Picture
Tonight we decided is going to be a family night.  This will be a positive addition to the life balance account we all carry.  The plan is to have an early dinner after Little Sister wakes up from her nap.  Dinner tonight is going to be a Thai Coconut Chicken Curry with brown rice and green beans.

For the Thai Coconut Chicken Curry I have Thai Red Curry Paste from a jar that you add to a can of coconut milk and heat.  When the sauce is combined I add the cooked chicken to it.  The brown rice we make in our rice maker.  Then scoop some of the chicken curry over the rice.  My favorite way to make green beans is to boil them, drain and set aside.  In the same pot I boiled the green beans, to use less dishes of course, I heat a little bit of olive oil and sauté 2 cloves of chopped garlic until slightly browned.  Throw the beans back in, add a little bit of salt and pepper and toss to heat through.  They taste really good.

After dinner we are going build a fort in the living room with some sheets we rarely use.  In our fort we will play a game of candy land.  When the game is over we are going to watch the movie Up, and probably have some popcorn and maybe a twizzler or two.

We are all looking forward to it.  Last night we came up with the idea of doing this tonight.  When Big Brother woke up bright and early this morning, he came in super excited saying “it is family night, hooray!”

 

It is almost time for me to get dinner started so it will be ready in time, but I thought I would leave you with a suggestion:

 

How to get things done on your personal to do list that you are not looking forward to, all the while being less stressed and maintaining the feeling of balance.

 

Try the sandwich technique.  Before doing the task, do one thing you enjoy doing to put a positive deposit in your life balance account.  Next get the dreaded task done so it doesn’t hang over you, which will be a withdrawal from your account.  Then follow it up with another deposit by doing something you like to do again.  It may sound very mathematical but if you look at it that way it can help maintain your happiness and feeling of balance even if you had to do something you were not particularly found of.

 

Do you have a technique that works well for you to tackle getting things done that you may not want to do?
Bookmark and Share
 


Comments

01/23/2010 7:19pm

To get dreaded tasks done, I will put on my favorite music and internally (or externally) dance through the pain. It makes the task more fun.
I make green beans in a similar ways. I boil then, then drain them and just throw some spices on them. Nothing fancy, but they dont really need anything fancy!
Have fun watching Up!

Reply
pat
01/24/2010 5:54pm

Those are great techniques. For myself I don't worry so much about those thoughts that come along. I acknowledge them and let them float through and then away. I love to do a walking meditation (hard to do when you have kids) it's just another form of being quiet and present with yourself. There are so many benefits of meditation and I wish I would be more diligent about doing it. Glad to hear that you are giving yourself the gift of meditation ..... Pat

Reply
01/25/2010 9:47am

Hi Wendy
I also like a walking meditation. I have kind of a hobby here collecting sea urchins from our beach. I find that when my mind is completely focused on trying to spot one, I can just soak up the ambiance of the waves pounding on the shore and the lovely Maui sun. No other thoughts seem to come in.
I think I will try your method when I am home and not walking the beach. Maybe at night when I wake up and can't sleep would be a good time. Thanks for the suggestion.

Reply
ammi
01/26/2010 12:02am

hey wendy, thx for the green beans suggestion...sounds delicious. we don't eat enough vegetables in our family, i'll definitely try this and the brussel sprouts tips :)
i kept dylan at home today and possibly tomorrow because he 's still coughing quite a bit. poor guy, he has been stuck in the house for several days and he 's so bored and cranky. i was going to let him watch UP too over the weekends. how did parker like it and did he understand the story ?

Reply



Leave a Reply


Related Posts with Thumbnails