A typical Sunday afternoon

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My life on paper

One of the questions I get since I have a career is "How do you manage everything?" or "I could never do what you are doing!". From some, it is genuine appreciation, for others it is "I bet you eat out every day and your house is a pig sty." I usually answer Time Management, but I guess it kind of implies that I am a super woman who does all things in order and perfection. ahem. Also my "managing everything" is work, eat, sleep (some days), but for the other person it very well could be work, cook 4 course meals, keep a spotless home, do crafts, volunteer, knit, sew, garden, teach etc.

So this is reality.

Things I don't do

1. Bake. Very rarely - once in 2 months or so a banana bread is the extend of my baking. DH and I are not big fans of baked goods.
2. Sew. No time/talent
3. Crafts. See (2)
4. Home improvement stuff - painting, ongoing decoration etc. No time or eye for decoration.
5. Window shopping. No time.
6. Garage sale-ing, thrifting - no money saved that way. Again, no time
7. Hair/makeup. Getting ready takes me 3 miuntes down to the shoes. No interest in spending hours before a mirror.
8. Vacuum/mop/clean everyday. This is more a dislike induced procrastination than time issue if I am honest with myself.
9. Blog every day. Unable to make time
10. Work out every day. Unable to make time
11. Watch a lot of TV shows/movies. Again a conscious choice due to its energy sapping capability than a time issue. Unfortunately not working very well since I replace the TV with internet. Back to square one.
12. Go for the mid week Bible study. Time and some other issues.

Things I do

1. Work full time
2. Help DH's business with sales and payroll
3. Cook every day (mostly) and keep a clean sink
4. Teach sunday school
5. Read/Study Bible and other books an hour every day.
6. Coupon (yes, it is a verb!)

As you can see there are a lot of things I am not able to do. Granted all those are not things I necessarily *want* to do except the midweek Bible study. I miss not being able to do that regularly.

Oh, and to add, I do not consider paying bills, getting dressed and doing laundry as huge tasks to put in the list since it takes less than 5 minutes each. Rest assured that both of us have clean clothes and that our bills are paid.

This is not a strict list of things I do/don't do. Pretty much this is how it works out in the end for me in real life. I have tried to do more before, but it has been crash and burn for the most part. There are some things that are important to me. Like home cooked meals. I make time for that. Like everyone else, I make choices.

I don't do it all. Nor do I know anyone in the world who does it all. I don't even think he/she exists. In fact I don't even think there is an "all" in the commonly attributed sense of the word. An all to me could be none to you and some to you could mean none to me. You get my drift, don't you? On a given day if you have given your best to what you do and do it as unto the Lord, you have done it all. And that is my definition of a person who does it all.

To Kill a Flying Roach

This is going to sound like I am on a Windex campaign or roach-killing crusade, but I cannot withhold this vital information from all of you anymore. I do have to affirm by everything I hold pure and holy that I do not get a commission from Windex or anyone in the immediate Windex family. Also I don't want to sound all My-Big-Fat-Greek-Wedding-y on you all especially since I am an alien here and that would not be a compliment.

But Windex works for killing roaches. I admit I haven't made anyone a believer so far, but I will keep trying.

For more tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Travel Tips

Antique Mommy who is just one of my favorite bloggers ever is hosting a travel tip carnival. Now traveling is something my husband and I love to do quite a bit. This year itself, we had 2 trips to India, Smokies, Yosemite, Bahamas, Utah and Marco Island.

I am no expert in traveling, but there are a few things I try to do so that things go smoothly. From every mistake in a trip, we learn something and I will try to list our learnings. Some of it might help you. Or not. I will list away anyhow.

Packing:

Like Antique Mommy wrote, we do not check in bags either (At least for domestic travel.) For us, it is a waste of time, checking it in, waiting for it at the destination and there is always the possibility of it not getting to us on time. We mix and match the clothes and when you are on vacation nobody cares. Okay, so in all my vacation pictures I have the same clothes, but so what?

One thing I have found helpful is to have a master list. The master list has all the items that we usually need, but could forget. It includes items like cell phone charger, batteries, battery charger, neck pillows for air travel etc. We check our bag against the master list. That way things don't get left behind.

Another list is the specilaized list. Since a lot of our travel destination include hiking, we have a hike list too. It turned out to be crucial especially while we were packing for our Yosemite trip.

We also have a toiletery bag. It is not a bag that we put togther the day before travel. It is always there. It has toothbrush for the both of us (not our regular ones), paste, deo, sanitizer,wipes etc. Everything is airline approved size and the bag is transparent so we do not have to check everytime if it has everything. It is always packed and ready and we just toss it in.

General Tips:

One thing I always think I should do, but rarely remember to is to mute the phones before we leave. Maybe you all do it already, but if you don't it is a good idea so that it doesn't shout out the absense.

We have learned that for us it is a good thing to have a file with the directions and hotel information/confirmation etc printed and ready. We have all the techy gadgets, but there has been so many times when it has failed to work in remote areas. Murphy's law in action. Plus the lack of satellite reception. It never hurts to have good old fashioned maps and directions in paper.

These are the tips for now folks. My lunch time is over and I need to get back to work. Check out the hub if you need more tips.

Your opinion wanted

I have 4 drafts on various topics that is sitting on my drafts. I haven't had a chance o finish them as work has been really busy. Anyway, today, I want to ask you all a question, interpeeps.

For a while, my face has been a playground for acne. I kept ignoring it, hoping it would just be gone one fine morning. But since then, many fine mornings have passed and the games have just continued unabated. I kept thinking about doing something and one day I read here that Mary Kay acne treatment gel does wonders. I scoured the net for reviews, looked around and finding tolerable reviews all around, finally decided to place an order.

So I did that on October 6th. I registered at the website. I got an email from an independent consultant in my area that she will contact me for delivery and final price. So I waited for the delivery knowing it takes time and then waited some more. Then I reread the email, it said that she will contact me. So far, no contact had been made. Then I made a call to this person. The message was in Spanish. I left a message. Then another 5 days passed. Nothing. Finally I called again today. She thankfully picked up the phone. She said she had moved to North Carolina and she will have someone deliver the package to me.

OK.

I have never purchased Mary Kay products before. I don't know how the company works.

Is it like Southern Living, Pampered Chef, Quixtar, Monavie etc where you pay ridiculous higher prices on products for their supposed quality?

Is it an isolated incident that she never contacted me or sent me the product? Anyone with experience like this?

Basically, how does this whole thing work? Do the sales people come and do home delivery? Why don't they just mail it?

Anyone with Mary Kay experience is welcome to chime in.

I just want to know.

As if I don't talk enough about myself

Amy tagged me for this. Some of it you may already know. Just pretend you are reading it for the first time.

1. I do not like the taste of cheese, coffee and wine and can only tolerate two kinds of chocolate- Ferrero Rocher and Kitkat (Please be my friend still!)

2. My husband says that I would have the above three if it is fried. I love me some fried stuff. My face is proof of that.

3. I love having people over, but I am worried about what to cook since my guests are mostly American and I am not. They complain about the spiciness. I seem unable to adjust it.

4. I sometimes look at my husband and house and wonder if it is all a dream. I could never picture myself married and taking care of a house. (Although I am using the term "taking care" very loosely here). But wonder of wonders, I am incredibly content.

5. There are only few things in life that I hate and one of them is MLM (Multi-Level Marketing). I think it spoils friendships.

6. I am pretty anal-ytical about purchases. I compare shop online, actual shops, sleep on it, sleep on it some more, read reviews, make excel sheets. It is the engineer in me or maybe I am just cheap. I am sure its just the cheapness, but it sounds better to say engineer.

7. At last count (he keeps adding to it), my husband has 62 pet names for me. I have 3 for him. Guess who is the creative one in the marriage?

Now to tag. I am tagging the following people.

Saagar (My first friend after I landed here in the US of A. If there is anything I don't know about you, I want to know it now.)
Calamity Jean (My very first blog friend although I wouldn't know her if I met her on the street)
Ruth (A new blogger, she is English and it would be nice to know more)
Allison (A new blogger, I know she gardens, it will be fun to read more)
Quirky (A new read for me, she is funny and I like funny)
HopiQ (My real-life friend, my first faithful reader, and the mother of my "son". As an aside, anything to get her to post.)
Beth (A relatively new read, and a very talented lady to boot. Check out her project of the last supper)

If you have a policy decision against doing memes, please don't feel obliged to do it.

Excuse the mess...

...while I redecorate