Buy or Bake

Ok moms ... your four year old is having their class party & you volunteer to bring cookies for the kids to decorate. So here's the question:

Do you buy the cookies or bake the cookies?  My husband, the chef, says buy.  The kids are 4 & won't know the difference.  I say bake - I (and the other moms) will know the difference.  You gotta bake. 

I know this opinion is because of my mom who ONLY baked & even sewed all of our holiday dresses.  I couldn't look her in the eye if I bought.  Maybe that is the main reason.

What's your opinion?

Where have I been??

For some reason, this week has been a real challenge for me to post to my blog.  I don't know why really ... except that a lot is going on for me & Small Batch Studio.  Believe it or not, it takes a bit out of me to sit & write, usually after a long day, something that I think people would want to read.

I have a post titled: " What tangled webs we weave ..." just about ready to post.  I had a pretty emotional day with my 4 year old ... let's just say she'll have it branded in her memory for many years.  I've started & stopped writing it several times.  It's a tough one for me, her mom.

On the Small Batch front, I am learning to design a website!  I'll soon have my own & move my "shop" from Etsy to my own domain.  I am NOT a tech savvy person & even the 5 minute intro class caused me stress & anxiety.  I'm also about to have a HUGE deal go out on www.plumdistrict.com so if you haven't signed up for them ... you should!  My first promotional event.

So ... here's to saying I haven't gone far!  I'm just a mom having a crazy mom / wife / business owner / trying to have a life woman.  Hope your week is going well!!

Buisness stuff ...

Summer is coming to an end.  Kids are heading back to school.  My schedule is about to get nuts.

For the next five weeks I am going to be focusing on my company, Small Batch Studio, getting ready for for the Birth and Baby Fair and Prego Palooza both in October.   Since this is my first tome attending these events I have no idea how many Push Packs to bring!  I've decided to bring 40 to the Birth and Baby Fair.  I'll see how that goes and then decided on how many to bring to the Prego Palooza two weeks later.

I've also decided this will be a great time to launch my new product, Doughy Fun.  Doughy Fun is home made play dough.  I am also making play dough kits.  A mix, all ready to go just add water & oil.  I love cooking with my girls & know many of you enjoy cooking with your kids too, but sometimes finding the right recipe or having all of the ingredients is challenging.  More on Doughy Fun (thanks to my good friend Stephanie & her son Carson for the name!!) later.

Time management is a HUGE challenge for me.  I am constantly working on getting it down.  My goal is that the week before the shows  I'll only be worrying about the outfit I'll wear.

Crap in...crap out

As moms,  often times we think about others so much we forget about ourselves.  Many of us are embarrassed to admit how often we shower or even think of putting on make up.  We deprive ourselves of new clothes, time with friends, sleep, exercise and proper nutrition.

These last few days I have been on a baking kick.  I made bacon cookies two days ago and today made cake pops.  My husband has been at work from 7 am - 11 pm for the last two days and so it is just the girls and I for meals .... I've also been munching on my sweets a lot so am not really hungry when it comes to the meal time, so I take advantage of the girls eating & clean a little in the kitchen or check FB.

Well, it caught up with me today, just in the last hour.  I feel like crap.  My stomach hurts and I am emotionally on edge.  My girls were challenging nap time & I didn't have the "whatever" to deal with it, so I let naps slide & now they are being a real challenge.   Harassing each other every second.

This is a HUGE wake up call for me to remind me .. thus blogging to remind you ... that if you put crap in your body, you will feel like crap.   I know people who complain a lot about how they feel, and when I see how they eat I think, NO WONDER!!  Prepared food these days is over-processed, pumped full of un-natural ingredients and lacking in nutrition.

I am about to head to the grocery store and will be filling my basket with unprepared food so I can prepare our food.  Because, if this is what "crappy" food is doing to my emotional / physical well being I don't want any part of it ... ok, well, I won't give up sweets or anything, they just won't be breakfast, lunch and dinner.

What is "doing it all?"

It has been four days since my last post.  I have been trying to post at least three times a week, which means no more than three days in between each post.  I am a mom, just started my own business, work outside my home 1 - 3 days a week, house cleaner, gardener, party planner and now even try to work out at the gym 5x a week.  There are a few other roles I assume as well, depending on the day (or minute).

I had an appointment this week with my doctor.   When you have had three kids in four years (almost to the day) you get to know your doctor, at least I have.  She asked how I do it all.  It is a question I get frequently when I catch up with people.  The truth is, I really wonder, what is "ALL" and what is the definition of "doing it" ? (OK, take your mind out of the gutter ...)

In school, you have assignments and upon completing that assignment you get a grade.   In life, there are no A's and F's.  There are no set parameters for what exactly your job assignment is.  I mean, being a mom requires giving birth or taking "ownership" of a child's life.  Other than that, the rest is up to the individual for the tasks they wish to take on.  Same goes for all of the other areas of life.  How clean is your house?  How well are you managing your finances?  Are you planning the "party of the year" for your baby's birthday or is it just another day?

This week, I was feeling overwhelmed.  For no particular reason either.  It wasn't THAT crazy of a week, in compared to others.  I realized there is no way, no matter my best efforts, that I will be 100% satisfied with all that I do all of the time.  There are just not that many hours in the day, and I do like my 7 hours of sleep at night.

I was working in my yard and looked at my potted plants.  With the summer heat, I don't water enough & we don't have a drip system for all of them.  The plants were half dead.  I felt like a failure.  But, instead of going out & buying more I laughed at myself.  I realized, who am I kidding?  Since we have moved into this house, every summer these plants have died, I get new ones and they die ... until fall / winter rains come.  So, I ripped out all of my potted plants & put the pots in the garage until fall.  It felt good.  It felt good to have one less thing on my plate that nagged at me every time I was in front of my house - GONE.  I now smile as I look at that area.

We try to do too much and then get upset when we feel we have "failed".  We have all shed tears, and given hugs or words of support with our friends when they are feeling overwhelmed too.  I believe we need to give ourselves a little, no, a lot of grace, and a lot of pats on the back for doing the best we can ... which is some days just getting food in the kids mouths and changing a few diapers.   Sometimes, we need to admit that there are things we just can't do.  Do you have half dead flowers that need to be ripped out?  Lighten you load.  Ask for help, or say no.  Sometimes, that is the best thing you can do.  Most of all, give your self some grace.

I would love to hear about ways that you overcame the "doing it all" feeling or something you did to lighten your load?  What helps you?

week "wasted"

In one of my last posts I talked about all that I needed to get done this week.  Well, here it is, Friday and the number of things checked off of my list?  ZERO.  I got some other things done, but all in all had an unproductive week.  I wasn't doing nothing.  With three kids I can't do nothing.  It is the "extra" stuff that gets pushed to the side.  I did work at my "paying" job, have a fun night with some girl-friends, spent all day in SF for an appointment, and even moved the lawn!

It is weeks like this I really wonder if I have what it takes to run my own business.  On an exciting note, the grapic design part is done.  Files are in my computer ready to be uploaded to ETSY and sent to a printer ... that was fun, but also shadowed by the fact that I am tired (which I have learned is just a fact of life in your late 30s) and behind on other things.

Here's to cutting myself some slack, and just taking one small step at a time moving forward.  As long as I am moving forward ... I will get to my goal.  That is one thing we can all remember.   No matter how small of a step you take, you are closer to your goal than you were before you took that step.  Remember the movie, What about Bob? ... it is all about baby steps.  So, here is to a week that was full of baby steps and to a week starting Tuesday of a few goals being reached!

Am I crazy???

This is one of those weeks.  Last week was one of those weeks too ... I am busy.  I work part time at a hotel (but these two weeks it has been 30+ hours each!), am a mom of 3 under 4, trying to start a business & now maintain a blog.  What am I thinking??

There is so much time in all media and in everyday conversation about finding balance.  Trying to manage all of the balls that we throw in the air.  Like a juggler, we will at some point drop one of those balls, and at times drop them all.  But, like anyone who is learning something, we must pick the balls back up & try again.

I wrote a blog entry on Sunday.  I was raving about roast chicken.  How it is a true crowd pleaser, so easy to make, and is great for leftovers too.  I saved it to be posted after my family enjoyed said chicken.  You didn't read it?  Well, yeah ... I didn't post it.  I was doing 20 things at the time & the chicken got pulled out of the oven a little too early.  It was still good, but thanks to my chef husband was put back into the oven & cooked a little more, dinner a little late.  I was so frustrated with myself I deleted the blog.  I do think that a roast chicken is an amazing dinner and yes, it is quite easy to make ... it just takes longer than I always think.  Just google roast chicken & find a simple recipe and try it.

I was thinking about all of the things I do.  Somethings I HAVE to do, others I should do & some I do because I want to.  I was also thinking about the women who have so many more things on their have to do list.  What about the women who HAVE to go get water every day?  How about the woman running a farm who HAS to get up at 4am to milk the cows?  I really am blessed.  When I look at all of the "undone" things in my life I think, maybe I need to mentally move them over to my HAVE to do ... then I'll get them done.  I am really good at finding things to do (like Facebook & just random searching on the internet) to fill my "spare" time.

I remember complaining to my 87 year old grandmother that I needed a break.  I asked her if she felt this way when she was raising her kids (and at one time her sister's kids too ... 4 kids under 3, plus 3 others.) she said no.  It just wasn't a possibility, she just didn't think about it.  I think that I am a bit spoiled.  I slack where I shouldn't and complain a little too much.  I am going to try an experiment (after I get though this week ...).  I will try harder to use every minute to my advantage.  If I find myself "wasting" time I will redirect myself to a project / task that needs to be done.  And moms ... you know that there is ALWAYS a ton of projects to be done!!  I will try & whistle while I work (though I can't whistle at all)