pretend chat

[Kerryann]

I'm just starting to read, now that I have an iPod. I have books that I need to get through, but I rarely feel like I have the time. Now I can download books to Kindle or iBooks, and if I find myself with a spare ten minutes I can pull out a book wherever I am.

I'm babysitting my goddaughter today. She's just woken from a nap, so now she's having a drink before I get to feeding her. During her nap, I had time to read a short ebook.

When I was working full-time and running my business, I didn't have time to myself. Now that running my business is all I do, I have weekends free and I make a point of not working unless I have to. I'm not used to having free time, so for a lot of it I'm still sitting around and browsing the internet. I've been making efforts to do things, but I'm still feeling unfulfilled. Today, I read a book about how successful business people fill their weekends, and it's really got me feeling like things are going to change. I love my fiction books when I get the chance, but I'll be using books like this in future as well. I'm excited for the weekend!

How old is your god-daughter? Also HOW do successful people fill their weekends? How could you leave us with such a cliff hanger?!!

She's 7.5 months.

The book was, I guess, only telling you what really should be obvious but I guess I needed to read it. It was talking about how you should schedule your weekends, make appointments for everything you do, and it mentioned lots of activities like visits to the beach, taking up a craft, sports, dinner parties.

I tried scheduling things before, but I can never find enough that I can do cheap or free of charge, and I always end up deciding I just can't be bothered and I'd rather sit at home. This book started by making me start a mini bucket list of 100 things, and pointed out that most people don't know what they want to do. Ask them to start a bucket list and they'll choose the big things, but once you realise you have to get to 100 you end up picking little things that you don't often do.

I'm on 23...a long way to go, but I've filled this weekend at least. Sure, it's going to cost money, but as the book said I need to decide what I'm saving my time for because it's happening right now. Recently I've started really focusing on eating good quality nutritional food that I thought I could never afford, and I decided that health was worth more than money and I had to stop worrying. This book has hopefully taken it a step further - why is my free time not more important than money?

Oddly enough I am so busy that my husband and I make an agenda for every weekend. We do this so we can spend our weekend time together. I actually do schedule our agenda into my calendars so I get reminders. I try to cram as much fun as I can into every weekend since during the work week I am usually working early and then late. which just reminded me that hub's best friend is coming to town this weekend for the auto show

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

Yvonne, long naps after a bit of reading are the best!

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im watching Lars and the real girl on netflix right now.... not sure what to think so far lol

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

Nice, I like it. Report back to us what you did during the weekend . It's kind of funny because I am trying to do less scheduling. I am so anal that my calendar is broken down in time blocks most people can just write hockey 7am but I have hockey 7-9am. Every block is what time the event starts to aprox what time we will be home. The problem was my husband, my oldest daughter and I all have the master calendar on our phones and updates or deleted events go to all 3 of us. They were adding stuff that was logistically impossible based on the previous event. So I had to make it dummy proof for them. I also have a hard copy version in the kitchen that can only be touched upon penalty of death. Anyway, my goal is to do less scheduling and more in the moment type stuff. It hasn't been going well but I am trying .

me too! between daughter and hubby, my business, and our family and friends I keep pretty busy especially on the weekends. my calendar is in time blocks too, and i have more then one calendar! when I have more then one client some times i even put grocery shopping in a time block so I dont take to long lol!!

It's nice to know I am not the only one who does that . I gave us a 2 hour block to sled because and play outside. I had to go to the Fresh Market and run errands 30 minutes away, so it was the only time we could do it. I got in trouble because a snow day in it's essence should not be planned. I can't win!

Yvonne, I love the string nose pic of Misty. Looks like the throw rug didn't make it.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Yvonne, long naps after a bit of reading are the best!

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im watching Lars and the real girl on netflix right now.... not sure what to think so far lol

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That's a fun, odd movie. I like that the town excepts everything as normal.

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

so far there have been a few funny parts but mostly i find myself turning my head to the side with a "what the..." look on my face lol

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he is now doing CPR on a teddy bear...

 

[cherylim]

I already need to edit my schedule! The snow has started, and it's getting pretty heavy!

Though, if this system works it sounds like we should have a few very successful people here already.

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

I already need to edit my schedule! The snow has started, and it's getting pretty heavy!

Though, if this system works it sounds like we should have a few very successful people here already.

What about making sure to schedule one thing outside of your comfort zone per weekend. It's kind of like my new goal of just saying "yes" more.
This weekend I am letting my daughter go to a friends house for a birthday party sleepover. There are three town's that go to the middle school and high school in our area and this girl is from a different town than ours. It has alway's been my policy that I have to know the family but lately my daughter is making friends in other town's and I am trying to trust her judgement. So that is my one "yes" for the weekend.

 

[cherylim]

I already need to edit my schedule! The snow has started, and it's getting pretty heavy!

Though, if this system works it sounds like we should have a few very successful people here already.

What about making sure to schedule one thing outside of your comfort zone per weekend. It's kind of like my new goal of just saying "yes" more.
This weekend I am letting my daughter go to a friends house for a birthday party sleepover. There are three town's that go to the middle school and high school in our area and this girl is from a different town than ours. It has alway's been my policy that I have to know the family but lately my daughter is making friends in other town's and I am trying to trust her judgement. So that is my one "yes" for the weekend.

I like that! It's a good idea to get that into my personal life, too. I'm doing it all the time in my business life. First, making and taking calls was tough for me as I've always been kind of scared of talking on the phone.

I got over that and now I've joined a new networking group where I have to stand and introduce my business to people at the meeting each month. Eventually, I'll have to do a presentation to them all. I'm definitely developing that 'pushing the boundaries' thing in my career, but will make sure I do it outside of that, too.

I just won't make 'drive 70mph on the motorway in a rusty 1998 Vauxhall Corsa in severe snow' my first boundary to push...

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

I wish there were more networking groups here... but then I probably would explode if I had to stand and talk in front of a group of people...

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't really "schedule" per se, but I DO make all kinds of lists. Every morning I write down what I want to do today. It usually turns out that I don't complete all the tasks, but if I don't write it down, I forget to do it.

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

oooo i should start doing that. I always forget to do stuff.

 

[Jacqui]

What about making sure to schedule one thing outside of your comfort zone per weekend. It's kind of like my new goal of just saying "yes" more.
This weekend I am letting my daughter go to a friends house for a birthday party sleepover. There are three town's that go to the middle school and high school in our area and this girl is from a different town than ours. It has alway's been my policy that I have to know the family but lately my daughter is making friends in other town's and I am trying to trust her judgement. So that is my one "yes" for the weekend.

I like that and good Mom for letting her go to the party!

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

What about making sure to schedule one thing outside of your comfort zone per weekend. It's kind of like my new goal of just saying "yes" more.
This weekend I am letting my daughter go to a friends house for a birthday party sleepover. There are three town's that go to the middle school and high school in our area and this girl is from a different town than ours. It has alway's been my policy that I have to know the family but lately my daughter is making friends in other town's and I am trying to trust her judgement. So that is my one "yes" for the weekend.

I like that and good Mom for letting her go to the party!

Thanks, I needed that because I keep wanting to back out and bribe her with a day at the mall but I know it won't be good for either of us in the long run!

 

[Jacqui]

Thanks, I needed that because I keep wanting to back out and bribe her with a day at the mall but I know it won't be good for either of us in the long run!

It's much harder being the good Mom and letting your child spread their wings and start making those first short flights from the safety of the nest. It's those failed attemps and the small sucessful ones together, that in the end make them the strongest and most confident fliers.

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Speaking of ones that have flown the nest, my youngest daughter took Jeff and I out for lunch. Hadn't saw her for a bit. Seems last week she worked 40 hours OT. This week her supervisor said all the folks are now limited to 10 hours, but that they will also now have to have mandatory 10 hrs of OT each week for everybody. Now I think 40 hrs was too much, but I also think forcing folks to work OT when others would be willing to work more OT hours to cover them is wrong too. Other supervisors limited their team members to 20. (Each supervisor was allowed to set their own limit level). My daughter also pointed out, that with the high OT she worked, her job performance actually was better then ever before.

 

[Melly-n-shorty]

thats a lot of work! I always volunteer for OT but I wouldnt like it if it was mandatory... it would make me want to help out less... does that make sense?

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

That iis crazy overtime!!

 

[Kerryann]

These last two days have been driving me to my wits end at work. Yesterday I ended the day very angry and actually yelling and swearing. That as after having a nice day at the auto show and a nice lunch too. This morning I tried to turn over a new leaf and come in not so angry and more diplomatic and I was back to angry by approximately 9:45 Am. I had a meeting after lunch and I lost my mind again. I am so happy to be home with my fabulous tortoises

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Thanks, I needed that because I keep wanting to back out and bribe her with a day at the mall but I know it won't be good for either of us in the long run!

It's much harder being the good Mom and letting your child spread their wings and start making those first short flights from the safety of the nest. It's those failed attemps and the small sucessful ones together, that in the end make them the strongest and most confident fliers.

---

Speaking of ones that have flown the nest, my youngest daughter took Jeff and I out for lunch. Hadn't saw her for a bit. Seems last week she worked 40 hours OT. This week her supervisor said all the folks are now limited to 10 hours, but that they will also now have to have mandatory 10 hrs of OT each week for everybody. Now I think 40 hrs was too much, but I also think forcing folks to work OT when others would be willing to work more OT hours to cover them is wrong too. Other supervisors limited their team members to 20. (Each supervisor was allowed to set their own limit level). My daughter also pointed out, that with the high OT she worked, her job performance actually was better then ever before.

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Holy crud thats a ton of OT

 

[Jacqui]

Kerryann what are they doing to tick you off so bad?

My two youngest are working hard to get their student loans paid off as fast as possible, so they are working for every cent they can. They would like their loans paid off before they finish school.

 

[Kerryann]

Kerryann what are they doing to tick you off so bad?

My two youngest are working hard to get their student loans paid off as fast as possible, so they are working for every cent they can. They would like their loans paid off before they finish school.

They aren't technical people and they made a promise to a client on project delivery that wasn't possible technically if my employees had a christmas and their new years eve/day off. My employees did 70 hour weeks and sacrificed their holidays and because the people who talked to the clients didn't accurately translate the clients technical requirements since they were unable. It was so hard to see my people work so hard to make the client happy and then see how demoralized they all were after the client came and screamed about how we did such a crappy job and we better "fix" it fast or we were fired. So then they had to do the work all over again at a frantic pace right after the holidays they had to skip.
So today the non technical client promiser came into my office to talk about an issue in a system and let it slip that the client had more requirements and they were on their way to gather them and give him timing. So I asked who was going from my team to take the requirements and she started to sputter and said they didn't need anyone.
I never actually screamed but I was so mad. I was louder than normal and I think I dropped the eff bomb at least three times. I felt bad each time because she was an older lady. I told her the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. I believe I also said it's too bad there was no effing holiday coming up they could ruin. I forced them to take me and this developer to the meeting and in the meeting they were saying things that weren't technically possible would be easy and trying to agree to dates without finding when we will get data and requirements.
I hate my people getting abused. That is the quickest way to make me angry.

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I forgot to ad that we got yelled at today for making a "mistake"in our programming schedule so after we got back our developer had to quick adjust the schedule. So tonight i will be up at 1:30 and 3:30 to validate the process runs correctly since we didn't have time to test it.
When i got back i checked the original requirements and yep the programmers did it exactly add asked but got blamed in front of the client. Probably the reason they didn't want to take us.

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Paying off the student loans is such a great plan
They must get their smarts from you

 

[ijmccollum]

Whew, it's been a busy couple of days at work and we are just doing pilots before the real work begins next week, then it will be a 21 day schedule of uninterrupted work.

On the dentist front -- good news, no cavities -- bad news is that I have become too long in the tooth and have recessed gum line and that is why I am getting a zinger. I already use sensitive gum tooth paste so this really sux. The dentist thinks it is because of the ultra cold temps we have been experiencing.

But on a positive note, the city will get its outdoor ice rink. Temps were warm enough for it to snow 8" in 36 h and then fall back to single and minus digits. I drove by the park on the way home and it looks like it should be open this weekend.

I have Monday off and hope to get in some cabbing time. I don't schedule home time -- it happens organically. At work, that is a whole different game. In our lab, I am the logistic manager but then I am the lab manager, so goes as it must.

On another front, we have a family friend that has an art showing this weekend. She is nervous as h3ll but I know it will be just fine.

Jacqui, sending big positive thoughts your way.

And Yvonne, next time, pick up a toffee bar for me.