Monthly Archive

This week’s time-saving tip for new moms is from professional organizer Kay Gallegos…

“Create a grocery list on your computer of all the things you normally buy.  The items should be grouped by category and arranged in the same order as the aisles in your grocery store.  Keep several copies of the list in a binder, along with your recipes, list of favorite meals, a highlighter and a pen. 

Once a week, sit down with your binder and plan your meals for the following week.  Highlight the items you need and write down any “special” items that aren’t listed.  On the back, you can also list the planned meals (so you can remember what you’re going to make).  

When you go to the grocery store you can quickly find what you need and cross the items off as you get them.  This will cut down the amount of time you spend planning meals and at the grocery store.  It will also cut down the amount of money you spend on groceries.

Kay Gallegos is the franchise owner of Clutter Busters in Orlando, Florida. www.clutterbusters.com.

It took me months after the birth of my daughter to figure out how to get back into the groove of “me.”  Until she came along, I would write almost every day.  After she came … well, you can imagine.  Sleepless nights didn’t lend themselves toward creativity.  And when she finally started sleeping through the nights, it was such a relief that I just slept in with her.

Finally, I realized that if I ever wanted to feel like “me” again—the me that was more than housewife and mommy—I had to do something about it.  So I started getting up at six, something this stay-at-homer hadn’t even done in college.  And I would write.  When I put her down for a nap, I would write.  I did the housework while she was up, either strapping her on or letting her play nearby, and I finally found that groove in which I actually existed.

Of course, now baby number two’s on the way, and I’ve fallen out of my comfortable groove again.   If I get up early, I’m too sick to really do much.  And then I have to take a nap, I’m so exhausted.  If I get up later, that leaves me a grand total of two hours of free time during the day, which is barely enough to manage my email.

I know it’s only going to get harder when the new baby arrives.  Still, I’m going to start digging my groove again.  I’m just so much happier when I have those precious moments for me—then I can really enjoy the moments when I’m Mama.

Roseanna M. White is the author of A Stray Drop of Blood (WFP), co-founder and senior reviewer for the Christian Review of Books (www.christianreviewofbooks.com) and a member of ACFW.  She lives with her husband, toddler, and baby-to-be in Maryland.

Writing is a little bit like pregnancy. You write … then WAIT. And WAIT… Then WAIT some more. Just when you think you can’t WAIT another day, the BIG DAY ARRIVES.

For me, that was yesterday when The Baby Chronicles hit the store shelves!

I wrote The Baby Chronicles in response to readers and to my editor’s request to find out what happened next in Whitney Blake’s life.  When I wrote The Whitney Chronicles, I had no plans to write a sequel.  I couldn’t let go of Whitney, Chase, Kim and Mitzi even after the book was complete, however.  Whitney Blake is a character who has many of my sensibilities and much of my sense of humor.  I was delighted to agree to a second book about her and her friends–it was like coming home to a place and to people I’d missed a great deal. 

This was also a wonderful opportunity to dig deeper into her wacky co-worker Mitzi’s personality and life.  Being ”with child” can be pretty hilarious sometimes (well, you either laugh or cry, I guess), and Mitzi is the perfect vehicle for the perils, pitfalls and pleasures of pregnancy.

 I hope that The Baby Chronicles makes you smile—or laugh out loud!

Blessings, Judy Baer