A Change ... Will Do You Good

I had a rather interesting conversation with my teenage daughter recently. We were playing corn hole, and while my little bean bag's corner was tilting wildly close to the edge of the board's circular hole, it wasn't tipping in -- or scoring me points. Unacceptable. I expressed my frustration eloquently, I think something along the lines of "ARGGGHhhhhhhh," to which my daughter replied:

"Change something."

"But it's so close!" I said. "Every single time it is almost hitting the mark!"

"Almost, but it's not going in," she said. "So you need to change something."

This advice, while wise and useful, wasn't the clincher for me. That comes next, but here's what you need to know: I'm a planner. A strategist, a brainstormer, a maker of to-do lists. Give me a plan with a sound strategy to back it up and get out of my way, cause I'm about to make something happen. It may get messy, but it WILL get done. 

I also respect persistence, an ability to stay the course when the going gets tough and doubt sets in, making you question whether it's worth the trouble. Let's just say that if I played slot machines, which I do not because ewwww the germs on those coins and probably casinos in general, I would be one of those people who would hunker down at one machine and stay there all night, refusing to move lest some greasy, toothless n'er-do-well reap the rewards of my persistence. Or stubbornness. Whatever. Stay the course, I say.

So on to the part about this conversation that has stuck with me for more than a year. For a moment, my teen child and I traded roles, I becoming the somewhat sassy and argumentative teen, she the sage -- calm, sensible and comfortable in the wisdom she was to impart.

"This should be going in! I should be winning!" I said. "My stance is perfect, my toss sublime, the follow through supreme! What do I need to change?!"

I may have stamped my foot in frustration.

"I don't know what you need to change, but what you're doing right now is definitely not working, so try different things until you figure it out," she said. 

Record scratch and what the what?!

So you don't need an 12-point plan with spreadsheets, pie charts and market research to change course? Particularly if the consequences won't set you back any further than your current status?

Huh. Ha. Interesting.

I don't know about you, but lots of times if I don't know exactly what to change, I change nothing. I file lots of things under the "I'll eventually figure out what to do differently, but until then I shall continue to do exactly the same things that I know are not working, mostly out of habit. Please do not disturb." 

At least that was the case until that lovely autumn day when the child took her Mom back to school. And her Mom is still grateful, because now whenever I'm feeling stuck I ask myself "what have I been doing, and what's something different -- anything different -- I can try?"

I swear these words are magic, their magician a teenage girl.



XOXO--


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Show and Tell

I know I've promised not to craft on this blog. Or pressure you into organizing anything, or painting anything, or planting anything. Please do not misconstrue this post as craft-like pressure.



Because heaven knows Back to School season (can we go ahead and call it a season? Because it is. And I swear it pretty much starts before I've gotten the kids home from the last day of the previous school year) is already uber stressful. There's registration, purchasing the right back pack, gathering school supplies, returning school supplies after meeting teachers and discovering they want completely different supplies, and of the utmost importance: procuring the perfect first-day-of-school outfit.



Also, you have to find the perfect lunch box. I suggested my husband might want to upgrade his mode of transportation for his midday meal a few years ago, as perhaps it could be misconstrued as unprofessional to tote one's sammy and banana in a torn Wal-Mart plastic bag to a Fortune 500 company. As a joke I purchased this lovely 1940s era lunch pail at Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta and offered to pack his lunch for him. He said he'd only take his lunch in this when he wanted to catch himself a little tetanus, so we have called this the Tetanus Lunchbox ever since.


The Tetanus Lunchbox is enjoying its day in the sun, y'all.



Anywho, my sister introduced me to this lovely blog called Talk of the House. There are a million kazillion blogs about lovely homes, but this one's my new fave. She does all this fun and creative decorating around the seasons, which inspired my little Back to School entry table. So thanks, Kelly, for the fabulous idea. And giving me the excuse to pull out the Tetanus Lunchbox, along with the girls' elementary school yearbooks and other school-themed books.

Which of course led to digging out pictures of the girls in preschool. Which made me sit in amazement at the many ways they have changed, and the many ways they have stayed the same. Which led to a bizarre mix of exaltation and melancholy, which may or may not have led to me eating some of those Smarties candies. (By the way, my sister suggested mixing in some Dum Dum lollipops to see if anyone caught it. Genius idea which I sadly never implemented.)

The best part is 95 percent of this stuff I had around the house. Which is good, because it left time for me to take care of other Back to School emergencies, like:




XOXO ---

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Learning About Laundry (and Other Fun Summer Activities)

When my girls were younger, there were many things they had to be taught to do versus just soaking it in from bearing witness.

For example, tying their shoes. I don't know about you, but my kids didn't learn to tie their shoes just by living in a house where shoes were being tied. We had to show them repeatedly, and patiently, giving them tricks to remember the exact steps and praising their success.

I would like very much to not talk about the fact my children -- both officially middle school students -- will wander around with their shoelaces flapping in the wind. (In fact, just the other day, I noticed the 13-year-old had shoe strings untied, so I stood on one of them while she wasn't paying attention. When she started to walk away and was abruptly snatched back to my side, do you know I didn't even have to say "TIE YOUR SHOES" ?!!  She instinctively understood the message. Parenting can be so rewarding.)

What's that phrase about leading a horse to water? Yeah.

So this may be a giant waste of my time, but this summer, I am spending a little extra time teaching them things that to me seem intuitive, but really aren't. Things like:

How to clean out and organize a junky drawer.
How to clean a bathroom.
How to dust and vacuum a living room.
How to organize your time so you get to the fun stuff ... while making sure you get chores done, too.
How to make a bet for maximum return without losing your pants. (The three of us played this game last night while Jake is out of town. We love it. I did a fantastic job teaching them, obviously, since one of them beat me handily. Look out Vegas, here we come.)

As evidenced by the photo above, there are some common-sensical items that are to be covered, too.

Anywho, if I'm not posting quite as often this summer, please do forgive me. I'm trying to teach the future generation that very often, that missing swimsuit can be located in the suitcase you forgot to unpack. It's very time consuming.

XO --

Do It Anyway

Following are a list of excuses from my children for procrastinating or avoiding altogether doing required tasks (like homework and chores):

I am exhausted
I have too much homework
I have practice with my team
I am hungry
I have sustained an injury. Examples used: sunburn, bumped head, injured hip (not even kidding)
I have too much to do
I don't have all the supplies I need
My teacher shouldn't make us do this in the first place
Someone else has to do something before I can do my part
It's someone else's responsibility
I shouldn't have to do this at all
I hate having to do this
I have worked really hard this week and deserve to rest/hang out with my friends/sit around in my semi-squalor listening to music 
I don't feel like it

To which my reply is:

"I'm sorry. I understand how frustrating it is to be (fill in with excuse) and still have responsibilities. Sometimes you have to ignore how you feel and do it anyway."

You can spend time planning, organizing, assembling the troops, clearing away potential obstacles, complaining about the situation, blaming other people ... and at the end of the day, you can probably find a million excuses to not do something that's important.

I find (and do my best to set a good example for my kids) that very often thinking and planning less and leaning in quickly DOING more very often changes how I was feeling in the first place.

So though I'd rather be doing things other than laundry, organizing my office and computer files, running loads of torturous errands and vacuuming up absolute masses of dog hair off various pieces of furniture ... today I'm going to remember for whom I'm doing the laundry, how much better I feel when my files and office are organized, how doing these errands today helps avoid emergencies down the road and that those darned dogs bring as much joy as they shed hair.

And I'll ignore the slight wine-induced headache and the lack of time and ...

Do It Anyway.

Happy Weekend Y'all!

*Thatcher maintains he sheds less than Watson. Excess of black dog hair says otherwise. Don't let his cute face above fool you.*

Owl Would You Like Some Coffee?

Ah, February. Sometimes you just wear me out with the rain, and the cold, and the way you trick the weather professionals into thinking it will be a sunny afternoon and then MWHAHAHAHA you twist your mustache and it stays wet and cold.

So today, instead of playing tennis as I'd planned, I'm stuck inside with my friend the owl, the host of a piping hot latte for moi.

Which in retrospect is probably a good thing, since I've been playing Carnival Cruise director (except without the electrical fire and raw sewage - watch a hilarious SNL skit here) since the kids were out of school for two days and I got essentially zero work done, but did manage to host multiple slumber parties and go to mall several times.

As much as I like to have a plan and stick to it, I must grudgingly admit most of the time I end up spending time exactly where I need to spend it most.

Yesterday, with my kids. Today, with my work. Tomorrow (hopefully), with my serve.

That is, if February will concede. Or at least pretend to be March.

XO--

Is It Illegal to Bring Wine to the Polls?

As a work-from-home mother of two pre-teen/teen daughters, I am constantly looking for ways to save time. Also for ways to convince all the adolescent boys within my daughters’ social circles my daughters' are not to be trifled with, but this article will focus just on the time management thing.

One of my favorite time management tips is...

Do One Thing Today to Make Tomorrow Easier

Which seems a little counterintuitive, I’ll admit. As in “why would I do something for tomorrow when I still have 11 things I have to do TODAY?” At least that’s what I thought when I decided to give this a try.

I discovered that in the midst of feeling frazzled trying to meet work deadlines, throwing something into the slow cooker for dinner, filling out permission slips and mediating tooth-gnashing battles over raw hide bones (between the dogs, not the children) … doing just one thing for tomorrow, no matter how seemingly insignificant, gave me a sliver of control.

You know, it's that same feeling of having prepared well in advance for an exam, thus giving you a sense of superiority over those who were cramming through the night and arrived bleary-eyed and muddled on exam day. (Incidentally, I was almost always the crammer. If I bothered to study at all, but do NOT blow my cover with my children, who assume I was as on top of my studies as I require them to be.)

So some days I just jot down my to-do list for the next day, or set out tomorrow's outfit, or make a phone call I could put off but choose to knock out today. Sometimes I just scoot the throw pillows out of the way right before I go to bed so I don’t tear off my toe when I trip over them first thing in the morning.

You’re welcome, me. I just saved your toe.

This brings me around to tomorrow. Election Day 2012. I’m trying to think of ways to make the brutal lines a little more fun. I am thinking of bringing a lawn chair, a cheese tray, and loading a bunch of funny videos to watch while I wait in line for the privilege to vote.

My only question: Is it wrong to drink at a fire station (my polling site) at 10 a.m. (is this the right time or the wrong time to go?) Will I be mobbed, my chair and treats stolen while some kid watches Will Ferrell on technology stolen from me?

My parting words of advice: do one tiny thing to make tomorrow better, and remember every vote does, in fact, count (hello, 2000!)

What's one thing you can do to make tomorrow easier? What suggestions do you have for me to pass the time in Election Day lines?

Source: Uploaded by user via I love on Pinterest

A Salad Dressing That Saves Lives

Okay, saves lives may be a stretch, but it sure has saved me an hour today. And kept me off the streets during lunchtime. Which can be hazardous in Atlanta. So, see? Really, we're all safer thanks to this salad dressing.

I've spoken with y'all before about the importance of having routines. For me, at least. Without a routine, things go to pieces around here quickly. And I don't mean with the girls or my husband. This is pretty specific to me.

As in, I can easily lose a precious hour (or more) from my day trying to hunt up a decent bite to eat. I swear I am worse than my kids about "nothing sounding good."And just as easily, I'll end up eating fast food because it will take too much time to go to the store and/or wait in line at one of the many delightfully crowded delis by my house.

One trick I use to beat the lunch crowd and cater to my particular cravings is to keep fresh salad ingredients on hand. My other trick is to make yummy homemade dressings and keep them in the fridge. Here's one of my favorites:

Lime, Cilantro & Honey Dressing

1/4 medium purple onion
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
2 T. honey
1 1/2 - 2 T. Balsamic vinegar
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 c. olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Fling this into a food processor and pulse until it's a consistency you enjoy. Add more olive oil if you'd like. Frankly, you can add a touch more of any of the ingredients if you like, and take away anything you don't particularly enjoy. This is how I like to cook. Mainly because I'm just working with whatever I can hunt up in my kitchen. Most of the time it works out pretty well.

Toss with salad greens, avocado, tomato and whatever you like for a little protein. Today I added salami and a boiled egg. Don't judge. Again, it's a work-with-what-you-have situation.

This dressing will keep in the fridge up to a week. And will keep me from eating chicken nuggets 5 times in as many days.

Enjoy!

PS -- Please tell me: what's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? 

Declaring Independence

If I were to give one piece of free business advice to anyone wanting to take their business to the next level, (or careers in the case of recent graduates and newly minted managers) it would be

Never let waiting on someone stall a project.

In  other words, declare a little professional independence. Take off the self-imposed handcuffs. I mean, you’re smart, you have good instincts, and you’re responsible. “Duh,” you think. But you might be surprised by the number of people who will quickly pass the buck on a project under the guise of “waiting on approval” when the fact is, most of the time they don’t really need input. Why?

I’m sure someone in the mental health profession could break this down beautifully, but as a reader of lots of psychology articles in places like Self magazine, having spent nearly my entire winter in one doctor’s office or another, and as an avid purveyor of Web MD, I am very comfortable offering the following psychological/medical assessment:

Failing to push a project forward independently means you need a little injection of professional confidence.  

Why the lack of moxie? Because we get a nervous we are going to really screw up. Like lose a client, get fired, or heaven forbid make someone not like us. And so, we wait around for an authority figure to give us the go-ahead, someone to nod in approval, anyone out there who will back us up if it turns out we’re wrong. I’m here to help you break this cycle of passing the buck. It’s an easy process.

Step 1: Ask yourself “What is the worst thing that could happen if I make a move without first seeking approval?” Become an expert at understanding where to draw that line. For example, if you make a mistake, is the CEO going to hear about it? That’s one we’ll put under the boss’s nose. But my guess is more than 80 percent of steps in a project you can move forward without serious repercussion if something does go wrong. And much of the time, your boss/client/whoever is going to be thrilled with your initiative.

Step 2: Get the project as far as you can without approval, then send your boss or client a note letting them know (in the nicest way possible) that you are at a standstill on the project until you hear back from them. I like to include deadlines that are attached to goals (Dear Client: Attached please find the news release regarding your Penguin Breeding Company. If you can send changes and/or approval by Tuesday, we’ll remain on schedule for distribution by Thursday. If you won’t be able to get to this by then, please let me know so I can rearrange our distribution schedule.)

Step 3: Look at the project and see what else you can complete while waiting to hear back. Then send progress notes as a gentle reminder you are awaiting word. (Dear Client: Am very excited about announcing to the world your new Penguin Breeding program. I’ve assembled the list of media outlets and contacts, and as soon as I get your approval on the news release, we are ready to roll.)

If you consistently ask yourself “how can I drive this project forward,” it keeps you from passing the buck and becoming one of the scads of folks who make a lot of racket, but accomplish nearly nothing. And a good manager or client can spot these folks from a million miles away.

So today, put your finger on your most important project and do whatever it takes to get it as far along the path as you can. Keep track of your progress and results — because nothing builds professional confidence like a job well-done.

Happy Independence Day!

Amy Mac

Disclaimer: No penguins were harmed, or for that matter, bred, during the writing of this article.

I Could Really Use a Wish Right Now

Wow. The last couple of months have been something else. This email I sent to a relative in Seattle sums it up:

Sorry it took so long to respond. Generally I loathe excuses, but feel it would be appropriate for me to recap:

Since Feb. 1, 2011:

Hadley has tested positive for strep throat five times, Callie twice.

Hadley has had mono for the last 6 or so weeks. She's missed 30 days of school this year, and has only been cleared to attend 1/2 days the last three weeks.

My dog died.

I keep throwing food on the floor, then having to pick it back up. (See above.)

I have had a sinus infection (and bronchitis, though that got better about a week ago) since Feb. 12. Am currently on my third antibiotic, which is nearly 1000 mg and I will take for 20 days. I hope it doesn't make my skin fall off or make my intestines fall out.

Out of the last 6 weeks, Jake has either been out of town on business or working on a major product roll-out (ie, at work early, back home late) for four of those weeks.

Do they still make Calgon? Because I need something to come take my a#% away.

Everyone has those days - or months - where they are just looking for the sunset. Because the sun will come out ... well, y'all know the words.

Make me feel better. Give me a recap of your day, week, month from H-E-double-hockey-sticks.

Love and the Written Word

(My most recent article for Northside Woman)

While watching Modern Family, I was reminded of the risky nature of writing. In that episode, Gloria puts a few snippy thoughts into an email, then – whoops! – accidentally hits send. “It sended! Please come back,” Gloria moans.

For your own safety, I recommend putting nothing in writing. That’s right, during the month that launches a thousand love letters, I am telling you to save yourself some heartache and put down those pens.

Here’s why: once you write something, it has the potential to live in the universe forever. And that can be a bad, bad thing.

Case in point: as a fresh-faced college graduate embarking on my first job, my supervisor sent an email regarding a co-worker’s promotion and misspelled her name. This was a particular sore spot with her, so I sent her a note joking about his mistake.

Almost immediately, he sends a correction. So I send another note along the lines of “wow, he can’t spell, but maybe he can read minds.” Ah, the accidental reply when intending to forward. Classic.

And while my personal feeling that you should not write love notes to anyone to whom you are not legally bound might seem extreme, I urge each of you to teach your children to not write letters in which they emote in any form.

Why? Because there is a television show called “Hoarders,” that’s why. Do you want somebody to find a long-forgotten letter you wrote to a person you’d rather enter the Witness Protection Program than speak to again?

In first grade, a boy wrote me a letter about how pretty and nice I was, and how I was clearly his intellectual superior. Okay, that last part I made up, but he did tape a quarter to the letter. Or maybe it was a nickel. Whatever, it was a nice touch (or maybe he thought I could be bought, in which case I am belatedly offended). The point is, my mother still has that letter and we still chuckle about it.

I’ve come across letters from former boyfriends declaring their undying love, roommates apologizing, and friends sketching out all manner of ill-advised ideas. None of which will ever see the light of day as long as I receive payment by the end of the month (kidding.)

When it comes to sharing something that can be taken the wrong way, deniable plausibility is key. And you only gain that advantage by not writing it at all. Don’t write, text, tweet or update your Facebook status during emotional distress, and write only under the influence of a nice, deep breath of fresh air.

If you happen to come across something I wrote prior to 1995, please destroy it. And, if you accuse me of writing this article, I will deny it. Now, I’ve got to find out the hidden meaning behind taping coins to love notes.

Amy M. Dawson is an Alpharetta-based writer eternally grateful for the delete key and a good shredder. She writes about balancing work and life at www.amymacpr.blogspot.com.

© Amy McCormick Dawson, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

The Finisher (A Tip for Getting Things Done)

I am, by nature, a starter. I love concepting, strategizing and assessing big-picture goals. Give me a pen and notebook, and I can sketch out a multi-step plan to take over the world in 45 minutes or less.

Seriously, y’all should probably start hoping I will use my planning skills for good and not evil.

The problems start when it’s time to wrap a project. I snap my fingers and call for my assistant. Alas, no one appears. This is probably because I don’t actually have an assistant, unless you count my dog. He does not respond to snapping but will appear on cue for a dog treat.

So I hem, haw and procrastinate, and projects languish indefinitely, nested in my inbox like a snowdrift in Antarctica. That is -- eternally.

Obviously this calls for drastic measure. I needed a finisher, someone to push through the last couple of steps in a project that was complete all but for the fat lady singing. (Why does the lady have to be fat? I think I want my singing lady to be skinny, but I’d like her to bring me fattening snacks.)

Now, once a week The Finisher comes to my office. She’s amazing. She scans my to-do list, prioritizes the nearly-finished projects, and completes them with astonishing proficiency.

She knows she has only a few hours to knock out these projects, and it keeps her so very focused. Her job isn’t to concept a new branding campaign, her job is to edit the web site copy and send it to the client. She’s here to cross things off the list, not add to it.

Here’s a secret: I’m The Finisher.

I was forced to become The Finisher, and only slightly against my will. Because, you see, as much as I love concocting a new idea, I loathe in equal measure leaving tasks undone. Incompletes nibble at my conscience like squirrels on a carpet of acorns. They distract, leaving me feeling a bit frayed at the seams, and hemming things up is the only cure.

So I set aside one day a week and treat my task-oriented personality to a day of getting things done. I start with a plan, and refuse to be distracted. And while the creative process is one that delights, there is no comparison to the feeling of scratching a big to-do off one’s list.

Tell me, if you’re a starter, what are your tricks for balancing starting a project with completing it? If you’re a natural-born finisher, where do you draw inspiration to get a project started?

Lucky Finds: A Spring Purse Giveaway

I’ve always loved to sew. My grandmother, Nanny, taught me to sew when I visited the thriving metropolis of Pinson, Tenn. (trust me, it is way, way out in the country) when I was a young girl. Pinson was full of delightful adventures for a girl who grew up in the suburbs of Memphis. You might start the day by picking strawberries from huge fields, then head home to whip up a cake from strawberries so fresh they were still warm from the sun.

Next up, lunch. No sandwiches and chips at Nanny’s. Nope, there was always a table full of vegetables from the garden out back (cooked in loads of butter and salt, but never mind the health aspect), meat fresh from my uncle’s real working farm, biscuits from scratch, and sweet iced tea.

We’d spend the afternoons hiding from the unforgiving Tennessee summer sun by sewing. You’ve never seen a woman who could sew full outfits as quickly as my Nanny. I think she outfitted entire towns of children in places where my Uncle Joe would take mission trips, like the Honduras. She was a very patient teacher, and I still get a thrill to this day when the perfect textile in just the right hue meets a well-designed pattern to form something that I made with my own hands (or really, a quick-stitching sewing machine.)

When my girls were babies, I sewed lots for fun. Then before I knew it, a business sewing purses sprung from my hobby. It was loads of fun, and lots and lots of purses were made and sold. But a few years ago I decided I better get back to writing. So I sold off most of my inventory, and my sewing machine started getting a little dusty … only getting used when a pair of pants needed hemming or someone needed a costume sewed for a school play.

I was cleaning out my sewing room this weekend, and look what I found! A few of my purses, just hanging out, waiting on someone to throw in their wallet, cell phone and sunglasses and take them out for a spin on their shoulder.

What better place to find a happy home for this little gem than right here with my blog buddies? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and you’ll be entered into the giveaway! If you sign up for my emails (over on the right column), you’ll be entered, too! (If you are on my email list and comment – you get entered twice!) St. Patrick's Day, 5 p.m. EDT is when we'll decide the winner, so be sure to weigh in before then.

Tell me … what’s your favorite memory of your grandmother?

XO – Amy Mac

Where's Your Home Office?

During my office hours - when the girls are safely tucked away at school, Louis the trusty Corgi is napping, and my husband is at his office - I have a respectable office (well, a spare bedroom on the main floor set up as a respectable office) where I work.

But once I've picked the girls up from school, this little corner of the kitchen becomes my office. Sometimes it's rather tricky managing homework (when did they start doing multiplication in second grade?), laundry (who is bringing their laundry to my house - because we can NOT be doing this much damage weekly!) and other household tasks like dinner (yes, that's the edge of a slow cooker you see to the left) while finishing work projects ... but it's one way I've found to actually stay on top of my to-do list.

How do you keep projects moving ahead when you have a thousand things to do and not enough office time to get it all done?

My Blue Sky

I don't know about you, but I am ready for a little less of this.....And a lot more of this...

I think the girls having strep throat makes the skies a little more gray, but am plenty thankful for fast-acting antibiotics that have them on the mend already (and I find it curious that a sore throat doesn't reduce noise-making whatsoever. Hm.)

Happy Weekend! -- Amy Mac

My Stalker

I have a stalker. Actually, I think there are several of them. I feel their eyes on me as I drift through my house in my stocking feet on New Year’s Day. I hear them calling to me softly as I organize my pantry. I sense their ghostly pull as I stir the black eyed peas on the stove and slice the fresh-from-the-oven cornbread while I’m cooking our good-luck evening meal.

These stalkers are sneaky. They don’t present obvious requests, like my kids when they need help styling their hair, or my dog when he needs to romp outside. Nope, their demands are less apparent. More of a nagging that simply won’t go away until I acknowledge and deal with them.

I have the same stalker of anyone who works from home – the computer, the Blackberry, the stack of work filling your inbox like you’ve been away on a year-long sabbatical versus a week-long holiday. If there was a work-from-home police force, I swear I’d be in touch with them right away. “Emergency!” I’d say. “Help me, there are things I’ve got to do at my house – like taking down the Christmas tree, adding people to my Christmas list who sent me a card who went missing from my list, and figuring out a place for the kids’ loot from Santa!”

But there’s no international crime-fighting force for evil e-mail senders, voice mail vampires or Tasmanian to-do lists. So I suppose I’ll have to do my best to ignore my stalkers until Monday, when I am officially back in the office.

Until then, ignore the blinking Blackberry, the beeping voice mail, the crushing tower of paperwork – and tell those stalkers you’re staying safe in your holiday cocoon – at least through the weekend.

Xo-Amy Mac

I Am Pleased To Announce....

That I completely finished my Christmas decorating since we last talked. Do you like what I've done with my tree?

Obviously I am completely kidding, as evidenced by Martha's moniker at the bottom of the above photo! However, I did get lots of comments from folks who subscribe to my blog ... and therefore respond via email instead of on the comments box. (Not a subscriber? Look on the right-hand side of the page for the "subscribe" button and sign up today!)

I thought you'd enjoy some of the responses I've received ...

Girl, If I could get over this disastrous stomach virus, I would finish putting up all the decorations in the boxes that my lovely 3 year old has opened, looking for his presents from Santa. Ugh!

I actually have completed all decorating except for the tree - which we will get this weekend. Settle down though, you really can't be considered behind the curve b/f December even arrives!!

I dug the Christmas cards out of the closet......I think that can be considered not even started yet!

We never seem to find time to decorate until the last minute, which is why we always have a last minute party!

This year we are hosting a baby shower on dec 13^th, so I guess we have to get cracking!

I have done quite a bit of shopping and wrapping, but I am nowhere near done though.

I figure the people who decorate this early (and this includes the people who send me a Christmas card thanksgiving week) either make Christmas the number one priority in their lives (which I don’t have time or the inclination to do) or they have nothing else to do.

I don’t work, but I have a ton of crap to do-running coach, tennis captain, room mom, football practice taxi, etc!!!!

Hope that all makes you feel better-we aren’t slackers-we have real stuff to do!

Whew - I'm glad there are others out there! XO, my good friends! (and feel better soon, Kel!) Amy Mac

Creativity, Cape Cod, and Clean Clothes

A good friend emails me and asks “do you have any organizational tips for creative people?”

What she really means is “when I am working on a critical task with a deadline, how do I resist the urge to pick up my knitting needles and knit a sweater, particularly when I have just purchased the most beautiful Angora sage green yarn – and there are people in my house who want to eat and wear clean clothes?”

It’s the bane of every creative person I know – how do we achieve focus during our day when there are a thousand things to do, and we’d much rather be making something pretty? I certainly do not claim to be a time management or organizational expert. In fact, the only reason I am organized at all is if I weren’t, I would accomplish precisely zero tasks. Ever. I swear I’d just watch re-runs of Friends and eat Cape Cod Salt and Vinegar chips while my house fell down around my ankles.

Obviously that existence is unacceptable on many different levels (though I am not opposed to living off those chips for the rest of my days.) So I’ve come up with a system that helps me scratch items off my to-do list, and arrive at appointments on time - without squashing my creativity. Maybe one or two will work for you.

Mix the fun-to-do with the have-to-do. If I am staring at a list of mundane tasks from dawn until dusk, I know I will procrastinate and get essentially nothing accomplished. Therefore, I inject fun tasks (shop for new shoes, lunch with friends, purchase mums for porch) with the tedious (doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, throwing out the mums I killed because they were never watered because that was boring.)

Create a system and segment your day. If I have to figure out what to do when every single day, I’ll spend an hour vacillating on whether or not to exercise, or write that proposal, or vacuum the baseboards. So, I exercise first thing in the morning. Then I work for a few hours. Then I do a couple of household tasks or run errands. Then I get the kids…..you get the picture.

Pleasing environments encourage task completion. My planner is cute and organized. My desk is relatively clear. I listen to upbeat music when I’m writing. I try to keep pretty flowers, or a favorite picture of the girls, or a bulletin board full of tear sheets I love. For me, if my surroundings are pretty, I’ll stick with the task longer and be distracted less.

Make “I’ll do that when I’m done with this” your new mantra. On days when I am running in a million different directions and trying to get a thousand things done, I keep paper and pen with me at all times. That way, when I’m, say, folding a load of laundry and I think of a unique idea for this year’s Christmas cards, I jot the idea down and keep folding the laundry. This keeps me from jumping from task to task and never actually getting any one thing finished.

So there you have it. The reasons I am able to walk around every day as an apparently fully functional human, showered, dressed and ready to go most days by 9 a.m. Of course, I’ve created a little list while I’ve been writing.

Since I’m done here, I’ll get to that next task.

XO – Amy Mac

You Know I Like My Chicken Fried

Yesterday, I started my day with a business meeting at the Buckhead Club, went straight to another meeting with a favorite client, immediately to the PTA office at the girls’ school, zoomed home for a quick snack, swim practice, the library, then back home again to pull together dinner by 6 p.m.

So there I am in heels and suit pants (I shed the suit jacket at noon when the temp hit about 90-something degrees) -- frying chicken. Only in the South would you catch somebody – after a really, really long day – throwing together a dinner involving fried chicken, biscuits and gravy.

Don’t get me wrong – there are lots of days when a frozen pre-made lasagna and bagged salad passes as the evening meal. There are also days when I say “I am too tired to make dinner, or for that matter, clean up afterwards. Let’s eat out!”

But sometimes, ya gotta have biscuits. With gravy. And if it happens to be at the end of a long day – well, you just have to go with it.

And have your chicken-fried.

The Witching Hour

As you may already know, I write an article for a local, monthly publication. Sometimes there’s a theme I write around (like Mother’s Day, or summer fun) and sometimes they just set me loose with whatever I want to write.

For an upcoming article, I’m going to write about “The Witching Hour,” that time of day where kids of all ages seem to fall apart. If there’s a fit to be pitched, an argument to battle, a knee to skin or white carpet to spill grape juice upon, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. is the time for it to all go down.

I used to think the frayed nerves of the hour was an exclusive privilege of moms of infants and toddlers, and that my children would grow out of it, much like they outgrew the need for a nap. My kids are nearly 8 and 10 years of age respectively, and …. well, let’s just say someone burst into tears yesterday because we ordered her pizza instead of pasta at the restaurant for dinner. Seriously.

So parents of kids of all ages, send me your stories! Is there a Witching Hour at your house? (If not, can I move in with you?) What’s your best Witching Hour story? Did you figure out a legal way to keep the Witching Hour at bay? If so, I’d like to know!

Send your stories to amymacpr@comcast.net no later than June 30, and be sure to include your full name and contact information.

The Key to Happiness

When we’re not at the pool, a favorite activity for the girls is arts and crafts – painting, designing, and coloring their worlds with dreams and goals and pleasant thoughts.

My nine-year-old is a budding writer, and her current mission is to develop a magazine. As you can see, she’s mocked up a cover with articles about pressing issues including “Geek or Not – Figure it Out,” “Are You Looking for a Popular Summer Sport?” and “Is Your Makeup All Right?” Ever the detailed entrepreneur, she’s held space for advertising, and will no doubt hit up relatives in the coming months to support her current endeavor with cold, hard cash. Maybe she’ll give me a job some day when she’s the editor of one of the big, fancy glossies in NYC.

With big, broad strokes, my seven-year-old has painted the keys to happiness, in no particular order: sunshine, smiles, peace, love, and chocolate ice cream cones with a cherry on top. After a long day at the pool, peace brought on like only sunshine and lots of time outdoors can bring, smiles, hugs and some soft-serve ice cream (minus the cherry, but we’re not too picky), I have to say she’s got it right. There ya go, I just saved you $25 on the latest, greatest self-help book. Remember, you read it here at the Amy Mac blog!