elaine shannon » Parenting

Law of Attraction in Action

Elaine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:08:13 +0000

Don’t hurt yourself on the ski hill…

Famous last words

After an advanced workshop last week with Law of Attraction Book author Michael Losier you would think I would know better. Not! Some lessons are learned through trial and error.

I think I am getting the evil eye

On our long drive ( long if you live in rural New Brunswick) to the Sussex Hospital I was wondering how my words may have impacted my sons night on the ski hill, and his broken collarbone.

In the advanced class with Michael we learned that;

Words…become Thoughts..which then become a Vibe + or – then a match happens

The words that Michael emphasized in the class were; don’t, not and no.

When we add these words to any sentence we attract that thing that we are actually not wanting. When I said to my son don’t get hurt on the ski hill…what I actually vibrated was ‘get hurt on the ski hill’.

The Law of Attraction works

Whether you believe that this works or not is irrelevant…have a look at the areas of your life that are working and not working. Stop and be aware of the words you are using, you may be surprised at what you are attracting…positive and negative.

Instead of;

don’t run through the house, say…walk please
my client is not going to cancel, say…my clients keep all their scheduled appointments
No one books business in January, say January can be a busy time of year.

Just for fun, over the next few days take note of the words you are using. When you start using these techniques you can become the ‘Master Manifester’ in your own life.

Meal Planning a Sure System for Saving TIME and Money

Elaine — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:40:24 +0000

Meal Planning works for everyone….

This past week has been a bad week for meal planning in our home. I am not sure if it was Mothers Day last weekend or the endless rain. Never the less my meal planning went off the rails and it has been a week of lunches that were very creative to say the least and some meals that were nothing short of a miracle to pull together…from a few loaves and yes some fish.

I can’t over stress the importance of Meal Planning for your HEALTH, your pocketbook and your time.

Today I will be getting back to Meal Planning and the comfort I feel from having this important plan in place.

To help you with your meal planning I am going to share my most recent article from my Organize series for the the ST Croix Courier paper based in St Stephen NB, Canada.

The subject of meals and meal planning is a constant source of conversation and anxiety for most families. Mainly because the thought of making a decision every night about what to eat can make you want to reach for the phone and call for take out.

How do you get out of this expensive, unhealthy cycle of meals on the run?

With a weekly meal menu! The Meal Plan is the ultimate solution to make life run smoothly.

The few hours spent making up a menu plan will save hours of time and frustration, money and loads of calories. The time spent will also pay of in the long run; imagine coming home every evening knowing what is on the menu for that day!

The menu’s can be as simple or as complex as you want; including only suppers or adding in lunches as well as morning and afternoon snacks. A menu reduces the end of the day stress of trying to figure out what you’re going to eat and it makes grocery shopping so much easier. One trip a week with a list in hand can save lots of money as well. If you are a parent, a menu is also a great way to get the rest of the family involved too. Older children can begin preparations before parents get home at the end of the day and enlisting their help with making school lunches helps this chore become a breeze.

SIMPLE steps to successful Meal Planning:

Involve all family members, set aside some time, and brainstorm.
To help in the brainstorm process, make a list of common foods and favorite family meals. If you want to change your eating habits get some cook books or look online for ideas and commit to being adventurous with something new each week.
Take the time to make a master list of all the types of food, and then you can mix and match and change things up by changing how it is prepared. For example- hamburger can be made into spaghetti sauce, Sheppard’s pie, tacos, lasagna or just plain hamburgers. Pork can mean pork chops, tenderloins, ham or bacon.

Make the Main Dish…the Main Dish:

Start with main dishes and then add side dishes, remember to use leftovers in your plan for lunches and quick meals. If you have meetings, events or kids activities that limit your meal time note them in your plan and add quick meals on those days.

Once you have an idea of the meals you want to include in your menu use a menu template and fill it in. Here is a simple plan that you can copy and use over and over, just follow this link to get the Menu Plan Template

Side dishes can add spice to your menus:

When planning side dishes think variety. Rice dishes, potatoes dishes, vegetables, salads and pastas. Change it up during the week and enjoy new things.

As you create new weekly plans save then and once you have 6 weeks of menu planning you can reuse, recycle and revamp so you are not starting from scratch each time. You can also have season specific menus as summer and winter eating does differ.

Sometimes you need to use time to save time. By spending a little time every six weeks planning your menu you will save hours of time, tons of cash , frustrations and possibly some calories too.

Here’s to a happy healthy menu!

Earth Day : Activities to HELP Your Community

Elaine — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:38:25 +0000

Although Earth Day is officially April 22 every year you can participate and make every day EARTH DAY.

The premise of Earth Day is to participate and work together to Safe Guard our Planet.

On a recent trip to San Diego I visited Seal beach where a controversy is continuing over who has the right to use the beach. I wonder who has the best interests of the planet and its precious creatures in mind here!

Watch this video about Seal beach.

In our home we recycle and compost and are proud that on garbage day we have very little at the curb that will be sent to the local landfill. By using some basic organizing and a bit of creativity we have created a Home Recycling System that works for our family.

We are reducing our carbon footprint, for example…It takes 70% less energy to recycle plastic than it does to make it from raw materials.

In my business I am proud to say that by decluttering in a ethical manner we have reduced our carbon footprint on a community level. Working with clients and tossing what is truly garbage and recycling things that still have a life.

These items are reintroduced back into the community through a Donation program that I spearheaded with the Saint John Boys and Girls Club back in 2005 and since then my clients have diverted several tons of items that would have been sent to the local landfill.

On this day of EARTH awareness I am asking you what you are doing at home, at work and in your community to be a POSITIVE Steward of the earth.

H1N1, are you vaccinating your children?

Elaine — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:52:04 +0000

Yesterday my sweet 9 year old came home from school with a permission form for the H1N1 vaccine.What is a parent to do? I would consider us to be a relatively healthy family. I work from home so I am not bringing the office petri dish of germs home. My hubby works in the bowels of a ship so all he brings home is the stench of diesel oil. The children seem to fare well in the cesspool of germs at school. Really… other than the occasional cold during the winter and maybe one case of the “Barfy” flu as the kids call it we are a relatively healthy bunch.

Today I posted a question to my facebook peeps for an informal survey on the yeah or nay on this issue. It appears that my question about whether to vaccinate or not has started quite a discussion.

Nurse with needle

I would like to hear what you have to say on the matter.

After all you never know who can carry the virus. It is not like germs wear name tags. So is there any way to tell if you pick up germs at the market?

Are you vaccinating your child?

http://www.elaineshannon.com/tag/family/

Back to School Supplies and how Office Max saved the day!

Elaine — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:25:29 +0000

First Day of School

It is that time of the year again. The time where I have to pull out my organizer hat. With three school supply lists and a pile of supplies leftover from last year I have my work cut out for me. My professional advice to me “How does one eat an elephant?… one bite at a time of course.” This is how I will tackle this elephant.

Step 1 – Gather all of last years supplies into one common spot. We have chosen the air hockey table in the basement.

Step 2 – Eliminate anything that is obviously garbage… yes the fuzzy thing you found in the bookbag is garbage… as a matter of fact the bookbag may be garbage now too! What you are left with now is everything that can be reused.

Step 3 – Take all your lists, in our case we have three, and make a master list of all the individual items and how many of each item you need. Cross off what you already have, and what is remaining is the final shopping list.

Step 4 – With shopping list in hand and a wallet full of cash head out to your local school supply store. Fill your cart, check off list and hand over the dough. I managed to do this in one hour and was surprised with the amount I spent… it was not too bad. *****Advice from a teacher friend… in the younger grades don’t get all fancy with the supplies, it goes in a common pile and the teachers hand out from the pile.

Step 5 – With the shopping finished you can now bag all the supplies to take in on the first day of school.

Now before the bagging commenced my lovely teenager arrived with her friends and was having a look around at the supply table. Dr Jekyll/Ms Hyde (aka 13 year old daughter) was not impressed with the generic school supplies that I purchased. Here is how the conversation went… Mommy they are so ugly I want pretty stuff… wait remember the pretty binders I wanted in that box that came a few weeks ago? The box she is referring to came from Office Max for the webinar I attended on August 6th. It was full of colorful, pretty and cute (Ms Hyde’s exact words) supplies that she was grabbing before I even had them out of the box. Now I am a paper lover myself so we put the box of pretty items away until I was finished with the Back To School Shopping.

Here we are weeks later, I have all the supplies purchased and the pretty stuff is now ready for distribution… one for teenager… one for mommy….I like colorful writing books too. At the end she is happy, I am happy and grateful that Office Max provides some options for a fussy teenager.

I also suggest that if you are looking for some back to school organization tips the webinar that Office Max did was awesome. There were a few great tips that we are going to implement this year… Peter Walsh the organization guru from TLC’s Clean Sweep and Office Max hosted this event that included some real life teachers, a blogger and some students. The video of the webinar has some great tips on getting organized so that your kiddies are better able to be successful at school. With Peter’s basic 3 steps you can do this easily and painlessly.

Enjoy….and a Happy Back to School to you!