Back to Work...

Today was my first day back to work after a long holiday break. At least I didn't completely forget how to do my job :) It was nice to talk to adults but I much prefer talking with my young people at home.

My big challenge every day is dinner and today I managed to pull something together: cheesy broccoli with wild rice. You'd think I would have used some of the vacation time to plan or shop or freeze meals, but nooooo... I was on vacation. We watched movies. We played games. We played with all the kids' new toys, drank hot chocolate...the important stuff.

I desperately needed chocolate when I got home, but if that's as bad is it got, I'm calling it a successful day.

Happy New Year!

I'm looking forward to a year where I spend my time and energy where it's most important. I've been a procrastinator all my life, not that I necessarily put things off, but I waste a lot of time thinking about what I'm going to do instead of actually doing it.

I have a full-time job that I love, but sometime it seems like most of my energy is spent there and my husband and kids get what's left over. So I'm trying to find shortcuts that help me conserve my energy for when it counts and still get done what needs to be done and maybe let go of a few notions about what should get done when.

One thing I have learned over the last couple years is that each night when I get home from work, I want to play with my 2-year old, catch up on the day of my fourth-grader and touch base with my husband. Because those things are so important to me, I have learned that I can only do one other major thing each night during the week, whether it's cook a full meal, go grocery shopping or run errands. I used to try to do two or more of those things and everyone suffered.

Here's to a new year with time for the important stuff!