Out of Time

One more day before I have no excuses for not focusing on work. Rats.

Organization or the lack Thereof

I seem to have lost all of my organizational skills.

Maybe this is because no one but me sees my desk? Maybe because half of the time when I am sitting at my desk it is dark? (Like now.)

Maybe because there is no "end of the day" to trigger me to neaten up before I "go home"? The end of my work day is either a panicked moment when I realize the kids are going to kill each other if I don't go supervise, or late at night when I can no longer see straight. So there is no orderly end-of-the-day routine of putting things away and organizing for tomorrow.

There are little bits of paper all over the place with jotted notes (written with the unsharpened pencil that is somehow the only writing instrument I can consistently find). There are product samples scattered about. The phone is somewhere around here. My Palm organizer keeps running out of power and dying. I forget to synch it, so the schedule on it is hardly ever accurate.

I still think if I had that new phone it would all be better :)

I think I need to take Monday and get things under control. There's something to look forward to. Not.

Hope you have a great weekend and lots of (better) things to look forward to!

A New Leaf

I changed around my schedule a bit today in an attempt to put more structure into my work time v. personal time. In an attempt to actually devote the time the kids were at camp to work, I got up at 7 AM (GASP!) and worked out and took a shower before I even got the kids up.

I know for many of you this sounds like no big deal, but my normal schedule it to roll out of bed around 8:15, throw on clothes, dress the kids, throw breakfast at them (in a very loving way) and whisk them off to camp. And then I figure out how to put myself back together and get the day started.

This was all OK when I had 6 to 8 hours to work with. Blowing one of them seemed like no big deal. But with only a 3-hour window of opportunity, it's been trouble.

So, despite the slight tangent of meeting my friend for coffee at 9:20 (don't even ask me about the water-day debacle that extended camp drop-off by more than 20 minutes - I earned that coffee break!), I spent the rest of the morning working. Packing up samples for some more blog reviews, an order, a package for the retail distribution consultant who is taking pity on me and taking a look at my marketing materials, and a shipment of products to my new, almost on-line fulfillment center.

And now it is nighttime and I am not working, well, I won't be after I finish this. Hmmm...a free half-hour, what to do...

Movin' Along

Today was a day for getting started on new projects.

Brushing myself off and starting to look for a new manufacturer to work on suncreen for next year.

Starting a new advertising/PR idea that I think will be very fun to work on...still in the brainstorming stages...but it starts here: www.endcrunchiness.com.

Reordering the corrected labels.

Moving forward. Optimism and positivity all over the place.

Three more days of full-day child care and then the summer juggle begins.
All kinds of new beginnings. I'm kind of excited!

A long to-do list - DONE!

Today was a very productive day. I had an extensive to-do list and only didn't do one thing!

* Went for a walk in a great nearby neighborhood (Eagleview for anyone local). It is so cute, you just imaging everyone there is happy all the time with their picket fences, beautiful gardens and shady porches.
* Put together retail packages, samples and orders for Stuff for Sprouts
* Made three retail calls - unfortunately talked to zero people - but left messages.
* Signed up for the Y so we can swim this summer - Tater has been begging me to take him swimming. He thought maybe we could go tonight - but no.
* Purchased air filters for the house at Home Depot - we haven't replaced them in a year (oops!) and apparently they are some irregular size so this was the third attempt to get them and finally a success!
* Purchased allergy medicine at BJs. Pollen is killing us.
* Purchased T-shirt transfer paper at AC Moore to finish the T-shirts (which we are doing instead of favors - I know, scandalous!) for Tater's "friend" party on Saturday.
* Returned a book to Barnes & Noble - Did not purchase anything (wow!)
* Returned a "swimming shirt" to Target that would not fit over Tater's head. He has a huge head.
* Purchased new, larger-headed "swimming shirt"
* Made haircut appointment, sorely overdue
* Set up music lessons for the kids for the summer - Piano for Tater, Viola (?) for Sprout
* Mailed packages: Orders, samples, retailer information

I just have to pick up some pictures tomorrow...except now I realize I won't be here tomorrow...so that's a bit of a complication since Sprout needs the pictures for a project at school on Wednesday. Hmmm...how to make that happen??

I am going to Newark, NJ tomorrow for the "Make Mine a Million" Event. Should be interesting.

Hope all of you (imaginary) readers had a good and productive day, too!

Making stuff

Today was a manufacturing day. Well, I am not sure you would call it manufacturing, more like making stuff. A little lower tech and smaller scale that "manufacturing".

I finished packing up samples that will be handed out to kids aboard Kiddie Cruises in NY Harbor.

I made a bunch of Lip Stuff for Crispy Kissers. Chocolate, yum!

I made a bunch of prototypes for what I hope will be Hangnail Helper for Funky Fingers. What do you think? Cute? Or weird? These are all natural oils in a little roll-on applicator that kids (and grown-ups) can use on cuticles to keep hangnails (and hopefully the resulting picking and nail biting) away. 100% natural. If you send me an e-mail I will send you one to try. It won't be labeled, but I would love some testers!

Can't use the dog. That would be wrong. No animal testing.

I also updated the Stuff for Sprouts press page with all of the recent reviews. Tried to figure out why the content of this blog isn't coming up in Google results (no resolution there).

And paid bills. That part wasn't fun. Because if you'll remember, accounting sucks.

All in all, a fairly productive day. And it's only 3:23!

Time to take a shower (yeah, didn't get around to that yet - or the walk I was going to take) and go grab an big old Iced Coffee at my new favorite place - Dunkin Donuts. Resisting the donuts...and the muffins...because they are NOT something I should be eating. Right?

Have a good one!