Top o the morning to you….and the rest of the day to yourself!

To honor this St Patty’s Day…my Irish heritage and to celebrate all things Irish  I am sharing some great sites that you can search through for recipes, fun stuff for the kids and perhaps an Irish beverage recipe or two.

For the kiddies I found this great site with many links to games, stories, songs and the History of St Patrick’s Day, check it out.

Here is an easy recipe that would warm any leprechaun’s heart on this day of Irish Celebrations..its what The Irish “Shannon’s” are having tonight!

Here are 10 interesting facts about the Irish brew Guinness courtesy of  Alltop.com.

With a last name like Shannon we will certainly be doing some celebrating today…I will leave you now with a proper Irish Toast.

…toast courtesy of this awesome site

March 8th is a special day….a day that has been celebrated  annually since 1911…it is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

It is International Women’s day and I will be celebrating at the KV Networks 5th annual
International Women’s Day Breakfast this morning. I am excited to hear this years guest speaker Mary Schryer . She is the MLA for Quispamsis and the Minister responsible for the Status of Women.

This day is a celebration of achievements…of  moving  towards equality…making the world a better place for everyone.

It is hard to believe that just last night Kathryn Bigelow made the Oscar history books by taking home the Oscar for best Director….can you imagine…

How many other firsts are we still waiting to achieve?

This is not a day about feminism…it is a day to celebrate Women, our accomplishments and contributions.

I would like to share this article by Jennifer Parmalee who cites this startling statistic “Worldwide, women and girls bear the brunt of poverty, hunger and discrimination, comprising more than 60 percent of the world’s chronically hungry – now charted at a record one billion people. Inherited hunger – when malnourished mothers give birth to malnourished children – is a huge obstacle to development, from Afghanistan to Haiti.”

So I ask again….How are you Celebrating International Women’s Day?

I know, you are waiting for a catchy punchline….

Something profound that will perhaps help you as you are thinking of unplugging, taking a break, spending some time with family or friends and doing nothing work related for several days in a row!

Can you feel the anxiety building up…I can.

Tomorrow I am embarking on a new adventure. I am unplugging and heading away with my family.

I feel it is time to back away from the computer and the Blackberry and give myself, my husband and my family time to live in the present moment. We are disconnecting from the internet ..all of us…even me…and are allowing only one cell phone for emergencies…yes we are vacationing old school…. an old fashioned road trip. Hopefully not National lampoon style!

We are all looking forward to playing board games, reading, walking, and re-connecting.

I am excited and anxious at the same time. Intellectually I  know that my business will go on when I get back, but there are parts of me that think if I am not going at warp speed that I will miss something.

Here are some awesome resources to check out if you are thinking of vacationing and not sure how to manage it.

Alex Fayle of the Someday Syndrome has a Freelancer Vacation Clinic

James at Men with Pens shares the analogy of a Run Away Train and momentum in our businesses. What happens when you stop the train? Check out the article.

And finally Gretchen over at the Happiness Project… yes you read that correctly, a project on happiness. Gretchen shares 5 tips for happiness that were reinforced during her vacation.  I would like to thank Gretchen for helping me to see that the Skippers obsession laundry thing on vacation is just a thing and that I need to just chill and not make a big deal about him knowing where every laundry facility is when we vacation and the need to have clean laundry when we travel.  Obviously doing laundry while on vacation is FUN for the skipper.

Back to the initial questions of how an Entrepreneur takes a vacation…you just go…you enjoy yourself…live in the moment and deal with the stuff when you get back.

creak….can you hear the video vault being opened?

I have been known to get up on my soapbox as you have seen in the last few weeks and I also love a good rant….

If you are Canadian then you have had the opportunity to see Rick Mercer in action…well…he is the king of rants. For my non Canadian readers you need to bookmark Rick’s youtube channel this guy is funny, smart and he really gets you thinking.

For today you get my rant…I am Ranting on the recession, the election of a new president and overconsumption…Please, ignore the dark sunglasses, the wardrobe gal forgot my other ones…just kidding I don’t have a wardrobe gal..it was Kim and we were just so excited to do this segment we did not think of the glasses…ENJOY!

Sometimes we get too serious..work too hard…and forget to have some HaHa…today go and have some…not some….lots of  hahaha…ok got to go…there is some paper that I have to crumple up and laugh about….and I might roll around on my belly and giggle some more….oh and don’t bang your head when you are laughing so hard!

I got this question the other day on my Youtube channel.…Yes I have my own channel…yes with videos…and yes I am in them…Enough with the sarcasm please!

Anyhow this is how it went.

…”you have a lot of great ideas…can you do a video on maybe getting your kids (and husband lol) to help around the house more? I am always looking for ideas on that”

I had to bring my soap box out for this one…enjoy my response…remember my clients all say that I am Firm but Loving!

Everything is not fine…from the outside it is all puppy dogs and white picket fences but when you start to dig a bit deeper….cutting through the surface…there is a problem…a big problem.

This show really got to me. It got to me in a way that we all need to be gotten to. We need to get disturbed…there is a dark problem cloaking our continent.

It is “The Disconnection of the Family”.

It is hard to say how or when it all began but people we have a problem…and Peter Walsh, life organizational expert, and OPRAH brought it front and center for everyone to see, and I am grateful to both of them for addressing the elephant in the room.

We are drowning in stuff, our schedules are so filled up that we don’t have time to think about the fact that we are so disconnected and most importantly we are AFRAID.

When we stop communicating (IN PERSON) we don’t have to address the real issues.

•    The real reason the house is a mess.
•    The real reason that we are so busy that we don’t have meals together.
•    The real reason our children are out of control.
•    The real reason our relationships are completely disconnected.
•    The real reason resentment and anger has clouded our relationships.

So what are we afraid of…as Peter said “if you open that door it may get horrible”?

It is horrible. We are afraid of admitting that all the stuff and the busy schedules are making us miserable and we don’t know how to get HAPPY back…

Well Peter Walsh has an answer and if you are willing to do the work you can get your “FAMILY” back.

Here is a summary of the “Stripped Down” Challenge. To strip down means to lose anything preventing you from living your best life.

1.       No cell phones or texting
2.       No electronics (e-mail, computers, iPod, TV, microwave, etc)
3.       Prepare and eat healthy meals together
4.       Clean and organize the house
5.       Family must hug and say “I love you” to each other at least one a day

The family that Peter worked with took the one week challenge and in that short span of time the youngest boy had a dramatic change in behavior…to the good.  The oldest boy realized that he did not need to text 7000-10000 times per month. The couple had an aha moment when they realized that she was feeling guilt over not contributing financially to the family and he was afraid that he was not doing enough for the family. All of this happened when the lines of communication were opened…not through a cell phone or a text…but through one to one communication….yes people…they talked.

Take this challenge and make it your own. Place boundaries on the times that you do not use electronics such as at meals times and before school in the am. Pick a game night and enjoy each other. Have 3-4 healthy meal nights per week where the kitchen is the hub of activity and everyone shares the fruits of their labors together. Please…take the time and get your home organized and clean. To quote Peter, “If your home does not bring you peace and harmony where are you getting it from”.  The last one is so critical…tell your family you love them and connect with a hug….who doesn’t love a good hug.

Wake up…we need to help each other. The African proverb made famous by Hillary Clinton “It takes a village to raise a child” is so appropriate for our times. I would also like to add this to it “and in order to get plugged in to our family in a way that connects our souls we need to UnPLUG”.

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!

I was feeling delight and joy after stumbling upon this new TV series last night while channel surfing. After spending an hour with these spunky Glee kids I want more. I laughed, I was touched, I was pissed at how badly kids get treated if they are different, and yes it brought back memories for me…. but most importantly I was inspired. High School is a caste system, kids fall into certain slots… where do the glee kids fall… in the subbasement.

Here is a quote from one of the reviewers online “Everyone is searching for something. And usually what they’re searching for is to be heard or to be seen.”

It’s witty, sarcastic, inspirational…and gosh darn the music is really good.

Glee is a show about seeing the gifts in you that you did not know you had. At the end of the day what is more important finding your passion….or having a glue gun that works…

You may not have been able to Take Charge! back in High School, but you can now. Treat yourself to this entertaining 1 hour show next week. By walking down memory lane with these spunky kids you just might be inspired to Get Rid of some of the memories that may be holding you back!

Living on the east coast of Canada has been become more adventurous in the past several years. Our weather has become unpredictable to say the least. Winters colder and snow packed, summers wetter and we seem to be getting more hurricane type weather year after year.

In preparation for what may or may not be something substantial we are watching the progress of this weather system. We are also doing a few standard things around the house.

• We have tied down and put away anything that is light that may blow away like pool toys and outside flags.
• For things like tents or screen houses I recommend taking those down.
• Make sure your deck umbrellas are collapsed.

For some other great websites with more detailed Emergency preparedness tips visit;

Government of Canada site

Red Cross – preparing and getting trained