CurrentMom

A Working Mom's Thanksgiving Trouble

Work Wednesday

I've got trouble with a Capital "T". And it's not the kind that rhymes with P. No, it's the T that rhymes with key. As in tur-key. Thanksgiving turkey. 

As in, I haven't started cooking yet. And there's a hard deadline. Tomorrow!

I'm a relative newcomer to the family Thanksgiving table.  It's not that my family didn't celebrate America's favorite holiday.  We did. But my mom, tired, I guess, from cooking for all of the Jewish holidays that typically fall in September and October, was finished by the November feast.  So, our family tradition centered on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York (chilly but magical) and dinner with close family friends in a real restaurant.  Because we rarely ate out in restaurants, let alone "fancy" restaurants (it was the 1970's, after all), this was a huge treat! For the kids and the parents. (Except, of course, for the one year that the chef quit and we were not feeling thankful when our food had not arrived more than three hours after our order.) I still think that's the way to go.   

But my husband's family takes their Thanksgiving traditions seriously. They gather each year up and down the East Coast, from Newport, Rhode Island to Newport News, Virginia (not too far from Colonial Williamsburg), and spend Thanksgiving weekend eating, reminiscing, and laughing.  Then eating some more.  I knew that our relationship had serious potential when my then-boyfriend, now-husband invited me to Thanksgiving dinner.  Now, every year, I look forward to the gathering.

Since I've joined the family,though, we've only hosted Thanksgiving once, back in 2004 when we only had one kid.  And then, I cooked for weeks before and filled the freezer with soups, muffins, and sauces.  This year, for some reason, my plan to cook early went off the rails. (Well, I know why.  Two kids, two big projects, one illness, this blog. A recipe for procrastination and delay.)

So, now its our turn, and like the turkey, my time is up.

The Not-So-Perfect Storm

Truth Tuesday

Some days, I feel like I am doing pretty darn OK as a Mom. 

And other days….well other days, I'm so not there.

Those days, I am thinking for sure that if they issued licenses for this role, I would never have qualified. Or if I had qualified, the Board would certainly have revoked said license by now.

On those days, I'm giving myself a big fat "F" for effort and effectiveness.

Any Mom who tells you she has never had one of those days is either hiding from the truth or possesses some serious SuperWoman powers.

I, however, cannot claim either.

A Little Variety This Thanksgiving: Recipe for Chutney Chicken

Meal Monday

Photo by tuchodi via Flickr.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I absolutely adore a brined and perfectly roasted turkey, and I could eat a good batch of stuffing for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  To have all of this, surrounded by family, with time to be grateful for all I have? What's not to like?

Naturally, I eagerly await the arrival of the holiday editions of my favorite cooking magazines. I am in pure heaven imagining all the possible permutations of turkey, potato, stuffing and vegetables. Every page is a new dream … until the what-to-do-with-the-leftovers page.  Every magazine has it. And every year, under a small cloud of culinary self-doubt, I flip past it. I know that as an American cook who, in every other aspect is frugal, I should respect and value these recipes, but much as I love the perfect Thanksgiving menu, I want nothing to do with it except on that one glorious Thursday.

Now that I'm a mom, I have a deeper and more empathetic understanding of the need for making a yummy, time-intensive meal stretch on – both for practical and financial reasons. But as my family happily slaps together turkey and cranberry sandwiches on Friday, I'm ordering Chinese.

Traveling For Love, Mooramong – Private Hollywood…

Travel Tuesday

Would you travel from one side of the world to the other for love? Claire Adams did. Claire’s was a story of a Canadian screen star that chose love over fame and created her own version of Hollywood on a farm in the Western District of Victoria, Australia.

Silent screen actress Claire Adams, who appeared in 46 films between 1919 and 1927, moved to the Skipton property Mooramong a year after marrying local grazier Donald "Scobie" Mackinnon in London in 1936. Their extraordinary life together has finally be revealed with the launch of the National Trust of Australia documentary Mooramong - Private Hollywood, narrated by Rachel Ward. I was fortunate enough to be part of the Melbourne screening of this delightful story.

The documentary uses footage taken by Claire over many decades as she recorded life at Mooramong - glamorous pool parties, international guests, the couple's love of animals, and their farming and community life.

Whilst sitting through this 63-minute film (produced, directed and written by Australian independent filmmaker and journalist, Lina Caneva), I couldn’t help wondering whether I would do the same. If the man of my dreams worked really hard to sweep me off my feet, and he happened to live in the Northern Hemisphere, would I leave family, friends and the life I’ve known behind in pursuit of a dream? I’d like to think I’d say yes… but then I also have to work out how to make the arrangement workable.

Certainly with the frequency of today’s flights, coupled with the number of low cost carriers that are now available, any visiting routines can be handled a whole lot more easily than they would have been able to be in Claire’s day.

Really, each of us is not more than approx. 30 hours away from anyone else, which in the scheme of things is not that long at all. Add into the mix the use of Skype and Messenger and all other web based communication tools that are now available, and loved ones are not that far away at all. In fact, I suspect you may make more of an effort to contact loved ones overseas on a more regular basis, even more so that you do when they’re just down the road. Certainly that was the case between my brother and I!

Tools such as these really would make the decision easier.
No more snail mail, no more travelling by long boat (or only if you want to), no more waiting for days and days to get to where you want/have to get to. The older we get, the smaller the world seems to get; don’t you think? Certainly, there is fabulous upside to moving away on a rather long adventure. Imagine the experiences, and the memories, and the purchases, and the new people you will get to meet; probably a whole lot different to the place you are leaving. That in itself would be enough to spur me on I think...

What about the work factor? Would you give up your current career, your working life as you know it to travel across the seas? Does your current money making arrangement make it possible to pack up and move around the world anyway? Would your care factor about the work you do still be as high as it is now, especially for love? So many considerations...

Would I marry after only a few weeks like Claire and Scobie did? That’s a different question all together!

Happy Travels
the entrepreneurial mother™

Top 3 Networking Mistakes

Startup Sunday

Photo by Murat Ertürk via Flickr.

 

During last week's teleconference on succeeding as a freelancer, sponsored by CurrentMom.com and the Asian American Journalists Association, the panelists kept returning to the same advice: you must have a strong network. (If you missed it, I'd recommend listening to the replay of the teleconference or downloading it to listen at your leisure.)

 

And yet I felt we didn't have enough time to discuss how to network or the common networking mistakes. So I'm taking this opportunity to address the networking mistakes that I've seen most often. (And yes, I've made these all myself at some point in my career.)

Networking Mistake #1: Talking and Not Listening

On the call, I mentioned that networking is as much about listening to your contact as it is telling her what you need for success in your career. I can't emphasize this point enough.

 

So many budding entrepreneurs come to me saying, "I have a great idea for a product or service! But I can't seem to get anyone to buy it…" They are failing to listen to their clients, customers or networking contacts.

 

When you meet with prospective clients, in addition to telling them how great you are and what your product or services will do for them, you must spend at least as much time listening. Ask what their biggest challenges are. After explaining your areas of expertise, ask an open ended question to see where they might be most in need of your work.