During the holidays, there’s a lot of unnecessary stress. Especially if you don’t have a man around the house. So I am going to share some things today, about How Things Work and Don’t Work.
I used to think I was at the mercy of things…. like how the printer and internet stopped working ~ both in the same day for no apparent reason, how the ants started taking over the kitchen, the fruit flies started taking over ~ (those tiny annoying things that seem to fly right in front of your face), the garbage disposal stopped working, there wasn’t enough time to complete a task… or there were way too many tasks to get done, which puts you into shut down mode?
Any of these sound familiar?
YES CHEF!
Well, I want to first say that we are ‘vibrational’ beings. If you think you can’t, you can’t. We send off vibrations that put us in a ‘mind set’ of negativity going into it, and to tell you the truth? We’re really just getting in the way of ourselves.
Take ants. Please!
For the longest time I thought I had to listen to the stores trying to sell me chemicals that attract ants, with ‘the story’ being that the food would carry back and get the ants ‘where they live’. Well, I don’t really care about where the ants live. They have a right to live just like you and me…. just not in my kitchen.
So here’s the solution. Soap suds. When you take some water and liquid soap and spray it in an area you don’t want them to cross? They don’t cross that area. If you only have a few? Which is really where you need to catch the problem? Clean em’ out and put soapy water in place, it erases the path. And it prevents new ones from going there. Soap suds. You can see where the ants are coming from and put soap suds at that point. They won’t cross it.
Now isn’t that way safer and easier way… and come to think of it? Less expensive?
YES CHEF!
Ok. One down.
The next thing annoying like that? Fruit flies. We see them at restaurants, and sometimes when we bring home fruit, or fruit in the house goes bad? All of a sudden, we have fruit flies. Well guess what? If you wet your hands? And with two solid hands clap? They get caught in the water and instead of running away quick, they die. If they land on your mirror? Wet you hand and think of your heel of the hand as a solid surface. Quickly have your ‘smack down’, and they will be dead.
Now, I will also say I’m not crazy about killing anything. But if it’s a choice between being continually distracted or or not? I go for fixing the problem.
Number two, down.
Now let’s talk about your printer … your internet. If you are going to go into it panicked? There is no solution. We all know the solution. Turn it off. Count to 10. Turn it back on. If you have to click and log back in? You do. For a printer? If you have to open it to see if there’s a jam? You do. Then you turn it off, wait 10 secs and turn it back on.
But if you don’t go into it with an air of confidence? You will never get a good resolution. It’s your attitude that determines your success.
Same thing with your garbage disposal. You know there’s a re-set button right?
YES CHEF!
So, just take a flashlight, look into the disposal and see if maybe a stem of the flowers you bought got caught down there. Remove. Re-set. You’re good to go!
It’s much easier done with confidence!
Let’s talk about last weekend. I was asked to do Pineapple center pieces, for a good bye party. Now, I’m a Teacher, Speaker, Blogger, even Videographer… But unless it’s a personal dinner party? Or my daily life where I like to experiment with food? I’m not cookin’!
But I am pretty creative. So I went into this knowing it was a task I could accomplish. Of course, the hours and hours of time to cut and trim and create the boats I came up with (which you can easily do by cutting the pineapple top and bottom off, then coring and removing the ‘meat’, then taking a skewer across the body of a half a pineapple, to mold it into boat form, then using one for the sail, filling the boat with pineapple and red grapes), was not expected. Lucky for me? In the last hour? I had two helpers. And we were able to pull it all together.
But other folks? Might have thrown their hands up half way thru working alone and thrown in the towel.
I think the message here is: ‘Don’t take yourself out of the game’. Go into things with a positive expectation ~ now I mean reasonable things that you’ve thought out and know you can do ~ and no matter how it goes? Stay positive and sure of the task at hand.
If you think you can? You can!
Time management? Write on a piece of paper everything you’ve got to get done. Label them 1-10 1-20 from the most important to least, 1 being the most. Then? Get out the calendar. Give yourself 3-5 of the most important each day, until everything is listed.
Then? If you don’t get to everything in the first day? Put the items to be accomplished as the first items on the next day. You know this stuff, right?
YES CHEF!
And if you finish everything and have time? Take the easiest, quickest tasks from next day and knock those off.
Got it?
YES CHEF!
You can do this. And when stuff happens? Unexpected ‘stuff’? Just say whoa! And laugh, knowing you will find the solution!
To that end, I have been thinking that shedding light on situations, where Chris Rock might say “That ain’t right” will some how make a difference. I have talked ‘ad nauseum’ about Monsanto and Genetically Modified Food. My friend Janelle from Organically Flea Free sent me this in an email (below), and I thought I would just pass it along to you. If it resonates? Stand up and be counted!
Happy Eating,
Chef Marian
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is poised to approve the first genetically engineered apple. The Arctic Apple is engineered for the purely cosmetic purpose of preventing browning after its been sliced. Scientists say the technology used to create this new frankenapple is untested and inherently risky.
Unless the USDA heeds consumers, environmentalists and apple growers who are speaking out against deregulation of the Arctic Apple, the first GMO apple could soon turn up in fast-food restaurants, school cafeteriaseven baby food. With no labels to warn consumers.
The Arctic Apple poses a risk to human health, a risk to the environment and a risk to conventional and non-organic apple growers.
Please sign the petition: Tell the USDA to reject biotechs non-browning Frankenapple!
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12512