Tag: Holiday Survival

4 Basic Tips for Fighting Holiday Overwhelm

I love the holidays, but they can be overwhelming.  We’re busy enough on a regular day, but when we add the joy and pressure of the holidays, many of us leap straight to overwhelmed!  And I say “We”, because I’m there sometimes, too!

Sure, this time of year, even the mundane and day-to-day business of life can be elevated to something more meaningful if we put some thought into it.  On the other hand, completing big and impressive holiday prep tasks feels great, but not when we neglect ourselves and our lives to complete them.  “Hey kids, I finished your Christmas shopping on-line today, but I was so busy doing that, we have nothing to eat for dinner.”

So when we are feeling overwhelmed, at the holidays and any other time of year, we can benefit from taking a deep breath and returning to the basics.

Take Care of Yourself

Maintaining routines and taking care of our health is important any time of year.  But it becomes both more vital and more difficult around the holidays.  It’s more vital because more is asked of us, and who wants to get sick for Christmas?  It’s more difficult because there are so many conflicting demands on our time and efforts.

We traveled for Thanksgiving, and had a lovely time with family out-of-state.  And even though I know better than to neglect my routines, I….. over-ate, under-slept, didn’t exercise, and forgot to take my vitamins.  Not surprisingly, I hit the proverbial wall some time Saturday night, feeling blah but overwhelmed.

Today was a return to routines, with regular bedtimes, mealtimes and schedules, and I feel better already.  I also spent some time in the kitchen, making healthy meals and snacks for the next couple of days.

Make time for the daily habits that will maintain your health and wellness.

Take Care of Each Other.  We can get so caught up in the stress of the holidays that we lash out at the people who we are celebrating for, like our friends and family.  Remember Why we celebrate this time of year.

Take Care of your Home:

Even in the face of the busy holidays, we still have to do things like get dressed and go to work and take care of our families.  Just because I spent 2 hours on-line purchasing Christmas gifts last night instead of doing laundry doesn’t make the laundry any less important.  It just means I have more folding to do this morning, to make sure we have clothes for the week, uniforms for the high-schoolers, work clothes for me, etc. We still need to wash dishes, take out the garbage, sweep the floors, etc.  These few simple maintenance steps become even more important during this hectic time of year.

Take Care of your Business:

A radio commercial this morning called December a “wasted month”, professionally speaking.  Yikes!  Most of us can’t “phone it in” for an entire month, so remember to maintain your professional efforts this month, even though it’s so tempting to cut back and goof off, when all the world is a distraction.  My 11 years owning my own business have taught me is that my marketing efforts this month directly influence my success next month.  Stay the course this month, finish this year strong and start 2015 ahead of the game!

Be Peaceful and Relax With Me This Week

Reposted, original post 12.26.2011.

Can I move to the UK? Or Canada? Just for the day? I am writing this on December 26th, and my original first line quipped “my annual Boxing Day dilemma” and that I would have to look up to actually see what Boxing Day is. So I did. And, as God would have it, Boxing Day is exactly what I needed!   My dilemma was about how to spend my day, relaxing or taking care of business.   For once, relaxing won!

In other countries and cultures, the day after Christmas is reserved for relaxing and spending time with family, eating party leftovers, being thankful for what you have and giving generously to those in need. How awesome is that?

I struggle daily with two opposites: feeling compelled to constant work and motion, versus feeling the need to relax and recharge. The titles of the saved emails in my in-box this morning were indicative of these two opposites: “You-time is vital to survival”, “Take back your weekend”, “Take time off this Christmas time” on the one hand; “Productivity during the Holidays”, “Strategic Planning for the New Year!” and “Head Start Week for Businesses (using this last week of the year to get ready for strategy and organizing for next year)” on the other.

Work and motion always win. I spent the last three days lovingly and happily working hard to extend hospitality with a clean home and lovely meals, and making sure Christmas wishes came true. I cantored Christmas morning Mass (a great joy of mine), spent time with wonderful people, had some emotional ups and downs around great joy and tragedy and loss, received lovely gifts and counted my blessings.

I am sharing this not for props, but to explain why I am very tired today. So, friends, if you also struggle between work and rest, let me suggest that this week both you and I allow relaxing and re-charging to win for a change.

One of the blogs I follow states relaxation is vital to survival, an opportunity to replenish “the well”, to regain the energy we have expended and prepare us for tomorrow.  For me, today’s relaxation included sleeping in and staying in my fuzzy robe for a while, looking at lots of Legos, reading a magazine, catching up with a good friend far away and going to the movies with my family.  I believe there will be more movie watching and vegging out later this evening if I hide the remote control now….. ok, done.

I find it difficult to do nothing, so I also cleaned out my in-boxes, tidied up my house, re-pledged to healthy eating and taking my vitamins, and did some strategic planning for next year. I find positive energy replenishing, so I enjoyed these things, too!  And I did it all while wearing jammies and drinking coffee or tea from my wonderful new Keurig, my gift from my even more wonderful husband.

So, take a breath this week, take a break, and replenish your energy to prepare for the new year. If you need me, I’ll be eating leftover cheesecake for dinner and playing Wii games with my family.  Smiling all the way.

Christmas Dinner: Food and Guests Rule

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     When I blogged about menu planning a few weeks ago, my message was about saving time and money.   For special occasions, though, we want to make a meal to delight our guests.  For those events, we focus on the guests, the food and the presentation. 

     Menu planning is always a help, making impressive meals easier!  The process is similar, regardless of the focus of your meals. 

  1. Start with cleaning up your kitchen, cleaning out the fridge and clearing some work space!
  2. Consider your guests, family traditions and other logistics.  For example, I need to make sure there are ample veggie options for the vegetarians coming to Christmas dinner, and someone in the family does not onions.  We also have a Christmas Birthday in the house, so we always have birthday cake for dessert!  Logistically, count guests and plan your servings accordingly.   Remember it’s better to have leftovers than not enough.
  3. Make your menu.  Determine if and what anyone else is contributing to the meal.  Let those folks bringing items know what time dinner will be, so they know when to arrive and can determine if their dish needs to come hot or cold to your meal.
  4. Look at your recipes, check what you have on hand and make your grocery list.  Shop at least a few days ahead of time, so you can start your prep, though you may have to run out for forgotten items or last-minute purchases.  Our menu for Christmas, and my grocery items and notes in parentheses, are as follows:
    1. Ham with glaze (my MIL brings the ham, buy cranberry sauce and marmalade for the glaze, I have the rest)
    2. Baked sweet potatoes (MIL will bring)
    3. Baked or mashed potatoes (have)
    4. Biscuits (have)
    5. corn casserole (a family favorite, check sour cream, I have the rest of ingredients)
    6. green bean amandine or Christmas (petite) peas with lemon zest (buy veggie, and almonds or lemon)
    7. A pear, walnut and pomegranate spinach salad I am cobbling together from 2 recipes, choosing my favorite parts of each.  (here is one, Kraft special spinach salad, the other is from FamilyCircle.com) Should be very pretty and colorful on the table.
    8. Turtle brownies for the birthday boy (buy cake mix and caramel, have condensed milk)
    9. Cheese cake with raspberry sauce (have most ingredients, buy graham crackers and frozen raspberries)
  5. I really love cooking a big holiday meal for my family.  But it takes time in the kitchen on those special days, so I do as much as possible ahead so I can still enjoy my guests.  I can do the following a day or 2 before:
    1. Clean out fridge
    2. Make glaze
    3. Scrub potatoes
    4. Shred cheese for biscuits
    5. Sugar walnuts
    6. Bake desserts, make raspberry sauce
    7. Ice / chill wine and beer
    8. Check table linens
  6. One of my favorite tips:
    1. Wash serving dishes and roasting pan ahead of time, leave them on the counter.   
    2. Write item name on a card (or click here to see my porcelain cards) and leave card on corresponding serving dishes;
    3. Place serving dishes on server or table to make sure there is room for everything.
    4. Helpful guests can place the items in the correct dishes with the correct cards.  Let others help you!!
  7. Check the cook times on your items, then move back from your dinner time to determine when items go in the oven to have them all done at the same time.  For example: 
    1. (4 hours prior) Bake Ham
    2. (90 minutes prior) Bake sweet and regular potatoes (or mash them)
    3. (75 minutes prior) Assemble and bake corn casserole
    4. (half hour prior, take out ham to make room) Bake biscuits
    5. (Last half hour) Steam and assemble vegetable, assemble salad, set table

     What are you doing for Christmas Dinner?  And what can you do ahead of time to make things go more smoothly?  Use menu planning to make a great Christmas Dinner for your guests, while allowing you a chance to get out of the kitchen to enjoy them!  Merry Christmas!

Even Rock Stars have To-Do lists

In December 2011, when this article was originally published, one of John Lennon’s To-Do lists went up for auction.  To paraphrase, it listed “buy different marmalade”, “talk to [famous person] regarding a certain book”, “talk to the cable guy”, etc. 

I liked thinking about the universality of To-Do lists.  We all have stuff to do, even when we’re rich and famous.  Of course, John Lennon’s list was given to his assistant to complete, but I still like thinking about it. 

     My regular To-Do list is lengthy, but add in Christmas tasks and my head reels!  So, use these tips to make progress this busy week, short of hiring an assistant! 

  1. Write everything down.  Don’t assume you will remember later. 
    • If I am really busy, nothing derails me faster than my own brain.  If I waste time on indecision or whirling thoughts, or I fear I forgot something, I am not acting on those necessary To-Dos. 
    • I use technology, but sometimes I still like to write things down on paper.  As I go through my morning routine, get the kids ready or do the dishes, I jot literally every thought that occurs to me down.  This morning’s list reads 1. Tina, 2. Bob, 3. Jenny, 4. Joe Re: his mom, 5. re-print music list for mass, and 6. peanut butter cups.
    • The first 4 are emails I need to send, the 5th is a quick task, and the 6th is something that I need to put on my grocery list.   I write thoughts down so I can continue what I am doing without distraction.  Then when I am ready to get to real business, I use my list to see what I need to do.
  2. Break big tasks into little steps:
    • Every task represents an action or a list of actions.  For example, “Bake cookies” really means find recipes, check cabinets, make grocery list, go shopping, clean off kitchen counter and then bake cookies. 
    • Some of those smaller steps can be done between bigger ones, like clean off the counter when you do the dishes in the morning, check recipes while the kids do their homework, check cabinets while making dinner, make grocery list on the train to work, etc. 
  3. Maintain focus:
    • Once you have determined a reasonable list for the day, stick with it.  For example, “inventory baking supplies and add needed things to grocery list” can end up as “spend 7 hours emptying all the cabinets, make a really big mess, get overwhelmed and either throw away too much or stuff it all back in the cabinets”.  Oh, and never making the grocery list.
    • So refer back to the list regularly to make sure you’re on track.  Applaud yourself for small victories, and move on to the next task.
    • Try setting a timer and powering through as many of the little tasks as possible in say, 20 minutes.
  4. Make a January list:
    • While putting away laundry the other day, I was frustrated at the state of my tween’s t-shirt drawer.  I need to go through the shirts, and purge a bunch.  BUT NOT TODAY!
    • So that’s on the January list, along with “purge and pack the decorations” “tidy up the crawl space” and “organize the furnace room”.  All are important, but none are vitally important today or even this month, so they don’t deserve my attention right now.
  5. Take care of yourself.  Eat to fuel your body and mind before action.  Try to get enough rest (though speaking with a friend last week about our To Do lists, we both said “Sleep is overrated!!).  Seriously though, you can’t do anything if you get too tired or run-down. 
  6. Keep it fun:  stop for a pumpkin spice latte, sing along loudly to Christmas carols in the car, ride the grocery cart back to your car.  These are the holidays, after all!  Enjoy!

Want to see John Lennon’s list?  Click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/nov/28/john-lennon-to-do-list

Also of note, during the same NPR broadcast where I heard about John Lennon’s To-Do list, Johnny Cash’s To-Do list: was also mentioned:  http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/lists-of-note