Sharpening My Focus

For the past month or so I’ve slowly begun to realize that I’ve lost my focus. I don’t mean that I’ve lost my focus in the sense that I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing or I’m unable to concentrate on anything. My problem, I’m finding, is that I can’t focus on just one thing at a time. Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about:

At work: I’m on the computer all day. Almost all my tasks come to me via email, which is fine; I love the efficiency of email. But I also like to multi task. Which is fine…to a point. The Firefighter and I got smart phones a few months ago, and since then, I have it sitting on my desk at work (charging most of the time, because the battery dies so often!). So, while I’m checking my work emails and beginning a project, I often also have my phone in my hand, checking Facebook or texting or reading home emails. And I’m doing all this while I’m answering the phone and trying to do paperwork. Not the optimal attention to detail that my job- or really any job- requires.

At home: We have a laptop with a wireless connection, which is fantastic. I can’t imagine being tied to a desktop computer any more. But having a laptop means it can be used in any room at any time. This usually translates to being used in the living room, where the TV is often on. And the Firefighter is often found. Mix all this together and you get the perfect storm: distracted television watching, conversation that lacks depth, quality, or even interest, which leads to frustration by one or both parties.

Anywhere where there’s lots of people: Whenever I’m in a group of people that I know, I always want to visit with everyone. With my newly discovered focus problem, this often leads to broken conversations, incoherent responses, frustration for the speaker and the listener, disappointment on the speaker’s part because I’m not 100% committed to the present conversation, and ultimately, a less-than-fulfilling visit with someone.

I can’t devote my entire attention to anything when I’m trying to do a little bit of everything.

And so, as the old school paper writing lessons say, identify the problem and develop strategies to address it.

I’ve identified the problem quite readily. The strategy? Sharpen my focus. When I’m at work, focus on the task at hand. If I get a text message, wait until I’m at a good stopping point to respond- and even read!- it. When I’m at home, make the Firefighter my priority for all things conversational and attention-taking. Put the laptop away if we’re watching TV together. Shut the TV off if I’m home already when he gets home. When I’m in social settings, show the person I’m talking with that he/she and what he/she has to say really is important to me- and listen. Don’t try to catch someone else’s eye because I need to talk to them, too. Don’t try to listen to another conversation while I’m trying to carry on my own (I can’t imagine I’d EVER do that….). In essence, be present in the present. Completely.

This is my goal, starting today. Can I do it? Yes…if I give the situation my full attention.

Shutterfly's Holiday Card Promotion

I am an avid blog reader. Every day I have a list of blogs I check, waiting eagerly for the page to load and reveal a new blog post. It’s kind of sad how sad I get when the blog hasn’t been updated. :)

A few days ago I was reading one of my “dailies” and discovered that Shutterfly is giving away 50 free holiday cards to bloggers! WOW!

I have heard so many positive things about Shutterfly. A family member who is an avid photographer swears her allegiance to Shutterfly; they’re the only site she trusts her photos to for storage and for getting really high quality prints.

I must say I have never used Shutterfly. I love taking pictures and love the idea of creating so many neat gifts with them, but just never did it. When I read about Shutterfly’s promotion, I got excited. This would be the chance I’ve been waiting for to try out Shutterfly for myself!

I clicked the blog’s link to Shutterfly’s page, and immediately was drawn into the really large variety of cards and gift ideas that are available there. Take a peek...

They have beautiful Christmas cards- I think this one is particularly adorable.

Their holiday cards are so nicely done- this one is one of my favorites.

Their Christmas photo cards look like they are such great quality! Wouldn't you love getting one like this in your mailbox this season?

I'm seriously thinking about getting one of these personalized mugs for my desk at work. My niece and nephew's shiny little faces would be a perfect fit. :)

If only I had known about these birthday party invitation cards when planning the Firefighter's latest birthday party! I'd have used this one, for sure. It'd be so fitting as he's such a history buff.

I am a huge fan of throwing a Christmas dinner party. Last year was the first annual Nichols' Christmas Dinner Party, and I can't wait for the second annual one this year. It's so fun to make it into a real event. I think I'm giong to use this holiday invitation to send to everyone on my guest list this year.

This is by far my favorite product- isn't it so classy?

If you're interested in making up some Christmas cards using Shutterfly's exemplary services, check out the information here: http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/ . I'm also going to chat about this on my Facebook page. I want to spread the free card love!

I'm off to find my favorite photo of the Firefighter and I to use for this year's Christmas card. How delightful!

Back again!

Yet again, it's been a long time since I've been on here. We've been busy with a staycation (did I really just say that?), niece and nephew, family time, family surgeries, trips, celebrations, and life in general. 2010 has been an OK year- nothing too exciting, nothing horrific happened- just kind of an average year. I'm hoping 2011 will end up coming in with lots more exciting things!

The Firefighter and I are settling into our new church and L.O.V.I.N.G. it. The pastor and his family are fantastic people, and the church family is so welcoming. It's really been amazing to see what a great fit the church is for us. We're working on our Christmas play right now; that will be performed December 13. It's hard to believe we're scheduling Christmas things again!

That's all for today- I hope to get back into a regular bloggin routine. We'll see. :)

New Years Day Breakfast Pizza

I am so thankful to see a new year ushered in! 2009, like any year, had its share of happy times and challenging times. For some reason, that year seemed to weigh a little more heavily on the challenging times side. As a result, I breathed a sigh of relief when I woke up on January 1, 2010- a new year with it's own set of memories, both good and bad I'm sure, but now I can officially say "last year..." about 2009.

I decided to start the year off with something new. For a while now I've been an avid reader of several blogs, most especially of cooking blogs. There's the girl smitten with her kitchen , the one who creates lots of last night's dinners that the Firefighter and I wouldn't eat but I still enjoy reading about, and one who combines some poetic license and cake type in her blog name. I thought it would be fun to record some of the things that come out of my own kitchen. It probably won't be a daily occurance, and certainly won't be any gourmet food productions, but it will be an honest look at how one gal can concoct food, hopefully delicious most days, in a small space with fairly "normal" ingredients (normal to us anyway).

In my menu planning for this week, I thought it'd be fun to start the new year with a riff on a classic-pizza. Breakfast pizza is one of the Firefighter's new favorites, and I'm pretty fond of it myself, so on the menu it went. Much to the Firefighter's chagrin however, I decided to use wheat pizza dough; he's a white pizza dough kinda guy. Thankfully, he gave it a chance- and has declared that wheat pizza dough can be added to the regular pizza dough rotation. New year changes are abounding in our household already!

New Years Day Breakfast Pizza

1pizza dough ball (I bought mine at the grocery store deli; if you'd rather, make your own)

4 eggs

2-3 cups mozerella cheese

Your choice of toppings: bacon, ham, onions, peppers, mushrooms, sausage. I went with meat lovers pizza, ham and bacon, this time.

scant teaspoon cornmeal

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Prep your pizza baking dish- I use a pizza stone for all my pizza makings. Spread cornmeal on baking dish.

Stretch the pizza dough to get it big enough to cover your dish. If you have a difficult time stretching it to full size, let it rest a few minutes after initial stretching, then resume. Be sure to form a good pizza crust around the edge of the dough to keep the eggs contained.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl; pour onto crust. Top with cheese, then toppings.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown and the outside crust sounds hollow when you tap it.

Enjoy!