swiss Chard Frittata:
Last year in the garden we grew sweet potatoes. I still have some that we have not eaten but they are too small for baking. So, I pealed one and finely chopped it for a Frittata. Once again, I started off with two slices of bacon chopped up. Once they were crisp, I removed them and used the grease to saute the chopped sweet potato and 2 leaves of Swiss Chard from the garden. I sauteed them for about five minutes before adding the herbs. I used fresh rosemary this time along with the salt and pepper. Returned the bacon and added the egg mixture. FIN.

In preparing your vegetable filling, her are my suggestions. Start out with the thick vegetables in olive oil or grease from meat such as bacon or sausage. Adding bacon or sausage allows some people (men) to be convinced that this egg dish is actually a main serving. But, you can always keep it vegetarian by sauteing the vegetables in olive oil. Soft vegetables like green onions, broccoli, and spinach can go in towards the end of the sauteing time. Cook them for about 5-8 minutes until they all seem soft, then add your herbs and cook for one more minute.

My Garden Sucked This Year....

      Yes....you are seeing correctly.  That is a raised bed with overgrown okra plants amongst a sea of grass and weeds.  What happened?? This blog was started to celebrate how well I garden, cook, sew, and "momma" while working full-time.  The idea was to share tips and techniques with others to encourage Martha Stewart domestic diva status while living in a mundane, suburban community on a minimum income .  I haven't even posted on this blog in over a year!!  Another soft goal for the blog was to hold myself accountable, and make the ordinary extraordinary everyday and not succumb to excesses of why I live a "not so glamorous life." Have a failed my original goal? 

     I have not!  In fact, I think that in my absence from this original collection of thoughts, recipes, and simplified objectives I have actually gotten better and grown into a "multi tasking maven" who lives life "lipstick, heels, and a baby," waking up with a "hello sunshine" attitude.   A year ago, about the time of my last post, I decided to add to my buffet plate of life: entrepreneurship.  It has been amazing!  The personal growth and friendships that have come from this new adventure have magnanimized (I made that word up) my suburban lifestyle.  And....I am going to make it even bigger.  I have decided that God has big plans for me and ALL OF US and I am following his direction and working him into every inch of his plan.....So how about that garden? 

      The biggest lesson I have learned in the last year is time management skills!  I live and breath by a List of 6, every day (thats a separate post).  I set big goals, and then worked my plan backwards....Ok educators, you should be able to relate to the countless hours of CEUs you have spent on Backwards Design.  Apply those principals to your life!  We teachers spend so much time goal setting and planning, then working the plan, then celebrating the small wins....for our classrooms!  Yet, most have never attempted to apply the same template to the ONE thing in this world that should matter first - OURSELVES.  Mic dropped, and yes I am currently reading Girl Wash Your Face.   

      So getting back to this dead garden reflection.  How did I let this happen this summer?  To be honest, I forgot I had a garden in the back yard.  I never once wrote "Garden" into my goal sheet.  I never once, all summer long, listed a garden maintenance chore in my List of 6.  So, the big picture is that......I did not fail this summer!  I just no longer had the same goals.  But I also learned if I want my husband to feel like its nice to have a few plants in the yard, maybe some lettuce, that I will need to include it on my List of 6 or the garden will look like Petter Rabbit's Spa Vacation again. 

Take aways:  As my personal growth continues to climb, I have realized this month that I need to return to a few elements that make me special:  exercise, cooking, and time management are my top skills.  I need to revisit this BLOG!  So, joining the 5AM club, I am working out more and I am going to BLOG.    Challenge for you:  What make you special?  How do you work that into God's plan for yourself?