I've had a couple more meal planner programs added to my list and I will be working my way through their samples, but I wanted to take a moment and outline some of the criterion that I will be using to evaluate them and decide which one will work best for us.
First, issues that can be evaluated outside of their trial:
Access: can I get the information with just a browser or do I need installed software? Will the plans load on the iphone? If so, just the shopping lists and menus or can I do their customization?
Cost: fundamentally, what is the cost of the program? And, does it automatically renew? Give you an option to renew? Send a reminder email before it renews? And for what period of time do you have to make a commitment?
Usability: I know I'm a little fussy, but the ease of use of the site and its presentation really matters to me. Both in terms of being able to do the "meal planning" as quickly as possible and just not being annoyed by a messy site.
Flexibility: Can I customize our plan for the week? Is this done easily? Can I make alterations to the grocery list? Is the flexibility that they offer not offset by an unjustifiable accompanying increase in complexity and time demands?
Responsiveness: I am going to try to come up with a question for each company to see the rate and thoroughness of their response. Hopefully, it won't matter how quickly I can get in touch with them, but it's nice to know just in case.
Additional information: what articles, advice, etc. do they make available, if any? Do I value this or is it just clutter and more to weed through?
Record-keeping: does the site allow me to keep information about specific recipes? Can I rank them with stars? Keep recipes that I liked? Are the recipes only available during their week or do I have access to any recipe that I've received as long as I keep my subscription active?
Other meals: do they have any resources to help with potential needs for other meals? Breakfasts, sack lunches, weekend brunches, etc.?
Issues to be evaluted during their trial period:
Quantity: how does the quantity of food mesh with our lives? Does it seem to lend itself to easily being taken to work for lunches?
Cost: what is the actual cost of the food to prepare the meal?
Variety: good variety of food? This will be a little hard to evaluate with just one week, but it's definitely worth noting even if it's an incomplete reflection.
Composition: does the food style reflect what we like?
Taste: are the meals tasty? Do we like them? Will Trajan eat them?
Side-dishes: I pull this out because I've noticed a different degree of emphasis. Do they include side dishes with each meal that are good selections to be paired with the entree? Do the side dishes help to balance the nutrition out well?
Time: how long do the meals take to prepare? Are they feasible options for preparing after work and still having dinner early enough for Trajan?
Difficulty: how arduous are the recipes? Do they require extensive, specialized kitchen gadgets?
This is a very subjective kind of decision, so I'm not going to set a rubric or anything to use to make the final decision, but I think that identifying specific areas to think about will help to ease the difficulty of the final decision.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Meal Planner Update
Found another: www.mealmixer.com
This one is more personalized in terms of what goes on your meals. It also looks like it has more nutrition information if that's important to you. It also has other meals.
This actually looks like they may have gone too far. By making it completely customizable and having all the other meals in the week, I could see this taking a substantial amount of time. One of the benefits that I'm looking for in using a meal planner is having them decide what's to eat and not having to deal with the time and stress of making those decisions.
I think the scramble giving you the option of removing and adding meals as necessary is a plus over e-mealz which doesn't offer this, but I really think that having to completely set the meal plan from beginning to end is too much for me. If I wanted to do that, I'd just use cookbooks or a free online recipe site.
This one is more personalized in terms of what goes on your meals. It also looks like it has more nutrition information if that's important to you. It also has other meals.
This actually looks like they may have gone too far. By making it completely customizable and having all the other meals in the week, I could see this taking a substantial amount of time. One of the benefits that I'm looking for in using a meal planner is having them decide what's to eat and not having to deal with the time and stress of making those decisions.
I think the scramble giving you the option of removing and adding meals as necessary is a plus over e-mealz which doesn't offer this, but I really think that having to completely set the meal plan from beginning to end is too much for me. If I wanted to do that, I'd just use cookbooks or a free online recipe site.
Presentation Matters - Web Products
I previously had written about the layout of a site really mattering particularly when you're in the productivity-esque field. I am finding this to be absolutely true and perhaps the first concept that those preparing productivity services/sites should consider even ahead of whatever their content is.
This was brought up again because I was wanting to find a meal planner that provided the whole week's meals along with a single shopping list.
The first one I found, e-Mealz , was pretty and looked like it could possibly work. However, it didn't seem very concerned about meal preparation time and the way they tell you to modify the plan if you don't like one of the meals is to just eliminate it from the shopping list. It doesn't provide any way to drop in one of your family's favorite meals from another week or any other way to customize the meals. They are one-size-fits-all. A potential plus is that they have plans based on the sales at various grocery stores each week. However, none of the store options exist near our house, so this wasn't a boost for me. If they added Randalls, HEB, Whole Foods or Sun Horizon, I might be more interested.
I went ahead and printed out a couple sample meals and will try them, but I was not at all convinced that this site was the right one for me. It packs the whole week's menus onto one page of paper which requires them sacrificing some of the detail and help that I think I'd appreciate having as a not particularly experienced chef.
So, the site was pretty and clean and made me want to love them, but the content just wasn't what I was looking for.
I then found thescramble.com. This looks like a better fit for us as it has explicit references to all meals taking short periods of time and it includes information that tells you what recipes can be cut in half (four of the five from this week) and ideas about how to use the leftovers. As these mealplans have 4-6 servings in mind and we only have 3 people, this is a definite plus. From an initial evaluation, this site looks like it really could be the system that I'm looking for. And, you're able to add in other meals, remove meals you don't like and even include more meals than then normal 5 if you need to for a week.
However, thescramble's site makes me unhappy. It feels cluttered and messy and even overwhelming. And since you have to interact with the site to customize your plans, I'd have to keep seeing it. A definite negative.
My decision?
I decided to print out sample menus for each program and will try them both. Then I'll evaluate the options available at each site, my feelings about the site itself with my reflections on the difficulty and time requirements of the sample menus as well as how the food tastes and if one seems to fit our tastes better than the other.
I'm sure there are other sites providing similar services, and I would love to look at them as well before I make a commitment and hand over money to one company or another, so if you know of a similar company, let me know.
This was brought up again because I was wanting to find a meal planner that provided the whole week's meals along with a single shopping list.
The first one I found, e-Mealz , was pretty and looked like it could possibly work. However, it didn't seem very concerned about meal preparation time and the way they tell you to modify the plan if you don't like one of the meals is to just eliminate it from the shopping list. It doesn't provide any way to drop in one of your family's favorite meals from another week or any other way to customize the meals. They are one-size-fits-all. A potential plus is that they have plans based on the sales at various grocery stores each week. However, none of the store options exist near our house, so this wasn't a boost for me. If they added Randalls, HEB, Whole Foods or Sun Horizon, I might be more interested.
I went ahead and printed out a couple sample meals and will try them, but I was not at all convinced that this site was the right one for me. It packs the whole week's menus onto one page of paper which requires them sacrificing some of the detail and help that I think I'd appreciate having as a not particularly experienced chef.
So, the site was pretty and clean and made me want to love them, but the content just wasn't what I was looking for.
I then found thescramble.com. This looks like a better fit for us as it has explicit references to all meals taking short periods of time and it includes information that tells you what recipes can be cut in half (four of the five from this week) and ideas about how to use the leftovers. As these mealplans have 4-6 servings in mind and we only have 3 people, this is a definite plus. From an initial evaluation, this site looks like it really could be the system that I'm looking for. And, you're able to add in other meals, remove meals you don't like and even include more meals than then normal 5 if you need to for a week.
However, thescramble's site makes me unhappy. It feels cluttered and messy and even overwhelming. And since you have to interact with the site to customize your plans, I'd have to keep seeing it. A definite negative.
My decision?
I decided to print out sample menus for each program and will try them both. Then I'll evaluate the options available at each site, my feelings about the site itself with my reflections on the difficulty and time requirements of the sample menus as well as how the food tastes and if one seems to fit our tastes better than the other.
I'm sure there are other sites providing similar services, and I would love to look at them as well before I make a commitment and hand over money to one company or another, so if you know of a similar company, let me know.
Monday, July 7, 2008
10 for 10 in 10
I was thinking about how much the simple concept of the "clutter rule of 10" helps to get things cleaned up and moving and I came up with an idea of a challenge to present myself. I'm frankly terrified of the idea, but since I did think of it and it is possible, I feel I can't chicken out and skip it and still remain accountable to myself.
Eliminate 10 items in 10 areas over 10 days.
I was thinking about the clutter aspect of the Clutter Diet because I've really been emphasizing the organizational component of it along with the peripheral cleaning element. Therefore, the idea is to eliminate, via trash, donation or craigslist, 10 items at a time. 10 doesn't sound like much, but I've seen how much picking up 10 items can do, so I think this can have a real influence. The 10 areas component is to force me to do this process throughout the house. And then 10 days both forces me to keep moving on the project and serves the double purpose of helping to develop this idea as a habitual behavior.
I'm not going to define the areas as absolutes, but I do have some ideas. Kitchen, dining room, living room, garage, landing, master bedroom, master bath, guest room, Trajan's room, and office.
Since I am so terrified of this, I'm declaring that tonight is the first night to prevent myself from chickening out.
Eliminate 10 items in 10 areas over 10 days.
I was thinking about the clutter aspect of the Clutter Diet because I've really been emphasizing the organizational component of it along with the peripheral cleaning element. Therefore, the idea is to eliminate, via trash, donation or craigslist, 10 items at a time. 10 doesn't sound like much, but I've seen how much picking up 10 items can do, so I think this can have a real influence. The 10 areas component is to force me to do this process throughout the house. And then 10 days both forces me to keep moving on the project and serves the double purpose of helping to develop this idea as a habitual behavior.
I'm not going to define the areas as absolutes, but I do have some ideas. Kitchen, dining room, living room, garage, landing, master bedroom, master bath, guest room, Trajan's room, and office.
Since I am so terrified of this, I'm declaring that tonight is the first night to prevent myself from chickening out.
Sams, Couches, Laundry and Babies
Relatively productive and quite fun weekend. Thursday I did some maintenance clean-up work, but I mainly played more guitar hero. Friday, we mainly hung out as a family and played, but we did go to Sam’s and do a major restock run. I really don’t understand how easy it is to spend serious money at Sam’s. We bought nothing over 22.99 (that was Prilosec) and still got up to $430!
Sam’s did raise some thoughts. I was able to resist buying any of the unique, random items that Sam’s seems to have a plethora of that while cheap and relatively nice, really have no needed role in our lives and will just add clutter. This got me thinking about how there are all these items that are designed and destined to be clutter. If you don’t believe me, go to your neighborhood grocery store and look at the “as seen on tv” aisle, the novelty aisle and the seasonal aisle. Scary to get that economic confirmation that we value junk.
We didn’t see any fireworks, but it really was a great 4th just to spend time with each other and not have anything on our plates.
Saturday was the day we got the most “done”. I organized, cleaned out and cleaned up the living room entirely including the couches. We have leather couches and while most of the time just dusting them, vacuuming the crevices and occasionally wiping down with a leather wipe is sufficient, it really is important to condition the leather occasionally. This should be done at least once a year, but I haven’t done this in at least three, so it was a serious job. And then I made it more serious by taking the couches completely apart rather than just conditioning them assembled. I started rubbing them down about 7:30. I quickly discovered these were the most thirsty pieces of leather I’d ever seen and as I’ve cleaned a LOT of tack, that’s an impressive statement. I therefore began a comical adventure.
I decided to quickly run out and get some additional leather conditioner, as it was obvious my eight ounces weren’t going to go far, and some saddle soap. Now, using saddle soap on leather furniture is something you want to be careful about since it’s designed for outdoor purposes and so contains some wax, but if you do know what you’re doing, it can be a valuable tool. So, I ran into our neighborhood Randalls and it turned out that while they had saddle soap, they had no leather conditioner of any type. I didn’t get anything and instead went to the HEB a little further down the road. They had leather conditioner in the cleaning products aisle. I then was able to find the shoe polish aisle after assistance from a minimum of three employees and it turned out they had no saddle soap. I bought three containers of the leather conditioner, went back to Randalls, bought the saddle soap and went home. I killed all three of these additional leather conditioners for a total of 32 ounces on a first rub-down of the couch structure and all the pillows and cushions from both the couch and the chair and a half. There was none left to rub down the structure from the chair and a half, but it was after two at that point and so I quit for the night. I went and got six more eight ounce containers the next morning and these were sufficient to finish the initial rub down and do a second round. I went to the other HEB, closer to our house but farther from the Randalls, and they not only had both the saddle soap and the leather conditioner, but they also had the thicker leather treatment. Should have gone there first!
Couches are done, but they aren’t reassembled. T-man really enjoys the pillows strewn around the room, because they are climbing challenges that are within his repertoire.
Sunday, I didn’t do much productive outside of the six hours of rubbing leather. T-man and I went to a friend’s birthday party at the Salt Lick and met his three-month old twins and had a fantastic time. Then we ran by the house to drop off food that we’d gotten for Paul and pick up swim suits and headed over to play with another set of friends. I say friends, but they are really family as they are some of the most important people in my world. I was incredibly blessed when they became a part of my life in graduate school. Trajan loved playing with them and had a great time and it was good because they’re going out of town for three weeks starting tomorrow and so I was glad we got to see them.
So, I definitely need to reassemble the pictures and get some progress pictures, but life is good!
Almost forgot! I also got nine or ten loads of laundry done including beddings, mats, and more. I'm in love with the new machines. You can do a load of laundry even with extended stain settings and have it done in two hours including drying! This is in contrast to five plus hours for a similar task in the energy efficient machines. And the size of a load is at least double! :-) :-) :-) It may be sad how happy this makes me.
Sam’s did raise some thoughts. I was able to resist buying any of the unique, random items that Sam’s seems to have a plethora of that while cheap and relatively nice, really have no needed role in our lives and will just add clutter. This got me thinking about how there are all these items that are designed and destined to be clutter. If you don’t believe me, go to your neighborhood grocery store and look at the “as seen on tv” aisle, the novelty aisle and the seasonal aisle. Scary to get that economic confirmation that we value junk.
We didn’t see any fireworks, but it really was a great 4th just to spend time with each other and not have anything on our plates.
Saturday was the day we got the most “done”. I organized, cleaned out and cleaned up the living room entirely including the couches. We have leather couches and while most of the time just dusting them, vacuuming the crevices and occasionally wiping down with a leather wipe is sufficient, it really is important to condition the leather occasionally. This should be done at least once a year, but I haven’t done this in at least three, so it was a serious job. And then I made it more serious by taking the couches completely apart rather than just conditioning them assembled. I started rubbing them down about 7:30. I quickly discovered these were the most thirsty pieces of leather I’d ever seen and as I’ve cleaned a LOT of tack, that’s an impressive statement. I therefore began a comical adventure.
I decided to quickly run out and get some additional leather conditioner, as it was obvious my eight ounces weren’t going to go far, and some saddle soap. Now, using saddle soap on leather furniture is something you want to be careful about since it’s designed for outdoor purposes and so contains some wax, but if you do know what you’re doing, it can be a valuable tool. So, I ran into our neighborhood Randalls and it turned out that while they had saddle soap, they had no leather conditioner of any type. I didn’t get anything and instead went to the HEB a little further down the road. They had leather conditioner in the cleaning products aisle. I then was able to find the shoe polish aisle after assistance from a minimum of three employees and it turned out they had no saddle soap. I bought three containers of the leather conditioner, went back to Randalls, bought the saddle soap and went home. I killed all three of these additional leather conditioners for a total of 32 ounces on a first rub-down of the couch structure and all the pillows and cushions from both the couch and the chair and a half. There was none left to rub down the structure from the chair and a half, but it was after two at that point and so I quit for the night. I went and got six more eight ounce containers the next morning and these were sufficient to finish the initial rub down and do a second round. I went to the other HEB, closer to our house but farther from the Randalls, and they not only had both the saddle soap and the leather conditioner, but they also had the thicker leather treatment. Should have gone there first!
Couches are done, but they aren’t reassembled. T-man really enjoys the pillows strewn around the room, because they are climbing challenges that are within his repertoire.
Sunday, I didn’t do much productive outside of the six hours of rubbing leather. T-man and I went to a friend’s birthday party at the Salt Lick and met his three-month old twins and had a fantastic time. Then we ran by the house to drop off food that we’d gotten for Paul and pick up swim suits and headed over to play with another set of friends. I say friends, but they are really family as they are some of the most important people in my world. I was incredibly blessed when they became a part of my life in graduate school. Trajan loved playing with them and had a great time and it was good because they’re going out of town for three weeks starting tomorrow and so I was glad we got to see them.
So, I definitely need to reassemble the pictures and get some progress pictures, but life is good!
Almost forgot! I also got nine or ten loads of laundry done including beddings, mats, and more. I'm in love with the new machines. You can do a load of laundry even with extended stain settings and have it done in two hours including drying! This is in contrast to five plus hours for a similar task in the energy efficient machines. And the size of a load is at least double! :-) :-) :-) It may be sad how happy this makes me.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Guitar Hero
Ok, so while I haven't gotten that much done in the last two days, I still think the Wii is an amazing thing. Last night, one of next-door neighbors came over to ask something while I was playing Guitar Hero. A couple minutes later his brother was over. Then they went to get their guitar so we could play multiplayer. The two of them, Paul and I then continued to play Guitar Hero for several hours.
Now, these are fun kids that we've talked with and played board games very occasionally with since we moved in, but the Wii definitely created a natural way to interact more.
It was awesome! :-)
Now, these are fun kids that we've talked with and played board games very occasionally with since we moved in, but the Wii definitely created a natural way to interact more.
It was awesome! :-)
So not happening.
Thingamababy showed up in Google Reader this morning with a link roundup that included this: http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html, a guy's challenge to reduce all personal items down to 100 or alternatively a certain category of things down to a 100.
To be clear, this so is not happening with me. I am terrified of the individual categories that I own more than 100 of, much less in aggregate!
However, I do think it's an interesting idea to list everything you own within a category or even just get a written handle on approximately how many you own. Knowing what you have really helps me in eliminating clutter. And, having inventories is helpful in case of catastrophic events. I'd already decided to use http://www.delicious-monster.com/ once I get the MacBook Pro, but this makes me think about inventoring non-barcoded items.
In this vein, I'm assigning myself a question to come up with the answer to today. What categories am I not willing to have less than 100 items in? Books are the immediate answer, but I think there's more. Perhaps to help myself answer this I should think about what categories I currently have more than 100 of.
To be clear, this so is not happening with me. I am terrified of the individual categories that I own more than 100 of, much less in aggregate!
However, I do think it's an interesting idea to list everything you own within a category or even just get a written handle on approximately how many you own. Knowing what you have really helps me in eliminating clutter. And, having inventories is helpful in case of catastrophic events. I'd already decided to use http://www.delicious-monster.com/ once I get the MacBook Pro, but this makes me think about inventoring non-barcoded items.
In this vein, I'm assigning myself a question to come up with the answer to today. What categories am I not willing to have less than 100 items in? Books are the immediate answer, but I think there's more. Perhaps to help myself answer this I should think about what categories I currently have more than 100 of.
It’s official
I had previously mentioned that the reason I intentionally decided to stop doing anything to keep the house clean, organized or in order was to allow seriously needed extra time to prepare for a major professional exam and that this is the reason why I’m not upset with myself and am willing to have friends see the house and also posted pictures. Up until yesterday, I was pretty sure that I passed based on my feeling about the test, but now it’s official. The pass list came out and there was my number. So, while I do feel ownership and responsibility for the mess that exists, I definitely do not feel guilt or negative feelings about it. Might not have been the best decision in the world, but it worked out for us.
Whoohoo!!
Now, we need to come up with our plan to address the next set of professional development work. I have a series of online readings, texts, and projects that I need to complete called modules. While we do get study time at work, it is just 260 hours for this set of work and it’s estimated to require closer to a thousand hours to get through. Thus, time outside of work is definitely necessary. Plus, getting through these requirements as quickly as possible makes sense as we get significant pay raises for successful completion and Trajan will just get older and have more activities and notice the hours that I’m missing more.
We’ll look at it this weekend, but I have some initial thoughts. First, I may need to gradually increase to the rate of work on the modules that I’d like to be at. This will allow me to have more time to do the catch-up work on the house and develop routines and systems that will make maintaining it easier. Perhaps for now I’ll keep one day a week to be substantially devoted to the house, even if it means taking a vacation day, and not have a single solid day working on exams. Also, we can think about moving up the schedule at which Trajan and I start the day. He normally gets to day care around 8, but he can go as early as 6:30. If we started doing that, it would give me an hour or an hour and a half each morning to work on the material at work before I began my work day. An issue with this is it would require him to start going to bed earlier and therefore cut down on my time with him on both ends of the day. I do need to keep reminding myself that he is only getting older though.
One thing that helps is that I’ve discovered that the site for all the online work runs on my iPhone, so I can use time that might otherwise be wasted to continue progressing through the material. This is nice, because in contrast to the textbook work, I already typically have my phone with me.
Working through the Clutter Diet’s workbook on routines and systems should also help us to identify ways in which Paul can also help to prevent the complete shut down from happening. And importantly, we need to arrange for a housekeeper to begin coming weekly. Ideally it will be the one that we identified last month, but regardless, it needs to be someone.
I definitely need to think on this and come up with some ideas and continue to revise throughout the process, but I will pledge to not just take the sticking my head in the sand approach!
And once more, yippee skippee for confirmation of passing the exam from May!!
PS: self, make sure and post a weekend goals list before end of day.
Whoohoo!!
Now, we need to come up with our plan to address the next set of professional development work. I have a series of online readings, texts, and projects that I need to complete called modules. While we do get study time at work, it is just 260 hours for this set of work and it’s estimated to require closer to a thousand hours to get through. Thus, time outside of work is definitely necessary. Plus, getting through these requirements as quickly as possible makes sense as we get significant pay raises for successful completion and Trajan will just get older and have more activities and notice the hours that I’m missing more.
We’ll look at it this weekend, but I have some initial thoughts. First, I may need to gradually increase to the rate of work on the modules that I’d like to be at. This will allow me to have more time to do the catch-up work on the house and develop routines and systems that will make maintaining it easier. Perhaps for now I’ll keep one day a week to be substantially devoted to the house, even if it means taking a vacation day, and not have a single solid day working on exams. Also, we can think about moving up the schedule at which Trajan and I start the day. He normally gets to day care around 8, but he can go as early as 6:30. If we started doing that, it would give me an hour or an hour and a half each morning to work on the material at work before I began my work day. An issue with this is it would require him to start going to bed earlier and therefore cut down on my time with him on both ends of the day. I do need to keep reminding myself that he is only getting older though.
One thing that helps is that I’ve discovered that the site for all the online work runs on my iPhone, so I can use time that might otherwise be wasted to continue progressing through the material. This is nice, because in contrast to the textbook work, I already typically have my phone with me.
Working through the Clutter Diet’s workbook on routines and systems should also help us to identify ways in which Paul can also help to prevent the complete shut down from happening. And importantly, we need to arrange for a housekeeper to begin coming weekly. Ideally it will be the one that we identified last month, but regardless, it needs to be someone.
I definitely need to think on this and come up with some ideas and continue to revise throughout the process, but I will pledge to not just take the sticking my head in the sand approach!
And once more, yippee skippee for confirmation of passing the exam from May!!
PS: self, make sure and post a weekend goals list before end of day.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
I’ll keep laying out plans
I know that plans often don’t work out. I do recognize it. It’s just that setting the lists gives me guidance and helps me keep motivated as well as keeping moving.
You can guess by this preface that I didn’t do so hot at my list last night. It was a combination of two factors: schedule shifting and a bit of motivation lack. Paul was working on a project and so he got home at almost 8 instead of around 5 like usual, so I had less flexibility to get little things done in the pre-Trajan bedtime hours. Then, I had to take the loan car back to the dealership, pick up mine and discuss the install of the tow-package next week. All things combined, I really didn’t even think about getting anything done until 9:15.
The second issue was motivation. I try not to be hard on myself when I’m doing stuff willingly, but I’m not gung ho. I save giving myself grief about motivation for when I’m just flat out not doing things rather than when I’m doing them slowly or without pizzazz. And last night I didn’t have that eagerness that I have most of the time when I’m working on this.
I did accomplish things though. I sorted the mail while playing the Trajan after we got home, I got him fed, bathed and ready for bed. I completed two loads of laundry entirely. And I was very good at the rewards side of things! I played 21 songs worth of guitar hero and drank a full 750 ml of Italian Soda.
So, there are still things left on my list, but I’m ok with that. Honestly, I’ve come to realize that as long as I give at least one days worth of solid, eager work a week and I put in at least a couple “clutter rule of 10”s a day and try to do no harm, I’m good with myself.
I’m anticipating some good work over the weekend, so we’ll see if my trust in myself is justified!
You can guess by this preface that I didn’t do so hot at my list last night. It was a combination of two factors: schedule shifting and a bit of motivation lack. Paul was working on a project and so he got home at almost 8 instead of around 5 like usual, so I had less flexibility to get little things done in the pre-Trajan bedtime hours. Then, I had to take the loan car back to the dealership, pick up mine and discuss the install of the tow-package next week. All things combined, I really didn’t even think about getting anything done until 9:15.
The second issue was motivation. I try not to be hard on myself when I’m doing stuff willingly, but I’m not gung ho. I save giving myself grief about motivation for when I’m just flat out not doing things rather than when I’m doing them slowly or without pizzazz. And last night I didn’t have that eagerness that I have most of the time when I’m working on this.
I did accomplish things though. I sorted the mail while playing the Trajan after we got home, I got him fed, bathed and ready for bed. I completed two loads of laundry entirely. And I was very good at the rewards side of things! I played 21 songs worth of guitar hero and drank a full 750 ml of Italian Soda.
So, there are still things left on my list, but I’m ok with that. Honestly, I’ve come to realize that as long as I give at least one days worth of solid, eager work a week and I put in at least a couple “clutter rule of 10”s a day and try to do no harm, I’m good with myself.
I’m anticipating some good work over the weekend, so we’ll see if my trust in myself is justified!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Tonight!
On the agenda:
- Measure Trajan's closet
- do at minimum one load of T-man's clothes (bonus points for additional laundry)
- Pick up "stuff that's out" in living room entirely (drawers can be for later or done if extra energy, also think about redesigning)
- Grab pictures of entry area w/ emphasis on solving 1. destination station and 2. location for a kennel
- Play at least eight songs worth of Guitar Hero :-)
- Give Trajan oatmeal/eczema bath
- Bonus: Trajan and I can give Jack a walk together, otherwise just do Jack like normal.
- Turn a bottle of sparkling water into an Italian Soda and drink it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)