You Catch More Bees with Honey!

Hi There!

I hope everyone had a nice week.  My week was half and half. You know those weeks where you have a plan in mind for how things are going to go and then ahhh that thing called life happens? Yah. As I have said before, my worst enemy is "shoulding", and I think I was doing a lot of it this week instead of going with the flow. Sometimes you need these weeks to remind yourself that swimming upstream is much harder than floating with the current, my friends!

Love that Dori. Smart cookie.

What I've realized is that I have to know my most productive times of the day and use them wisely. For example, Tuesday totally got away from me, and I just didn't get to everything that I had planned to do. Retrospectively, I kind of created an unrealistic plan for the 8 hours I had in my work day. I got home late, and I was exhausted, hungry, and my mouth hurt. I had in my mind that since I didn't accomplish everything that I had set out to do  during the work day, that I would do more work after dinner. There was nothing that had to be done by Wednesday or Thursday for that matter, but in my head I had made a plan, and I was hell bent on sticking to it.  Well, you can probably guess what happened. By the time I sat down after dinner, it was seven. All I wanted to do was drink tea and watch the GoodWife. Instead, I opened my computer and stared at a blank word document that I was hoping would create itself. I got aggravated, was kind of mean to myself about being lazy and unproductive, ate some cookies, and ended up watching the GoodWife anyways.

I have learned in my almost thirty years on this planet that I am no good at being productive, creative, or focused after about 6 pm. Get me up at 6 AM, and I can bang out whatever I need or want to do.That's when my brain is the most powerful. I became keenly aware of this early morning brain burst when I was in college. I would try to stay up late and write a paper, and I would end up calling my Mom in tears at 11pm because I just couldn't come up with anything. She would always say, "Go to bed and look at it in the morning." She is my Mom and one smart lady, so  clearly I would do what she said. :) I learned that if I get up first thing in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, and sit down to complete a task, that task usually does not seem arduous, and I complete it in a fraction of the time than I would have had I tried to force myself to do it  in the evening. I usually embrace this way of working, but on Tuesday night I was "shoulding" all over myself instead of accepting that I was not in the mental space to do good work. What did I do? After berating myself and watching TV anyways, I went to bed, woke up at 6 am, and got everything done that I need to complete. Guess what? It wasn't that bad. This situation was a gentle reminder that I knew in my gut what I was capable of doing and what the right decision for me was at the time, but I chose to hang out with my inner slave driver. Result= no productivity and a grouchy Swinny.

You catch more bees with honey, and this can be applied to the way you treat yourself as well. Next time, I'm hoping to remember to be kinder to myself, know my limits, accept them, be flexible, and know that if I trust myself, everything that is supposed to get done, will.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I have something going on in my mouth which is making it pretty painful for me to chew food. Womp. I have been eating mashed up food like a baby all week. Although the lack of solids has been a bit of a bummer, I have tried some rather delicious liquidy delights.

Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Crispy Parmesan Fries

I made a big batch of this roasted cauliflower soup on Tuesday evening. Wowzers was it good. Even PJ, who initially said it looked like baby food, loved this soup! The crispy fries added a little pizzazz, and of course when the recipe gave the option of drizzling the soup with truffle oil before serving, I was all over that. I would have loved to enjoy this soup with a nice piece of warm, crusty, bread. Maybe next time when I can chew :)

I just had to show you all my adorable lunch box (thanks, LL!) and tea mug that I bring to work each day. Much more fun than a to-go cup and a brown paper bag. On a side note, sometimes I pack PJ's lunch in this lunch box if mine is too big and needs to be packed in my larger lunch cooler. Let me just say how cute he looks walking out the door with his Vera Bradley lunch box. Heheh. Real men can carry Vera, right?

Alright my friends, I gotta go!

Something to think about:

XO

Sarah