From Soup to Nuts

Well, as many of you know, my husband has a very demanding job. He is the District Manager for Panera Bread here in the New York Area. It’s a job that he loves, and like everything he does, he gives it 100 percent. Unfortunately, some days that doesn’t leave much left over. I can’t count the number of times that I have talked to my beloved about this. I have explained, cajoled, teased, and even bribed him on one or two occasions. I have phoned, emailed and even sent a balloon bouquet once to remind him to come home for a variety of important occasions, including his own birthday.

The one thing I never tried was mother’s old adage: The way to a man’s heart. (It’s his stomach, remember?) How could I do that? After all, I worked in the city for much of our marriage. But now, after a few bizarre turns of the clock, and a few lemons into lemonade, I am working from home. (I’m writing, in case you haven’t heard.) So a lot of things in our lives have changed. One of my favorites is that I’m home to cook dinner – breakfast lunch and dinner, to be exact.

This doesn’t mean that I have a world of time to do it, however. As I remind Tommy often, the first word in working from home is still working. Preparing, cooking, eating and cleaning three meals a day for a family takes at least three hours a day – if not more – and that doesn’t include the grocery shopping. And how often do we, as wives and mothers, slave over a hot stove all day (remember that one from childhood?), only to end up eating it all alone when “he” gets stuck at work, and the kids would rather have a PB&J. And believe me, my husband could be “stuck” at work 365 days a year. It’s just that kind of job.

I’ve had a lot of great side effects from working with Debbye Cannon over the years, and her Shortcuts to Serenity Course has been no exception. I’ve discovered and reclaimed an entire store of cute and fashionable jewelry tangled up with safety pins and paper clips, I’ve replaced a horrible old “secretary” for a new corner-fit, black walnut computer desk, and I’ve organized everyone’s calendar so well that I think I can squeeze in a college course in September (a life-long dream). But my favorite “side effect” so far has been my dinner table.

You see, Debbye didn’t just teach her “students” a way to save five hours a month by grocery shopping ONCE every four weeks, and she didn’t just send forty quick-and-easy meal cards for yummy family-friendly dinners, she also provided this weekly corkboard planner that included a space on each day for the “What’s For Dinner” card.

And my husband has miraculously been home by dinnertime for five of the last seven evenings.

The first night that he called to say he would be home for supper in an hour met with shocked silence on my end of the phone. I finally said, “You will???” To which he responded by listing off everything that was on that night’s menu card, “Well, we’re having Roast Chicken, yams, spinach with feta cheese and sliced pears – aren’t we?” and so on and so on.

Now some nights we are having dinner at 9pm – after all, he still has that demanding job. But a few quiet moments with Tommy and Kathryna over a great meal will always leave me asking for seconds. (And the healthy meals my family eats are literally worth their weight in gold.)

If you have a busy life and could use a hand with organizing or coaxing your family back to the table, check out Debbye Cannon’s website: http://www.theshortcutexpert.com/.

All the best, Mary Agnes Antonopoulos, Freelance Writer and Social Networking Expert

http://www.lifeinmonroeny.blogspot.com/
http://www.fatgorgeousass.blogspot.com/
http://www.freelancemaryagnes.blogspot.com/

Buried Treasures

Well, by now I guess you all know that I write. I always wrote. It was my sanity.

It was my quiet place amid loud voices and my friend in isolation. And it turned out, turns out, that it is my only path to peace when loved ones die or hearts are broken. So those essays and poems become memories and glimpses to places and people that simply cannot be recaptured.

Back in February when I stopped working and decided to try and do this full time, I joined a writers’ group. As that group developed and grew stronger, I began to revisit old stories and ideas with new passion. The only problem was that a lot of those stories had been misplaced or lost. For a writer, this is like losing a kidney. I would comfort myself and say that those essays and poems belonged to a different person – a bitterly sad young woman that I scarcely recognized now. But it was hard to accept that I would never see the poem that won my high school poetry contest when I was seventeen, or the very beautiful piece I wrote about my grandmother’s bungalow in Rockaway Beach.

Then one day, as I was in my own bedroom closet, a place I literally visit almost every day, I began to sort through clothes and complete the assignment that my friend, Debbye Cannon (the SMARTcut expert) had given us in our Shortcut to Serenity teleseminar. I had bristled at this assignment when she gave it to our tele-seminar class. I was ready to take on the world, and the simple act of, “Start with yourself. Start with your day-to-day things, like the jewelry drawer, and makeup and shoes,” just didn’t fit the bill. But Debbye had said that by making those changes, we would reclaim hours in our day and have TIME to tackle the rest of the world.

So I began the process of cleaning out my closet -- with three receptacles assigned by Debbye: Toss it, Give it, Store it – and if it doesn’t fit, or you haven’t worn it in a year, make sure it goes in one of the first two boxes. The rule of thumb was: Don’t keep it hanging there taking up space. Worse for me, often those clothes simply don’t fit any longer, and they hung there like some mean-spirited specter constantly saying I was too big. And the “bottom line” (no pun intended) is that we all deserve a wardrobe that is easy and beautiful – not a closet that stands there mocking us.

And so, hanger after hanger, dress after dress, I was reminded how good it feels not to search frantically through “closet chaos” every time I needed to put on a skirt or a nice pair of slacks.

You can probably guess where this story goes… way in the back of that closet, in a milk crate on the floor, covered by an old orange knitted poncho from 1988 (I am not kidding), and a pair of size ten navy blue velour gauchos, was a pile of twenty-five-year-old notebooks.

Kicking out chaos isn’t just about throwing out the old and organizing my home and my family, it is about unearthing bigger truths – like never being anyone’s secretary again – and creating room to breath and room to grow. And where my old dresses once stood and mocked me, my old poems now stand to encourage and inspire me. Yes, they belonged to a distant time, but that girl, well maybe she’s not such a stranger after all.

Good luck unearthing your own buried treasures and old friends -- and kicking out your chaos! Mary Agnes Antonopoulos (Mary Vetell)

If you need a hand or a push to get started, be sure to visit SMARTcut expert, Debbye Cannon’s website http://www.organizingwithoutagonizing.com/.


Visit all of my blogs:
http://www.lifeinmonroeny.blogspot.com/
http://www.freelancemaryagnes.blogspot.com/
http://www.fatgorgeousass.blogspot.com/
http://www.organizingwithoutagonizing.blogspot.com/