My Happiness Project: Communication

My Happiness Project continues.

For the month of March, my resolution was Organization: to keep all areas of my house tidy at all times – especially my kitchen. I think I did a pretty good job in maintaining a clean home last month.

I also challenged myself to follow a weekly schedule. That was pretty much a hit and miss. Some days were better than others.

I created a meal plan for the entire month. I bought groceries and spent a lot of time cooking. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Health and fitness wise, I completed another month of the 30 Day Squat Challenge. I survived my first month of Boxing Boot Camp. I gained some arm strength after completing the 30 Day Arm Challenge. I’m hoping to ditch P90X by mid month and head outdoors to jog, walk and roller blade.

This month I’ll be focusing on my core muscles. After taking an extensive break, I’ll be signing up for Belly Dancing classes again. I’m also going to do the 30 Day Abs Challenge.

For the month of April, my resolution is Communication: to talk more and text less.

I remember the days when I would spend endless hours on the phone with my friends. Then I got a cell phone. Conversations were replaced with texting.

Two years ago, I called my cell phone provider and asked them to add unlimited texting to my plan. Last month I received 611 text messages and sent 464. Absolutely ridiculous! My goal is to cut those numbers in half.

To my friends -  if you text me, then you obviously have time to talk to me. Get ready for a phone call. Let’s return to the good old days – even if it’s only for a month.

I’m also going to set aside one evening a week to call family and friends.

I get a lot of complaints that I don’t return phone messages, texts or emails in a timely manner. Honestly, sometimes it gets so overwhelming that I tend to shut down. I’m going to make an effort to return all messages within 24 hours. I think that’s fair.

For the past few years, I’ve been meaning to write a Will. Whenever I think of Wills, I tend to associate them with elderly people. With more young people dying today, we’ve got to protect our families and assets. This month, I’ll be meeting with my Primerica Representative to create my own Will.

What resolutions have you made for this month?

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Thanks for reading and keep smiling :)

My Happiness Project: Organization

I’m now in month three of my Happiness Project.

Last month’s resolution was Health & Fitness: to maintain a healthy weight and diet by exercising and eating right. I completed my first month of P90X and the 30 day Squat challenge. This month I will continue with P90X, I’m going to do the 30 day Arm challenge and sign-up for the Ajax Women's Boxing Boot Camp.

My resolution for this month is Organization: to keep all areas of my house tidy at all times – especially my kitchen. 

Anyone that comes to my house expects my kitchen to be a mess with all of the baking I do. Anytime I bake, I have a bad habit of leaving the dishes for a day or two…or three…or four! When I do end up washing them, it takes me at least an hour. If I tackle them right away, I could easily cut that time in half.

Since I’m a bit of a scatterbrain, I created a weekly schedule. I have a bad habit of trying to work on five projects at a time and never get any of them done. By creating this schedule, it will force me to focus on one task at a time.

Finally, I decided to create a meal plan for the entire month. By doing this, it will force me to buy groceries, cook and eliminate all of the last minute fast food orders.

Back in January, I did a piece on “All this Clutter!” I made a 21 day resolution to clear all of my clutter.

I went from this:

To this:

I’ve been living a clutter free life for the past 34 days!

Sometime this month, I would like to learn how to play Chess again. I haven't played since Grade 3. If you know of anyone that would be willing to give me a few lessons, please let me know.

What goals/resolutions have you made for this month?

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Thanks for reading and keep smiling :)

The Key Ingredient

I recently posted this picture on Simply Delicious Facebook page and it happened again last Saturday.

I was just about to make the icing for a cake when I realized I forgot to buy more High Ratio Shortening. Bulk Barn - the only place I can buy this ingredient - was closed. I was supposed to deliver the cake for 8:30 that night. 

No need to panic. The cake was for the next day. I called my client, explained the situation and told her I'd have it ready for 10AM.

I drove to Bulk Barn on Sunday morning thinking that they opened at 9. They opened at 10 - the same time I was supposed to deliver the cake.

I remained calm because I knew the function wasn't until later that afternoon. I called my client and told her I would take a few dollars off her order and offered to drop the cake off at the venue. She appreciated the discount but told me that the event was taking place in Stoney Creek. "Where is that?", I asked. Close to Niagara Falls.

Time for plan B. 

The only solution I came up with was to go back to the bakery I used to work for. Since I left on good terms, they had no problem helping me out.

Here are 3 things I learned from this experience:

1 - Always make a list of ingredients that need to be purchased. Mental notes don’t seem to work for me anymore.

2 - Never worry a client.

3 - Never burn your bridges. If I didn't leave my previous place of employment on good terms, I wouldn't have felt comfortable going back and asking for help.

In the end, it all worked out. I was happy and so was my client.

Visit on Thursday for "Au Natural Cakes".

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Thanks for reading and keep smiling :)