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What are your challenges this holiday season? Is there anything that you are dreading? I'm developing a mini-book on how to ease holiday stress and would love to hear what makes the holidays hard for you. Not enough time? Trouble saying no? Traveling with kids to faraway family? Let me know what issues you're facing - and helpful hints if you have some to share - and I'll send a copy of the mini-book once it's finished to thank you for your input! Click here to share!
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Finding the Easy Way - The 4Bs
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Ever since I read the Harry Potter series, I've wanted a house elf. A helpful, eager-to-please addition to my family who would happily cook, clean, pick up and organize scattered toys and my office mess, and solve my computer problems when my wireless is being uncooperative or I see that circle spinning endlessly on my Mac. Wouldn't that be so incredible? Dobby: A cook/housekeeper/organizer/Apple genius all rolled into one small creature who would be overjoyed at sleeping on a shelf in the kitchen cupboard. A girl can dream, right?
Since the only magic at my disposal is the kind created when I'm in coachin g sessions and massage sessions, I have discovered another way to make my life easier and, like a house elf, it lives in my kitchen: my crock pot.
I love to cook when I have the time but, like you, with a whole lot of everything on my plate, time is a precious commodity. In my life coach training with the amazing author, columnist and life coach Martha Beck, I learned a time and stress management tool called the 4Bs. The 4Bs stand for bag, buy/barter, better, and batch. Using the 4Bs helps to turn an unwanted task into a tastier project. Here's how you can use the 4Bs to find the easy way with meal preparation.
Bag
Can you just let go of meal preparation and not feed your family? Nope, sorry. However, bagging a task that you don't want to do is a great option for other responsibilities. For example, do you have to go to a certain social event that you're dreading for one reason or another? What would happen if you just said no thank you and did what you really want to do, like take a nap?
Buy/Barter
Can you purchase prepared meals either at restaurants or the supermarket? Absolutely! Can you trade meal preparation with a neighbor so that you don't have to cook as often? Great idea!
Better
If you don't like to prepare meals, don't have the budget to buy from restaurants, and don't have a willing friend with whom you can trade, can you combine cooking with an activity that you do enjoy? While I'm in the kitchen, I often listen to KQED radio or to my favorite station on Pandora. Or you could give yourself a special treat once you're finished with your kitchen duty for the day - like a few minutes on the couch with a magazine.
Batch
With cooking, this is my favorite of the 4Bs to use. Once or twice a week, I make a big meal in the crock pot and freeze half of it to defrost later. I think of it as taking care of Future Me so that when I have a busy week, like this month when I'll be testing for my coaching certification, I can pull a container of soup, chili, or chicken out of the freezer in the morning and - ta da! - dinner is done. Go to the Touch Blue Sky website to find a few of my favorite crock pot recipes. I picked three recipes to start that require very little preparation, maybe a little chopping here or there. Once you throw the ingredients in the crock pot, press a few buttons and wait a few hours, dinner is done. I must admit that my slow cooker is my favorite tool in the house. Now, if only it could organize Lego's.
Enjoy! Kathleen
Interested in discovering more tools and ideas to manage stress and figure out what's keeping you from living the life you've always dreamed about? Contact Life Coach Kathleen Harper for a free 20-minute phone consultation to learn more about how life coaching can help you. See the coupon at the bottom of this email for 25 percent off life coaching. Special offer is available until Halloween!
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Quick Meditations
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"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."
Ayn Rand
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Discover What Your Baby Wants to Tell You!
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"It is so much fun to gain insight into what my 11 month old daughter is thinking about. She points to a lot of things, so it is is sort of hard to tell what she is interested in...until she started signing! For example, I think she's pointing to a toy, but then I see her sign 'hat' and I can respond appropriately instead of playing the guessing game as to what she wants. Her favorite sign these days is 'gorilla' and I always know when she wants me to read her zoo book with the gorilla on the cover because she gets a big smile on her face and does the sign for gorilla and points to the book. It's amazing to be able to communicate and know we are understanding each other even when she is pre-verbal. You were right, the added sound effects totally save us. I only know when she signs 'balloon' because she makes a fffttttt sound like she's blowing up a balloon. Great tip! Take care and we will look forward to the launch of the toddler series playgroup. I can't wait for more signs to come!"
Rebecca & 12 month old baby A. (Oakland, CA)
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