Week 4--A New Year

Rosh Hashanah always gets the personal-change juices going.

This week's low-hanging fruit:

8. Capitalize on momentum. Momentum is like free energy from the universe, not to be squandered. If a room has, say, just been cleaned by the cleaners, don't mourn that it's going to be trashed in one evening--make a mental picture of what it looks like and put a few minutes into returning it to at least that state each night. If you're feeling unexpectedly energetic, jump up and go! Lather, rinse, repeat.

9. Be vigilant about throwing out bad things from your refrigerator, so that everything in it is potentially usable on a moment's notice, and keep a few not-spoiling-quickly no-cook edibles in your fridge (e.g. packaged guacamole--surprisingly tasty, with big chunks of avocado; goodhummus--to be jazzed up with olive oil and paprika; smoked salmon...). Plus, keep some cooked pasta around. And fresh vegetables for a salad. Because when you have, say, 5 unexpected guests for lunch, the ability to pull together a lovely meal--inspiring a 9-year-old girl to say, "You said, 'It'll just be a simple lunch'--this is simple??", which makes you melt--will make you feel very on top of things.

Oh, and keeping a frozen vegan treat around for when other guests with egg allergies stop by? Another good host moment.

Having a well-stocked kitchen can make all the difference. Yay us.