This is straight from the January issue of Self magazine but I couldn’t find it online to link to. So I’ll practice my transcription skills I used on so many temp jobs…
“Exercisers in a full-body strength program who did three sets of eight quick, explosive reps sizzled up to 70 more calories than when they did the same workout at a more comfortable pace, notes a study in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. To turn up your burn, move fast with good form.” Continue reading
If there’s one thing I shouldn’t write about, it’s fine cuisine. But when I find something that’s easy to make, a hit with my kids, and a nearly perfect protein and fruit-delivery device, I have to share it. It should carry even more weight given that it is so rare that I find meal preparation almost effortless. So here goes…
It’s from a Pillsbury cookbook that my cousin, Kathi, gave me 20 years ago and remains my favorite cookbook ever (it can be yours for 53 cents if you click on the link above). All three kids love this recipe, and even get up in the morning for it. It took a little longer to make when I first started, but now I’m down to less than 10 minutes. A home-cooked breakfast every morning — I never thought it would happen in my lifetime.
Puffy Oven Pancakes:
I fear that even putting this in writing is going to break the spell but I’m taking my chances!
goodhousekeeping.com
Carmen Wong Ulrich gives a great plan for getting a handle on your finances in this month’s Good Housekeeping. She calls it a “Two-hour Money Makeover” and God bless the person who can hunker down and take the 2 hours to do it. Between interruptions and lack of willpower, I wouldn’t bet on myself. But I did something similar one month for 10 minutes a day, and it worked really well — made progress, saved money and felt in much more control of where my money was going by the end of the month.
Whether you sit down and do it in one sitting or stretch it out a few minutes at a time for the month, you’ll still reach the finish line. Here are her suggestions, with a few of my own at the end…
And I’d add…
Do you have an easy trick for taking charge of finances?
Yes, it’s January but I’m not going to talk about dreaded resolutions. Instead I’ll offer an alternative, a “Daily Balance Sheet” of sorts — a simple gut check of what really matters to you, a moment to tap into your subconscious to recognize what you care about.
Check out these questions. The answers can be your guide to do what you really care about on a daily basis. Whether you touch on each one every day, or just a few, you can advance your goals every day…10 minutes at a time.
Step 1: Fill in the blanks of your “Daily Balance Sheet”…
Step 2: Jot down the “blanks” on a post-it or in a notebook, or put it at the top of your to-do list; your list may look something like this…
Step 3: Tick through your list one item at a time as you squeeze moments for each into your day…
Step 4: Check off your list every day — checking off shows you that you accomplished something. Rather than a blur of a day (“I know I was busy all day, but what did I do that really amounted to anything?”), you’ll see at the end of each day what you did that matters to you.
Need some ideas on how to divide a project into 10-minute chunks? Let’s brainstorm…
Caroline Kennedy; abcnews.com
I’ve always wanted to be someone who understood poetry. I wanted to appreciate the beauty of the words, and the mood the poem evoked, not to mention it would represent that I was insightful, evolved, creative and generally bright. Instead, I’m more of a literal, nuts and bolts kind of girl. I’d read a poem and wonder how everyone else knew that the rose or the whale or the ocean meant so much more than a rose or a whale or an ocean. Continue reading
My mother’s friend, Patt, sent me this recipe for a yummy, easy, virtually cleanup-free cake. Christmas came early this year! This is one the kids can make in a flash. But you may want to stretch it out when you’re trying to fill those vacation days… Continue reading
After having a fresh Christmas tree for my whole adult life, we finally went fake. I thought I would handle it with much emotion and go through the 7 steps of grieving — having had a fake tree as a kid, I thought I’d never go back. Despite the happy childhood memories of assembling the tree with my dad (sorting all the red painted tips for the bottom row of branches, blue for the next level up, etc.) and the laughs around my mother’s decision one year to only assemble the front half of the tree and put it against a mirrored wall, I never thought I’d go back. Continue reading
It’s that time of year where we swear we’ll keep our cool, year after year. But whether our holidays are filled with challenges or cheer, the stress can get to us before the ball is even close to dropping on New Year’s Eve.Here are a handful of easy ideas for keeping your composure and taking a little care of yourself and others during the month. They’re meant to be of the 10-minute variety, and some are unorthodox — who ever associated a carwash with our dear Savior’s birth, or The Festival of Lights?
I’ve finally hit on a morning routine that really sets me up for a good day. It means I have to get up before the rest of the house, but it pays off immediately. Instead of that panicked, “Holy cow, everybody get up, we’re already running late” feeling that has filled many a morning, the first bit of the day is now all mine. And no matter how much I have to give away the rest of my day, I always know I had a little time just for me way back when.
Meditation. Quiet. Prayer. No matter how much we want to make time in our days for any of these, it always seems like the last thing to be checked off the to-do list. Everything else is so much more pressing! I was just reading a book by David L. Goetz called “Death by Suburb”, which I thought was going to be a hilarious social commentary about suburban living. It turns out it’s more about finding God in the midst of the chaos and pressures of daily life. Not what I had been looking for, but he’s got a lot of good ideas and I liked a couple things he said about finding quiet time amidst a lengthy to-do list…
“For spiritual development and entrance into the thicker, more reflective life, solitude is more inside space than it is outside space. Solitude isn’t something to consume, like a summer vacation at Lake Tahoe. The answer to finding solitude isn’t to physically flee the suburbs and move farther west to another plain-vanilla subdivision next to a cornfield. It begins incrementally with the practice of becoming still. For a minute, for two minutes, for five minutes — not necessarily in beholding a snowcapped mountain peak, but simply in stopping the pursuit of efficiency…
“It may be as simple as getting up earlier each morning or buying a decent pair of ear plugs, but creating space is as necessary as setting up a line item for Christmas gifts in one’s personal budget through the year… Without a line time for quietness, the days get used up carpooling, working on another degree, making partner in the firm, planning yet another birthday party. “
I was with him till the “stopping the pursuit of efficiency” part — it’s hard for me not to try to be efficient. Even scheduling quiet time becomes an exercise in efficiency — setting the timer, scheduling it at the right time. But I guess that’s better than not doing it at all. I think I’ll add “Quiet Time” to my Daily Bucket List (the handful of things I want to try to do every day). Maybe if I do it enough, it will be come part of the routine. And I even get to “check it off”!
5 places to find 10 minutes of quiet:
Are you able to find quiet time during the day? Where? Are you able to stop doing to-do lists in your head during your quiet time? (That, to me, will be real success.)
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