It’s 3pm. on Sunday afternoon. Do you feel like I do? The weekend is almost over. Another work week is knocking on the door but before you answer you must contemplate which out of the gazillion more things to do you should do. Sometimes the thought of making the wrong choice is so overwhelming that another hour passes by that I’ll never get back. I wish time would freeze in line with my overwhelmed body and ridiculous computer.

I think I need some help with this. I found a Reader’s Digest article on the subject called “Successful People do These 8 Things Each Weekend”. These secrets were revealed in a book written by time management expert Laura Vanderkam called “What Successful People do Before Breakfast”. Check out the article to help bring some sanity back to your weekend. I read through it to see if I could affect some positive changes into mine. Here is a snapshot.

Flex different skills – the long and the short of it is you need to do things on a weekend that you enjoy and don’t have time for during your harried week. My problem is I have too many things I want to do. This brings me to #2…
Plan it Out - The article suggests picking the top 3 - 5 things you want to accomplish over the weekend so you lock down a plan and have something to work towards and look forward to. So maybe I’ll try to pick a top 5 instead of letting a wishy-washy top 28 float around my brain in hopes of sticking one.
Do Something Fun Sunday Night – Pretty straight forward. If you do something fun Sunday night it may distract you from the impending doom that is Monday morning.
Maximize Your Mornings – With the delight in sleeping in on the weekends, even if only for an extra hour or so, that’s an hour of time you could have used to finish your cleaning, walk the dog or make a couple batches of baby food. If you have the strength, (not sure I do) try getting up around the same time as you do during the week and tackling some of those errands early before the rest of the fam gets up.
Create Traditions – this is more of a method to feed your soul rather than balance your time. Maybe it’s making homemade pancakes on Sunday mornings or going for a family hike on Sunday afternoons. Whatever it is, it can be something everyone looks forward to and can count on over the weekend.
Schedule Nap Time – This one is easier if you have a baby or toddler in the house who is accustomed to naps. Somehow I don’t think my teenager would go down for a nap around 2pm. if he’s just gotten up for the day at 12:30pm. Maybe it’s more of a quiet/rest time for the family to recharge their batteries, which again you don’t typically have time for during the week.
Compress Chores – Instead of letting chores take over the whole weekend try doing bursts of chores in smaller increments of time. If you know you have 20 mins. to clean the bathrooms before a babysitter comes as an example, you’re more likely to get it done within that time rather than dragging it out for an hour while you clean, have a coffee, clean some more, check face(crack)book, and clean some more.
Cut Down on Tech – Take a break from the phone, the computer, the ipad etc. Instead, designate a block of time for all that. We don’t realize how much time is actually wasted when we incorporate staying connected into our other activities. Not sure my hubby will go for this one though as his Simpson’s Village may not survive the bold faced neglect.

There you have it. Let’s give some of these a try next weekend shall we? Make sure to keep your baby food making efforts at the top of your list though. That one trumps everything else in my humble opinion. Here’s a quick and easy sweet potato with corn and peas mash. Perfect for your 8 month olds and over, and is also great as a family side dish if you just mash the potatoes and peas first then add in your corn without further mashing or pureeing.

Ready…Set…Evolve…

Sweet Corn and Peas Mash

Ingredients

1 small corn on the cob
1 sweet potato
½ cup frozen green peas
1 tbsp. butter
¼ cup of milk

Baby Steps

Remove husk from a small corn on the cob and place corn in pot of boiling water. Cover and cook over high heat until tender, approx. 8 minutes.
Remove from heat and carefully take corn out of boiling water with tongs and set aside.
Peel and chop sweet potato into small chunks and add to a steamer set over boiling water and cook for approx. 15 minutes until tender.
Add frozen peas to the sweet potato in steamer for the last 5 minutes of cooking time.
Remove from heat and put cooked sweet potato and peas into a blender, food processor or large bowl if planning on using a hand blender to puree.
Slice the cooked corn off the cob and add the corn niblets to the potato and peas along with the butter and milk.
Mash or puree to desired consistency. If you want a thinner consistency you can add a couple of tbsps. of the cooking water to the veggies and then puree.
Add puree to freezing trays to keep in the freezer to use within 3 months, or to a food storage container in the fridge to be used within 48 hours.

Note: If you’re having corn on the cob for a family meal one evening, cook one extra cob and keep to make this recipe for baby the next day…or if you’re really a keener, whip it together later on.

Makes – Approx. 8 servings (1 serving = 2 tbsps.)

I really hope we can get this issue of not enough weekend time sorted out. I don’t want to give up on my aspirations, but when one of my aspirations is to sleep in on the weekend and one of the keys to success is to get up early, I think I’m in a bit of a tight spot. Wish me luck.