Bright Lights

19. Nov, 2009 0 Comments

There are numerous stops across Shelby County that will make your head turn,
so make sure to save time for a drive through in each community.

MONTEVALLO The city offers plenty of beautiful decorations, but none as astonishing as the scene at Orr Park and the city’s Festival of Lights. Dubbed “Christmas on the Creek,” this is a must see.

HELENA Old Town Helena offers a beautiful scene with downtown shops decorated with plenty of lights.The Buckingham Place neighborhood and Wagon Trail also offer plenty of private residences with lights from house-to-house.

NORTH SHELBY The Highland Lakes community offers a beautiful backdrop for the Christmas scenery. One house is decorated so brightly it can be seen driving down U.S. 280 toward Shelby County. Lights of Christmas, a company that installs, maintains and stores decorations, suited one home with more than 10,000 lights last year.

COLUMBIANA Main Street in Columbiana is beautiful year-round, but especially during the holidays. The scene offers a timeless Christmas at the door of each businesses dotting the street.

ALABASTER The town offers a must-see stop on Arrow Drive where one residence features a 17-foot Christmas tree with more than 3,000 lights.

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The Simple Life

Powerful pockets of time

By Lisa Phillips

Those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” are here along with high humidity, no school bus traffic and endless hours of sunshine. When you heap all of that together, you get long hours that need our energy in many places other than behind a desk or dishwasher. We yearn to be outside pulling weeds, pulling for the home team, or pulling skiers during an afternoon on the water. Family members demand and deserve more of our head, heart, and wallet, so it is important for you to get a grip on what can be done in “powerful pockets of time.” Here are a few ways to simplify your daily routines. Although they may sound very simple, ask yourself how many of these things did you did today.

Grocery list:

: Keep an on-going list where all family members can add to it.

Cleanup:

Load the dishes in the dishwasher as soon as you are done cooking and eating.

Laundry:

Fold each piece as it comes out of the dryer. This one tip can save you a ton on time versus heaping clean clothes in a pile to be dealt with later. Have a basket for each person and put the folded clothes in there for one trip to be put away.

Never go empty-handed:

Take something with you on your trips to the basement or up the stairs. Unload a car the same way.

Buy a Ninja:

This one appliance does everything from kneading pizza dough to making soft serve ice cream. (The infomercial is amazing!)

Mail:

Open the mail in the same spot every day, preferably over a trash can or shredder. Think iRAFT. Make a decision on each piece of paper: Deal with it Immediately (within five minutes), have a place for things you need to Read, Action (bills, RSVPs, etc.), File and Toss.

Email:

Check and respond three times a day. You will process it faster than checking it every time a message appears.

“Do it now, later is already booked.” What a great concept to remember when you are feeling like “I’ll do it later.” Work in the moment. When you take the time to do it now, you will have used those “powerful pockets of time” that you didn’t even know you had. It’s that simple.

Lisa Phillips in the owner of SimpleWorks. She can be reached at lisa_phillips@bellsouth.net or 981-7733.

Bright Lights

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Shelby Living magazine

The Simple Life