focused scatterbrain

Is that even possible?  Because that's what I feel like most these days.  I feel like I have so much I want to accomplish and not enough time to fit them all in my little schedule.  But I have some kind of goal/end in mind.

Remember our new year's resolutions?  One of the things in my "Fit" category is to really strive to make great *but easy* dinners every day of the week for my family (ok, more like 5 or 6 dinners to be honest and exact).  So I bought me two new recipe books, which I have been picking thru since I got them in the mail a week or so ago - The Food Nanny and Robin Miller's Quick Fix Meals cookbooks.  We tried the Balsamic Roasted Pork Tenderloin recipe from Robin Miller, and amazingly it went over well and we didn't have any leftover. (Kevin wasn't so sure about the balsamic vinegar, but liked it in the end!)

  

So while being inspired by all these new recipes to try, I thought, hey, I could use a menu board so I can keep "focused" during the week. Because my brain can't think about food when it is 4 p.m. and I haven't figured it out.  So I am eyeing this at Pottery Barn:

and this,  to help with stacks of *important papers* that don't seem to stop growing.  Plus it matches my green sideboard that's in my hall.

I must have been thinking on my lucky stars, because I saw another use for the chalkboard I've been eyeing on one of the blogs I follow - which is to use the chalkboard to display quotes you want your children to memorize and internalize.  How true.  So now I'm really excited about the chalkboard!

It was great daydreaming about where I would put these two awesome things! But I had to quit the daydreaming because this week I had to prep for the digital scrapbooking class I volunteered to teach - (I don't know how I get myself doing these things!) but anyway, I did it tonight!  It was fun, but I am glad I got that over with (to make room for all the other stuff on my to-do list).  I am not entirely crazy though; I am midweek coordinator in our ward and somehow the planning stuff is just right up my alley.

I am not to forget I still have that great challenge to mark up the Ensign when it comes.  That's part of the reason I was inspired to be a better mother and homemaker - so hence the focus on how to better our home life.  Pres. Hinckley worded this desire of mine perfectly -  while we were at BYU he gave a devotional and titled his talk The Quest for Excellence.  And the bits and pieces that stuck to me then are these:

"The distance between mediocrity and excellence can be ever so small.  Don't be a scrub! Rise to the high ground of excellence. You can do it.  I want to urge you to stand a little taller, to rise a little higher, to be a little better.  You may be lacking in some skills. But you can do better than you are now doing."

Not perfect, not geniuses, but excellent.  I like that.  I can see this quote on that chalkboard right. now.

It sounds pretty domestic, to be excited about a chalkboard to write menus on, or quotes for the kids to memorize, or a pinboard to put up important papers (like the fun kids' art and what not). But really it helps better the most important of all - our home.  I wish I could be the most excellent person I can be.  Yeah, I have to remember Pres. Hinckley said that the quest for that may be "a long one."

Case in point: just as I am about to hit "publish", I remembered I was supposed to have emailed Allie's teacher the Spelling Lists and Greek/Latin roots worksheets that I promised would be put together and emailed to her promptly every Friday.  :)