Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses

Welcome to the January 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Experiments in Natural Family Living

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have reported on weeklong trials to make their lives a little greener. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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I’ll admit it: I’m always making excuses. I don’t have time to exercise. I don’t have time to eat well. I don’t have time to menu plan. I must be the busiest person in the world. I act like I always have 10 trillion things to do. And I do. But so does everyone else. How many times do I catch myself vegging on the couch, watching TV, telling myself I can do those things tomorrow? I mean, it’s not like it doesn’t happen. I justify it by telling myself I need to relax, which is true. I need some me time. But me time also should include bettering myself.

I had gotten into a rut where I was constantly working on my business. I wasn’t cooking, I wasn’t cleaning, and I certainly wasn’t exercising. We were eating pasta and grilled cheese often—lots of gluten, not a lot of veggies. When I went to visit my family for Thanksgiving, I felt awful the entire trip. My stomach just wasn’t right. I was loading up on bread and sugar, and it wasn’t agreeing with me.

In order to make a change, I decided to start menu planning. Nothing major, just writing down my dinners for the week. Ok—of course I had to make it a little major at first. I always need to start off strong. So I dedicated one Sunday to cooking, spent a ton of money at Costco, cooked my brains out, and totally overwhelmed myself. I convinced myself that there was no way I was going to do that again.

And then I ended up having to cook less during the week, but I ate great. I eliminated most of the gluten I was eating, and I ate a lot of whole foods. And the next week came and I not only spent less time cooking, I didn’t really have to spend much money at the grocery store, either. After a month of menu planning, I spent way less than my monthly grocery budget, ate well-rounded meals chock full of veggies every night, and ended up with a ton of food still in my freezer.

There are plans for Once-a-Month Cooking out there that involve a detailed list of what to buy, how to prep, and how to prepare and freeze foods for the entire month. I’m dying to try it, but I don’t want to burn out. This month, I’m working on cleaning out the pantry and freezer. Once I’m done with that, I really want to try this power-cooking business. I’ll let you know if I survive.

For now, I’ll leave you with some tips for menu planning.

1. Organize yourself and write it down – Decide where you’re going to keep your menu and how you’re going to keep track of the recipes. If it’s all in a million places, it will be hard to keep track of everything, and you’re more likely to get overwhelmed. If I find a recipe I like online, I pin it on Pinterest. That way, I know all the recipes I want to try are in one place.
   
   As for my menu planning calendar, since I most often find recipes on the computer, I have a Word doc with a monthly calendar where I write my weekly menus. Below the calendar, I cut and paste the entire recipe for anything that uses one. That way it’s all in one place. If I am using a recipe from a cookbook, I write the name of the book and the page number on my calendar. Below is a link to my entire document for December, just so you can get an idea of what it looked like. It’s not fancy. It's long. But it’s all in one place, and it worked great for me. (Microsoft Office 2010 allows you to add clickable headings into Word, so even though it's long, I can easily find my recipe titles.)
   
   
   
2. Write it down – Just the fact that I was writing things down helped me plan. How many times do you decide what you’ll have for dinner the next day, and then the next day comes around and you’ve completely forgotten? That’s how I used to live my life, and it’s stressful. Even if I lost momentum on a given week, it only took me 5 minutes to sit in front of the calendar and decide what we would eat that week. Forcing myself to do it made me much less stressed the rest of the week. Also, keep an inventory of your freezer foods (and even the food in your pantry—I’m not that motivated, but I hope to get there.) I write what’s in my freezer directly on the freezer door using a dry-erase marker. That way I can’t lose my list.
   

   

   My freezer door: ugly but functional

   
   
3. Don’t try too many new things – If you try to do once-a-month meal planning at the same time that you’re trying 10 new recipes, you’re more likely to burn out. Start off slow.
4. Don’t bore yourself – At the same time, if you plan meals that you’ve made over and over again, you might get bored. I know I would. Maybe try two new recipes each week. Finding new foods to make will keep you motivated and give you more to include in future menus.
5. Cook one meal a week for the freezer – Don’t overdo it and try to make every meal in huge batches. Freezer meals still take longer to cook – you have to prep more food, use more pans, etc. But if you choose one meal a week (or a month) to double, you’ll have an easy freezer meal to pop out when you’re really not motivated to cook.

No matter what you think, you do have time to menu plan. The few minutes that it takes to write down what you’ll be eating for the week takes time off of your daily to-do list. It makes trips to the grocery store go quicker. And cooking in bulk—even a little bit—decreases the time spent in your kitchen, giving you more time in the long run.

Check out my new printable recipe cards for Salmon Burgers and Easy Homemade Pizza from yesterday's menu planning post. I'll be updating the recipe section of my website soon, and all of my recipes will be easily printable. Keep it bookmarked for more deliciousness!

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Make your own moisturizer! — Megan at boho mama whips up a winter skin-friendly moisturizer.
• Cold Water Only — Brittany at The Pistachio Project talks about how you do not need hot water to wash laundry.
• Family Cloth... Really?? — After lots of forethought and consideration, Momma Jorje finally decides to take the plunge with family cloth.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle : 5-5-5 Things A Day — Luschka from Diary of a First Child writes about decluttering her home in an attempt to create a gentler living space. She takes on a new project where she sets a goal of reducing, reusing and recycling every day.
• Pros and cons of family cloth — Lauren at Hobo Mama would love to continue replacing paper products with family cloth … if she could only get over how damp she feels.
• Craftily Parenting — Kellie at Our Mindful Life finds that crafting makes her a better parent.
• Changes — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen couldn't choose just one area to experiment with, so she wrote a long post about all the fun changes initiated in her life!
• Life without Internet: Not all it's Cracked up to Be — Adrienne at Mommying My Way tries to go a week without the Internet, only to realize a healthy dose of Internet usage really helps keep this stay-at-home mom connected.
• My Progression to Raw Milk — Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling shares her natural parenting progression all the way to trying raw milk.
• mama's new little friend. — Sarah at Bitty Bird tries a menstrual cup to "green her period," and is pleasantly surprised when she falls in love with the product!
• Before you throw it out, try homemade laundry soap! — Jennifer at Practical OH Mommy shows visual proof that homemade laundry soap is cheaper, easier, and works better than the store-bought chemicals!
• Oil, Oil, No Toil, No Trouble — K from Very Simple Secret talks about her foray into the oil-cleansing method.
• I Need a Hobby — Amanda at Let's Take the Metro couldn't decide which experiment to run, so she did them all.
• 7 days of macrobiotics for a balanced family — The Stones make a [successful] attempt to release the "holiday junking" with 7 days of macrobiotic meals to balance their bodies and souls. Elisabeth at Manic Mrs. Stone includes an explanation of macrobiotics.
• Chemical Free Beauty Challenge — Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction turned to natural alternatives for her daily beauty and cleaning routine, with great results.
• Greening my Armpits!? My Green Resolution — Shannon at The Artful Mama talks about how she decided to give up her traditional antiperspirant and make the switch over to crystal deodorants and definitely isn't looking back!
• Going Raw (for a while) — Jenny at Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares her family's experience with raw food.
• Do we get to eat gluten today? — Sheila at A Gift Universe has been trying to figure out if her son does better with or without gluten in his diet … but it's really hard to tell for sure.
• Hippies Can Smell and Look Fabulous Too! — Arpita of Up, Down And Natural details her experience of going shampoo-free and overhauling her cosmetics to find the balance between feeling beautifully fabulous and honoring her inner hippie.
• Our cupboards are full...but there's nothing to eat — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud takes on the challenge of chomping through the contents of her storecupboard rather than going shopping — but there's something that she just can't bring herself to do …
• Elimination Experiment 3.0 — MudpieMama recounts the messy adventures of her baby daughter trying to be diaper free.
• Family Cloth Trial — Amyables at Toddler in Tow talks about making and using family cloth wipes in the bathroom for the first time.
• Taking a Hiatus — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares how her experience of much less internet interaction affected her family and how it will change her approach in the future.
• Trying Out the Menstrual Cup — Lindsey at an unschooling adventure ditches the tampons and gives menstrual cups a try.
• Managing Food Waste in Our Home — Tired of the holiday waste, Robbie at Going Green Mama takes a weeklong focus on reducing food waste in her home, and learns some lessons that can take her through the new year.
• Going Offline, Cloth Tissues, and Simplicity — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama muses over her time away from blogging and social networking. In addition, she shares her newfound love of cloth tissues and simplicity.

• The Oil Cleansing Method — Erica at ChildOrganics explores an easy, organic and natural way to tackle skin care.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living - Natural Toys! — Lani at Boobie Time enjoys the silence of natural toys and being more present with her son.
• Discovering a New City and Organic Foods — Amy at A Secure Base describes her family's switch to and search for organic foods for one week.
• My Experiment in Homemade Bread — Crunchy Con Mommy tried — and loved — baking her own homemade bread.
• Menu Planning: Stop the Excuses — Gaby at Tmuffin stopped the excuses and started planning her weekly meals, drastically cutting her grocery budget and stress level and improving the quality of foods she fed her family.
• My First Menstrual Cup — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was pleasantly surprised with her first experience using a menstrual cup.
• My Natural Beauty Regime — Christine at African Babies Don’t Cry shares the results of banishing cleanser and soaps from her bathroom, as well as a couple of natural homemade recipes that have worked well on her skin.
• Unplugging and Creating a Rhythm: Our Experiment in Natural Family Living — Dionna at Code Name: Mama focused less on gadgets and spent more time with her family to create a healthy rhythm for the new year.
• Experiments in Natural Family Living: 5 First Steps Toward Preparing for a Natural Birth — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama discusses how she tackled the pressing matter of how to begin preparing for a natural birth.
• All you need is...vinegar! — Kristen at My Semi-Crunchy Life learns that one household product can replace all the cleaners in her cabinet.
• Nope Nada Ixnay Negative Pass Decline — Zoie at TouchstoneZ finds out what shakes loose if she says, "YES!!" to anything anyone asks of her over the space of 10 days.
• Reducing our exposure to toxins found in plastics — Syenna at Gently Parenting Twins throws out the melamine and BPA plastics which have been hanging around the kitchen for too long.
• Duh! — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment shares how she began the process of helping her 2-year-old son stop physically acting out.
• Experiments in Natural Parenting: Starting, Stopping, and Gaining Perspective — Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings explains how pregnancy brain interfered with her attempts to complete an experiment, but how she gained some interesting perspective as she started and stopped several.
• From Experiment to Lifestyle — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares her experience avoiding processed foods for a month, and deciding to make it a permanent lifestyle change.
• From Disposable Paper to Reusable Cloth – AGAIN! — Terri at Child of the Nature Isle stops flushing trees down the toilet and switches to the softest ever butt-wiping material: cloth.
• Extra! Extra! Water Heater Turned Down, Mom Doesn't Notice! — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis finds an energy-saving experiment that's so easy she didn't even realize it was happening.
• Worm Tea — CatholicMommy isn't sure how successful her worm bin will be, but she's having fun anyway.
• Miles to Go ... — Rachael at The Variegated Life learns that when it comes to sleep debt, she's in real deep.
• My Month With Water Kefir — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries experiments with a new fermented probiotic drink homemade in her own kitchen.
• OMG Mom is Home... All Day Everyday: A Week-Long Experiment in Connecting — What a difference a week makes! Ana at Pandamoly is afforded a week off from work and takes the chance to reconnect and reattach with her 16-month-old son through an experiment in simply being there.
• Creating Healthy Family Recipes — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares her experiment with healthy, gluten-free recipes and a chocolate muffin recipe that was created during the experiment.
• Adventures in Alternative Haircare: No 'Poo — This guest post at Natural Parents Network from Amy at Anktangle chronicles a months-long journey into the world of no 'poo.
• My Experiment in Natural Family Living: Natural Family Planning — Birth control options are seriously limited for those of us trying to live a little closer to the earth, so Mama Psalmist experiments with natural family planning.

Menu Plan Monday: Oops.

Scroll to the end of the post for new, printable recipe cards! 

 
Ok, so last week wasn't a total bomb, but I was a little lazy when it came to meal planning. I didn't sit down to plan my menu until well into Monday afternoon. Then, Big T told me he wanted pizza and totally threw me off. And we spent 5 hours in the ER with Little M on Monday night. That didn't help. But Big T was off from work from Monday to Wednesday, so he helped out a lot when it came to dinners.

The Plan:
Monday: Order pizza
Tuesday: Taco Salad Cups
Wednesday: Hamburger Helper
Thursday: Chicken with stuffing and mashed potatoes
Saturday: ?? (I couldn't put it together and think this far ahead.)

The Reality:
Monday: We forgot about dinner (see below)
Tuesday: Homemade Pizza
Wednesday: Soft tacos
Thursday: Salmon burgers with mashed potato croquettes (basically mashed potato finger food)
Friday: Hamburger helper
Saturday: Chicken with kale, beets, and salad

The Method:
Monday: This was a bad decision-making day for me, apparently. I couldn't decide what to have for dinner, and when Big T suggested pizza, he totally threw me off. There aren't any good pizza places near us, and I didn't really feel like making it. We finally decided to order pizza. I was on the computer, about to order online when Big T picked up Little M by the wrists, just to move him away from the bedroom door so he could close it. Little M started whimpering and didn't stop. Not even while nursing. We knew something was wrong. He wasn't moving his arm, and if we touched it, he would whimper. We spent 5 hours in the ER, just to have a doctor re-set his dislocated elbow in about 2 seconds. Little M is completely fine--he had "nursemaid's elbow," which is pretty common if you pick up your child by the wrists and not under the armpits. Luckily, he wasn't screaming in pain and he slept in the Ergo most of the time at the ER. So obviously, we weren't concerned with dinner by the time we arrived home at 1:30 A.M.

Tuesday: Today, we were going for our pizza. We picked up fresh dough from the deli at our local grocery store and got pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. We made 2 different kinds of pizza: pan pizza in the dutch oven with ham and pineapple (leftover) and a regular-crust pizza on the pizza stone.

Wednesday: I was going to make taco salad in cute little homemade tortilla cups, but I didn't do any prep work and I had a rough day. So while I went to pick Baby T up from daycare, Big T sauteed some chicken, peppers and onion in a cast iron pan with taco seasoning and wrapped them in soft flour tortillas. I also had a few small corn tortillas, which I fried in some oil until crisp to make open-faced tacos.

Thursday: I have a ton of canned salmon that I get from WIC, and I picked up a recipe card for salmon burgers the last time I was in the office. They were easy to make and I had all of the ingredients. We had also brought home leftover mashed potatoes from Mom-Mom's the Sunday before, so I transformed them into potato croquettes. Amazing. They were like mozzarella sticks, but creamier and not as rubbery. They were a huge hit.

Friday: Little M had another incident today when I was holding him and tripped over the dog. Little M hit the floor hard and bit his tongue. He also hit his head on the corner of a wall, and his head and ear were cut. Thankfully, my in-laws live in town, or I would have lost it when I noticed the blood. Mom-mom came over and checked him out, and we figured he was ok. Once Little M started dancing to the "Curious George" music, we knew for sure he was fine. By the time Big T came home from work, the kids were fine but my nerves were shot. I cooked up some breakfast sausage that I had in my freezer, added it to the hamburger helper, and called it a day.

Saturday: Can I just say that the first week of 2012 sucked? As Big T was trying to clean the kitchen before he left for work, the sink stopped draining, then proceeded to leak out of the pipe all over the kitchen. By the time Big T left, the pipes under the sink were undone, there was a bucket of murky water under the sink, and there were sopping wet towels all over the floor. (Add two cranky kids and a very cranky mom to that equation). We were saved by the in-laws once again! Plumber Joe (disguised as Pop Pop) came over and thankfully fixed it while Mom Mom helped me distract the boys.

Also quite thankfully, one of my friends replied to my pleas for company and came over for an impromptu barbecue that afternoon. Dinner was easy. We grilled chicken, sauteed some kale and beets (I used to hate beets until I had them the way my friend makes them--sauteed with olive oil, maple syrup, and balsamic vinegar...a delicious beet recipe!), and had fresh salad from the garden.

The week is over. Thankfully. It can only get better from here, right?

Print out the recipes for Easy Homemade Pizza and Salmon Burgers (with homemade sauce) by clicking on the images below.

Easy Homemade Pizza Salmon Burgers

For more meal planning obsessiveness inspiration, check out orgjunkie.com!

The Breast Resolution Ever

This post was written as part of the weekly Breastfeeding Blog Hop hosted by Slacker Mom and cohosted by The Gnome’s Mom and Happiness Redefined. Visit the links below and link up your own story or leave a comment!

I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for using that pun. I'm bad at titles, and I just couldn't help myself. Now I'm stuck with it.

Anyway, last week's post for the breastfeeding blog hop was about how the past year of breastfeeding went down. This week's theme is Breastfeeding Goals for the New Year.

Breastfeeding has become such a part of my life that it's almost a non-issue. It's what I do. I couldn't picture my life without it. I've let go of expectations, stereotypes, and challenges. I take each day as it comes (can you believe I accidentally just typoed "as tit comes"? Seriously. What's with me and the puns tonight?).

So when I thought about writing down my breastfeeding goals, my first thought was, I don't have any. I expect that I'll probably nurse Little M throughout 2012. There's a slight chance he might wean because he's a feisty little devil and can be fiercely independent. But there's also a chance that he might nurse well past this year, because he is the snuggliest little mama-lover in the world.

And then I realized: weaning is my challenge. It was my insecurity with Baby T, and was my biggest challenge when it comes to breastfeeding and parenting in general. It is the one part of parenting that I will always wonder whether I did it right. I've posted before about how I lost confidence in my own decisions because I listened to everyone else.

My breastfeeding goal for 2012 is to listen to myself. I'm more confident this time around, but I also care a lot less about what others think. I'm ready to take this year on doing what's right for me. Granted, I can be wishy-washy, and I have had times when I've forgotten exactly what is right for me. But instead of looking for advice first, I'm going to look inside myself.

It's cliche, I know. But the answers are all there.



Be sure to check out the first year of The Breastfeeding Blog Hop archived at Life with Levi!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: 2012 New Year's Coloring Page

One of my resolutions for the new year was to make more art. This includes the things I sew for my Etsy shop, but it also includes drawing. I have done several custom watercolor portraits over the past few years, but I haven't just sat down, relaxed, and doodled. One of the ways I'm going to keep this up during the year is by making coloring pages. Scroll to the end of the post to get your free 2012 New Year's Coloring Page!

In an attempt to get some pictures of Baby T actually coloring it, I set it down while he was eating breakfast.

See the coloring page next to the breakfast?

No mom! Don't take my picture!

Giving me a look.

Running and hiding and hamming it up.

A little later... still doesn't want his picture taken.

I don't want to say cheese!

Nooooooo!!!!

Even Little M was in on the cranky action.

So I colored it myself.

To get a free printable coloring sheet for your child (or yourself,) just CLICK HERE. The PDF file includes a coloring sheet as well as project ideas for parents to interact with their kids while they're coloring. Feel free to download and save it to your computer or print it--it's yours!


Check out other wonderful Wordless Wednesday posts and link up at:

10 Things to do With Baby Food

If you bought baby food by the case or stocked your freezer with homemade baby food only to find that your baby graduated to finger foods faster than you could use it up, what did you do with all that extra baby food? You can donate the unopened jars of baby food--that's what I do with a lot of the meats--or you can get creative in your day-to-day cooking. Baby food isn't just for babies... it's great for toddlers or for mixing into your own meals!

Below are 10 tried-and-true ways to use up those jars of mixed veggies, bananas, squash, and carrots.

1. Add a jar or two of carrots, squash, or sweet potatoes to powdered macaroni and cheese instead of butter.
2. Smear squash, sweet potatoes, or fruit puree on the bread before adding the peanut butter and jelly.
3. Make banana bread or replace the banana in a baked good with a few jars of banana puree.
4. Feed your toddler the pureed fruit. It's the same as applesauce, but it has fewer preservatives and less sugar in many instances.
5. Spread it on crackers or a rice cake.
6. Add pureed green beans to guacamole - it will reduce the fat content, and you won't even notice it.
7. Add a jar of banana and a jar of sweet potato in place of the butter or oil in your pancake recipe.
8. Mix pureed tropical fruit into a smoothie.
9. Mix sweet potato with brown sugar and swirl it with plain yogurt. Top with cinnamon. (Or swirl any fruit-flavored baby food into your yogurt.)
10. Add any of the orange veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, or mixed veggies) to a curry dish. It will thicken the sauce and give it great flavor.

Jeanie Rose over at Traditional Foods wrote a great post about making your own baby food from butternut squash. That would be perfect to use in lots of the ways I described above. Check out her video!

For more delicious recipes, check out:

Menu Plan Monday: Easy Holidays

Last week was an easy one for me when it came to making dinner. We only ate at home on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I decided it was time to clean out the freezer a little bit, so we ate freezer meals every night. I'm still bad at remembering to remove the meal from the freezer, so they tend to stay frozen in the middle, but I'm getting better at it.

The Meals:
(These were all from the freezer)
Tuesday: Thai chicken patties with brussels sprouts stir-fry over noodles
Wednesday: Veggie/quinoa casserole
Thursday: Flank steak and twice-baked potatoes, hush puppies

The Method:
Monday: I was really in the mood for pasta on Tuesday, so I broke up the Thai chicken patties and sauteed them in a pan while I cooked the noodles. I was supposed to stir-fry the brussels sprouts as well, but I completely forgot. They ended up getting thrown out yesterday because they were a soggy mess in the fridge. In a bowl, I combined some brown sugar, tahini, garlic, soy sauce, and sriracha (hot chili sauce). After draining the pasta, I tossed it in the bowl with the sauce. It needed to be a little saucier, so I added a few spoonfuls of the coconut squash soup I had made the week before. It was actually really delicious!

Tuesday: I forgot to take the casserole out of the freezer, so I defrosted the flank steak today. I had some hush puppy mix in the fridge that had been there for years quite some time. So I made hush puppies. They were awesome. I have to say, you have to be careful cooking the twice-baked potatoes. They can get very dry. When making them for the freezer, it would help to make the filling extra wet.

Wednesday: I actually remembered to take the casserole out of the freezer today. It was just as delicious the second time around. This one is definitely a keeper.

For more meal planning obsessiveness inspiration as well as a giveaway, check out orgjunkie.com!

Tmuffin in 2012

 I'm not a big New Year's resolution person. That's probably because I tend to make resolutions all year long, and then time passes, life happens, and I forget all about them. I don't want the added pressure of making resolutions I might not keep and feeling guilty all year. And I don't tend to like doing what everyone else is doing. ("Why am I blogging then?" you wonder. I know, right?)

My last photo of 2011

This year feels different. Instead of feeling like I have to break out on my own to prove myself, I've become enveloped in this community where everyone is feeding off of everyone else. It's like college, only with fewer vices. And my all-nighters aren't self-inflicted. The past few years have only been getting more meaningful, and this year feels like it's going to be the apex. Things are going to happen. I'm going to make them happen.

And things don't happen without goals. So here we go: My resolutions for 2012.

Be more honest in my blog - I tend to want to write content that people want to read, and I'm also a bit of a know-it-all. So I often write blog posts that make it sound like I have the answers. I've mentioned before that I don't have the answers. In case you were confused. I'm learning as I go along, and I often have no idea what I'm doing. Sometimes I do feel like an expert on a given topic. (I told you, I'm kind of a know-it-all). But sometimes I don't. I'm going to remind you guys of that more often this year.

Start exercising again - How cliche. I am so bad at finding the time to exercise. I don't prioritize it at all, but I need to. It can add years to my life. Right now, I feel like I want more time with my kids and Big T. I might change my mind when I'm 105. But I need to get my weight and my health back under control. I've also started menu planning in an effort to spend less money and eat more whole foods. I write about my menu plans every Monday, so check back for great recipes and menu planning tips and ideas.

Promote my business - I've been trying to build the Tmuffin brand for two years now. In 2011, I quit my full-time job to take care of the kids and work on my business. I've done a lot of setup and a lot of planning, but when people ask what I do for a living, I still stumble on my reply: "Um, I do a lot of stuff. To help moms. I make things, I teach classes..." I usually trail off. This is my new reply: "I run Tmuffin, a business that helps moms find their groove."

Make more art - I tell people I'm an artist, but I have spent the past year focusing on blogging and initiating my business that I've put off actually making things. This year, I need to be making a lot more art. I'll be making coloring sheets and printables, as well as educational and sensory toys for kids out of things like repurposed sweaters. I have an itch to create, and this year I have to scratch it.

Listen more and talk less - Shut up; I know what you're thinking. Especially if you know me in person. But this year is about learning, listening, and making connections. I often fail to make a true connection with people because I'm too busy talking and sharing. And I appreciate so much what other people have to share. This year I'm the one who is going to shut up.


Get more organized - I cringe as I write those very words. I am not organized. I spend as much time looking for things as I spend doing them. I try to get organized and I always fall back into my messy ways. I don't like taking time to organize or to put things away. I move from project to project, stuffing things into drawers and flinging supplies around the room. You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not.

The house is stuffed to the gills and I drive myself crazy going into four different rooms looking for the diaper cream. I'm tired of having to come up with five options every time Big T asks me to find something. I'm not one of those people who always misplaces their car keys. I just always misplace everything else.

I am going to start by having a place for everything. I want to treat my space like a blind person does, so I can just reach for something and know it's always there. If I can organize my space, I feel like I will feel so much less overwhelmed. I also need to organize my time. I made a huge dry-erase to-do list the other day, and I'm determined to use it. (Ignore the two tasks on there from Thursday that I haven't done yet). I just have to organize my time as well as my space. Maybe get on Facebook a little less or something.


Be more present and mindful with my family - Probably due to my lack of organization, I tend to always be doing 10 things at once. I often find myself getting frustrated with the kids because I can't finish a particular task that I'm working on (or several) because someone woke up early from a nap or didn't sit down to lunch. When I'm with the kids, they need to be my number one priority. They notice when my mind is all over the place, and no one benefits when I tell them "just a minute" five thousand times. Baby T is starting to notice. He now tells me "just a minute," or he tells me, "Mom! You forgot my juice!" And I do. I forget a lot of things. I need to focus, and that includes focusing more on my kids and Big T.

And that's the end of my resolution list. I'm not going to go crazy with it. This is enough for now. I can tell you right now the hardest things are going to be exercising and organizing. I should have added "hire a personal trainer and an assistant" to the list of resolutions. Oh, well. There is always next year.

Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter in the sidebar to the right so you don't miss out on any of the cool stuff I'll have for you this year!